Like A Bird In A Garage

“Holding Your Hand” opens on a chilled soft-pop summer mood as a live band lays down a smooth and slightly funky instrumental groove. Soon a female vocalist steps to the mic. Amid a breezy scene of vaporwave synths and yacht rock vibes, she delivers a cool and dreamy meditation on the simple things in life

Holding Your Hand

“Secreta” — Latin for “secret” or “secrets” — takes its name and text from a lesser-known part of the traditional Roman Catholic Mass: a quiet prayer, spoken in a low voice by the priest at the end of the Offertory. On this album, the prayer becomes something more personal and disquieting — a whispered plea for one's enemies, delivered from a soul suspended between forgiveness and fragmentation.

Set to a short liturgical text drawn from the Roman Missal, the piece explores the spiritual paradox of wishing well upon those who have wounded us. That fragile state — where faith confronts betrayal — is captured in the song’s shifting musical language. An eerie orchestral introduction sets the tone, enveloping the listener in unease, before giving way to rhythms that echo the rhythmical asymmetry of Balkan dances. The unconventional time signature distorts any sense of calm, as if the soul itself is reeling.

“Secreta“ is both prayer and disorientation — a sacred ritual filtered through the lens of human vulnerability.

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SECRETA

Oblatis, quaesumus, Domine, placare muneribus: 
et nos ab inimicis nostris clementer eripe.

(We beg You, O Lord, be appeased by these sacrificial offerings: 
and mercifully snatch us away from our enemies.)

Horror Sacri

Secreta

Here we go again.
There are dark days in England.
The lady at the bus stops off her head.
Least that's what she said.
No rest for the wicked.

Ah! here we go.
With the painted flags of England.
The devil that is screaming in her brain.
She was never the same.
Needed a merger.

One for the live.
One for the sanity.
Into the crowd.
Into the slaughter house.
One for the road.
One more to take away.
In the fun house. 
Where you are blown away.

Dark days, they're stealing them from you.
Dark days, you'll never make it through.
Dark days, you can not get away.
Dark days, we're falling in the rain...

Let's have a drink.
There's nothing to look up to.
You can not save enough for rainy days.
No route of escape.
A fog of returning...

The lips are calming down.
Whilst the tattoos multiplying.
There's money to be spent here in the hay.
What for I can't say.
A sense of belonging?

The crowd are going wild.
The crowd are consuming.
The crowd are all so normal and so safe.
I feel out of place.
I do not belong here.

Regardless of love,
Regardless of empathy.
Godless and lithe.
Godly with vanity.
Regardless of time.
Regardless of anything.
Godless with pain.
God, will you let us be.

Dark days, they're stealing them from you.
Dark days, you'll never make it through.
Dark days, you can not get away.
Dark days, we're falling in the rain...
 

Dark Days

Welcome to Toyah 4 - continuing our deep dive into the world of Toyah Willcox. Including the early albums with her band Toyah, and her subsequent solo career, along with selected tracks from Toyah And The Humans, and some previously unreleased material. 

Outrageous Intro 
Dance In The Hurricane
Monkeys
These Boots Are Made For Walking (Toyah & The Humans) 
Our Movie
The Packt
Desire
Moonlight Dancing
Kill The Rage 
Pop Star 
Requite Me (Demo) 
Come 
Love Is The Law 
Roses In Chains
Vale Of Evesham
Computer
21st Century Schizoid Man (Toyah & The Humans) 
To The Mountains High
The Druids
Love Me 
Last Goodbye
Lion Of Symmetry (with Tony Banks) 
Sphinx
Who Let The Beast Out 
Love Crazy
Race Through Space 
Legacy 
Prostitute
She
Now And Then 
We Are 
Angel & Me 
Don't Fall In Love (I Said) 
I Want To Be Free
Outrageous Outro

Toyah 4

Amsterdam – Studio Session
Sophie’s voice carries the weight of this song in a raw and intimate studio performance.
This take captures a darker, more layered side of Amsterdam, while the Unplugged Session let her vocals stand fragile and exposed.

Discover the contrast between the two:
👉 Amsterdam (Unplugged) – YouTube 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUeHLDa484

Two faces of the same song, Sophie’s voice at its most vulnerable, and at its most intense.

Produced by EileenNoise
Vocals Sophie

[Verse]
I board the night with a heavy stare
A one-way ticket to the misty air
The city's calling
Its whispers low
Through shadowed alleys
Where secrets grow

[Chorus]
Amsterdam
Your ghosts ignite
Beneath the bridges
A velvet night
The canals shimmer
A haunting tune
Under the watch of a blood-red moon

[Verse 2]
Cobblestones echo with tales untold
A foggy shroud
A story bold
Lanterns flicker
The past alive
In this dark dance
Shadows thrive

[Bridge]
The wind it howls
It sings my name
A foreign rhythm
A wicked game
I lose myself in your ancient haze
Through endless nights
Through twisted maze

[Chorus]
Amsterdam
Your ghosts ignite
Beneath the bridges
A velvet night
The canals shimmer
A haunting tune
Under the watch of a blood-red moon

[Verse 3]
I feel the pulse of your hidden core
A labyrinth heart I can't ignore
Through every turn
Your spirit feeds
On the dreams of those it needs

Amsterdam (Studio session Sophie vocals)

[Verse 1]
Silent spark

[Verse 2]
Through veiled corridors winds arise

[Verse 3]
Flowing threads of light and shadow twist,
Guiding hidden forces along secreted paths

[Verse 4]
Circles within circles turning,
Every layer hums with unseen energy,
Patterns rise and fold,
Currents weaving spirals through the ether of the mind

[Chorus]
Harmonic tides entwine the soul

[Chorus]
Every motion a secret spiraling,
Shaping, folding, lifting, weaving,
Standing waves align with inner pulses, in cymatic frame

[Verse 5]
Low pulse

[Verse 6]
Silent arcs bend the hidden light

[Verse 7]
Veins of energy fold and twist,
Guided by subtle forces beyond vision or grasp

[Verse 8]
Spirals echo through hidden halls,
Currents rise and fold in patterns unbroken,
Each node hums with secret resonance,
Flowing cycles trace infinity within

[Chorus Repeat]
Harmonic tides entwine the soul

[Chorus Repeat]
Every motion a secret spiraling,
Shaping, folding, lifting, weaving,
Standing waves align with inner pulses in cymatic frame

Celestial Spirals

escapade

Welcome to the first half of the opening episodes of our Spring 2025 series - Blossoming Springtime 1A - featuring an eclectic mix of genres and sounds. 

Outrageous Intro
Tension (Live) / Kylie 
Dance For Mercy (Vince Clarke mix) / Andy Bell
Lessons In Love / Just Shy
Shiber / Egoo
Clear The Lens / Cinnamon Sun
Lost Circuit / The Safety Word 
Dreamswell, Dusted Rose, Paper Sun / Antarctic Wastelands & Be Still The Earth
Venturer, Outer Sphere / Arcane Trickster
Need You Now / Scott Candlish
Moon And Back / Harrison Storm
Spring Fever / Joshua Batten
Kings Of Romance, Circle Of Glass, Blackstar / Eric Lavien
Have I Told You, Like Us / Kevin Olusola 
Human / Messer 
Glamorous, Diamond In The Dark, Dolce Vita / Sophie Ellis Bextor 
Outrageous Outro 

Blossoming Springtime 1A

This is a reworking of a older folk song of mine as rock and roll.  I think it works better like this.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Looked mighty fine, couldn't help but see
How bout that? she's looking back at me
Ignorant, lonely, I was all of that stuff
She smiled at me, that was enough
We gave it time, we had some fun
Decided she should be my only one
Screwed up my nerve, decided to ask her
Knew that we'd be happy         ever after

Chorus:
I couldn't have been more mistaken
I was travelling a road I never should have taken
it's my own damn fault that my heart is breaking
I'm Never going to do it again

Verse 2:
Fake it 'till you make it, they said to me
Never pass up an opportunity
The point of the process is how much you can make
It's a zero sum game a little give a lot of take
Get a lot of money then make a little more
After all it's only a way of keepin' score
Gonna find  my happiness in wealth and fame
Going figure out the rules of the game

Chorus:
I couldn't have been more mistaken
I was travelling a road I never should have taken
I see what I did and my confidence is shaken
I'm Never going to do it again

Bridge:
Mistakes are made
Life's like that
but mostly we recover 
we find our way back
But you never know
if one day or another
we'll screw up so bad 
we never recover

Verse 4:
Uncovered this stuff, burned real good
Used it to power anything we could
It looked to be something that could satisfy
A hunger for power that would - never run  dry
All we had to do was drill and dig
Power would be cheap, profits would be big
We'll never have to worry about expenses
Cuz there'd never be any consequences

Chorus:
We couldn't have been more mistaken
We're travelling a road We never should have taken
it's our own damn fault that our world is breaking
We're Never going to do it again


Couldn't Have Been

Madhouse 

You think back to that hello
To think of all you didn’t know
When you became the dumbest guy in that whole place

At Heartbreak Hill you hurt the most 
She dragged you there from Witless Coast 
And now you wonder why you’re such a sorry case…
   

Why you - why you finding it so hard,
To find the reason you’re the one to blame?


So why you feeling so sorry for yourself?
You had every chance to up and get away
But you let that sweet fake smile fool you, 
that’s her style! 
How did you never see the signs 
The signs along the way?

You no longer look the same
She turned your confidence to shame
Now when you see us you can only hide your face!
The warnings came from everywhere
Did you not hear us say beware?   
And still you wonder why you’re such a sorry case…

Why you - why you finding it so hard,
To find the reason you’re the one to blame? 

So why you feeling so sorry for yourself?
You had every chance to up and get away
But you let that sweet fake smile fool you, that’s her style! 
How did you never see the signs – the signs along the way? 

Oh, she’ll make your home feel like a madhouse
She’s a cheeky little rebel
She don’t just have a bad mouth
Oh boy you’re in trouble

So why you feeling so sorry for yourself?
You had every chance to up and get away
But you let that sweet fake smile fool you, that’s her style! 
How did you never see the signs – the signs along the way? 

Hey so sorry for yourself
You had every chance to up and get away
But you let that sweet fake smile fool you that’s her style! 
How did you never see the signs – the signs along the way?

Music and Lyrics by Tom Hall ©️2025





















Music and Lyrics written by Tom Hall

Mad House

Some people may notice a stark difference between some of my music from a few months ago versus what I'm creating now. It represents a journey from anger and confusion to a desire to heal.

Celestial Spirals

Jesikats

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