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(24 bit/44.1khz Hi-Res Edition)
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about
2013 track re-release in 24 bit for Halloween 2016.
Featuring Steve Babb, Fred Schendel, Jon Davison and Alan Shikoh, the track builds off a 1926 short story of the same name by Lovecraft. Both trace the story of a man who can’t abide cool air but who nevertheless becomes intrigued by a neighbor who is determined to live in perpetual coldness. It’s only later that the narrator discovers the reason: The neighbor is trying to stave off decomposition after having long since died.
NICK DERISO - SOMETHING ELSE NEWS
lyrics
Cool Air
lyrics by Steve Babb
I recall that awful feeling
Of growing horror, as from my ceiling
Dripped noxious fluids which filled my room
With a singular odor, a foetid fume
Which should have served to warn me well
That in the room above did dwell
A fearful thing
Yet I required the Doctor's care
I clambered up the creaking stair
To the sepulcher wherein survived
His deathless mind, a thing which thrived
In the cool air, in the frigid tomb
Twas Death he fought in that Stygian gloom
Night after night I would visit there
Regardless of the freezing air
A nameless fear within me grew
For his bloodless hands and ghoulish hue
Were more than an anxious mind could bare
In this laboratory with its cool air
My host though odd was not unkind
And told me how the will, the mind
Was stronger than organic life
His enemy, Death, with Death his strife
He raved then of outlandish schemes
Of sorcerous rites, unholy dreams
Where Daemons howl, dark planets roll
Through a Universe both lifeless and cold
Of blasphemy he took no heed
As arcane rites became his creed
As noxious vapours 'round him rolled
While curious engines pumped the cold
I can't abide the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
He thrived within the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
Noisome machines and bubbling vials
Were but scientific trials
Or so he claimed, but then I knew
And thus the dread within me grew
Night after night I would visit there
Regardless of the freezing air
Cold as death it leached my will
I lost my mind in the morbid chill
But death must come to claim us all
He had not seen the fatal flaw
It failed at last, that damned device
That machine which kept his room like ice
I can't abide the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
Ahhhh.......He thrived within the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
This won't – suffice
Bring ice – bring ice
His tomb – his lair
Must have – cool air
He uttered then a piteous cry
He begged for ice as though he'd die
Without its chill, so ice I brought
Yet this was death with which we fought
The air grew warm and stifling hot
And as he melted into rot
That hollow voice I'd come to fear
Whispered fell into my ear
A thing I cannot bear, and yet
I laughed as if I could forget
I laughed as only the mad can do
And then I shrieked for then I knew
He spoke the thing which confirmed my fears
“I have been dead for eighteen years.”
I can't abide the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
He thrived within the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
He thrived within the cool air
I can't abide the cool air
credits
released October 24, 2016
Steve Babb, Jon Davison, Fred Schendel and Kamran Alan Shikoh
supported by 6 fans who also own “Cool Air (24 bit/44.1khz Hi-Res Edition)”
Proggy Fairy Tales in vein of "Foxtrot & Nursery Chryme" Genesis Classics.
Composition, Instrumental acumen, and Vocalization are all top notch.
An awesome yet nostalgic present day trip in Prog Rock.
Can't wait for Part II! Agent K
supported by 6 fans who also own “Cool Air (24 bit/44.1khz Hi-Res Edition)”
Absolutely hooked on this album from first listen. How rare is that with prog!??? Excellent songwriting and musicianship. Can’t wait to dive into the rest of the collection. Thomas Lock
supported by 6 fans who also own “Cool Air (24 bit/44.1khz Hi-Res Edition)”
BBT are standard bearers for modern prog, with a sound that evokes the spirit of those legendary 70s bands whilst managing to also be thoroughly contemporary. It's astonishing that over 30 minutes of music of this quality, with such high production values, is being made available for free - and their full albums are also very reasonably priced... Eleventh Earl of Blah
The Long Island metal band's third album etches arena-sized hooks into their jagged compositions, deftly balancing experimental and poppy inclinations. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 12, 2022
supported by 5 fans who also own “Cool Air (24 bit/44.1khz Hi-Res Edition)”
Avec la fin de mon adolescence et de ce fait la fin des années glorieuses du 'prog' jamais je n'aurai cru être de nouveau comblé par cette poésie, cette harmonie et cette musicalité qui sont la quintessence de BBT qui redonne au rock progressif ses lettres de noblesse...Merci Mellotronman