Dasein is the first studio recording by Brazil, released September 17, 2002, on Fearless Records. The six-song EP is musically derivative of post-hardcore, exemplified by aggressive guitars and frenetic pace over complex orchestrations and heavy use of piano. Lyrical themes include technology, alienation, and a making sense of a chaotic world. It was recorded at Azmyth Recording Studios in Indianapolis, IN.
Some of the song structures had existed previously in some form under different names when the band was called London. After a lineup shift, the songs were rewritten to align with the new direction and sound. For "Dasein," the band drew musical inspiration from artists such as Elliott and Further Seems Forever, with many songs written around a repeated piano phrasing drawn from various classical and orchestral works. (The beginning of "Monolithic" references "Solfeggio No. 1 in C Minor" by CPE Bach, and the beginning of "It Keep the Machine Running" references "Sea" by George Winston.)
Dasein was performed live from 2002 through 2003.
Personnel
Jonathon Newby - vocals
Nicholas Newby - keyboards
Aaron Smith - guitar
Eric Johnson - guitar
Benjamin Hunt - bass
Scott Freeman - drums
TJ Hull - viola
David M. Blakley - violin
Sarah Bishop - cello
Arthur Hill - cello
Touring members
Alex Bond - drums
Matt Miller - guitar
Tim Hardy - drums
Jason Bradley - drums
James Cole - drums
Nater Kane - drums
Brandon Beaver - drums
Lyrics
Monolithic
Purse your lips until they’re white and drag me kicking into night did I want to be free or do I want to be right / Only you can deprogram and only you can understand and only you can take the blade and cut it from my mouth / The dusty book on your endtable taught you how to make a lethal fragmentary detonator from common household thoughts / You put a fistful of salt in my eyes / This is what it was like / My thoughts my eyes my face my skin my heart my bones are slowly becoming computerized
Erasure
It's a story about a street named Decision / Lays open the skin with its painful incision / Erasure it's time to rest / Erase your complicated mess a sharp dressed narcotic that drips dark red keeps you smiling when you say it's ok it's breaking me with breathtaking ease / Erasure rub me out erase your panic anxiety truth be told / I never liked her around but she kept coming around between us / I can hear you pioneer you whisper near you fire and virtue got to keep a light burning all day whatever happened to old-fashioned face value / Straight talking went out with June brides and fashion queens / Your words are guns
and they are loaded
Saturn Parkway
Blue water runs deep / Blue water brings sleep / In the valley sleep comes easy / In the valley there is no fear of sharks / And since the battle's end the river flows red with blood the shark has swum upstream the shark bites everyone / And no one seems to notice this gaping wound at my side the shark bites deep and red the shark bites until you're dead / Voices carry and I hear you / Watershed standing room curtain call pull it down / I don't want to have to need you where are you now?
Canon
Mass of rain scaling skyscrapers point only to failed ambitions / Alone in the city of millions he walks on the left against the open floor of human traffic hourly inflicting and literally pulling wanting to connect to the source he's too afraid to ask so he walks alone / He is the monolith / Like limbs of a dismembered poet rippling vains of lengthy full scars yet just above the internal wounds that never seem too mit completely a world of great matter house a city he calls his own / Standing on a ledge he surveys the land between his feet and the horizon seeking projectile eyes burnt in a flame projectile dress of the mob the lithium charge seems to sting his tongue / He is the monolith / They will break they will burn but it feels honest
Life Death
My life is diagonal lines a satellite leaving earth behind to outer space without any tether / I see the sun but I'm getting frostbite drifting past the empty vast and my head is getting light gravity keeps pulling me downward / In this world of broken dreams and broken voices keep singing to be free / Radio radio radio give my regards / It's all behind my eyes to find a way to get away from my own demise my truth in an age of question / You can tell my father the very least I tried it's been a long long trip now coming from the other side / Well I hope he liked it
It Keeps the Machine Running
We are born from one institution into another falling asleep listening to the poetry of steel / The irony of quitting time can you really stop? inhale deeply because it's your last breath so enjoy what's left / We are chained arm to arm pulling each other down / Seasons change from green to red / Seasons change inside my head