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A Review:
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Sumosonic
This is Sumo
(Creation Records)
To call Pat Fish the best British songwriter of the past fifteen years is an invitation for some awfully suspicious stares. Pat who? But he might be just that. Known since the early 1980s as the Jazz Butcher, Fish remained detached enough to avoid the indie-rock vortex of the last decade, dooming himself to obscurity while leaving behind one of the most valuable buried treasures in all of alternative music.
Fish has joined with an all-new cast to form Sumosonic. In what may be a disappointment to long-time Jazz Butcher fans (they're out there), this inaugural disk is decidedly un-Butcheresque, with a keyboard-heavy attack of quasi-techno rhythms. Pat was known to dabble in reverb and noise, but the results were moody, melancholy textures, quite unlike the flash of This is Sumo.
Never quite dance music, the tight compositions and good-natured feistiness are a bit too mischievous for outright club-fare. Consider the tongue-in- cheek ferocity of 'Monks of Kung Fu,' (which some might liken to the Butcher's 'Do the Bubonic Plague,') with its melodic grunting and hilarious Chinese sampling. At times, like on the gentle 'Cat's Life,' it's reminiscent of New Order-style synth-pop, with dreamy, entrancing swirls set to a pulse- quickening backbeat. The snappy chorus of 'Come Friendly Spacemen' will have you wearing out the repeat button, as will the balmy spells of 'Stupid,' and 'Destroy All Monsters' which are at once energetic and disarmingly sweet. The syrupy 'Sputnik,' meanwhile, is the prettiest thing we've heard since 1993's 'Whaddya?' Fish is no less graceful with keyboards and effects than he was with acoustic guitar.
Considering Pat's long and productive past, it's hard to judge This is Sumo as a true 'debut'. But let's not get caught on Sumo-semantics. No matter his band-mates or current moniker, the man still has genius to share.
- copyright 1997 patrick smith
The Lyrics:
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Come, Friendly Spacemen
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Come, friendly spacemen, coz the world needs love
Bring it on down like the Dove from above.
Those spacemen think the world is a disgrace,
The dove from above comes down from above on the inexplicable TV quiz entertainment "Shooting Stars".
No one in America can ever understand.
And me, I agree - I have to live in the place.
I'm a believer, a 24-hour fanatic.
This is the voice of Audio-Aquatic.
Give you bleeps from the Deep when you want to go to sleep.
Sack your Temazepam, it makes me weep.Come, friendly spacemen, come on down.
Come friendly spacemen, scoop the poop, sort it out!
I don't want to have to scream and shout, but if I have to ...
Well, you get the idea. Come, friendly spacemen, coz we need you here.
This world's in a state, it ain't getting any better.
Maybe this message is a suicide letter.
If it is, then Vale, Tchuss, Farewell!
When the going gets ugly, then the ugly feel swell.
Vale - Latin: Farewell
Tchuss - German: FarewellCome, friendly spacemen, come on down.
Come, friendly spacemen, when the Lords give a hoot,
Coz you look so cute in your little space suits.
"Orribile!" is what they say, and in a way they're right on the money.
They're right on the money where money is the problem.
You think they look funny and you think nothing of them.
SHAME! Because they're looking at you
and they don't know if you're dangerous, or what they ought to do.Come, friendly spacemen, come on down.
And if the world's all broken down,
Watch the skies above your town.
REMEMBER - Everyone's a stranger somewhere.
Keep you faith and don't despair.
Put your hands up in the air and call them.Come, friendly spacemen, come on down.
God's Green Earth
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Nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
Nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
There ain't nobody's going to talk about you. Ain't nobody can't do without you.
There ain't nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.Nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
There ain't nobody in the whole wide world is going to miss you when you're gone.
There ain't no way you're coming back in here. There ain't nobody's going to shed a tear.
There ain't nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.Fear of crime - instrument of control:
If they frighten you enough you won't come out of your hole
Because of the crime wave that's infesting the area.
The Government wants to tell you things have never been scarier.
What is the crime? Who is the criminal?
The questions have a message and it isn't subliminal.
Right on the money, I spy the Slime:
They're set to make a bundle on account of all the fear of crime.(Third verse, same as the first)
Nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
Nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
There ain't nobody's going to talk about you. Ain't nobody can't do without you.
There ain't nobody on God's green earth is going to miss you when you're gone.
When you're gone.
Monks of Kung Fu
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Monks of King Fu - They could do it for you.
Monks of Kung Fu - What are you going to do?Monks of Kung Fu - They could happen to you.
Monks of Kung Fu - They're going to split you in two.
Monks of Kung Fu - MURDER!
Monks of Kung Fu
Monks of Kung Fu
Monks of Kung Fu.
Business and Work
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Yellow Pages!
I've been here for ages, deep in the words of the Ancient Sages,
Avoiding the gaze of the pissed teenagers, trying to get through to the man with the pager.
Deep undercover on a mission to the people: ever catch yourself wishing for the Facts,
the facts that'll put you on the track of the messages they get from the satellite dish?It's like the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt - you can see it, but you'll never believe it.
Dig a little deeper you will find Fortune favours the well-prepared mind
Lost in a world of vibration, Church of the Aquatic Sound Foundation
Bringing research as they dig in the dirt, continually monitored... by experts.Chorus
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And as the light begins to fail, and as you start to feel the cold,
You see the future and it's not what you've been told
Oh, get out and walk! Look at the state of you!
It's coming apart, et je m'en fous.
Je m'en fous: literally I fuck myself of it.
Actually used all the time in quite polite French to mean It means nothing to me.
Bad cells in the nation's bloodstream, moving through the system, clinging onto one dream
Shared as it all falls apart. Only the ignorant will want a fresh start.
Another word from the Ancient Sages: you don't keep a tiger in a ten-foot cage,
It's wrong. Now it's time to get along, little dogies, get along, sing your song:-
JUSTICE AND SEMTEX, BUSINESS AND WORK
(Got to try a little harder)
REPTILES AND INSECTS, BUSINESS AND WORK (Get along, get along)
A NICE DISTINCTION: BUSINESS AND WORK (Got to push a little harder)
CHAOS, EXTINCTION, BUSINESS AND WORK (Get it on!)
Chorus
(instrumental bit)
Chorus
Chorus -
And as the light begins to fail, and as you start to feel the cold,
Destroy All Monsters
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What do you think has caused this?
How did the monsters escape?
Couldn't you foresee this?
Paris - the city's been invaded by Godzilla!Rodan, Mothra, Gojira, Mururoa!
Si tu reves trop des monstres,
Tu reveilleras les monstres.
If you dream too much about monsters,
Est-ce que tu connais ces monstres, vieux salaud?
You will wake the monsters up.
Do you know these monsters, you dirty old bastard? As lovely as ever.
Nothing much has changed.The voice of Audio-Aquatic: time to be specific.
Do you think it's scientific when you poison the Pacific?
Mururoa, east of Java: another Krakatoa with a different class of lava.YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND.
Cest pas trop sauvage, quoi?
Cest pas trop sauvage pour toi.
Not too fierce, huh?
Est-ce que tu connais la loi, vieux canaille?
Not too fierce for you, pal.
Do you know the law, dirty old sod? I have no idea.
1964 - as lovely as ever. Nothing much has changed.
I have no idea.
Nothing much has changed.
I have no idea.
The city is Paris.
The city's been invaded by Godzilla.
As lovely as ever.Gojira, Gojira, Go!
Gojira, Gojira, Go!
Gojira, Gojira, Go!
Go, Chirac! Go, Chirac, Go!As lovely as ever.
I have no idea.
Nothing much has changed.
Stupid
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Two men with handguns in a stolen Granada;
Two more men with handguns in the public's heart.
Big Ford saloon car. Often stolen
Two men with handguns are two men with handguns,
What can you see that helps you tell them apart?What ignorance is this?
How can you possibly be so blind?
Why don't you try to find your way back to your mind?Sick and Hungry children in the Third World Nation;
Sick and hungry children in the car outside.
Sick and hungry children on a screen in Wembley Stadium:
While you wondered who would drive her home a hundred more died.What blasphemy is this?
How could you possibly be so cruel?
The only explanation: You're a total fool.Bright white: in his living room strip-light!
This is the kind of guy who gets his clothes from Mister Byrite.
He fights the good fight - and you know he would fight:
Crap clothes shop chain
Remember the time that he got to hold an Armalite?
All bark, no bite, one-man lurch to the right:
British-made assault rifle, much abused in N. Ireland
See the spite that he heaps on society.
Gobshite, spite-ridden urban blight:
They'll fetch you in the night and it will serve you right.What ignorance is bliss?
How can you possibly say that?
How can you show your stupid face round here?Hey stupid - you're too stupid to smoke.
Hey stupid - is this all a horrible joke?
Hey stupid - scratch! Pay your stupid tax;
It could be you on the end of the axe.
Hey stupid - it's all a little Mickey Mouse.
Na, Dummkopf - bitte bilden Sie sich aus.
as in: it's all a bit bloody small-time
Hey stupid - what do I have to say?
German - Please get yourself an education
For the sake of your health have a word with yourself.
Hey, stupid!
Everything Is Wonderful
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Underneath the pavement lies the beach,
That may not be forever out of reach.Everything is wonderful!
I haven't heard that song for so damn long I can't remember how it goes.
I can't get hold of all those big, dumb things that everybody knows.
I can't believe that I was once depressed - I don't believe it shows.
I don't believe that anything can hurt me now.Everything is wonderful!
Underneath the pavement lies the beach,
That may not be forever out of reach.
The brightness of you shines from deep within:
Walk up to the volcano and jump in. Jump in!Everything is wonderful!
Everything ... everything ...
Everything is wonderful!
Fern, Schnell, Gut
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This is our thing - driving at night,
Watching the movie, feeling all right.
Piss alligator eyes at a quarter to three,
Just me and The Government's Misery:
Bringing the goods from a far away land.
The Government's Misery is a close fiend of the band
He is a plastic human skull on a stick.
Don't disrespect what you don't understand.Fern, schnell, gut
German: Far, Fast, Well:
The slogan of the German Trucker's Union.This is our thing - driving at night.
Here come the Geisterfahrer, why don't you turn off the lights?
Pull in for Diesel and a palette of beers,
Geisterfahrer - German "ghost riders".
Loonies on motorcycles who drive the wrong way up the freeway with no lights.
Nobody sees us, nobody hears.
We come and we go and we know what we know.
Doing God's work in the rain and the snow.Fern, schnell, gut
also....Fern, schnell, gut Jungs, das ist der Weg.
Fern, schnell, gut - Jaegermeister direkt.
Far, fast, well boys that is The Way.
geradeaus, weder links noch rechts:
Far, fast, well - Jaegermeister direct.
autobahn Aquatic make the special effects.
Straight ahead - neither left nor right
There's an old world out there waiting for me:
Drive through the night with Lee Scratch Perry.
Border control pass into history.
The elephant from Outer Space.
Fern, schnell, gut - let the people be free.
Cat's Life
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The world don't get any smaller than a world of your own.
The world don't get any smaller - we just stay closer to home.
There are ten million people the other side of that door,
and every one wants something from a world that's shrunk to nothing.So what could you expect if I promised you the world?
What would you have left if I promised you the world?This world don't get any smaller - that's just one of their lies.
The world don't get any smaller - it stays the same size.
If you could stand in my corner and see the world that I've known,
You'd understand why I'm alone. The lights are on, but no one's home.So what could you expect if I promised you the world?
What would you have left if I promised you the world?Psychogeographic, geomagnetic:
Fright-night uptight, psychokinetic.
This life is a fiction, a television drama,
I slip out the back with a little marijuana.
Out of the rat-race, keeping to my own pace,
I never remember names, but I recognise the face.
Help you out here? No - I couldn't do that;
I've been alone too long, I think like a cat.
I've got a cat's life. Can you really say that's life?
An air of despair you can cut with a pen-knife?
What you want is what I despise.
I see in the dark, coz the light hurts my eyes.
Light hurts my eyes and my eyes hurt me:
I can't bear to look upon the things I see.
I see human vermin in a world of sin -
Look at the state that she left me in.So what did you expect but a cat's life?
What do you have left but a cat's life?
Are you living at all? Are you living with me?
Are you never appalled at the things that you see?
Are you hiding away? Do you know what I mean
When I say are you scared, are you hurt, are you burned or are you living a cat's life?Ah, look at you - what did you expect but a cat's life?
Ah, look at you - what did you expect but a cat's life?
Ah, look at you! Ah, look at you! ah, look at you!
Ah, look at you - what did you expect but a cat's life?
My Ultimate Baby
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Will you please enjoy
"My Ultimate Baby"?
I love you. I love you. My ultimate baby.My ultimate baby. I love you, baby.
My ultimate baby. (x3)
I love you, baby.You are my ultimate baby.
I love you. My ultimate baby.
My ultimate baby. (x2)
My ultimate baby. I love you, baby.
My ultimate baby.
My ultimate baby. I love you baby.
My ultimate baby.
Music ...You are my ultimate baby.
My ultimate baby. I love you. (x3)
Coz you're so nice to me.
You are my ultimate baby.I love you. (x10)
Coz you're so nice to me.
I love you, my ultimate baby. I love you.
My ultimate baby.Thank you. Thank you very much.
We Are The Traffic
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I'm over the top, Warren - I have cash now, I can operate now.
Hot-diggety-dog! It's me again!
Listen - uh I got a little something on the Back-Door Lambada ...The eyes of the gator are burning a hole
In the refrigerator whose name is Excellence.Chorus
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We are the traffic, Darryl. Whaddya think about that?
We are the traffic, Darryl. Stand there and look good.
We are the traffic, Darryl. Whaddya think about that?
We are the traffic, Darryl. Put that bible back.Oh, Darryl ...
Oh, Darryl ...
The gator likes what the gator sees; the gator bites and holds on.
The gator likes what the gator sees; the gator bites and holds on.Chorus
Darryl, eat the toast, Darryl.
Darryl, eat the toast, Darryl.
It's good to eat, so eat the toast. In Cambodia they eat the toast.
It's good to eat, so eat the toast. In Cambodia they eat the toast.Chorus
Oh, Darryl ...
Oh, Darryl ...
Oh, Handsome ...The gator likes what the gator sees; the gator bites and holds on.
The gator likes what the gator sees; the gator bites and holds on.Chorus
Chorus -
We are the traffic, Darryl. Whaddya think about that?
Sputnik
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The satellites that circle us are witness to God's grace:
He could pluck them from their orbits, cast them into Outer Space,
But he lets them keep revolving as the Earth moves round the Sun,
The only truly brilliant thing we've ever done.Photographs of his creation - all the seas and land,
Beamed to us from our space station help us understand.
And the ladies in Los Angeles and the gentlemen in Perth
See them up there, circling the Earth.Take the People's Train to the Academy of Science.
Use the People's instruments, do the People's work:
Put it up there, circling the Earth.We all know the space heroes like Yuri Gargarin,
But unknown thousands gave their lives to bring us this machine.
Now everybody knows what their sacrifice was worth,
Coz it's up there, and it's circling the Earth.The satellites that circle us shine brightly as Big Stars,
They can see the Memphis soul men driving in their Big Black Cars,
And if you call them on the phone you might just hear the sound
Of the satellites as they go round and round.Hear your voice repeating when you're talking on the phone,
Know that they are up there, know that we are not alone.
And one day we'll all know what this life of ours is worth
Coz they're up there, circling the Earth.Circling the Earth (x3)
For ever
For ever
Circling the Earth
Encircling the Earth
For ever.
Radio Saigon-
Nothing lasts for ever:
Even the Horror shall pass away.
Beam it on in on me baby,
And I'll be gone, gone, gone like Roy Orbison,
Sign off for ever Radio Saigon.Tune in, turn on
Tune in, turn on
Tune in, turn on:
Radio Saigon
Hey, Star-
Hey, Star, come over me,
Spit some light and steal my keys.
Oh no - Susan took my wheels.
The songs of your fast heart will tear this waiting world apart,
Hey star, come over, over me,
Come over me. come over, over me.The mind I got from Dad,
I threw it in my favourite flood.
Hey, Star - here I am.
The heat you took from me
It's okay - I draw from you:
Took it from your blurring star,
Your blurring star, your blurring star,
Your blurring star.
Your blurring star - took it from you blurring star,
Your blurring star, your blurring star,
Your blurring star.
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Come, friendly spacemen, coz the world needs love
