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The Machine That Made Us

by Flotation Toy Warning

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD: digipack three panels with booklet (16 p.), matt paper.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Machine That Made Us via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Flotation Toy Warning 'The Machine That Made Us', vinyl, 2LP, gatefold (+ mp3)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Double LP gatefold. Uncoated paperboard sleeve, printed inner sleeve. Comes with a free download code.

    Side A: Controlling the Sea - Due to Adverse Weather Conditions All of My Heroes Have Surrendered - Everything That is Difficult Will Come to an End
    Side B: I Quite Like It When He Sings - Kings of Foxgloves

    Side C: When the Boat Comes Inside Your House - Driving Under the Influence of Loneliness - To Live for Longer Slides
    Side B: The Moongoose Analogue

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Machine That Made Us via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
My own Napoleon met his fate, with a smile on his face in summer time By all accounts ventured he was running late, for a series of dates with his own lifetime Bemused by your ambush at his garden gate, his head was twisted by your nonsense rhyme For I was he when we came to be, and I can't always free all the hostages you take inside of me And when it goes wrong, I sing my own song It's a sad song I'll only sing for you And, when I sing loud, it cuts the noise out And only you remain, now As the games end, like an old friend I call the right one in Then there's the strange case, that we both make For keeping the out-takes in Bye Bye Napoleon, I've boxed the tape, but it's getting late, and I won't make time To re-run the chase scene, endless one-off takes, none of which make good on the finish line Send Arthur Wellesley my warm embrace, but I have his author on the other line For that was me when this came to be, and I can't always free all the hostages you take inside of me And when it goes wrong, I sing my own song It's a sad song I'll only sing for you And, when I sing loud, it cuts the noise out And only you remain, now As the games end, like an old friend I call the right one in Then there's the strange case, that we both make For keeping the out-takes in
2.
Make your way to the basement Say hi to the queen She’s grateful for your sacrifice But it won’t be how it seems Her love is stashed away in tins Her teeth are chipped but clean Since the revolution came That’s just the way it’s been Every day she begs the truth And every day I lie On maps I chart where thousands march Though we number 25 See the trees and see their branches Burning bright with palace stanchions I will not tell lies to you, I would love her here today Sometimes when her eyelids fall I don’t know what to say The queen is here crowned in complaisance, an empty throne astride Please entertain her vanity and its many blushing brides I close my eyes and it’s here in me And ornate frieze and glaze break down into my heart Break down into my heart And all the freezing days break down into my heart beneath the ground I conceal you here but you are far from free or safe and sound All the days break down into my heart All the days break down into my heart You're hiding nothing here to warm my heart For I am not the same man now Who once mistook your mess for a work of art That only he could read somehow I feel less lonely when we’re apart But I am not the same man now Who once mistook your mess for a work of art That only he could read somehow Warm and warm and warm my heart For I am not the same man now Make your way to the basement Say hi to the queen If she feigns an interest Don’t dwell on where she’s been See the trees with blackened branches Defy the night with palace stanchions I cannot tell lies to you I would love her here today The queen stands brooding in the basement A hunger in her eyes The weight of every move she makes Will help your world capsize I close my eyes and she’s here in me And ornate frieze and glaze break down Into my heart All the missing days break down Into my heart beneath the ground I am concealed in here with you But dare not move or make a sound All the days break down into my heart You're hiding nothing here to warm my heart For I am not the same man now Who once mistook your mess for a work of art That only he could read somehow I feel less lonely when we’re apart But I am not the same man now Who once mistook your mess for a work of art That only he could read somehow Warm and warm and warm my heart For I am not the same man now
3.
I don’t have much time, none of really do So I’ll be fucked if I’ll be spending it with you You’re making history my friend, that said Your histrionics drive me round the bend You have to take what the slipstream sends When your salad days have reached an end You're changing my mind Come take me out where the wild things grow And teach me all that I ought to know You're changing my mind Come fish me out of the idiot soup And all the fun of your other loops You're changing my mind I wrote this letter to myself Well you know me, I like to help It justifies the harm we do Wrapped up in pretty songs for you I’m sorry that I woke you up But you’re trussed up here like Lilliput You know I had to join a queue Just to dry these jokes on you I kept you how I saw you last And you’re smiling in that photograph I know we buried ‘ought to do’ But mother has more games for you The open door was just a test I’m glad you failed it like the best What passes for a view round here Has a curious taste of understeer Come fish me out of the idiot soup And all the fun of my other loops You're changing my mind Yes, I could have called you more Well, okay I never called at all These parts of me so sharp and curved Have ways I cannot shape to words You shelter in their soft skin glow Drink in its warmth, then let it go The mine you need just isn’t here You sat and watched him disappear At times I would have bombed the past My cartoon worlds, they always cast You as punch-drunk, me as slow Both patsy to the undertow Oh let him go, he won’t get far He dribbles words, I drive the car It gets us where we need to be With disappointing frequency Are we still running, is this thing on? He’ll catch it when you’re sure the moments gone When you think we're only chasing unicorns He’ll have it in the walk between two rooms Oh let him go, he won’t get far he dribbles words, I drive the car We drag him where he needs to be With disappointing frequency
4.
It came on Tuesday when harmonic dreams had meaning By Wednesday night the sense had crept away I always see you as a young man as I read them I wrote that down so some part of you remained I keep his words and I eat them when I need them They fill the space when I have nothing left to say I have no shape, these scribblings that surround me secure the 'heads Though the frame shrinks by the day And so I wrote sat on stone steps in the harbour Not fully grown, though it seems like yesterday In the beginning there was hope And all the world was mine A fluttering palace of flax and rope And all the world was mine In the beginning the figurehead spoke And all the world was mine A chart with a line scribed bold, unbroken, and all the world is mine In the beginning you helmed the role And all the world was mine In the beginning there was hope And all the world was my design I keep his words and I eat them when I need them They fill the space - what a stupid thing to say All my dreams are loving angels coming here in such disguise
5.
I’m calling for volunteers to climb the mountain Must have experience of the war Must be able to write in the journals that I keep Much better than those who went before Must have experience of the good times So we understand just what the bad times are for Must be armed with fear and firm convictions Unless your conviction is you’re not entirely sure I will dedicate a sea to my contradictions After all the empty years they’ve washed ashore But what of the overflow? Warm roads that my debris closed Scripts late of mothballed shows Stray hopes left with no way home I, who must detain them all when days scrape, I can hear them call You, as you’d dress for her The sweet scent that would lead you there Soft lines only she could know As you shine in her afterglow I, who would hold everything Hold me, I am your broken king Let go, and I fear the height That’s why I must climb at night
6.
I came here today to tell you It’s the end of your world as you know it I will leave here tomorrow alone I do not need you, any more Oh do not smile at me I will not fall for such things I cannot pretend I still love you Any more than I can pretend I can fly Now the fears I had have gone, I’ll be on my way Hold me, fold me Tell me all you want to do Touch me, mould me I am the only one for you Twist me, roll me You know my love is made for you That’s my glass from which you are drinking And my bed on which you stubbornly lied Last night was just a farewell performance Now we’re closing, I’m calling time Oh do not smile at me I will not fall for such things I cannot pretend I still love you Nobody sells that kind of disguise, Now the love I had has gone, I’ll be on my way Hold me, fold me Tell me all you want to do Touch me, mould me I am the only one for you Twist me, roll me You know my love is made for you
7.
In my mind I was a star Heaped in praise for my art But I wasn't, not at all My mother loved me But not much more I made a mark upon the wall Just to prove I was that tall But on the inside I'm four foot three, Because the wall won't Won't come with me As a child I dreamed of travelling to Mars But getting lonely needn't take you so far from home Reading kids' encyclopaedias - it's where I stole all of my best ideas My friend In my mind I was a star Heaped in praise for my art But I wasn't, not at all My mother loved me But not much more There was a man, I read today Who once claimed he'd saved the day But when he looked back It was plain to see - the day was too sad for him to keep The painful days don't stay here with me They're just a flash like a drive through museum, my friend They're tangled days when I think of them but if you asked I'd do it all again, my friend They're tangled days when I think of them but if you asked I'd do it all again, my friend
8.
Drive, drive for miles, to a place where you feel safe Step down from the car, you're leaving, you won't be travelling no more Take off your hat, put your clothes on the floor beside of that You're leaving, you won't be needing, to dress for dinner no more
9.
The art of failure really has no school There is no handbook on how to be a fool If it makes any difference to you I trembled here before you Always hoped if I listened to you, we’d chase the dark away I wrote it all in a book of songs That no one ever sings I'm sorry I left you nothing more I was never one for things Hours, there were hours, so many hours, when I just don’t know where I was There were better versions of me I miss them now they’re gone They had to break It was my mistake to think they’d always carry on And when the trembled beast’s upon me And most of me is gone I hope you find a way that heals So you, alone, can carry on I know it’s raining, But did you have to build an ark? You go easy now, that’s how religions start But who will you listen to when the trembled beast comes calling? Will the ones that I listened to cradle you the same? I wrote it all in a book of songs That no one ever sings I'm sorry I left you nothing more I was never one for things Hours, there were hours, so many hours, when I just don’t know where I was There were better versions of me I miss them now they’re gone They had to break It was my mistake to think they’d always carry on I stand and point and I distract you I do it just for fun But I do the same just to shift the blame When I can’t control what’s going on When I get tired a loop within me Clicks and switches on And what it says is where I am for days I see no good in anyone Can you still see the love that’s hidden When I slide and cut you down? Cos that’s the me I swore I’d never be The saddest form of hand me down I try to hide the thirst within me The damage that it brings Sometimes I need the way it heals So I don’t feel a single thing And when the trembled beast’s upon me, And most of me is gone I hope you find a way that heals So you, alone, can carry on
10.
I was on the way to Mandalay, Couldn't care less for your problems These things you care about don't bother me I was on the way to Mandalay Couldn't care less about your problems These things you care about don't bother me And the heart of it is all that I can bear These things don't write themselves Take it from me There will be no 'forever' There will be, no 'til the end of time' Not much, but, that much Is clear to me There will be no 'forever', There will be no 'til the end of time' Not much, but, that much Is clear to me I was on the way to Mandalay Couldn't care less for your problems These things you care about don't bother me I was on the way to Mandalay Couldn't care less about your problems These things you care about don't bother me Every part of it, I try to write it down These things they come in cells Taken from me There will be no 'forever' There will be no 'til the end of time' Not much, but, that much Is clear to me There will be no 'forever' There will be, no 'til the end of time' Just words, but, a last cut Then you set me free I was on the way to Mandalay Couldn't care less about your problems These things you care about don't bother me And the heart of it is all that I can bear These things don't write themselves Take it from me Friends may come and friends may go But I know you'll be back for more (I was always on your side) Friends may come and friends may go But I know you'll be back for more

credits

released June 16, 2017

Paul Carter: lead vocals, samples, programming.
Ben Clay: guitar, bass.
Nainesh Shah: guitar, bass, vocals.
Steve Swindon: drums.
Vicky West: keyboards, samples, vocals.

Cover art by Michael Byzewski at Aesthetic Apparatus
Design and layout by Vicky West.

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Talitres France

Created in 2001 and found in the wine country of Bordeaux, France, Talitres houses an eccentric roster of wordly indie musicians from Britain, France, Australia, Canada, the US, etc.

The label has been known for releasing the music of bands like The Walkmen, The National, or The Organ and currently teams up with Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard, Emily Jane White, The Apartments...
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