I'd had these riffs bouncing around in my head for a while so I finally got around to recording them (I was pretty happy with the drum parts, I think that's usually one of my weaknesses).  Initially there was a really fast version of the bridge that came in at the end but I preferred to end it the way that I did.  
The music sat there for another year or so while I tried to come up with lyrics.  At one point I had a full set written about some crazy paranoid visual I had one night on nightshift... but it didn't really seem right for the song in the end.  One night the phrase "a tear in the skin of the world" popped into my head and by the end of the night the song was written!  It's vaguely about ecology.... global warming, fracking... all of that business

Puppet Fight - One Tree Hell

A Tear in the Skin of the World

I added the bracketed part in the title because I realise that this could easily be misconstrued as some sort of anti-immigration or refugee song... sorry, racist redneck types, it's about the simple but frustrating pleasures of mowing the lawn.

Had it in mind to write a punk song and it ended up popping right into my head (love it when that happens)

Puppet Fight - Mild Panic

Kill The Invaders (not about immigration or  refugees)

This one started when I was running the drum machine through my fuzz pedal to do spacey beats for another song.  I accidentally wound up on the percussion (guiro, triangle, bongos etc) and I found that those sounded quite good and provided a certain 'attack' that I liked.  I came up with a bunch of different beats with that, recorded some music around them, and then cut and pasted it all together.

Given the sound of the song, the subject matter seemed a foregone conclusion.

Pink Tang - Catty Phonetics

"WAR!#%$" Pink Tang

I initially came up with the main theme on guitar (though later decided that it would sit more comfortably on piano), influenced in equal part by the Norwegian composer John Kaada's "romances" and "music for moviebikers" albums; and an orchestral piece by my sister Claire.

I had originally intended to have a lot more instruments present, like some strings or a nice delicate glockenspiel, but it ended up consisting entirely of percussion, vocals and piano.  The little discordant part in the middle was inspired by the soundtrack from the tv show 'Children of the stones' recommended to me by my friend Tania.

The Ventriloquist's Hand - The Music Machine [Disc2]

"Trois Couleurs" The Ventriloquist's Hand

Projjjjjjjom

One Last Smile

Always love a bit of tango and the 7/4 timing makes the music feel like it's just in constant motion.  With the choruses I wanted almost an explosion of vocals so they kind of expanded outwards.  The section towards the end was loosely inspired by a new Mike Patton track "Chansons D'Amour".   A song of respect.

Profondo Rosso

Limehouse

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