On making the album Cath writes:
Cath Carroll is my third solo CD, although
solo isn't accurate at all since my partner Kerry Kelekovich co-wrote
most of the songs with me, played much of the music and twirled
the brightly coloured buttons.
We first worked together on True
Crime Motel (TeenBeat/Matador
1995) which we co-produced and on which he played bass.
This collection was recorded mainly at CMG, on the doorstep of Chicago's
Midway Airport .
The eleven track disc (running time: 50:48)
was recorded on 16 track analogue and towards the end, digitally,
using Pro-Tools.
Rather than attempt some studious, third-person
overview of the process and product, I thought I'd write a little
bit about each song, the agony and the weather, and/or the recording
there of...
I Remember The Sun: Recorded with
John Carpenter, KK, Dan Massey, Lare D'Amico and Tom Dziallo, an
ensemble that was a live band for a while in 1996. Tom is highly
requested session guitarist, currently out with Dennis DeYoung but
here he plays dobro.
|
Cath
Carroll:
lead & backing vocals, synthesizer
(Yellow Garden)
Kerry
Kelekovich:
electric & acoustic guitars,
basses, keys, funmaker, additional background vocals, percussion &
programming
Support:
Lare D'Amico:
percussion (London-Queen
Of My Heart, What Are You Doing, I Remember The Sun, The Gravity Within);
drums (Green Grows The Ground)
Dan Massey:
drums (I Remember
The Sun, Giving In)
John Carpenter:
background vocals (London-Queen
Of My Heart, What Are You Doing, I Remember The Sun, Yellow Garden);
acoustic guitar (I Remember The Sun)
Tom Dziallo:
dobro (I Remember
The Sun)
John Nevin :
additional programming
(Giving In, The Gravity Within)
|
Produced by
Kerry Kelekovich
&
Cath Carroll
The Gravity Within
produced by John Nevin
Giving In
produced by Kerry Kelekovich,
Cath Carroll & John Nevin
Originally released
September 28, 2000
|
Tom claims it's not his best instrument,
but we might have to disagree. Kerry wrote this song for his duo with
Carpenter, Jonnie Warmer. Recorded at Thunderclap Recording
Hammond, Indiana by John Carpenter and mixed at Couderay Music Group
in Chicago by Kerry.
Giving In: We first did
this on 16 track analogue. Mixing it was like wrestling the many headed
hydra. It began as a Dan Massey loop, recorded when DM was practicing
in our studio for a Robbie Fulks show, then KK added some cool, relentless
bass. He has a soft spot for heavy stuff with a pocket . This is a
song about de-evolution and the beauty beyond the fear , darkness
in light, light in darkness. As a child I was obsessed by an illustration
in my nature encyclopedia entitled The Perils of Deep Sea Diver. It
depicted a Japanese diver being tormented by a cornucopia of bizarre
sea creatures, swimming ever deeper past increasingly formless and
luminous terrors. Eventually, we took the track to the Acoustic Cafe
where we redid the vocals and remixed it with John Nevin. Brian Dunn
(ex Stump The Host and currently leader of r&b jazz combo The Magpies)
added some perfect Underwater King Sunny Ade type guitar before we
went to Nevin's place. Wretchedly, it was an overdub on a digital
edit which we lost forever in some nightmare disk meltdown.
The Gravity Within:
Some time ago, KK wrote a song called Talk A Big Picture
which he kindly allowed me to deconstruct and furnish with a new theme
and lyrics: we try to pull free from the hypnosis of the physical
world by reframing it with the notion of morality, but this is bound
to fail. Meanwhile, the old super 8 in the attic speaks its truth.
John Nevin invited us to re-record this song with him in a production-for-fun
deal at his studio, The Acoustic Cafe. It takes a bold soul to work
alongside a husband and wife recording act, especially a couple who
have been in their basement for two years.
London,Queen of My Heart:
A song for a lost love. KK wrote a beautiful elegiac guitar piece
and for two years I tried to waited for the song I wanted to write
about my possessive and personal relationship with London, and the
people I shared it with. John Carpenter (of Thunderclap Studios, Hammond,
IN) is featured on backing vocals. KK had to re-record his wonderful
instrumental since the original 2" tape came down with some sort
of oxide-eczema, but I think the new version has some tenderly cinematic
moments and has even more depth.
What Are You Doing: Lare
D'Amico, who plays percussion here, is a deeply creative artist on
many levels. We have used his photographs for the CD artwork. His
gift for seeing new shapes and colour in everyday objects make his
vacation snapshots a joy and a riot to behold! His percussion is also
comes in colours. Here, he plays gato drum in shades of midnight.
By the way, I just love KK's guitar solo. The subject matter of this
song doesn't need much explanation.
You Know It's You. This
song first appeared on the album England Made Me, when it was entitled
'Moves Like You'. Later, KK entirely rearranged the song,
giving it this very deliberate Chinese Dragon groove and changing
the song's focus. We see what we want to see and this should be a
warning to reconsider what we want.
Green Grows The Ground:
A song written by Kerry. He is a human barometer, much affected by
pressure changes and approaching fronts, hence the sensitivity to
such energies that informs many of his songs. Lare does some distant
thunder drumming.
This Is How We Fall: This
was the first instrumental KK gave me with a view to collaborating,
and I really loved the Kate Bush cowboy vibe. I mucked around with
it for some time before I found what the song was about....we all
have our shining shadow. It speaks to us in the whispering of blood
and the heavy weight of summer.
The Circle Bends: Another
of Kerry's songs, I love the simplicity an completeness of the chorus;
the circle bends, we take the turn/ 'round again and never learn.
KK plays all the instruments, I sing.
In The White Rain: KK came
up with a lovely, cascading instrumental piece reminiscent of some
of the soundtrack work he has done. Interpreters of the visions of
Edgar Cayce have suggested that the Great Lakes area will escape some
of the more catastrophic geological earth changes ahead. We make no
endorsements or guarantees...
Yellow Garden: This is
my confession/ the end of dinner parties... We may process information
in different ways, but cannot we all get along? KK played and programmed
all instruments, again.
|
LYRICS
LONDON,
QUEEN OF MY HEART won't
you fire up that ride again, once more, we'll watch the sun rise
again waist deep in the pink serpentine me and you- London, queen
of my heart. too much laughing and tumbling down upstairs on the
night bus from camden town. plague rhymes and hawksmoor's lost underground
and you, London, queen of my heart. London, queen of my heart. in
your secret streets i've seen you naked and asleep on late nights
lost in the rain and from early morning trains now you won't leave
me- leave me- i keep moving but you won't let go. who'd have thought
that i'd miss still those sickly summers and that old, damp chill
that loves to creep in beside you while you sleep. London, queen
of my heart. won't you fire up that ride again once more, take me
inside again too deep in the black serpentine me and you, London,
queen of my heart.
THE GRAVITY WITHIN this is not romance you see it's
just the pull of gravity wrapping around you and me as if it were
meant to be. i close my eyes and i can feel all of that life inside
you here's where you hide wordlessly real waiting for light to find
you. they keep it dark like God can't see their fingers talk while
their eyes go stealing. when the walls close in here's where you come
in all that scandinavian skin. pulling me in- the gravity within.
IN THE WHITE RAIN thirty three years old still daring
the needle to steal your soul and you say you can't imagine what i
do here. these are not the lessons we would have chosen this is not
a town that too much grows in everybody cursed it and built it regardless.
some things aren't there to get over you learn it the hard way. friends
come to stay and say, why'd you stay here, why'd they build here,
what were they thinking when they made their claims here? no, no,
no, never get over. you learn it the hard way. we slowly burn, we
slowly freeze and dream of marquette on his knees. if i could i'd
write to you, i miss you and i love you too, but telling you so is
like closing down a small war. We slowly burn, we slowly freeze and
the calendar slowly drops its leaves. the avalanches, quakes and slides
of paradise will pass us by. We'll be the last ones standing in the
white rain.
THIS
IS HOW WE FALL (Secret Way) august she slips through sycamores
tangled in sorcery heaven in slow waves bends to the mercury's decree.
You still hear it calling the shining shadow and now something's falling
you take what you need to let go this is how we fall. don't cry, it's
all right tender are the arms of night this is how you pray you laugh,
you smile but you walk a long mile in your secret way. You still hear
it calling ... the indigo fleet in summer thrall slows the fall of
night for angels in the dust that streams eternal in the light. You
still hear it calling...
YELLOW
GARDEN I grow a yellow garden, it's depressing in the daytime
but underneath the moonlight, you should see it shine. children once
they learn to talk, soon learn to avoid me. it's been that way since
i was small but most pets seem to like me so they say. (They don't
call me) misfit- born out of time. (oh yes you are oh yes you are...)
i was born with something missing, i cover up the holes by pumping
music in my head and something in my blood to keep me steady, keep
me keeping on. (They call me) misfit- born out of time. but that doesn't
mean i'm beyond the things you people like- such as peace and love.
this is my confession, the end of dinner parties, an awkward smile,
an exchanged glance, the shifting feet- the secret dance oh i know
why (they all call me) misfit- born out of time. But that doesn't
mean i'm beyond the things you people like-such as peace and love.
and i'm curious, getting stranger...
WHAT ARE YOU DOING pity me thinking of you. the hours
worn and reason flown. where are you to help me through thoughts i
shouldn't think alone. what are you doing when you're not breaking
my heart does the time go slow. What are you doing when you're not
breaking my heart and you know you know. pity me thinking of you.
so many instincts misapplied. looking at you what am i supposed to
do show me the light and i go blind what are you doing when you're
not breaking my heart does the time go slow. What are you doing when
you're not breaking my heart and you know- you know. count the ways
i spend the days trying not to let go of what i know is true - that
i'll forget you and what you do. What are you doing when you're not
breaking my heart does the time go slow. And you know- you know.
GIVING
IN our jewels have passed on in the attic our horses run
barefoot through the paddock the madeleine crumbs and stolen cakes
lie still sticky on the plate at daybreak. And we're coming down.
one after one our days are gone we'll wave them good-bye together.
for there's no fun in hanging on to talk, talk about the weather.
sinking...singing... we're coming down. cut our boat free sail out
to sea sinking deeper and down. me into you, you into me the fear
that binds us unbound. sinking... singing... we're coming down. The
silent inky baying of the eight-eyed guards of the wet, jet deep rouses
the long-backed monster from an ancient sleep. One after one our limbs
are prey but we don't feel the pain, singing as we sink- back home
again,back home again, it's so good giving in, so good giving in...
stroked by shiny-eyed starfish and cold-fingered squid, singing as
we sink- it's so good giving in...
I REMEMBER THE SUN i remember the sun shine down
through the trees it would light my way then the sky turned gray.
i remember the sun like a crystal ball from the edge of the sky i
would watch it fall. The passion drives you the pain relents and time
goes by so slowly... i remember the sun as something real like a cavern's
torch whose light i'd steal. i remember the sun as a buried shrine
i abandoned once then claimed as mine. The passion drives you the
pain relents and time goes by so slowly...
GREEN
GROWS THE GROUND green grows the ground... and the world
waits without a sound. And i watched it all i felt nothing, i felt
everything, i felt lucky to get another chance. shots ring out and
you can feel it shaken. new year... new world, give it back what you
have taken. on the iron range, two sisters to thunder bay. through
a cold wind blowing, showing no mercy. Shots ring out and you can
feel it shaken. New year... new world give it back what you have taken.
green grows the ground (bury it deep in the ground...) and the world
waits without a sound.
YOU
KNOW IT'S YOU tonight i caught a glimpse of something i thought
i could not replace. And i know something's been missing since the
last time i saw your face. i saw someone who... moves like you and
it's all that i can do to keep my feet on the ground or stop myself
from taking hold and asking why so cold, you know it's you. if that's
what comes of wishful thinking i wish the ground would open up and
swallow your ghost and as for me - i am already sinking. moves like
you and it's all that i can do to keep my feet on the ground or stop
myself from taking hold and asking why so cold, you know it's you.
though it's just someone who moves like you it's all that i can do
to stop myself from taking hold and saying angel. And saying, angel-
i'll walk you home.
THE
CIRCLE BENDS i've got no clues thought you should know. i
burned those bridges so long ago. i thought, i listened, i hesitated,
i missed all my chances while i waited. i think of you i think of
sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle bends we take
the turn around again we never learn. there/s no future in the future
there/s no prophet in the past. You may think you/re secure now but
it won/t last. i went walking on eggshells while you were dancing
on air. i went dipping in the dream well- and i drowned there. i think
of you i think of sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle
bends we take the turn around again we never learn. idle minds rust
in the gray April rain traffic and telephones nothing to say doomed
to be destined for obscurity. i turned to you, you turned to stone.
it haunts me most when i/m alone. So, crease the page and break the
pen and close the book you barely opened. i think of you i think of
sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle bends we take
the turn around again we never learn.
REVIEWS
Performing Songwriter
December 2001 issue
Indie rock fans know Cath Carroll's name
mainly from a legendary single by danceable jangle-punkers Unrest,
who sang her praises in one of their best, most breathless songs.
The homage derived from Unrest frontman Mark Robinson's obsessive
love for the distinctive British pop label Factory Records, which
released Carroll's solo records, as well as a few 45s by her band
Miaow. Never more than a cult figure in her Manchester home (where
she also operated as a rock journalist), Carroll has continued to
live and record (and publish criticism) in relative obscurity since
moving to Chicago and marrying her collaborator, Kerry Kelekovich.
Carroll's eponymous third solo album is
her first in a half-decade, and it demonstrates a shift into fluid,
guitar-spiked technopop, a la Portishead or Hooverphonic. Carroll's
affectless alto weaves in and around Kelekovich's stinging guitar
and the insistently bubbling electronic rhythms, creating a mood
of pretty melancholy. The genuine longing in songs like "London,
Queen Of My Heart" and "This Is How We Fall" comes
with the mitigation of a jetsetter's sophistication. Like the best
of her contemporaries in the faded UK post-punk scene, Carroll creates
sad music for the comfortably well-to-do ... or those who like to
fantasize that they are.
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO'S BEST NEW RECORDED MUSIC (9/00)
As a late-night companion, Cath Carroll
is destined to make you laugh ruefully at the singer's brutal little
asides - "this is my confession / the end of dinner parties"
- while she leads you into a subversive, shadowy corner of the adult-pop
universe occupied by Jobim, the pre-disco Everything But The Girl
and Bryan Ferry's "The Bride Stipped Bare".Carroll, a native
of England, sings with the detached cool of a bossa-nova vocalist,
and her richly atmospheric songs - written in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist
Kerry Kelekovich- are thick with ghosts, innuendo and a vague sense
of dread. -Greg Kot
Chicago Sun-Times
REASONS FOR LIVING
Carroll is the former leader of English
indie darlings Miaow, a woman with such a gorgeously sleepy-seductive
voice that wittier pundits than I have called her the Sade of the
underground. This is her first release since 1995's well-ignored True
Crime Motel on Matador, and it's enchanting trip-hop makeout music--nothing
that's gonna change your life or have you doing the happy dance between
your stereo speakers, but just fine when you're in the right mood.
(Add a good bottle of wine, a little hooch, and some candles in the
bedroom, and you and a friend will be diggin' this disc plenty.) -Jim
DeRogatis
Chicago Reader
A gorgeous collection of smoky, very adult
ballads written and performed by low-profile chanteuse Cath Carroll
and her husband, Kerry Kelekovich (formerly of The Wildroots and Michael
McDermott's band). Carroll remains best known in indie-rock circles
as the object of a long-standing fixation of TeenBeat Records honcho
Mark Robinson, who covered a tune by her old British band, Miaow,
wrote a song about her, and even released her last album. But if you
want to know why he's obsessed, check out this record: Carroll's voice
is similar to, if huskier and less flexible than, Sally Timms's, but
her songs, filled with couples in trouble and loners grappling with
their solitude, are much darker and more reflective. -Peter Margasak
OUT MAGAZINE
A smoky-voiced siren who evokes comparisons
to Astrud Gilberto and Sade, Manchester native Cath Carroll was one
of the true cult figures of the American and British independent music
scenes in the early '90s. (Her Factory Records debut, England
Made Me, is a lost classic of dreamy bossa novas and brooding
dance tunes.) On her third solo album Carroll, now a Chicago resident,
cooly muses on the myths and mysteries of the American heartland:
"I Remember the Sun" is a shimmering Western noir, while "You Know
It1s You" reworks one of her early singles (19911s "Moves Like You")
into a gritty porn-soundtrack outtake. Darkly intelligent and deliciously
complex, Cath Carroll is testimony to one of indie rock's most intoxicating
voices. -Peter Terzian
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Recorded and
mixed in Chicago by KK
Recorded at CMG
Chicago, Illinois
Sun recorded
live by John Carpenter at Thunderclap Recording Hammond,
Indiana.
Giving In
remixed by John Nevin, Kerry and Cath at Acoustic Cafe Chicago.
Gravity
recorded and mixed at Acoustic Cafe by John
Nevin with additional recording at CMG.
Mastered by Kris Solem
at Future Disc Systems, Hollywood, Ca.
Front & back covers,
tray card: Colour photographs
by© 1998 Lare D'Amico
Used by permission
Graphic design: KK @
CMG.
All Songs: ©2000
Superclammy, Ltd. Publishing ASCAP
Except:
"You Know It's
You"
©2000 Superclammy,Ltd.
Publishing (ASCAP) / copyright control 1991 Carroll/Lister (PRS)
green grows the ground
giving in
you know it's you
london,
queen of my heart
i remember the sun
what are you doing
this is how we fall
yellow garden
in the white rain
the circle bends
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