Recorded over the better part of a decade while searching for the perfect players, "Cables To String" features a heart-wrenching performance by guest vocalist Isobel Knight over a tour-de-force of haunting piano, swirling strings, and a blistering rhythm section. The track also features guest performances by Bryan Garbe (Oak & Ash) on drums and Ward Williams (Jump, Little Children) on cello. Appropriate to the journey described in its lyrics, the track's creation tells its own tale of chance encounters now etched in audio permanence.
Mixed by Anthony "Rocky" Gallo (Cigarettes After Sex, John Legend) and engineered by Bob Mallory (Kings Of Leon, Bruno Mars) & Nathan Rosenberg (Poe), "Cables To String" plays like a road trip through the exhilarating highs and debilitating lows of love. The instrumentation lands somewhere between the worlds of Bowie's Hunky Dory and Fiona Apple's When The Pawn..., while the lyrics touch on the gravity of the past and its sway on the future. Isobel Knight's unwavering delivery rides the orchestral ebb and flow.
lyrics
LYRICS:
It never fails to amaze me
As you're turning my cables to string
Distance fragmented and awkward
As we roll towards
Where we're going
Can we dance with the phantoms?
Or with each other?
Ride the momentum
It's not where we're going
It's where we've been
Where we're going
I thin, bend, and snap
Brittle branch, when my leaves lack
Your whims are my landslides
Can you perceive that
Where we're going
You'll push this aside with my
Dignity fenced off from truth
On the passenger side and it crosses my mind
That it's not where we're going
It's where we've been
Where we're going
My core is cable, steel
Keeping us safe, you can look, feel
Tested with a touch, a gaze, a moment, I reel
Into string, I'm lost and you're cutting
Hanged by my heartstrings now
The first of the failures still reaps its rewards
Waits with retractable arms
As if I'll discover the long lost cause
Where we're going
I'll play the fool, not the lover
As New York recovers
It's not where we're going
It's where we've been
Where we're going
I am not a secret
You can speak my name
A carousel of premonition
Tempers the sting
Cables to string
Remove from me the soft loose threads
Where we’re going
Hope is the deadliest symptom I've ever known
A fever of passion
Burning my entire ration before the ride home
It's not where we're going
It's where we've been
Where we're going
credits
released September 24, 2021
Isobel Knight (vocals)
Steven Kaiser (piano, guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals)
Bryan Garbe (drums)
David A. Palatsi (bass)
Ward Williams (cello)
David Fallo (viola)
Joel Lambdin (violin)
Earl Maneein (violin)
PRODUCED by Steven Kaiser
MIXED by Anthony "Rocky" Gallo
ENGINEERED by Bob Mallory, Nathan Rosenberg, and Steven Kaiser
ASSISTANT ENGINEERED by Dylan Herman
MASTERED by Dave McNair
COVER ART by David A. Palatsi
Recorded at Mission Sound, The Doghouse, and Sandbox Studios in Brooklyn, NY
Steeped in equal parts rock, alternative, and post-everything, then stirred with orchestral ambitions and sweetened with noise, CHC likes to do as they please in an attempt to pay homage to the legacy of great songwriting.
As with the other two EPs in this series, this latest chapter is a brilliant exploration of different sonic spheres by Ayse Hassan of Savages and Kite Base. Children Having Children
Jay Clifford is one of the greatest living songwriters and a masterful singer. Best known as frontman for the brilliant Jump, Little Children, this 2nd solo album has his genius on full display. Children Having Children
A gorgeous instrumental record from the brilliant mind of Bob Boilen. Great as ambient music but filled with beautiful melodies and shifting textures for focused listening, which I highly suggest. Children Having Children
Keeley Forsyth, on The Leaf Label, writes spectral, pulsing songs that swaddle her mournful alto in mist-like synths. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 2, 2019