Name: Self Harm (You Do It To Yourself) by Reciprocity Nexus
Duration: 4 min 6 s
Description: A pedal steel driven lamentation of someone with the tendency to self-destruct.

Hilariously, my wife Juliet has the somewhat eccentric habit of pretending King Henry VIII is in the car with her when she drives around our native North London. In her imagination, she explains to King Henry all the trappings of modernity. This song is about that. A brass-driven fantasy about driving a time-traveling King Henry VIII and his six wives through modern day London. The "beep yeah!" refrain in the coda is a nod to the Beatles' 1965 classic "Drive My Car".

Family Portraits (Volume IV)

Royal Drive

The Man Who Has Everything

An upbeat  song about the generation gap...and celebrating difference.

Prodigals

A jangly, jangly guitar-driven love song to my wife Juliet

Agnostic Hymns / Secular Psalms

Ubiquitous Love (Literally Everywhere)

A love song to my wife, who helps me (metaphorically) to carry the load.

For Fear of Forgetting

Weight of the World

A jangly postulation on love and personal awkwardness from a maths geek.

Kaprekar's Constant

"Main Character Syndrome" describes the peculiarly western 21st century phenomenon of people behaving as if they are the main character in a movie script. Everything they say and do is highly rehearsed and calculated...for the benefit of an imagined audience.

Main Character Syndrome

"Atoms pondering atoms" is a quote which the popular astrophysicist Brian Cox attributes to the great theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, to describe the (possibly unique cosmological) phenomenon of conscious, sentient collections of atoms (us) pondering other atoms (the stars). In such a way, the universe has become "self aware". Cox continues to argue it is therefore humankind's responsibility NOT to "blow ourselves to smithereens" in a nuclear holocaust, in order to preserve not just ourselves but also our knowledge of the universe.

Atoms Pondering Atoms

So...this is a bit of a different song. 

It's kind of an ode -- and answer -- to Mr. Philip Larkin's poem of the same name, which I am sure you will have come across: 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse

Although I like Larkin -- and even this poem -- and I do agree that invariably your parents do "f*** you up", there has always been something about the poem that didn't sit well with me. And I think it's the lack of agency. It's like he's blaming the parents for everything in his life -- taking no responsibility himself.  So I am trying to address (read "redress?") that a bit in the song.

It's basically a (belated) love song to my late parents. I lost my Dad 12 years ago and my Mum last year. And although I did for long periods have a fractious and strained relationship with them both, I also loved them and am grateful to them for many reasons. I like to think that I communicated that to them both whilst they were still with us, but want to again do so here, in this song.

This Be The Verse (In Ode and Answer to Mr. Philip Larkin)

This Be The Verse (In Ode and in Answer to Mr. Philip Larkin)

About 10 years ago, as part of the band "The Third Space" I still play in with my best friend Joe Farthing, I wrote a song called "Fear of Others" (https://soundcloud.com/the-third-space/fear-of-others). This was a part spoken-word, part sung parody of a right-wing bigot against a backdrop of reverb drenched guitar. And all in a 6/8 time signature too!

This new song "Identity Politics" is conceived as bit of a companion song to the above. Again, the song is sung from the perspective of a bigot. I particularly dislike conviction politics and how these have become very binary: you're either in or out (whatever happened to agreeing to disagree?) and the protagonist in the song is very much wanting to know which camp you're in.  

I also dislike how people are reduced to labels and categories and  how these categories appear to be so easily dismissed.

Identity Politics

A pedal steel driven lamentation of someone with the tendency to self-destruct.

Self Harm (You Do It To Yourself)

"Reciprocity Nexus" is the moniker for British songwriter Hendrik "Henk" Kleinsmiede, for the songs he writes (alone or with friends) away from his other frequent music vehicle, "The Third Space", a virtual band and songwriting partnership with his best friend Joe Farthing. 

As the name suggests, "Reciprocity Nexus" is a network or exchange for musical ideas and collaborations. The collaborations on single songs with friends Nick Bird ("Brand New Day") and SIljan Panovski ("Suit of Armour") apart, the albums Henk has released under the name "Reciprocity Nexus" are ostensibly "solo" records (in that Henk has written almost all the songs on these albums himself). Yet, he is not comfortable going under his own name; for he feels the contributions of other collaborators are vital. He seeks to acknowledge that through the name.

Self Harm (You Do It To Yourself)

Reciprocity Nexus

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