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The Signal and the Noise

by Andrew Paul Regan

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Joe Krawec
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Joe Krawec You know that rising panic you feel? The nagging, empty feeling inside that wakes you in the early hours? That's your brain saying you need this album. And once you listen to it, the words and music will fit into your mind like the pieces of a puzzle you didn't realise were missing in the first place. Spooky. Favorite track: Mistakes Our Parents Made.
Alex Ingram
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Alex Ingram Andrew's most accomplished songwriting ever. Favorite track: Mistakes Our Parents Made.
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    Get all 4 Andrew Paul Regan releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dinas Powys EP, Dinas Powys, The Signal and the Noise, and Ah, The Digital Nonsense!. , and , .

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1.
To our island in the sun Came a saviour named John Frum Told us of the things we’d lacked Promised one day to come back And now we’re faking runways Bamboo aeroplanes Praying to the silence Hoping for reply while The world is moving on And we believe in John There must be something not quite right How we loathe the simple life We demand consumer goods We demand convenience foods Preserving the old ways Come back aeroplanes Taking to the sky and Leaving us behind while The world is moving on Still we believe in John We’ve got a wood hut air traffic control Coconut headphones We can’t understand Why nothing ever lands What do we have to do to make you come back? We believe in John
2.
I bet you’re one of those folks who believe That I should never have murdered Charley Murder? I call it destruction of property I remember the way that it first came to pass The machine that they claimed could kick anyone’s ass That is Within the confines of a checkerboard As checker champion of west-Boltonia county It fell to me to take on the machine My first taste Of my built-in obsolescence Charley, you’re never going to get married There’ll never be kids who need a reason to look up to you And you can’t know love And you can’t know God And cos you always win You can never know loss Because yr just a machine Just wires and cogs and Every signal gets processed But yr soul don’t speak Once there was ticker tape and parades Bank holidays held in my name But now It’s just me and my cell in the county jail I wonder, what do we really achieve? Building the engines of our own defeat What’s to say Their next victory won’t be on the battlefield? Maybe one day in the future we’ll see Mankind will be merged with machines If that’s true What will become of babies? (itty bitty babies) Charley, you’re never... etc.
3.
[Victor Jr.] I’ve been looking at the Facebook page Of the girl who doesn’t know she’s my sister Slightly stalking her on FourSquare Contrived to bump into her somewhere I started off with a game “I bet I can guess your name” And she looked scared when I got it right first time I said “It’s not what you think, but can I buy a drink? I promise I’m not the murdering kind...” [Molly Jr.] Give me a moment to adjust to the change To a world in which I now have a brother. Before you shanghai me to be your shrink I think you owe me another drink... [Victor Jr.] My mum says I have his eyes I think she’s trying to be nice But I feel like she’s cursing my future [Molly Jr.] You think because you’re his kid You’ll mess up just like he did? Or are you trying to store up excuses? [Victor Jr.] I can’t know who I am from half a history Am I worth the amount my father paid? My life began at conception in an alleyway I am just a mistake my parents made. [Molly Jr.] If self-pity was a currency I’d make you buy drinks for everyone in here [Victor Jr.] This isn’t how I meant this talk to go There’s just so many things I want to know And I was hoping perhaps That you could fill in the gaps? [Molly Jr.] What makes you think that I’ll have all the answers? Victor got some things wrong But so does everyone I wasn’t old enough to even remember I’m the daughter of a ‘disgraced local dignitary’ Maybe you should be grateful for your blank slate? Try living life with gossip for your history In the shadow of a mistake your parents made [Victor Jr.] In the end I think my mother chose To seek a simple life over perfection You can end up losing all your hair Trying to make every last thing fair [Molly Jr.] Your mum says you have his eyes I think she’s probably right At least as far as I can tell from the pictures But even if that is true It would still be up to you To decide that your life will be different [Both] Our births were an announcement Not a prophecy We are more than just strands of DNA You cannot write a life story In only A C G and T We are not the mistakes our parents made
4.
Why does it start raining every time I step outside? (let’s ask the omniscient narrator) Why won’t I be prime minister no matter how hard I try? (let’s ask the omniscient narrator) Who has the authority to hand out opportunities To live the greatest story ever told? Who introduces elements for character development As our lives unfold? When I was young I had the voice of an angel (Andy, you’re still young...) Oh, backing vocals you’re too kind But this is just another chapter in the story of my life I want to choose my own adventure Cling to the illusion of free will Not have the whims of the Prime Mover Dictate plot-holes, twists and the Big Reveal To feel as though we’re in control we put our lives online (shouting into the echo chamber) The videos that we upload may exceed recorded time (of that there’s not really any danger) Now every single voice is both the signal and the noise And the cacophony is louder every day Grating on the ears of the omniscient narrator Driving him insane [I think I’m having a mid-life crisis] (oooh) He thinks he’s having a mid-life crisis The Omniscient Narrator is having a mid life crisis Every single voice is both the signal and the noise And from the chaos the cacophony is born We all line up to take the place of the omniscient narrator Now that he is gone We’re all omniscient narrators now
5.
Life should not become a monologue Waiting for your turn to speak I’m tired of searching for a strategy To make the weekend worth the week Can you teach me how to take the easy road? Teach me how to take the easy road Tale gets longer the more it’s told Teach me how to take the easy road If you go searching for enemies You’ll find one every place you look Remember who it is you need to fight As she storms out of the room Teach me how to take...
6.
Spy Numbers 05:11
I was just a girl Raised inside a cave Tiny was my world Before the strangers came In an unfamiliar accent They told me what to say To ‘study voices’ They’d travelled all this way To a village on a hillside Where my family and I Kept cattle and horses And pondered the impossible horizon The distant lights The potential They brought equipment Of a kind we’d never seen Bright lights and moving parts Sound recording machines “Read the numbers “Speak into the tape “Say some words you don’t understand “And this is what we’ll pay...” More money in a suitcase Than we’d ever seen in our lives So we saddled up the horses And headed towards the horizon The distant lights The potential.... Well could I love a city As a simple country girl Watch it all unfold Make my mark on the world? The suitcase money Was put aside for me Fulfil my father’s dreams Go to university To a red-brick institution Where I learned (amongst other things) That my mother’s home cooking Was sub-par and somewhat naive I broadened my horizons Fulfilled my potential When I went back to the village Nothing there had changed No one recognised me Until I said my name The familiar landscape Was no longer my home Lights on the horizon Not so distant any more And so I thought about careers And when it came time to decide An intelligence recruiter Persuaded me to fight the good fight Against the enemy Against the cacophony The cacophony
7.
One Time Pad 02:22
After the enemy Took my family The DG sent me To infiltrate their territory “You must acquire Their one time pad Avenge what they did To your mum and dad.” To defeat your enemy You must know your enemy To know your enemy You must think like your enemy If you think like your enemy You must feel no empathy The messages that I decode Come to me in a voice I used to know Then we will gorge On information Tune into The numbers stations Listening out For that one signal If all else fails We tilt at windmills To defeat your enemy You must know your enemy To know your enemy You must think like your enemy If you think like your enemy You become your enemy The messages I intercept Come to me in a voice from way back when
8.
It takes an amount of time Greater than a long time Shorter than no time at all To make a soul Babies! Babies! A lifetime is too short to figure out What life on earth is supposed to be about But I sure think you’ll enjoy being around Could your tiny voice drown out the cacophony?
9.
The people in the future are digging They found a planet under all of the cities Our grandchildren won’t reach the stars Until we get a grip on where we are And the present’s just another beginning Try adjusting to the world that you live in Those faces have always been there And I don’t think they’re going anywhere There is no arbitrary date When things began to change The world has never been the place You wish that it could be again The past is just a war that we’re winning On what the world was like before we were in it The innocence and what it masked The good old days aren’t coming back 
There is no arbitrary date....
10.
In Potential 07:05
The consensus is all things from the good lord do flow When you sing to your plants don’t get drowned out by your foes You can make a pyramid seem impossible If you want for information Where else could we call home except the goldilocks zone? The buildings you see just don’t raise from the ground on their own All the things our species fails to achieve We make up for In potential It’s not unreasonable to have your doubts We built a country on barren ground And where there’s a hearth there’s a home And there’s babies Always babies If we weren’t here at all the universe wouldn’t be small Or enormous Old or young or Overrated If we had never been Would the universe be seen Or be rocks floating forever From indifference To indifference No potential....

credits

released June 4, 2012

written/played/recorded by Andrew Paul Regan
mixed and mastered by Oli Horton

special guests: Liz Hunt, David Madoc Roberts, Eleanor Tyrrell.

For Ada, Mostyn, and Bill.

© 2012 Andrew Paul Regan

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Andrew Paul Regan Wales, UK

Formerly known as Pagan Wanderer Lu, Andrew Paul Regan is a songwriter from South Wales who owns a computer.

His new work under his own name continues the tradition of witty, wise songwriting, catchy tunes and playful experimentation.

New album 'Dinas Powys' released 21/11/2013

See also: paganwandererlu.bandcamp.com
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