the transcendents

by the transcendents

supported by
Kasper Øbo
Kasper Øbo thumbnail
tfcbrian
tfcbrian thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

      name your price

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Beautiful 12" transparent record - all 10 tracks in 33 1/3 rpm glory- this is the ultimate version to have of the Transcendents debut album.

    Includes unlimited streaming of the transcendents via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $35 NZD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    High quality 100% Cotton pre-shrunk t-shirts. Available in black, black, or black!
    ships out within 14 days

      $35 NZD or more 

     

1.
02:29 video
lyrics
buy track
2.
03:34 video
lyrics
buy track
3.
04:04
lyrics
buy track
4.
05:45
lyrics
buy track
5.
02:51 video
lyrics
buy track
6.
06:06 video
lyrics
buy track
7.
01:31 video
lyrics
buy track
8.
03:46
lyrics
buy track
9.
04:15
lyrics
buy track
10.
03:47 video
lyrics
buy track

credits

released November 11, 2014

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

the transcendents image

the transcendents Christchurch, New Zealand

The Transcendents are based in Christchurch, New Zealand. The second full-length album - Dirt Songs - is OUT NOW! Download for free or grab a 12" heavyweight gatefold vinyl copy while ya can!

contact / help

Contact the transcendents

Streaming and
Download help

Track Name: Drug Mule
Drug Mule

I never meant to think those thoughts
I never meant to do those things
It all unravels happening so fast
At first it was first now it’s last

Do I look like I need your help
Do I look like I need your advice?
I don’t need your fucking help

I need some time alone
With no bags strapped to my gut
Sick in my swollen gut

Stick it in pack it in keep it in keep it hid
Stick to the plan stick to the rule you’re a mule you stupid fool

I’m not going back
I’m not going back
You won’t take me!

I’m not coming back
I’m not coming back
You can’t make me!

I never meant to think those thoughts
I never meant to do those things
Testing theories, American cherries
Shaking, weeping, sighing, weary

Do I look like I know what I’m doing
Do I look like I have a clue
Constant shifts always moving

Privatisation
The sheer uneasy elation
Withdrawn, shaking
With a queasy sensation

Stick it in pack it in keep it in keep it hid
Stick to the plan stick to the rule you’re a mule you crazy fool

I’m not going back
I’m not going back
You won’t take me!

I’m not coming back
I’m not coming back
You can’t make me!
I never meant to think those thoughts never meant to do those things
Deep breathing, breathing deep
Slumber taking over sleep

Do I ever do as I say
Do I look like I know the truth
About what happened yesterday

It was just a series of lies
Deceit upon deceit
You just end up chasing your own tail
Trying to stay on your feet

Stick it in pack it in keep it in keep it hid
Stick to the plan stick to the rule you’re a mule you fucking fool
Track Name: Everything Has Proven To Be Futile
Everything Has Proven To Be Futile

Light it up light it up light it up

Watch it burn watch it burn watch it burn

He had a short fuse
He liked a slow burn
It was his time
To make them all learn

Nothing is ever fair
Everything is futile
Absolutely everything
Has proven to be futile

Nitroglycerine
A thick paste
It was his time
To lay to waste

He had a short fuse
He liked a slow burn
Everyone of them
Was gonna learn
Track Name: Daily Mail
Daily Mail

He knew the bulb was going to blow.
Fucking halogens.
There had been a little buzz in the control for about four weeks.
Quiet, but incessant.

One of the forgotten little stores stashed ‘out back’.
He could hear the little sizzle of electrical cable, the reminder that things were powered by something far more powerful than the guy who had to replace the lightbulbs.
He kept them in another store, on another floor;

Halogens, frosted lamps, flouroscents, longlife energy savers, halostars, starlites, stashed in neat piles of boxes high on the shelves
He considered going down and getting a new halogen, but he decided to proceed in the dark instead.

It took quite some time before they could bring themselves to refer to him by name.
They refused to acknowledge that he’d hung around, done his time, and that he wasn’t going anywhere.

He was part of the team.

And it bugged them.

He could barely contain his contempt, not because he thought he was better than them, but because he knew they thought they were better than him.
Somewhere along the line they realised that he worked like a dog, almost under their radar, but not entirely unnoticed or unmentioned.
They had to keep their eye on people like him. He was there, no contract, on his own terms, doing all the shitty jobs nobody else wanted to do.
He was underground. They were elevated, like satellites, watching.

He descended to the floor below, walked the long empty passage, the procession of open doors waving him through, held back by unseen magnetic forces.

The vending machine greeted him, offering the same electronic promises it did every other day, He resisted its evils.
He was eating an orange, keeping up his Vitamin C. He was laughing.
Track Name: The National Scroll
The National Scroll

Wasp Nest, Slow Show, Gospel, So Far Round The Bend
Runaway, Murder Me Rachael, Sea Of Love, Hard To Find
Pink Rabbits, Val Jester, City Middle, Lit Up, Lemon World
Theory Of The Crows
Sorrow, Cherry Tree, Guest Room, Squalor Victoria
Karen, Racing Like A Pro, Anna Freud, Available
Fireproof, Lucky You, Without Permission
Don’t Swallow The Cap
90 Mile Water Wall, Pay For Me, Conversation 16
Bloodbuzz Ohio!
Reasonable Man (I Don’t Mind), All Dolled Up In Straps
Green Gloves, Friend of Mine, Secret Meeting
Oh, Caledonia, Little Faith, Terrible Love, Afraid Of Everyone
American Mary, Cold Girl Fever, The Perfect Song
Son, Pay For Me, Bitters Absolute, I Should Live In Salt, Fashion Coat Fireproof, This Is The Last Time
Fake Empire!
Mansion on the Hill (Live), Forever After Days, Tall Saint, Blank Slate,
Santa Clara
You’ve Done It Again Virginia
Pink Rabbits, I Need My Girl, Slipped, Demons, Patterns of Fairytales
Sugar Wife, Trophy Wife, Thirsty, It Never Happened, Slipping Husband Cardinal Song, 29 Years

There was an old firetruck on the side of the road
Upside-down trees in the river
Broken bridges, Burnt bridges
There was a whole day to take care of

Road cones and wasteland
Oblivian
The thermostat was right up, The fog was all the way down
Like a shroud

An uneasy sense, all pervasive
Divisions, Divided
Devisive

Giant sinkholes, quicksand, liquefaction, Earths expansion, and contraction
Just quivers really,
signalling insignificance

It’s horrible to be reminded
Sometimes you just want to bury your head
Sometimes it gets buried for you
Track Name: Glacial Flood
Glacial Flood

Black jack, Phone tap
Bad crack, And all that

Broken bulb, all’s told
Taking hold, feeling old

Group huddle, Power struggle
Blown bubble, Be fuddled

Re set, Bed wet
Room let, Better yet

Bad itch, Spirit ditch
Short pitch, Flicked switch

Re wired, Dog tired
Conspired, been fired

Square meal, Force field
Wax seal, Third wheel

Head space, Keep sake
So fake, your’s to take

Town plan, Big man
Shaky hand, Promised land

Strike down, Round town
Class clown, Lost and found

Nod wink, Don’t think
Ships sink, Take a drink

Hard fought, Long walk
You talk, Been caught

Winding road, Heavy load
Been towed, Nowhere to go

Brick Farm, Broken arm
Sound alarm, Safe from harm

Fresh meat, Cold feet
Trick treat, Hard to beat

No show, go slow
Swing low, to and fro

Door latch, back scratch
Dropped catch, Open hatch

Break through, turn blue,
Number two, Boo hoo

Red sky, so high,
Real shy, Little lie

Gone past, too fast,
It aint, gonna last

Right wrong, your song,
Not long, Far gone

Short stroll, road toll
Straw poll, Rock n roll

Love hate, soul mate
Sealed fate, Calculate

Uh, yeah,

I don’t even really know what to say

Where to begin, you know?

What can I tell you?

I mean, I don’t really know where he came from

Or if he was even really there, you know?

He was talking about all these things

Muttering about astral planes and transcendence, and all this kind of shit that I didn’t really understand

And it was so hot!

And it was like he was inside my head or something.

I can already tell you don’t know what I’m talking about,
which is OK.

I don’t get it either, but I can see it in your eyes.

Your cold, dead, eyes
Track Name: Circle Unit Document
Circle Unit Document

Five times faster
Falling through the cracks
Dry ceiling plaster
Reported dog attacks

Circle unit document
A memento from your friend
What was never meant
What will never end

Sore around the edge
Thrown into neutral
Flung from the ledge
Landing somewhat brutal

Timid quiet slacking
Discussion and display
Open book backing
Too high a price to pay

Source material
Found footage
Raised aerial
Maximum wattage

Tungsten kodachrome
Glazed beloved forlorn
Connection left alone
Lessons hard worn

Spring washer hex nut
Everything essential
Missing the cut
Wildly experimental

Existential
Torrential
Parental
Temperamental

Vast expanse
Desert plain
River banks
Wind vane

Delivery options
Decoded threats
Sold at auction
Paid on death

Salad days
Rocky outcrops
Purple haze
Vacant lots

Subterranean tunnels
Burst pipes and a leaky roof
Endowment funds funnelled
Critical paths acting aloof

Resident evil
Sign of the times
Split level
Half-remembered nursery rhymes

Innovations lost to the cause
Washed up on foreign soil
Time to stop or at least to pause
Let the blood thicken before it boils

September surrounding environment
High on possibility
Just another early retirement
Deafening implausibility

Composed development
Arrested as usual
All round envelopment
Keeping it casual

Colourful and complimentary
Found one week later
The basics are elementary
Exploded volcanic crater

Limited liability
Sold to the highest bidder
Another complete inability
Screams a suitable good riddance

Umbrellas kiosks distant bays
Furniture in neat piles
What does not go simply stays
Catalogued in files

Black abstraction
Yves Klein blues
Four wheels losing traction
We don’t get to choose

A dour exercise
States of waking
Markets bafflement lies
Sick of waiting

Power accuracy attribution
Pay it forward
Tarnished reputation
One for all, all aboard

High winds and intense heat
Impoverished approach
Incredible feat
Hostage beyond reproach

Left hand side
Controlled burning again
Switch sworn total pride
That which has no name

Frank discussions, ammunition
A horseshoe panorama
A wasted expedition
Tragic comedy drama
Track Name: Visitation Rights
Visitation Rights

They came for me
They’ll come for you

They visit in the night
Hazy recollections
They come down from above
Making their inspections

Grey grey grey
White light in my eyes
Soft soft shadow
Where my body lies

The faintest memory
Barely even there
Almost like
They were never here

Other realms
And outer spaces
Return again
From unknown places

Not for the first time
Back where I began
Not for the last time
Part of the masterplan
Track Name: Undertaken
Undertaken

Squirming with the worms
Returned to the earth
Down in the hole
Dust to dust
Back where you belong
Left to rust

Get back in the box!
Get back in the box!

Piled on top
Left to rot
A simple marker
Shape of a cross
Quickly forgotten
Nobody’s loss

Get back in the box!
Get back in the box!

Digging deep
Digging deep
Digging deep
Dig deeper
Track Name: An Accident
An Accident

Everyone agreed it was an accident
But nobody really knew what happened
Weren’t too many people around
Witnesses were thin on the ground
Even looking back on events
There was a general sense
That none of it was every meant
To have ever gone down the way it did
Inquests and enquiries
The endless questions were tiring
Answers weren’t exactly thick and fast
The wider interest couldn’t last
Just ride it out was what they thought
A temporary trap not quite caught
There’s a way out if they bide their time
If there is no weapon then there is no crime
Just an unfortunate accident
Maybe we’ll never know what really happened

But we’ve come too far
Down this blind track
Yeah it’s too late
Now we can’t turn back

Everyone agreed it was an accident
But nobody really knew what happened
Every answer slightly varied
Obscured the truth if not buried
The lookout briefly looked away
Erased recordings had nothing to say
Various people proving unreliable
Other avenues were just not viable
None of the facts reconciled
Enough at least to stand up on trial
So a little more time went by
And sleeping dogs were left to lie
This largely forgotten moment
Something to be left unspoken
Just an unfortunate accident
Maybe we’ll never know what happened
No official punishments or restitution
We don’t need a sanction for retribution
Track Name: Weakness Was Always Your Strength
Weakness Was Always Your Strength

I just want my bubblegum pop
I just need to finally stop

I just want a baritone
I just need some time alone

I just want to sing my song
I just need to scream along

There was never really any question
Never really any doubt
You’d decided, you told me
And fuck it, we all wanted out

Trapped, in our ways
Frozen, in our tracks
One foot in front of the other
Even as we came scuttling back

It’s not easy
But it is easier if you just admit to it
Own up to the truth
Stick your chin out and take the hit

A little place to call your own
Out in the middle of nowhere
Bunkered down all alone
Holding back all you fear

Resistance is not impossible
But weakness was always your strength
Even as you told me otherwise
Over and over at such great length

It was always hollow
These claims never rang true
Everytime we talked
I could see right through you

If you like the transcendents, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring an interview with ethereal jazz and folk artist Annabel (Lee)

 listen now