Lokutara (2004 – Pop)

Lokutara

“By combining tunes written with rocks and trees, Luang Por’s lyrics and Tim’s grounding in indie guitar pop, ‘Lokutara’ the album is the first truly pan-cultural and cross elemental record”
– NME ★★★★

“Tim’s haunting and compelling, it’ll be fascinating to hear what he does next.”
– NME

Imagine going to rehab in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, purging your body and soul by vomiting for 5 days when you arrive, chanting and meditating for three weeks, sweeping the yard, being taught to make music from patterns in nature, getting clean and then having a music studio built for you by Buddhist monks so that you could make an album.

That, in a nutshell, is how this album was made.

And yet it is impossible to describe it in a nutshell. Lokutara was the result of an entire community of Thai people who made me feel like life was worth living again. They put belief and faith in me and my music, and my feelings of gratitude manifested in this album. Completely by surprise, the British music press actually covered a lot of this album and the only single to be taken from it, Walking Through Walls was actually play-listed on BBC Radio. The road forward wasn’t all plain sailing and I have remained unsigned and independent ever since, but this album was the nod the universe gave me that let me know that music is not what I do, it’s who I am.

 

Tracks and Lyrics

1. As Above so Below

Theres no use fighting for peace in a shrine
Just start climbing, it gets you every time
The traffic sings like angels when you’re up there

I’m sick and tired of my eyes wide shut
I spent my days like a good grown up
But I’m looking at the future as a child

You’re stepping out from the shadows
Opening the windows
As above so below, you’re right you’re wrong you’re learning
When you think its gonna go, you’re closer than you know
As above so below, you were never really on your own
You were never really on your own.

Nothings real unless your thinking lets you feel it is
But my brains untamed like everybody elses
In the cities you choke on the news
You try on faiths like designer shoes
Its true some do touchdown
But its easier to drown

You’re stepping out from the shadows
Opening the windows
As above so below, you’re right you’re wrong you’re learning
When you think its gonna go, you’re closer than you know
As above so below, you were never really on your own
You were never really on your own.

2. Give Some Understanding

Everybody’s talking but theres nothing to say
We want miracles now but would we recognize them if they came?
When the kids were alright they were soldiers that could fight
Now they’re walking billboards who get into debt to pay

I got a sneaking suspicion it won’t ever change
The Terminators got a grip on the reins
But if you don’t want things to stay the same…

You’ve got to give some understanding
To get that message to the world you know
You’ve got to give some understanding
Don’t make your Mother say “ I told you so “

John’s robbing Peter to pay Paul back
But nobody knew
That Paul already got the sack
And Hollywood’s a graveyard of mistakes and false starts
Like the rest of the world. Broken heart after broken heart

Did you ever listen, could you ever be wrong?
The one you hurt the most loved you all along Its easy to say
But it’s a job to make the grade

You’ve got to give some understanding
To get that message to the world you know
You’ve got to give some understanding
Don’t make your Mother say “I told you so“

3. Walking Through Walls

When seasons change you don’t get time to change too
You struggle on, doing handstands In a storm
And when your telephone won’t ring the call that you need
You switch it off and think theres nothing you can give
If you want to know what its like to live

You’ve got to share what you’ve got
To get back what you lost
You’ve got to walk through the wall
To hear the writing start to talk
And when you’re there you’ll forget
How you came to lose the knack
Just share what you got, You’ll get it back

You’re living proof there ain’t no big plan
But its true to say there’s a reason you should stay
I wasted time looking for a reply
To the question I wanted to ask
But the question was just a mask

You’ve got to share what you’ve got
To get back what you lost
You’ve got to walk through the wall
To hear the writing start to talk
And when you’re there you’ll forget
How you came to lose the knack
Just share what you got, You’ll get it back

I know that we are better than we realize, but still not as good as we used to be.

You’ve got to share what you’ve got
To get back what you lost
You’ve got to walk through the wall
To hear the writing start to talk
And when you’re there you’ll forget
How you came to lose the knack
Just share what you got, You’ll get it back

4. River of Love

It looks as if we’re far away, it looks as if we’re far away from each other
Horizons separate, but my eyes won’t let me see
But I reach you in a dream

Hearts reaching out for each other
Hearts reaching out for each other now
Like we always used to
No matter how far away, The ties will never break.

We were saving one another from a river
We were saving one another from a river of love
A river of love
A river of love
A river of love

The times coming up again
This time it won’t let us go
You know its gonna be forever
Making us feel strong
To trust in it together.

We were saving one another from a river
We were saving one another from a river of love
A river of love
A river of love A river of love

5. Even Though The World is Changing

All I really know, in this world nothings certain
Deceptions in a show that starts before the curtain
And treasures pass like water that dissolves
And people I, found that life must not be sold ‘cause

Nothings certain

Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing

I’m talking to desire, please just hold your fire
The love you’re offering just keeps me suffering
As the past keeps coming to send me down a dead end street
The right direction is all I want to achieve but nothings certain.

Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing

Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing
Even though the world is changing

7. Let it come. Let it Be, Let it Go

Flying higher, higher than a bird, into something…
Something I’ve never heard of…
Your smile brought me back from the dead
As a wise old man came to me and said

Let it come, let it be, let it go…
But since you came its not the same
I thought I had to let you know
Let it come, let it be, let it go
‘cause I’m leaving on a plane,leaving all your sun, your rain
I let you come, I let you be, can I let you go?
I let you come, I let you be, Can I let you go?

I’m hearing the beating of your heart
Sets the rhythm to the song I want to start
I pray it never ends
Like Nature finds a way
A way to carry on

Let it come, let it be, let it go…
But since you came its not the same
I thought I had to let you know
Let it come, let it be, let it go
‘cause I’m leaving on a plane, leaving all your sun, your rain
I let you come, I let you be, can I let you go?
I let you come, I let you be, Can I let you go?

8. Actions Will not Die

I’m not a god, I’m a human and I’m chewing on the fight to be happy
Try to fight on without giving up, but karmas got me cold close up
And I’ll be going round in circles even when my bodies dead and buried
If you move a mountain just to heal the sick, you might find you’re getting out of here quicker than you think.

I’m trying to change what I do. And I’m looking out for the truth.

If mixing facts and fictions lie
Actions will not die
If psychotronic Texans try
Actions will not die
If boys and girls can make each other cry
Actions will not die
If law enforcement change your mind
Actions will not die

I’m not a number, I’m a radar and I’m picking up some interference
Its coming from a stately home likes its coming from your own ghetto
And no health warning on any of your cancer sticks will ever stop smoking
It feeds the king when the court ain’t coping,
Its why presidents let the dope in

Just see for yourself, you can’t do anything else

If mixing facts and fictions lie
Actions will not die
If psychotronic Texans try
Actions will not die
If boys and girls can make each other cry
Actions will not die
If law enforcement change your mind
Actions will not die

9. What You Mean To Me

Daddy are you on the other side?
Or Daddy are you yet to die?
I’ve seen you picking gems out of the nile
But I wouldn’t know your smile

What do you man to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?

I’ve imagined you oh how can I resist?
But you don’t know that I exist
Have we grown apart to find a way
To really know each other one day?

What do you man to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?
Show me what do you mean to me?

10. The Rattle

I’m tire of a busy mind, its killing me
To look and look and never find
The trigger on the will I need

I’m doing balancing acts on a tightrope
I’m done damage
I don’t know why I’m here at all
‘cause next to me I know theres a working bridge

But I’m shaking like a rattle snake
So I make a promise that I’m gonna break
I didn’t ever really stand my ground
I’m clucking like chicken soup
My sex drives on the move
You think I would of understood by now

But I’m rattling like a snake I’m rattling I’m rattling
I’m battling for a break, I’m battling, I’m battling
I’m rattling like a snake, I’m rattling I’m rattling

I’ve been seven seasons lost at sea you know
When you calculate the cost, you can’t believe you let them go
So if you’re never gonna see them again
Don’t make the chase
Pack a year into every day
And feel a heartbeat start to win the race

But I was swallowing the storm
I clean forgot that I was even born
The day the devil came to make a claim
I’m all go and I can’t get going, I never do what I can’t help knowing
And theres no one else here to take the blame

But I’m rattling like a snake I’m rattling I’m rattling
I’m battling for a break, I’m battling, I’m battling
I’m rattling like a snake, I’m rattling I’m rattling

Well I’m looking to the east to see a sunrise
Take my plateful of disease, I want a love life
And when she’s around the corner
Give me eyes in the back of my head so no matter which way I turn I won’t miss her there.
I won’t cry for my rattle, I won’t cry for my rattle

11. Yourself

Feel free to listen to a prophet, but you won’t hear till you tell yourself
You can find organized religion, but it won’t organize yourself
You really read the backs of all those covers
But those books never ever ever left your shelf
And even after all the healing you can get your hands on
You’re gonna be stuck with yourself

You can get high, but you’re going nowhere
You can get out, but you’re seeing nothing
Forget everything and everyone else
But you can’t ever forget yourself

It feels good to place your faith in something
A can of cokes as good as God or TV idols to me
But its not about what you believe in
Its about how much you really believe
I’ve been from crazy pagans to Rosicrucians,
Shakespeare’s sonnets to the Buddha’s Bonnet
And Sunday school just to bump into somebody else
And none of them let you down. They won’t ever run out
Unless they know you’re running out on yourself

You can get high but you’re going no where
You can get out but you’re seeing nothing
You can forget everything and everyone else
But you can’t ever forget Yourself

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