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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Download includes a beautiful 11-page pdf booklet of watercolors by Mexican artist Laura Cravioto with lyrics, plus photos of the artists, and liner notes about the project by David First.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $6 USD  or more

     

1.
Energy Prayer (© d. first 2020) Energy You walked alive before us Ever here And energy You build the world around us Every day All night Energy You flow along unceasing Unafraid Energy You swirl around A brilliant everyday storm I can feel you growing stronger Laughing crying healthy dying I can see you through invention Physical witnessing offered Oh my loudness Oh my goodness Calling Calling Calling out to Energy We need you in our darkness Every day And energy You must adjust the madness Every way You can Energy Can we perceive your purpose Through our haze Energy Don’t hold it over our heads One day more I can feel your penetration Living loving pushing shoving Almost touching through the membrane Mystical package of furies On my honor On my deathbed Well Well Well Well Well Well Welcome Energy it’s me I am seeking thunder’s rainbow Breathing in and out and over Wading through the whirl astounds me Ethical questioning vexes All our trials All our children Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur All our spirals All our prisons Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur All our whims and calculations Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blur Blurting Energy I’ve walked along beside you From the start Energy I must admit I need you Never part Energy I live a life Until you break my heart
2.
Far Away 04:58
Far Away © d. first 2020 Hear mourning bells they’re ringing The Reaper tolls again What can we do to arrest brutal acts of evil Can’t we still all ill men? Send these offenders to Far Away And watch their tortured sorrow singing Shattered hearts in hand What do we say to assuage these bereft upheavals? To the righteous demands? Tender is trending in Far Away And now is the time To enlist And align With the upful inclined We’re saying This is the place To erase And rewind Stolen Lucifered minds And heal with Peaceful and lawful and moral Trust in the dreams That preach A Love Supreme And Stevie’s wonderful sides As gospel Giving a chance To embrace And advance The enlightening tide It’s rolling in Unassailable waves miles wide People understand That change is coming Climbing a mountain streaming Crossing foreign lands What more to ask for than every party swinging Like a beautiful band Blending and flowing to Far Away We go We’re feeling love’s unassailable waves rolling Love’s irrepressible waves rolling Love’s all-encompassing waves rolling high People understand That change is coming Change is coming Change will come in Come in Come in Come in
3.
Cradle of Life (© d. first 2020) Pulled straight out the door to cradle Fussing the full face crying Burping milk while learning the floor tune Working to claim your playtime Cut off from the navel cable Clinging to hurried worries Vested tricks confirming your fortunes Stunned by the untamed dangers Here’s to a new life starting Here’s to another story Here’s to a perfect problem Here’s to the answer Now drawing lines divining functions Classic elastic freedoms Pondering essential commitments Forming select opinions Dropping drawers and stopping shopping Popping the tested question Stressing with the best of intentions Schooling the drooling young one Here’s to a new life starting Here’s to another story Here’s to a perfect problem Here’s to the answer Counter melody: Finding a place Crawling against the grain Seeking a stake in something Searching outside expected lanes and Making a plan While stepping to fate’s decisions Feeling your strength evolving Echoes of ancestors fade up Passing it on Checking the child’s confusion Looking for new examples Setting your own examples too Living in space Hoping for grace Grinning amazed Getting a taste of life
4.
Photograph 03:36
Photograph (© d. first 2020) There was once a tallest order sign one could find ever Strung along our southern borderline We would ball our hands in fists It had come to this Curtains on our sworn designs voiced When they tore it up and knocked it down We rejoiced In the past There was a photograph The light was like a map A bit too much to grasp The light was like a map It was a photograph A toy set in a trap It was a photograph The light was blinding I was in my room rethinking plans in decline sinking So I looked at things I thought I knew What I hoped that I could find In the midst of twists And the switches intertwined How beating riddled bodies that resist Was quite a crime From the past It was a photograph The light was like a map It was a photograph The light was like a map A bridge set on the path There’s always photographs Reminders of the past My mind could not relax my mind In the past There was a photograph The light was like a map A promise built to last It was a photograph That took off like a flash It was a photograph A job but not a task It was a photograph no smile Yes no smile Yes no smile
5.
Service Prayer (© d. first 2020) Let me be useful and help me be helpful Please keep me grateful and mindful and humble and Open to charges that may rise to painful No time for eyes looking downward disdainful All praise to soulful soldiers Carrying the world’s weight on their shoulders Deed must follow word’s distractions Blessed are the boundaries soon collapsing Someday the meek will hum together Humans are human and always too human Few can do what you can when you can do what you Came here to conquer solution illusions Breakthroughs escape routes mistake truths and fake proofs All praise to soulful soldiers Tired from the world’s weight on their shoulders Deed must follow word’s distractions Blessed are the boundaries now collapsing Someday the earth will hum together I’ll bend to your will and will you bend with me I’ll lend my everything send me the same thing and All praise to soulful soldiers Sad for stone cold faces growing bolder Deed will follow word’s distractions Symbols and the statues fall collapsing Someday we all will hum together
6.
THANKU-21 05:37
THANKU-21 (© d. first 2020) This is the moment we prayed for These are the days been delayed so long The lost nights we froze in our fright all while Courageous skilled savers of life stayed strong The future has finally returned The seasons of reason are rolling in The right of the people to resist and shout The right to feel safe in your skin We thank you for this creation Your will be done In a daze what amazing strangers deep inside Have bound as one And wherever we go we’re mending The great divides To lean on each other Every body Every body Every body Every body Moving Moving Moving Moving forward We call on the hostiles to stand down Stop fossiled apostle’s impunity Accept our emerging collective choice Show us your hope for some unity We’ll holler from the top of the high hills We will stand on the shoulders of elders gone Saluting the youth for their sacrifice Together we’ll be chanting a song We thank you for your creation It will be done In a blaze what amazing strangers tuned to tribes Have bound as one And whenever we go defending The spirit spent We hold up each other Every body Every body Every body All you bodies rise We circle the sun by the moon-full Scoping the stars in the galaxies We may be just specks in the Universe Celibate cells in the cosmic seas But there’s jewels in the joy we disburse And as our reflected vibrations sprawl We’re psychically spinning in sacred states And deserving of dignity all We thank you for our creation This will be done In a gaze what amazing strangers grooms and brides Have bound as one And however it goes we know that We’re not alone We hang on each other Every body Every body Every body Every body Every body Every body Every body Every body Rising Rising Rising Rising upward dance We can dance We can dance We can dance These are the days we prayed for The future is returning We’ll stand on elders’ shoulders And chant our song together
7.

about

"Having already issued one of this year’s most necessary new-music releases with the 3-CD drone manifesto, The Consummation of Right and Wrong, the protean composer and multi-instrumentalist David First reveals another facet of his expansive skill set with a succinct collection of airy art-pop songs. Bridget Barkan, Dashon Burton (of Roomful of Teeth), and Mazz Swift lend their voices; Tom Chiu (of FLUX Quartet) adds some soulful fiddle. It’s a little bit surprising, and entirely seductive."—Steve Smith/Night after Night

"This is a truly gorgeous piece of music that is ultimately extremely positive in its tone. Say what you will about finding joy in this dumpster fire of a world, but I think it’s necessary and I’m happy for things like this that just plain radiate."—Yoni Kroll/WXPN The Key

"Another surprising twist in First’s development: a collection of soulful and eccentric dance music." Nick Storring/Musicworks

credits

released September 30, 2020

New Party Systems is:

Mazz Swift—lead vocals on 1 & 2, backing vocals on 3 & 6
Bridget Barkan—lead vocals & harmonies on 3, 4, 5, & 6
Dashon Burton—lead vocals on 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6, support vocals on 5
Tom Chiu—violin on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Dan Lipton—keyboards on tracks 2 & 3

All music, lyrics, arrangements and programming by David First
Track #7 Remix by Nick Hallett

All music published © 2020 Silent Graph Music (ASCAP)
Produced by David First and Mira Gwincinska Hirsch
Tom Chiu recorded by Ian Douglas-Moore at Park Church Co-op
Mixed by Jeff Cook
Mastered by Oscar Zambrano

Watercolor images by Laura Cravioto (Oaxaca)
Graphic design by Mira Gwincinska Hirsch
Special thanks to Aaron Siegel & Clinton Wilkins

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about

David First New York

David’s bands/projects include his psychedelic punk band, Notekillers, SWATi - a drone collaboration with acupuncturist Isobeau Trybula, The Western Enisphere - an audio/visual exploration of psycho-perception, and the AM Radio Band – a solo project for vintage signal generators, oscillators and transistor radios. He is also the proprietor of “Dave’s Waves" – a sonic restaurant A/V installation. ... more

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