*Electronic rock. Sounds like* **_IAMX_** *and* **_Depeche Mode_** This is much better than it’s ever been before Much more real More rich More speed More more I feel like I could go forever and it only hurts when I stop This is much…

*Electronic rock* I've been reading so much information About my situation A chemical mix that I must fix I think it's magnesium Pills three times a day I changed the food that I ate Re-uptake takes time I'm sure I'll be fine I can…

*Electronic rock with jungle/drum-and-bass influence* I've never really felt that I was ever good enough But even I can be improved if I just stay tough My teeth are metal reinforced My eyes are plastic lens And daemons run inside my head…

I (Al) wrote this song way back, just before the start of the current Iraq war. But it comes back to my mind every time a politician utters words matching a regex something like /(capture and )?kill (Osama )?Bin Laden/. It happened to be Obama…

through the dead branches, through the dead branches

Started recording this with no idea what to do with the sound. Wound up with three different vocal takes to choose from, didn't like any of them, used all of them.

This song was recorded illegally. Please don't rat us out.

I lit a string on fire...

I'm going to get all pretentious again and say this one is about the concerning strain of what I might call "religious modernist traditionalism" espoused by technological singularity fanatics (Ray Kurzweil) and authors like Neil Stephenson.

Words are from a sestina of the same title by Steve Davenport, who asked us to make music out of it! This was a terribly fun song to record. We did it, of course, while drinking. Thankfully no instruments were harmed.

Good old dulcimer bash-up. This is certainly the most aggressive song I've played on dulcimer. I'm sure all those people with solid-body electric dulcimers have done worse...

Original working title was something like, "And after six years I finally understood why they sing in the streets here, and could go home." It's sort of about anonymity in the modern city. If that sounds pretentious, that's because it is.

I am concerned with the values of my generation.

Musical tribute to the ideas of Jane Jacobs (author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities) and Christopher Alexander (author of The Timeless Way of Building).

This track is the introduction to the main bulk of the album. It says "WELCOME TO RPM '09" and doesn't let you go until you've gotten to "Dancing With The Midnight Waves", the penultimate track.

A bit less percussion and a bit more rhythm was the idea for this. I say that, but the track had a fully formed drum track alongside it until right at the last when I discarded it in a fit of creative temperament.

I'd be lying if I said this entire track wasn't sparked by the opening audio clip. It really made me think about the ways some people create their own enjoyment. Cool.

One of my darker tracks. This tracks epitomises how RPM felt for me; A progressive struggle where I just got my head down and got stuck in with the thing. In a phrase, this track says to me "Just fucking get on with it."

I would make the 70's sound more like this.

There are too many amazing quotes from this film to not sample them SOMEWHERE in my album. Time after time, the 'yo-yo master' line got me laughing, so I thought I'd pay homage to it.