The 16-minute drone-punk opus from the co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion is the second entry in Constellation’s Corona Borealis Longplay Singles series “BABY IT HAS TO FALL” is exclusive to Bandcamp and PWYC during the first week of release. With an accompanying video by Menuck and Michele Fiedler Fuentes.
As one of the prime movers behind Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion over the past 25 years, Efrim Manuel Menuck needs no introduction. His solo work in recent years has also been rightly acclaimed, with Menuck diving headlong into blown-out electronics to forge new soundworlds around his piercing lyrics and anguished, yearning voice. His 2019 duo album with Kevin Doria is “practically blinding in its radiance” (Pitchfork) and “some of Menuck’s most vital music – an entreaty to the oppressor’s humanity that swings like a pendulum between dread and rapture” (The Wire). Operating outside expected genre, and largely outside the music industry altogether, Menuck is one of our generation’s most unwavering and poetic anarcho-punk iconoclasts.
“BABY IT HAS TO FALL” features some of Menuck’s most desperate and declarative writing: words of anger, disgust, despair and hope amidst the churn of three oscillators and a broken parlour organ.
WHAT VALUE IS A STATE LIKE THIS
A FOOL’S WEIGHT PRESSED UPON OUR NECKS
WHAT VALUE IS A STATE LIKE THIS
THAT WATCHES US DIE AND DOES NOT ASSIST
THAT BANKS ON OUR DEATHS NO MATTER THE PRICE
JUST TO DELAY THEIR OWN SLOW DEMISE
SO WALK ME TO THE EDGE AND BACK AGAIN
TELL ME EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT
THRU ENDLESS DAYS AND THE MERCY OF NIGHT
THRU SIDEWAYS RAIN AND HARD SHARP SNOW
HOLD ME TIGHT AND DON’T LET GO
“BABY IT HAS TO FALL” is PWYC on Bandcamp for the first week of release, during which time Menuck’s previous Constellation digital album discography will also be on sale. All proceeds from all sales go 100% to the artist, as part of Constellation’s pandemic initiative for immediate artist support.
EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK “BABY IT HAS TO FALL”
Recorded late august, year zero, 2020.
Made with 3 oscillators.
Made with a broken parlor organ.
Made with mechanical, electronic and electric filters, and made with
singing also.
Film by Efrim Manuel Menuck and Michele Fiedler Fuentes.
Made with cellphones, personal computer, paper and glue.
BABY IT HAS TO FALL
AN EMPTY ROAD AND A STRAND OF TREES / AND JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME
TO SPEND WITH THEE
O MY DEAR MY DEAR / GENOCIDE IS ALWAYS NEAR
EACH DAY IS LIKE A YEAR / AND I DON’T KNOW IF WE’LL SEE THE
MORNING
PILLARS OF FIRE AT THE COLD MIST OF DAWN / SEARCHLIGHTS AND MIDNIGHT
TRIALS AT THE RISING MISTS OF DAWN / THEY LEAD US TO
WATER JUST TO WATCH US DROWN / O BABY IT HAS TO FALL
PALE HORSE IS HUNGRY AND BELLOWING FIRE / ONWARD AND AWFUL WITH
EMPTY BLUE EYES / WHILE SLOWLY WE CRAWL AND SLOWLY WE RISE / WE JUST
COULD’VE MADE IT BUT WE RAN OUT OF TIME / O BABY IT HAS TO FALL
AN EMPTY ROAD AND A STRAND OF TREES / AND JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME TO
SPEND WITH THEE / O BABY IT HAS TO FALL
ACROSS THE GOLDEN ROAD / THE FOREST EXHALES / LIKE TRUMPETS IN MUD
THE SUN IS INDIFFERENT / AND THE TREES DON’T GIVE A FUCK
WE’RE HANGING ‘NEATH TWILIGHT IN A STATE NEAR TO GRACE
EVERY STAR IN THE SKY / EVERY STAR IN THE SKY / EVERY STAR IN THE SKY
EVERY STAR / HANGING ‘NEATH TWILIGHT IN A STATE NEAR TO GRACE
EVERY STAR IN THE SKY / EVERY STAR IN THE SKY / EVERY STAR IN THE SKY
EVERY STAR / EVERY LIGHT MUST GO OUT / EVERY LIGHT MUST GO OUT / EVERY
LIGHT MUST GO OUT / BUT NOT FOREVER
SWING LIKE AXES CHILDREN / SWING LIKE AXES CHILDREN / SWING LIKE
LIGHTNING’S FALL
THE LIGHT GOES OUT / AND THE LIGHT GOES OUT / AND THE LIGHT GOES OUT
BUT NOT FOREVER
IT’S GONNA TAKE A LOT OF SWINGING TO GET OUT OF THIS FUCKING HOLE
BABY, POINT IN ANY DIRECTION AND THAT’S WHERE WE’LL GO
THE DEVIL LOOSED HIS BURNING SHIPS ACROSS THOSE GLOWING SHORES
AND THREW ACROSS THE WATER 1,000,000 CONQUISTADORS
WHILE THEIR REGAL GOD SLEPT IN HIS NEST HID BEHIND GOLDEN CLOUDS
HE MUTTERED TO HIMSELF AND HE DID NOT RAISE A HAND
WHILE HIS EMPIRE GREW UPON BURNING FLOWERS ABOVE THAT BURNING LAND
WE ARE THEIR BURNING FLOWERS THIS IS OUR BURNING LAND
THE EXECUTIONER / AND THE EXECUTIONER’S FILTHY CHILDREN
THE EXECUTIONER / AND THE EXECUTIONER’S FILTHY CHILDREN
RAISED IN THE LAND OF MILK AND DEAD HONEYBEES
FED ON COLONIAL ENTITLEMENTS AND AR-15’S
A FUNCTIONING DEATHKAMP NEEDS A LOT OF POLICE
A FUNCTIONING DEATHKAMP NEEDS A LOT OF POLICE
WHAT VALUE IS A STATE LIKE THIS / A FOOL’S WEIGHT PRESSED UPON OUR
NECKS / WHAT VALUE IS A STATE LIKE THIS / THAT WATCHES US DIE AND DOES
NOT ASSIST / THAT BANKS ON OUR DEATHS NO MATTER THE PRICE
JUST TO DELAY THEIR OWN SLOW DEMISE
SO WALK ME TO THE EDGE AND BACK AGAIN / TELL ME EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT
THRU ENDLESS DAYS AND THE MERCY OF NIGHT / THRU SIDEWAYS RAIN AND
HARD SHARP SNOW / HOLD ME TIGHT AND DON’T LET GO
AND I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK / I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK INTO
AND I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK / I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK INTO
INTO THEIR GLASS ATRIUM / WITH BLOOD ON MY CHEEK AND A SHIT-EATING
GRIN
WITH GLASS IN MY HAIR AND THE ENGINE BURNING
I’LL READ OUR DEMANDS AND I’LL TELL ‘EM WHO SENT ME
AND I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK / I WILL DRIVE A TRUCK INTO
FREE IS FREE / FREE SHOULD MEAN FREE
FREE SHOULD BE FREE / FREE MEANS FREE
THE BURNING WORD / THE BURNING WORLD
LOVE.