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Where the Monsters Abound

from Luap Elk by The Upper Strata

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    12" transparent red vinyl.

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    Limited screen print on Gildan Ultra Cotton shirt. Unisex. 100% cotton.

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  • Full Digital Discography

    7
    releases

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hue, Luap Elk, Fog, Fog (Instrumental), Neon Glitz, Cabaret Wartaire, and Shadow Upon The Snow. , and , .

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about

The song is written from the perspective of Klee watching the country of his citizenship Germany, deeming him unworthy of teaching and living in the land. The image of Hitler as a mad captain, running a captive nation aground upon a bleak ship, informs the song. As maps of old once read here be monsters at the edge of the map, the idea is that with a crazed captain in dangerous waters nothing good could result. A nation like a ship under poor leadership is in danger of ramming into rocks, and folks in the war times must have felt as if upon a demented doomed ship.

Part of recording is letting the sessions finish the works, add to the ideas or even inspire new ones. The feeling of northern Italy, the tiny town where we were staying and the old chapel all influenced the mood of the sessions and ultimately the recordings. The biggest example of this was that there was a concert grand piano in the middle of the chapel sanctuary, and Regula couldn’t stop playing it. She started playing this strange dramatic piece and then another and a piano version of our song Fog, I immediately began to sing to her playing. It was amazing to hear the melancholic thing echoing in the hall. We began to scheme about how we were going to integrate the thing onto the album, sure it would add a richness to the recordings.

It is one of the songs that went through numerous iterations, attempts, and even recordings. At first Johnny wanted it to be a dirgey song similar to something Nick Cave or Tom Waits would do while in a Kurt Weil mode. Then it developed a kind of odd rhythm and felt more like Partisan from Leonard Cohen. When Johnny presented it to Regula, she brought in a Doors-like bassline. The duo worked on this Doors version but felt it lost too much of the spooky feeling that needed to be conveyed. It was supposed to be about being on a damned ship. Johnny improvised the lyrics over the top of Regula’s incessant obsession with the grand piano and it really came together.

lyrics

Can we turn this ship around
before we all run aground?
Can we turn this ship around
Before we all run aground?

These are the days that burn in your brain
Who can make harbor or sink neath the strain
The things that shape history
Are never easy or sure
Moments that define while we fumble for a cure

Uncharted waters and the captain’s gone mad
Over the edge of the map where the monsters abound
Illusion crashing what an awful sound
Can we turn this ship around
Before we all run aground

Frantic end to a mad race we weren’t really meant to run
Living with a crumbling facade neath the shadow of a gun
Neath the shadow of a gun

Uncharted waters and the captain’s gone mad
Over the edge of the map where the monsters abound
Illusion crashing what an awful sound
Can we turn this ship around
Can we turn this ship around
before we all run aground

You bought your ticket but you know you’ve been had
Uncharted waters and our captain’s gone mad
You need something of substance raised on fluff
The captain he is hiding his hand do we call his bluff
Can we turn this ship around before we all run aground

credits

from Luap Elk, released December 18, 2020

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The Upper Strata Basel, Switzerland

Soaring atmosphere, cinematic, trance-inducing hypnotic.

Layering vocal harmonies, sequencers, thumping bass and spacey guitar, the duo creates a unique mix of audio flavors and hues. Poetic lyrics and passionate vocals meld with bold and catchy synth melodies. Songs that defy the gravity of genres. ... more

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