These Altered States And Altered Bodies Are Telegenic Holy Relics

I'm still trying to take in the fact that Cathal Coughlan has passed. Last week's sad news was a real shock, which reverberated across many of the music blogs that I follow. I posted a celebration of Cathal's music as The Fatima Mansions but, as is often the case in times of loss, it also provided the impetus to finally catch up with his subsequent work.

I'll focus a future post on Cathal Coughlan's last solo album, Song Of Co-Aklan, and companion E.P. Of Co-Aklan, the latter released less than a week before his death on 18th May 2022.

Today is all about Telefís, Cathal's electronic/dance project with producer Jacknife Lee. Of course, being Cathal Coughlan, you inevitably also get the biting satire and acerbic lyrics. I ended up buying the complete Telefís discography available on Bandcamp, including the album a hAon and the Archbishop Beardmouth At The ChemOlympics EP, both released in March this year.

 

Cathal is no stranger to juxtaposing hard-hitting narratives with dancefloor-friendly rhythms, as remixes of The Fatima Mansions' Blues For Ceausescu, The Loyaliser and Nite Flights will attest.

 

Cathal Coughlan and Garret Lee were apparently working on new Telefís songs prior to Cathal's passing and I hope that there is sufficient material that may make it's way into the world in the future. For now, I'd highly recommend the album and EP releases, including a trio of reworkings of Falun Gong Dancer featuring the mighty Jah Wobble.

Today's selection spotlights Archbishop Beardmouth At The ChemOlympics, both in it's original album form and as remixed/versioned by Thomas Leer. 

 

Cathal held his promise to Keep Music Evil right to the end. 

 

 

Archbishop Beardmouth At The ChemOlympics (Album Version): Telefís (2022)

Archbishop Beardmouth At The ChemOlympics (Thomas Leer Version): Telefís (2022)

 

We used to be
And we believed
It's plain to see
Toxicology

 

From the devotional freakout
of Archbishop Beardmouth:
ChemOlympics! ChemOlympics!
Don't call it chemo
These toxins are for fun!
These altered states and altered bodies are telegenic holy relics

 

We used to be
And we believed
It's plain to see
Toxicology

 

The common sense
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
Raped by events
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
Back in your trench
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
The games won't relent, won't relent

 

Culvert, truck-bonnet, crazed mob, crowbars -
We're not going out like poor Muammar
Gollies next to eagles next to crosses
on the aprons of the ungiven tosses

 

We used to be
And we believed
It's plain to see
Toxicology

 

The medals gleam
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
The nostrils steam
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
COPD
(doesn't matter, doesn't matter)
Google, Pepsi, epilepsy!

 

...Doesn't matter, doesn't matter.