Get all 90 Ortega Fuerte releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sanctimus, Digging Up the War, Magic Forest, Killing Me, The New Number Five, Archaeopteryx, Ellipses, Dangerous Woo (workback), and 82 more.
1. |
Perfect Message
03:27
|
|||
|
I was free.
I had a climbing tree.
I had no one looking for me.
I got old.
I learned to value gold and pretend to see what I couldn't see.
On TV
There was a shooting spree,
There were people trying to flee.
There's a man.
He has a master plan.
He wants to make you see how it's going to be
He's gonna lead you, lead you.
He's gonna lead you,
You gotta let him lead you.
He was born in a barren land
He used to sleep with a gun in his hand.
He had dreams.
He heard an angel speak
And that never happens to me.
He must be perfect, perfect,
And you should trust him, cause it's a perfect message.
The police
In our society,
They like to play it safe on the street.
He wants to teach
All of the new police
How to hear the words that the angels speak
He's gonna lead them, lead them.
He's gonna lead them,
They're gonna let him lead them.
He's got a knife.
He used to mark his wife so everyone could tell she's his property.
He knows life.
He has a plan for life,
And he can make you see what you cannot see.
And you should praise him, praise him.
And you should praise him, you gotta help me praise him.
We've got a message, message,
We've got a message, and it's a perfect message.
|
||||
2. |
Trick Anybody!
04:11
|
|
||
|
Mercury, amity, blasphemy, calamity,
pictures of manuscripts, deepening, brandishing
Somebody's second wind, never tried noticing
Never sneak out at night, keep it all watertight
Landing on solid ground, look who got turned around
Look who sees evil now, never speak, not allowed
Let me make plans for you.
Anything you want, I'll do...
And I would trick anybody for you,
Take them out deep and abandon them, that's what I'll do
And I would tell anybody a lie
If it meant I could deliver you, deliver you, deliver you...
Down the stairs late at night, look who's not acting right
Emerald cut, crystalline, look at this mess you're in
Swallowed up, shook down, under wraps, wrapped around, visions of wanting more, password fail-split the door
Buried maps, hidden keys, broken locks, filthy knees,
Taking this twist again, slicker than glycerin
Let me make plans for you.
Anything you want, I'll do...
Hidden fangs, hidden worlds, dirty boy, dirty girl,
Bitten lips, broken thumbs, broken truths, hollow tongues,
Castle walls, attic doors, fireshadow, dungeon floors,
Rent-a-cop, Shakespeare, make it all disappear
Let me make plans for you.
Anything you want, I'll do...
|
||||
3. |
The Song About the Devil
03:28
|
|
||
|
I heard my neighbor talking about the Devil,
reading from a sixteenth-century poem.
I think she speaks instructions for the Devil,
like she's trying to send him home.
There's a stone from the moon
And it holds her drawings down
While she sings of the tomb--
it's an otherworldly sound.
It's the Devil...
My brother read a book about the Devil,
And he fell into an accidental sleep.
We couldn't wake him up in time for heaven;
We heard his body crashing through the deep.
In your heart, there's a worm
And it withers out your brain.
Makes you cold, makes you burn,
Makes you vigilant through pain--
It's the Devil.
I dreamed that I was sawing up the Devil.
I dumped his broken body in the sea.
But I saw myself reflected in the Devil,
And suddenly the Devil lived in me.
When your bones
And your eyes
Become relics of the fall,
And you sleep in your lies
'Til you dream no dreams at all,
It's the Devil.
Well, I'm telling you a fable of the Devil
Recycled from the sixteenth century.
And I hope you never meddle with the Devil.
And I hope I get the Devil out of me.
|
||||
4. |
Orchidelphia
03:53
|
|
||
|
As a punishment once, for feeling sick, I had to stop a tidal wave.
And I learned to tell everyone the truth, which is always that there's nothing wrong.
And if anyone says there's something wrong, he's sick and wrong, deserving death.
And the palaces in his mind are strewn with filth and sickening wantonness.
There are people who, believing you, will never visit Orchidelphia.
In the school that I drew, this picture here--that's me, achieving purity.
In the painful arcade below those pipes, that's me, learning humility.
And I'll never forget those lessons, no, even if I come back a vegetable.
Even if I come back a buried root, in the cold spring ground, I won't forget.
There are people who, believing you, will never visit Orchidelphia.
All of my lifetime, the way is the way.
Everyone celebrate, today is the day.
All of us perfect, all of us pure.
Thanks to our teachers, of that I am sure.
All of my lifetime, the way is the way.
Everyone celebrate, today is the day.
All of us thankful, all of us pure.
Thanks to our teachers, of that I am sure.
There are people who, believing you, will never visit Orchidelphia.
|
||||
5. |
The Love Schematic
02:53
|
|
||
|
Make me solid, make me thick
Make me nervous, make me sick
Make me think I'm out of time
Make me yours, I'll make you mine
Make me stretch beyond my reach
Leave me standing on the beach
As the storm distorts the sky
Make me yours, I'll make you mine
Make me tired of who I've been
Let them hunt me down again
You can carve it in my skin
If you win
I'll make you feel ashamed to sing
Make you swear on sacred things
I'll make you dread the dotted line
Make me yours, I'll make you mine
I'll make you sign your youth away
Drive a thousand miles a day
Make it snow inside your mind
Make me yours, I'll make you mine
I'll make you skeptical, obscene
I'll make you speculate and scheme
I'll make my heart your dark machine
I'll make you clean
Make me hate what I have done
Keep me always on the run
Keep me starved, and half alive
Make me yours, I'll make you mine
|
||||
6. |
Mister Saturn
03:17
|
|
||
7. |
Worries
03:20
|
|
||
|
What if space is only the size it appears in your eye,
And the people in your family: they only exist in your mind?
What if someone out there knows exactly when you'll die?
And you're seen by your friends as a means to an end,
Tell me why you even try?
What if someone tells you
He's known you since before you were two
And that same someone sells you
Up the river without a canoe?
What if your own angel doesn't even believe in you?
What if love equals hate, what if now equals wait?
What are you supposed to do?
You could have seen every colour the wrong way for all of your life.
Every taste, every smell, every sound, every meaning, without knowing why.
Everyone that you know might believe that you're crazy (maybe you're actually crazy).
What if someone happens to care about the things that you do;
What if someone's waiting, who cares about what happens to you?
What if someone loves you, what if it's all true?
Can you rest in the thought
That you have what you've got
And you might deserve it, too?
You could have seen every worry pan out like you feared that it might.
But that doesn't mean everything that you worry will always be right.
Everyone that you know might believe that you're lucky (and maybe you're actually lucky)...
|
||||
8. |
Oh My Leader
04:21
|
|
||
9. |
Worksong
02:57
|
|
||
|
You wanted someone to cry in a song about roses. Now look what you've done! Everyone knows it was you. Now everyone's trapped in your song. You wanted someone to cry in a song about roses. You think you're sincere? Well everyone knows it's a joke. We're all getting boiled alive in here!
The name!
Tell me the name!
Tell me the name of the man who could say that cliche!
He's inside out!
He's shaking us all 'til our feathers fall out.
The name!
Tell me the name
Tell me the name of the man who could say that cliche!
He's inside out!
He's pushing us all 'til our stuffing comes out.
I don't want to lie in your sincerity.
I don't want to sleep in your sincerity.
I don't want to lap up your sincerity.
I don't want to walk around in your sincerity.
I don't want to dream about your sincerity.
I don't want to hear about your sincerity.
I don't want to lie down in your sincerity.
I don't want to sleep in your sincerity.
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
Work!
|
||||
10. |
Shackled to Me
04:27
|
|
||
|
You could play piano by the madman's cell
You could scan the surface for a glimpse of hell
You could fall asleep behind the wheel and kill
Or you could fix your eyes,
Be surprised
By what you couldn't see,
but you see,
You think you're shackled to me.
I dreamed I saw you acting in a violent play
You played a sister jealous of her sister's brain
You tried to steal a something from your sister's brain
But when you took aim, things changed
She wrested it away--
Instead of setting you free,
She shackled you to me.
And now you think you're shackled to me
Right down the street,
People are bleeding in machines
People are researching their genes
People are mapping planets we've never seen
And you could be free
You could be joining them next week
You could be helping them achieve
But you think you're shackled to me.
You could win a Pulitzer for words you wrote
Extract a bloody diamond from your brother's throat
Or prove that happiness is not an asymptote
Isn't something you see, that recedes
That you could never reach
But let me be brief:
You think you're shackled to me.
|
||||
11. |
Birds!
02:31
|
|
||
12. |
Swimming
04:31
|
|
||
|
I don't want to go swimming with you
I know you're going to take me under.
I can't relate to you
And I won't be so exposed to someone I cannot relate to
The water sings with you
And the stinging in my wounds is something I cannot get used to
I won't enter the ocean with you
I know you're going to kick me open.
I know that five leagues down there's life I've never seen
But anything that smells my fear will notice me
I can't compare to you
And I won't compare myself to someone I cannot compare to.
The water begs me to.
But I won't indulge the curse as long as I am too aware to.
If there's a sunken city calling to your mind
You better go yourself and leave me high and dry.
I don't want to go swimming with you.
I know you're going to take me under.
|
||||
13. |
|
|||
|
The first time I saw it myself,
I stood in the snow by the funeral bell.
I couldn't remember the word;
The sound of its cry like a funeral bird.
I whispered a mission.
I whispered a fire.
I whispered a fire from the wall,
But when I came nearer, I saw it was you.
Golden when autumn peeled off,
Revealing a rust that had riddled me through
And I thought of a mountain.
I thought, a machine.
The deep machine of the mountain was making you dream.
The deep machine of the mountain is making you dream.
The deep machine of the mountain, to feather your bells.
The first time I saw it myself,
I saw it through feathers and funeral bells.
I whispered a bell through the snow--
It whispered a fire which proceeded to grow,
Priceless and blue.
The deep machine of the mountain is making me you.
|
||||
14. |
Waterfall
04:50
|
|
||
|
Every time I want to come back home,
I worry I'm better off alone.
Looking back, I never thought I'd see
A day you'd recognize yourself inside of me.
You're all I see,
Reflected in the waterfall
So take me back and tell me everything
And it must be
That you were with me after all
All this time that I spent wondering:
Could it be?
It must be.
There were times when I was far away
I felt that tether growing weaker every day.
Broken glass, on your kitchen floor.
I didn't know if I could feel you anymore.
There were rushes and a wind, somewhere the spring had crept inside
And filled the cracks, the moss was creeping,
Orchids blooming in our minds;
A vernal pool, a humid day
I feel a splash refracted through
The echoes of the past replaced
I feel them beckoning me back to you...
A winter's day, and up the hill
I felt your presence there, I know I always will.
Among the stones, for just a little while.
As long as I can see you close your eyes and smile
|
||||
15. |
Hero Worship
02:43
|
|
||
|
My hero never tires;
Always does what is required.
Sometimes he doesn't seem to care
And everyone is scared of my hero.
He rarely ventures to digress, no one would ever guess
He's capable of love,
Or of hurting.
Nobody has a clue of what he'd like to do when he's not working;
He's always working.
And though he suffers dire pain, he has no one to explain his troubles to--
And the thing he's got to do...
And if he makes it in the end, he cannot even tell a friend
He hasn't got one--
He is forgotten.
And though he may seem self-assured, he will never be rewarded for his deeds...if he succeeds.
I admire him.
|
||||
16. |
Loyalty and Honor
04:33
|
|
||
17. |
(Victor Vector)
04:37
|
|||
Ortega Fuerte Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ortega Fuerte are a group of songwriters and multi-instrumentalists founded in 2003 by core member Hugo Grayling and often including the contributions of Air Anchor's Chris Rohlf.
If you like Ortega Fuerte, you may also like:
Madrid's Caliza creates intricately sound-designed ambient art pop addressing the climate crisis on this striking new LP.
go to album
sunflower in the east
by mitamu
A dreamy, sonically diverse coming-of-age story from NYC artist mỹ tâm, who infuses art pop with elements of jazz and chiptune.
go to album
This Calgary group makes goth-y post-punk attired in the brightly colorful arrangements of bleep-boop synthesized psychedelia.
go to album
This debut album from the Chicago art-pop collective brings together their disco, lounge pop, and '70s soul influences.
go to album
MAGNETIC RESONANCE CENTRE
by FELICITY GROOM
Booming, ornate art-pop anthems mark Felicity Groom as an artist riding the line between high, visionary aesthetics and commercial appeal.
go to album
Brilliant Chicago rapper Nnamdi unveils another batch of delightfully surrealist rhymes.
go to album
Sweet and sharp pop gems from Carly Putnam of the Mantles, Art Museums, and other Bay Area indiepop luminaries.
go to album
