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That Was Propaganda

by Kurt Rongey

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1.
For acid lifeline works the straight and marrow filled in barricade of torrents warm in every line of mine presuming this is not a drill We will navigate our ways around the buildings that our fathers found An entourage of sliding walls She calls aloud to them and lays the wreath beneath Rough skin Telling it like a blasting furnace Crying for her We were In this wide world You are the hate untied You are the grave inside End this cold world Running again We're standing alone Looking outside ourselves In this dead light Wandering, we're afraid Wondering why we stayed In this hard night Tie us together All into one Make us forget ourselves Rough skin Telling it like a blasting furnace Crying for her We were
2.
Hand high flag low Swollen ground If you know why the world turns round gravity fails us now Show us new way Harder day I have a friend who does not know me. Long life Tired eyes. My friend: enemy. Hold my head in your hands hell to open. Tearing every nerve apart Our cracking hands have drawn the chart We drive the ladder deep into the ground Laughing as the tallest trees fall down. We stack them up. We set the flame. We plunder all that fueled their fame. The stories we were told unfold around our heads and we're defenseless.
3.
Instrumental.
4.
With shackles on the frozen waste I give myself another taste of Love that comes from deep within the mind I ask you all to leave the past behind. A refuge in the world within O let the river here begin The falling shards of hate begone And perish all the words that still destroy.
5.
Some things should not be expressed in words and music Like the anger after the fact Stories that I sometimes tell to myself That you were mine and I was yours and we had saved our souls The thought I banish And I hate myself for being wrong and being selfless. Like the silence inside my head After I questioned why And you're always around And contact is closer than flesh to flesh cold caress that still hurts me. Like the hatred you could not stop. Still hanging on to self-denial Taking every blow Compassion that could kill All they could do with words and notes was beat you senseless. Some things should not be expressed in words and music. Like the things we say we want back Fool am I. How can I part with myself?
6.
In The Know 02:56
Instrumental
7.
Valutnaya 10:03
Marked with cruelty Throwing flares To cars and carnivorous men Empty bottle Open context There's nothing left to defend Lurid as the purest drug Arrayed and racing Flock of worry Grinning angel Walk of fury Smiling angel Shades of eros Naked aching Body shaking Shoulders arch And money is the cure I am your guide Come with me Ride with me Nothing can change my way Gravity serves me. Racing illness Sheltered in a maze of perpetual love Wordless passion Hope and glory All she can give is enough Looking close at living color Border guards are Braving rapids Grazing sheep And giving to the smiling angel Shades of Eros Naked aching Body shaking They have never seen a drug so pure Whore. You were with me Black curtains fell away You were here By my side While we watched Hoping Fragment Give me a chance Searching my deepest, darkest secret place Can a puzzle solve itself? My old self Dragging me back to the time when I lost you Missing piece I cannot find Maze of motion Fault is open Finding the medicine man Walking causeless Just like home She climbs in as far as she can Slipping slow and sleeping through the steepest stillness Lying here the deep depression calmly shakes us Sleeping in a scathing sleep While chiming choppers Ringing butchers Listen calmly Nothing is for sure She is lifted while she lies In pleasure Dreaming of Dreaming of Dreaming of Sleeping
8.
Palach 04:05
Instrumental.
9.
Kira 09:57
Night that pales me This cold is mine When I dreamed of That wondrous line Brave as heroes I wrote this tale Gate that opens When I see you Gate that opens Inside myself Opened wide The lasting smile I feel them Shining life That lasts beyond I'm holding tight I scream at dead light Hear me.
10.
Microbe We're each a microbe And when we come together When I tie myself to you And you and you And every single one of you Everybody knows what we are And everybody knows the cure Flames outside my frigid cradle Slow, quiet long strokes Bathing me in carnal hate Sliding walls Circling around each other Stepping to sides An ocean of singing The questioning song we don't often hear Mother's overhead with A gun. Mine. I can kill myself without touching And I can join hand in hand with you again And kill myself without touching. Mine. A gun.
11.
Instrumental.
12.
Desperation 07:01
Golden land Our crate of orphans Separated from the past Sailing by the beast of anguish Passion tied us to the mast Walls that slide Around us quickly Grabbing on to all we've got Finding out it comes to nothing Empty hands and overwrought Bankrupt, Faltering Every tree cut to the ground Whitewashed credo Wishing we could hear the sound Blind, deaf, crawling Faith brought this to us Floating weightless Tethered to the iron barracks Mortals all we cannot fail Holding close our barren mother God below we shrink and pale All we learned to live and fight for Humbly gave it all away Stripped ourselves of all we cherished Wrote this heartless passion play. Grasping hammerhand Fleeting in the limelit sky Crazed and desperate Fast the moment passes by Waiting inside We ponder our silence We rest on our silence Killed by our silence. Whitewashed credo In this dead light Please call for me.
13.
Y-Clad 03:53
I don't fall Fragrant in the sieve A plaster group of tidings Wide and narrow Building above the salty plain And home is plowing deep Lover Lock the door And show the way to the sea astir in us Create my god Nail him to my heart I sway with anxiety Shake away the hate
14.
Poem 03:37
Instrumental.

about

That Was Propaganda was conceived while I was in London in August 1991. At the time, there was a coup going on in Russia. The first notes of the first track were inspired a little later when news came across of the decision to change the name of the historical old city from the oppressive "Leningrad" back to the historical "St. Petersburg." This deliberate change of identity seemed like a rebirth.

Serfdom didn't serve old Russia well. But the aftermath of the 1917 revolution brought the people of its rich and spiritual land to an even lower, communal depth of despair. Uniting for a common cause should not be confused with surrendering one's will and identity to a collective. This is the subject of That Was Propaganda.

That Was Propaganda owes a great deal of whatever musical power it has to Bill Pohl. He contributed an enormous amount of time, energy and gear during the first recordings and re-recordings. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his seemingly inexhaustible patience, for his belief in the message and the music, and of course for his incredibly expressive guitar playing.

The recording of the first version of That Was Propaganda took place during 1991 and 1992. Most of the arrangements were realized with a Kurzweil K2000 keyboard, sequenced with Voyetra's Sequencer Plus Gold. Yamaha SY22 is featured more prominently in "Valutnaya" and especially "Kira." "Leningrad" uses a Roland JX8P (the main keyboard used on my previous album Book in Hand) and Alesis HR-16B drum machine . When the album was finished in 1992, I spent a great deal of time mixing and mastering the recordings, but the mix remained stubbornly unacceptable after several tries. In 1993, I essentially gave up on the project as I was financially unable to gain access to a good studio where I could finish the mixing work. Eventually, digital editing software and hardware made it possible to clean up the worst EQ problems of the original recordings. In addition, , as I found time between other projects, part of "St. Petersburg" and the entire "Valutnaya" were rerecorded.

First released on CD May 10, 2000 by Mellow Records.

"It's easily one of the best progressive releases of the year, maybe of all time. No kidding... If you like complex symphonic keyboard work, I think you'll agree with me that this is the greatest." - Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock.

"Ultimately recommended to every profound music lover, particularly to those considering the most complex manifestations of symphonic Art-Rock and both classical and avant-garde forms of Academic music." - ProgressoR

""...an exceptional album in every way. Rongey has produced a masterpiece, terribly complex, totally demanding... The rare combination of creative genius and technical expertise finds full expression here." - Mitkadem

credits

released May 10, 2000

Kurt Rongey: vocals, keyboards, drum programming.
Bill Pohl: guitars.
All music and lyrics by Kurt Rongey except "The
Interrogation" (Pohl/Rongey)
Produced and engineered by Kurt Rongey.

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