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Riven

by Nick Harper

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Crinklechips
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Crinklechips Could this be Nick's best album so far? I believe it certainly is his most accomplished and well rounded effort. first It highlights his upbeat and happy material. Next we are treated to the title track 'Riven' which acts as a centre-point. The second half of the album contains Nick's darker more political material including a very Tom Waits inspired kick at the odious figure of Kelvin Mackenzie.

If there is justice in the world 'Riven' should make Nick Harper a superstar... Favorite track: Juicy Fruit Girl.
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1.
Way way back in the early hours of time The girl got up to the top of the tower in the dead of the night Somewhere the still air still scatters Her voice and the yellow flashes bright Reflections in the bell she was swinging In what there was of the light And the moments pass so fast somehow This is then and that was now It’s a long way there and back again When that was now and this right now is then When I see that bell I know full well that bell is there for ringing Here we go This is the beginning Those scissoring light beams and those scattered atoms swell As they meet again and make a little pool In a heart fit for bursting ‘cause it has her tale to tell Yet what am I , but a hopeless fool? I will always remember her singing Just 'cause she liked singing It gets me there, right back Like this is the beginning Here we are This is the beginning I have started forgetting lots of little things And my powers aren’t always what they were But in repeating echoes whenever any bell rings I swear I hear something of her I will always remember her singing Just 'cause she liked singing I can hear her now in the echoes ringing Singing this is the beginning This is the beginning
2.
Up the stairs, drop the trapdoor, lower the ladder, put on the light – Oh what a sight… Clackers in the attic, first day covers Knievel pump-o-matic, littered letters from other lovers Postcard from Spain, rosette from Wembley Ribena stain on the Gazette from the jubilee Red dice white pips escaped Colditz do or die double six Action Man's gripping hands, grabbing hold, holding on to Barbie bits Esso coins on a pair of old flares, brown sellotape joins on the Subbuteo players On a stack of Look and Learns I see the reel to reel recorder Still turns still squeals in the general disorder And like a drop of water colour in a coloured water beaker A tiny little voice comes from the tiny little speaker I know that voice And I dip my brush in my memory’s cup and the colours swirl The colours swirl It’s the juicy fruit girl - I remember the juicy fruit girl She used to chew it all day long and if she kissed you - She’d slip it up beside her gum This memory got me excited - I start thinking of looking her up on Friends Reunited Oh I’d definitely tell her I was married - Otherwise my wife wouldn’t like it Oh no you’ll never see that girl again Oh no, not the juicy fruit girl A 20 year tear's drawn up from the torn up little naughty boy I flick a black jack wrapper at a red steel wonky wheeled Tonka toy It hits a royal wedding mug with a glued up araldite handle Stops in a web and bugs and a blue and white cup cake candle Where the blind teddy lies by some buttons in a bag He would have got for eyes if a moment could be had Then I’m aware today is waiting down the stairs and far away And I haven’t got a clue what I came up here to do anyway So the bakelite light switch switched off leaves the past in the past The bakelite light switch switched off leaves the past in the past And the light the dark dismembers rushes down to the world The light the dark dismembers rushes down to.. The juicy fruit girl - I can’t forget the juicy fruit girl She used to chew it all day long and if she kissed you - She’d slip it up beside her gum – yum yum This memory got me excited - I start really thinking of looking her up on Friends Reunited I’d probably definitely tell her I was married - Otherwise my wife wouldn’t like it Oh no you’ll never see that girl again - Oh no, not the juicy fruit girl As you know this chewy little story's run by the fates Couple of hours later in the cornershop with my mates Lady drops a fiver on the floor and we all recognise her by the size of her jaw Elbows in my sides couple of ribs couple of jibes couple of fibs Funny vibes She looks up says, “Hi”, so do I, “Nice to see you, to see you, nice to see you too” Everything alright a couple of smiles in the aisles and then I...just walk by..doh! The juicy fruit girl – I just walk by the juicy fruit girl She still chews it all day long and if she kissed you - She’d slip it up beside her gum – to free her tongue The fantasy's exciting – the reality's a tad more frightening So I settle for buying my wife a pack of Orbit, because it’s kind to your teeth and that ain’t bad Oh no you’ll never see that girl again - Oh no, not the juicy fruit girl
3.
Love Is Due 06:50
A suitcase pushes through at the sound of the bell On the journey going round on the carousel But the figure walks away and leaves it circling there Light on his feet, no burden to bear A spring in his step, to the airport bar, A jug of water, a bottle of Ricard And then he starts to sing a tune called 'Love Is Due' Could he be you? Could it be you singing 'Love is Due'? The weary waitress washes a glass He raises his, salutes and laughs like a fool Nothing to lose So the glass goes up on its shelf But her eyes let something of herself come through, Something comes through And the muted news loops on the screen There's noone else there to be seen So she says, "Hey Elvis what're you singing and who you singing to?" He looks around, flicks a brow, curls his lip up and down, swivels his hips around and says , "You baby, I'm singing to you and I'm singing 'Love is Due'" Well they laugh like the best of friends She works through her break until the end, she works through, straight through Cool and wise she understands Like only strangers can yeah she's cool, she's cute too As they make to say goodbye with not a little tenderness She takes his arm and starts to confess she is charmed and She says,"Yes, I believe it's true most things are better shared and I could share with you, and love is due For me for you (I mean timewise.)" And she says, "So…this suitcase Are you going to go back and pick it up? You know you're drunk – what if you drop it and it spills all your private stuff? Sending all your secrets spinning All across the concourse floor There could be hundreds looking at this baggage of yours As they wait to be called to board at the gates To fly to the white cliffs and the blue water round the cape Leaving you slightly stiff, truly slaughtered and agape Giving off a mighty whiff of aniseed breath And all abashed from your involuntary confessional, Trashed, Knowing you more..knowing you know they know you more Knowing you know it’s true Knowing you know it’s true That you carry all this stuff around with you and you don't need to - it's not something you need to do - it's so heavy you're going to get a limp and you're going to stoop Ah, You know you’ve got to love yourself first Love is due" She said, "Love is due" (It was quite a speech) She said, "Love is due" And then she said, "Ooo" There's a rainbow as he walks into out the day It's warm, it's wet and it's grey, but there's patches of blue With the sun coming through And you can't tell if it's tears or the rain falling on his face He throws his empty arms out into the space that she walks into and at last they embrace and then he says, "This is how it starts - let me carry you always, I'll carry you always, Love is due, like a train, I'll carry you, always"
4.
I've got a feeling in my bones That I’ll see you at the stones And after all we’ll get to say That we spent one sunny day Of our precious precious time With the other-worldly wise Stood on sacred dirt On holiday on Earth I've got a feeling in my bones That I’ll see you at the stones And we’ll join up all the lines That ley between our busy lives And hold the magic in this land And cup that spirit in our hands To know the real reason why We pump our fists up to the sky Holding sacred dirt On holiday on Earth I've got a feeling in my bones That I’ll see you at the stones We'll feel other souls arising Inside out and up above Beyond our mind’s eye’s horizon Sending back a little love By the metaphysic postman The genetic messenger In a letter from forever To the sacred sacred dirt On holiday on Earth I've got a feeling in my bones That I’ll see you at the stones And we'll stride a wider circle And ride this life just like a cycle There will be no pain, nor hurt ‘cause after death there comes a birth And it’s not about the destination But the sweat inside your shirt And we’re all coming from And we’re all going to.. The sacred sacred dirt The sacred sacred dirt We are sacred sacred dirt We’re all sacred sacred dirt And we’re on holiday on Earth
5.
Music changes her clothes and does her hair New bells ring on her twinkle toes as she goes up the golden stair The beat my heart well knows though no senses guide it there Because an elemental force shows the way, the why, the where Music full of drunken promise offers up her open hands Naked bare and honest to come to be the only plan Sheets shift like endless underwater seas of sand Oh so slowly bearing other gifts from other lands All of this time Dancing out of my mind All the kisses I sent you From the heart of every song In the hope you know life loves you And that we haven’t got long Music lies undressed and adorns the bed that’s never made She was ever blessed and graced the places that we laid Silence breaks and confesses to the sound she makes And turns to song and festival wherever the Piper plays Music looks me in the eye and sings the infinite song That played way before my time and will play way beyond To the resolution of pi from the biggest bang of the biggest gong I’m going to take that ride if only for a moment long
6.
Sunshine 04:18
You came down from the sky Riding a blinding light You know I pity the darkness Not to see such a sight You don’t even seem to be trying That’s the way your happiness should be Sometimes I feel like crying That’s the way your happiness gets me - sunshine And I don’t want to know your secret It’s for you to cast the spell of life These old hands would surely break it And leave us running out of time
7.
There never was I travelled worlds to meet you Through the cracks in the ticks Of the classroom clocks On an island hanging in the sky Made of fine hourglass sand As I journey on I try to be where I am Let it all follow on And do the best that I can But of all the places I go I've only really been where we played And I hope you know I want to come and stay Hey babe There never was Will ever be Imagination feels you Sees the smack of our lips Through the keyless locks In a parallel eternity In between each sweep Of the second hand As I journey on I try to be where I am Let it all follow on Do the best that I can But of all the places I go I've only really been where we played I know you know I want to come and stay Hey babe hey There never was Will ever be
8.
Riven 04:33
The show will go on in troubled times She'll get through She's going to set the world alight Broken in two - Riven The party goes on all around The jester in tears - Riven First they learned of the birds and the bees Then sent out incendiaries Treading water in the dark Feeling it move because of the shark - Riven This dream could cost the Earth - Riven Summer green to autumn leaves In the orchard of the tearaway trees As watery eyes see the landfill abide On the site set aside for the psyche to breathe And the only living space you'll ever need Is buried there waiting to set you free Objects of desire Instruments of torture - Riven So the hunter-gatherer returns Cities to loot, cities to burn - Riven This beautiful dream - Riven When everyone looks to the crack in the sky I'll remember the gaze in the old man's eyes Weeping for the water of life All there will be will be what you can cry - Riven
9.
Crack in the obelisk - Free the basilisk Ransack Atlantis - Choke the metropolis Mass hallucinosis - Facts without basis Statistical sophists - Doom in the profits False analysis - Ordnance in excelsis Fantasist catharsis - Move in to the darkness I tied these words up I cut them down dead I ripped them from the pages They were still in my head I meant to move my mind a million miles or more away from here And play the song on the sonic waves a way away beyond the stratosphere But every time I get that high I see the world is just a tiny pale blue tear And here comes the gun Viral oasis - Infected stasis Car sin o' genesis Art eyrie - o' sclerosis Praying man - ‘tis plastic gnosis Moral paralysis - Drastic prognosis Oh there I go again Spreading the joy and the happiness Should I be sexing up the mess? As the Earth revolves around (the gun) I meant to move my mind a million miles or more away from here And ride the song on the sonic waves way way beyond the stratosphere But every time I get that high I see the world is just a tiny pale blue tear And here comes the gun It's just another little echo of the empires coming home Lionhearts in the heart of the battle-zones Blood brothers spilling blood brothers' blood's how we're known As the chamber music smokes, There's murder in the jokes, One for oil and oil for one! I meant to move my mind a million miles or more away from here And play the song on the sonic waves a way away beyond the stratosphere But every time I get that high I see the world as just a tiny pale blue tear Here comes the gun Little darling
10.
Drawing lots in a hot air balloon Basket cases losing height Heavy questions all thrown overboard Still coming down too soon What're we going to sacrifice for the flight? I Pick up the paper I put a X by your name I'll be the one to blame Warhol’s children Orwell’s heroes TV sofa teary careeroes Supermarket tabloid celebrity breakdowns through the keyhole defenses, Over the moat, All on expenses along with your vote 15 minutes to the global meltdown All that hot air up there I'll put a X by your name I'll be the one to blame If a tree falls in the forest And no one’s there To stand against it You can bet your life That they're all going to fall And not a single one Will make any sound at all Pulp them to paper On that very same paper I'll put a X by your name I'll be the one to blame
11.
I got voted off today and I never felt so free Time I made my getaway I've got places to go, people to see Yes I tried to stay to play if not to win But try as I may the votes kept pouring in But it doesn't mean anything As if it ever meant anything Reality check in the green room Bag up the rider, hugs in the wings I've got my girl I've got to get to Supercolliders in our sofa springs Two kisses for my little stars They take away the worry lines I never dreamt that I would get this far In these hard, gladiatorial times Where am I going? With these thoughts inside my head Where there was stomach for the fight Is there yet only cheese in there instead? But does it mean anything? Could it ever mean anything? I got voted off today and I never felt so free Time I made my getaway I've got places to go, people to see Yes I tried to stay, but just to play I don't want to win But try as I may the votes kept pouring in Got to go But it doesn't mean anything As if it ever meant anything God, man and the Earth Fighting for places on the show Countless Emporer's thumbs Get repetitive strain texting who's got to go Three crosses up on high afar With their names on signs It must really matter who they are  In these hard, gladiatorial times Where slaves fight slaves In the pantomime decline and fall Lust turns on love As if there's nowhere near enough to love us all And the lines are now closed To the public at large You will not count But you will still be charged The results are in And who leaves can be revealed In no particular order, here's the deal: Corruption, greed and robber banks - it's not you Ignorance and intolerance - it's not you Cruelty and torture from above - it's not you Peace, freedom and love - it might be you We've got talent for teasing and training the hounds Talent for fixing all the battlegrounds Merciless mercenary moral makeovers And waging war on the weakest pushovers Come dine with me Come dancing come killing Come see the world for the blood-stained shilling Snog marry avoid compassion Embarrasing minds are back in fashion I got voted off today and I never felt so free Time I made my getaway I've got places to go, people to see
12.
Here’s a simple cautionary tale Of how the vanity of a man Turns the heat up on himself The Incredible Melting Man He kept his enemy too close Til he himself believed in the evil plan He washes down a fatal dose The Incredible Melting Man He thought he'd have his say Moderate the new program And now he literally runs away The Incredible Melting Man Cuts and lacerations Too deep, too far and too fast Betraying generations The Incredible Melting Man The riots were predicted All across Engerland And you know who was nowhere to be seen The Incredible Melting Man You cannot hide the basic facts From the people of this land Who know damn well he’s only made of wax The Incredible Melting Man He becomes more disingenuous And he thinks that we don’t understand 'cause he's a bullet point genius The Incredible Melting Man Three word mantras with fist half-closed Index finger slightly open from the hand Manicured and briefed like nobody knows The Incredible Melting Man "Let me make this perfectly clear.." Is what he says as the truth gets the pan The saddest leak from parliament The Incredible Melting Man No one ever remembers The kingmaker's hand ‘cause the King always fans the flames just below The Incredible Melting Man And the riots were predicted All across Engerland And you know who was nowhere to be seen The Incredible Melting Man He's forsaken his ideals To join Lord Snooty's gang He stands in the light, but he sweats and then he peels The Incredible Melting Man And the riots were predicted All across Engerland And you know who was nowhere to be seen The Incredible Melting Man
13.
Plague of toads at my door 1000 eyes looking up from the floor They follow the stars on the muddy moor And the shutters flap like never before I've been down to the crossroads the deal is getting worse Than in any bible code or the heavy metal curse And the headless horseman heads a hell-bound hearse Hacking, whipping, slipping souls into the Devil’s purse Plague of toads at my door Don’t want to see no toad no more Out in the night of a red top storm The presses crush like never before Down at the crossroads the deal is even worse Than in any bible code or any heavy metal curse And the headless horseman heads a hell-bound hearse Hacking , whipping, slipping souls into the Devil’s purse Plague of toads at my door 1000 eyes looking up from the floor Where will it end do you suppose? This plague of toads Wheresoever that coach was made to go From the Dark lane to the Kingdom below Whatever a man did scatter to sow Nothing good did ever grow
14.
Where are we? We're on the edge of the desert looking up at the reflection of the sea Some journey we're on you and me Better to share it with a friend This is not our journey's end It was a nice ride, but lets stop the car You and me can roam afar Better the countless sights to spy Cause for us, The beginning is nigh I was hanging with the Flat Earth Society Til we fell out It was a spectacular fall Granted from a precarious position On the most precious cosmic dartboard of them all But it's hard to believe in gravity When you're so high Where the burning boulders collide Never mind We're not gonna cry It’s not like it’s the end of the world No. For us the beginning is nigh Look up see the Sun chase around the Earth Not so long ago they’d have you killed if you’d said otherwise It was judicious to agree Even if you didn't.. sympathise Anyway we’re gonna to leave all that behind You and me found a way to survive Like they’ve been saying all along For us The beginning is nigh
15.
Start Again 02:15
Time wore on and now it's late The mad professor calibrates Machines that calibrate Machines that keep the missiles stood up straight So we can play around With the calculations of our fate And the moments pass so fast somehow This is then and that was now It's a long way there and back again When that was now and this right now is then And as the echoes are ringing I know full well That this is the beginning

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Nick's epic 8th studio album - 15 tracks - 75 minutes.
A collection of songs from the light and dark side of Harperspace, split down the middle by the title track.

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released October 1, 2013

Mixed and Produced by Tchad Blake
Also featuring: Jeremy Stacey-drums / Jakko Jakszyk-guitars,vocals / Lily Harper-vocals / Jon Leveller-violin / Dave Graney-vocals and Ben Jones-vocals, keyboards.

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Nick Harper England, UK

TEMPUS FUGITIVE
The new album.

It's about time.

Slabs of sonic beauty from Nick and Tchad Blake groove through the portals to meet the immortals ..

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