Perpetual Emotion Machine
from The Unforetold
2009
Stop / Time was my attempt to do something that sounded like Oliver Lieb. I considered it unfinished when I put it on The Unforetold, but at the time I couldn’t figure out where else to go with it.
It begins with some found sounds of a mall which loop detectably. Bowed string sounds fade in and gradually a tech-trance vibe sets in. It all culminates in an epic chord progression with a choral pad that I just love. Where it ends, I intended to phase into another song with the same energy but instead it just fades out.
The feel of the song was to reflect feelings of anxiety I was feeling about how things were not as they once were — things were changing too fast. I was getting older. I wanted things back the way they were. This theme was later recaptured in a different way when I retooled the song for the as yet unfinished album, The Worry Box.
After the sudden death of my girlfriend in 2014 I wrote many poems, and one was called If. At some point in 2014 I incorporated the poem into Stop / Time within the major chord progression, remixing it and adding additional elements at the end to accommodate the lyrics. I also added a vocal part where I am providing my own background vocals in three-part harmony. I re-titled it Threshold / If. It was intended to be (or will be) a two track suite on the album, if I ever get it finished.
Stop/Time
Perpetual Emotion Machine
Threshold/If
Perpetual Emotion Machine
This is a new version of the above, with an extended ending which includes lyrics to a new song called If. Unreleased,
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2010 Key.
If (pre-Release Version)
Key
With the intention of including If in some form on the Candor album, this was a brief sketch created and uploaded to my Bandcamp profile as a free track in March of 2023.
https://musicbykey.bandcamp.com/track/if-pre-release-version
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2023 Key.