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Old Chestnut

by Ned Collette

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  • Streaming + Download

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

      $15 AUD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *INTERNATIONAL BUYERS ESPECIALLY EUROPE - you may want to order yours from Ned Directly in Berlin to save on postage: music.nedcollette.com/album/old-chestnut

    and US BUYERS Feeding Tube Records out of Massachusetts are doing a slightly different version of this release which you can order here: feedingtuberecords.com/releases/old-chestnut

    12" vinyl in deluxe gatefold cover w. 6mm spine and lyric printed inner sleeves.
    Hand-drawn cover artwork by Maria Torres.
    Mastered beautifully and cut for vinyl by Rashad Becker at D&M in Berlin.
    limited edition of 300.
    Black Vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Old Chestnut via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 300  3 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $45 AUD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LIMITED TO 450 COPIES WORLDWIDE! (Only 100 of which are available here) 2x12" bottle green/bluebell coloured vinyl in single jacket w. 6mm spine. Includes lyric printed inner sleeves and colour A3 poster. Hand-drawn cover artwork by Maria Torres. Mastered beautifully and cut for vinyl by Rashad Becker at D&M in Berlin. Includes download code.

    This edition is split release between It Records and Feeding Tube Records in the US. Pressed at Burlington Record plant.

    *Pre-Order - Please note these have not landed in Australia yet. I expect them by the end of June.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Old Chestnut via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 21 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $40 AUD

     

  • CD version
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Long playing CD in gatefold card sleeve.
    Four page lyric insert.
    Hand-drawn cover artwork by Maria Torres.

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

    Sold Out

  • Second Pressing: Ultra limited edition split colour swirl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *PLEASE NOTE - found one last copy - opened gently to confirm it was the swirl version ( you can't tell from the sleeve) Still mint, shrinkwrap is just opened.


    LIMITED TO 50 COPIES WORLDWIDE! (Only 20 available here) 2x12" split bottle green/bluebell swirl vinyl in single jacket w. 6mm spine. Includes lyric printed inner sleeves and colour A3 poster. Hand-drawn cover artwork by Maria Torres. Mastered beautifully and cut for vinyl by Rashad Becker at D&M in Berlin. Includes download code.

    This edition and the other coloured edition (the rest of the second pressing) are a split release between It Records and Feeding Tube Records in the US. Pressed at Burlington Record plant.

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

    Sold Out

1.
Oh Man 05:31
Oh Man Back then ’07 oh man, I broke my heart in two I did it all myself but I blamed it all on you We had it all before us — what you said was true But I had to let it go so I blamed it all on you Young man, young girl, young town, young aspirations too But when we had it all I just didn’t know what to do And now I’m looking back and life’s not bad it’s true But back then I’m sorry for that I blamed it all on you
2.
Thanks Richard Michael is a misanthrope, he likes to play around with his girl, Shannon Imogen’s a student now, she likes to play around with the canon Frederike takes it slow and makes sure all the men she knows can talk before they sing her to the stars And up above the city walls buzz the things that make it all so pretty See the clouds set up on high they sit upon a Simpsons sky and monitor the century’s mad capers The morning after never looked so good now nights a wholly planned and dictated by all the trashy papers The trains they rock and roll but no one ever leaves the room Right beside the banker’s note are other things his mother wrote when she was proud that he was simply normal Now he’s excused from things to do —he tried too hard, he has the flu His girl is acting strange and rather formal Pieces fall down off the wall in soup she made from cannonballs as he announces he would like to study But all the world’s great mystery is not wrapped in psychology at all Richard’s staying with a friend, they used to have a thing back then, y’know —it went as far as it was able He hadn’t seen her new guy yet until one day they finally met, sitting having breakfast at the table Sat there eating cereal but that was immaterial as he gazed upon a younger version of himself The girl turned red and went to bed, the other actors retired to the kitchen shelf Out upon the Brighton Downs, lives a boy whose father frowns at everything, the boy attempts to do Up above his caravan, he lies alone and when he can he listens for the sound of afternoon The old man often comes a knocking cheerful voice if slightly mocking —the boy he never gives up his position Why then when they ever meet is the old man so harsh and fleet It really is a curious exhibition
3.
Grant's Farm 07:14
Grant’s Farm All that you have ever been and all I’ll ever want Have always been the same to me, a stony debutant But the time it went by sleeping, it’s a river rolling by It’s a song that never ends It’s already half a life ago You were at the wheel the car was sailing with its load We watched the city turn it’s back into a forest blue Fingers straight and sweeping to the sky We picked up three who’d walked the mountain marking out their way We sat and stood in groups around the field And as the darkness gathered in depending from the stars The earth began to cry... Talk to me, you know you are my friend All the rest are drifting off alone There’s a frost but we can make a fire This blackness streamed with gold Everything ahead is blindness The further out you look the more you wish But careful now that could be Saturn, bloody at the mouth —we children of this age his favourite dish We talked about the people now, impervious and sold We talked about our will against the dark Oh see us now! We’re glowing minuscule against the world forgotten and forgetting... And in the morning you’ll wake with another and my eyes will have barely even closed and driving back we’ll split our love into its silent halves a silent song that never ends Come to me, you know you were my friend And all the rest have drifted off alone What the cost these emerald desires? Blackness streamed with gold Blackness streamed with gold.
4.
5.
Carriage Six 03:36
Carriage Six Who can breathe life into the winding vales of decrepitude We chip away at others’ work, —where they could, twelve for each of our one Oh those bastards of stamina and death Making me feel pale every time I draw breath Sally makes her way down avenues lined with the dust of bricks And I am fully awake 4am habitual lying in the dark steady breath Maybe this is death hands too heavy for the pen, doubt in every crack every shadow sighing with familiar terror I get up the only man alive The living room is caught by surprise not formed for the day, liquid in the grey a dirty white shaft of light Together we share a secret this day and I I have known them since birth —all the following comings and goings are just the daily play for I have seen the carriage of the Earth
6.
Sacred Cats 08:03
7.
The Optimist 04:54
The Optimist Well can you feel the change? It’s coming like a storm The knife that turned our friends to ghosts is still bloody and warm But oh, I’ve got special people around calling out to take me on their way Anything for freedom’s what they’ve said for years But maybe now the years are free the saying will disappear ‘cause look can you see the torches being lit, or is the scene unclear from the boards on which you sit? And oh, now I’ve gotta take a pill —I’d regale you with my symptoms but it just might make you ill And oh, there’s a hammer coming down But worse has fallen than you can deliver And who will you be in the autumn new? Of all the branches shed their leaves just in time to renew Well you my love can hold a flame through winter to the spring and maybe, just maybe we’ll steal the future Come on it’s not dark enough to call it all a day (see the boat that’s still sailing in old Magellan’s way —the sun is glinting softly on the curves of his beloved that door it beckons just a touch unjustly) But oh, now I’ve gotta find a pill —I’d regale you with my symptoms but it just might break your will And look can you see a hammer coming down? But worse has fallen than you can deliver ...and the sound it makes is clearer than a river
8.
Sunday 04:13
9.
June 11:09
June June goes through the park glistening in the dark Hasn’t slept three days still feels pretty okay June works at the hall —ceremonial balls Hollow eyes that stare Dead men one and all June lies on the grass Didn’t even pass Looks into the sky Cannot help but cry June has lost a friend painful at the end Never thought she’d say that she wished it the other way June has forty pounds Doesn’t make a sound —lock and slip away into a grey old day Energy and sand June has freezing hands Sky without a sun June is on the run June is very high Rocks and grass on high Hasn’t moved for hours Wind beats little flowers June where are you now? Pallid light on skin barely filters in Didn’t even search... ...June has turned to earth
10.
Shinobazu 03:13
11.
Snaky Song 05:31
Snaky Song Little Father Nepotism takes you in his arms he wants to be the boy who grew when you were through with wondering what came from underneath All the girls you used to know and kiss behind the shelter of your day He’ll take your clothes and your betrothed and make them in his image and his way No wonder you look so forlorn inside this devil’s club —the men they lie They fall around the bearded young bear cub, he’s down but he ain’t gonna die Their platitudes are pieced together monuments to rope and leather dances Their weapons wrong their snaky song will kill you before you’ve even had your chances... Mother Ruth got no good proof she just takes what she wants to from the papers She’s listened for an hour to channel four and now she doesn’t trust the neighbours And now we’re here ’til we’re a hundred clinging to a wasting rock, what reverie! While most the others open eyes take one good look then promptly die —it’s everyone but you
12.
Wakanui 04:43
13.
Stateless Brave A grid upon the starry sky is burning red The birds whipped into frenzy by the light There’s millions moving stateless brave through silent rain I close my eyes and silent say goodnight
14.
Animal Swoon 02:29
Animal Swoon A prism of your life before before this stupid endless war against an enemy that just gives and gives gives and gives and gives and gives new life, new life, new life, new life something odd in the backyard now it’s gone it’s just shard of a former body being of a former way of seeing friends and fire disagreeing mediocre thoughts are freeing cannon fodder, extra thin starved of context starved of sin fire it at your diplomats it’ll barely shift their hats youth is moral, age is meat now it will be nice and neat youth is meat and age beset by forever — life to get turn your compass to the moon cold and dusty, animal swoon animal friendly, animal strikes at the surface, all you like all you’ve clicked on, all you’ve clicked on... all you’ve clicked on, all that crap is it ugly? ignore that press a button, button fat lookout boy, what kind of life is that? pages will be meted out according to the level of engagement we’ll be meeting out, according to the level of... promote your engagement engage your promoters you are now the promoters you are now the engagement you are now the engagers you are now the engaging you are now the promotion you are now the promotion.

about

It Records is proud to release the stunning new double album from Melbourne/ Berlin singer-songwriter Ned Collette: Old Chestnut. A truly accomplished work, a gorgeous dark folk opus, fleshed out in lush but precise and sparkling instrumentation thanks to a band of extraordinary collaborators. Featuring regular Wirewalker cohorts Joe Talia (who also co-produced the album with Collette) and Ben Bourke, plus Alexander Garsden, cellist Anthea Caddy, and piano from The Necks’ Chris Abrahams.
Ned says that Old Chestnut is the first album he has made that “feels like the albums I always wanted to make. It’s just messy enough, elaborate enough, simple enough, improvised and collaborative enough...” and it does feel like Old Chestnut is an elevation, and that with it, he has attained a level of songcraft that transcends his already impressive back catalogue. With snippets written as far back as 2008 and 4 years since his last album release, it’s been a long journey. The resultant work is cohesive and articulate in a way few albums are. A mixture of melancholy balladry interwoven with daedal and often delicate instrumentals that not only frame and anchor the “songs” but beautifully showcase the calibre of Collette’s arrangements and musicianship. This is the record that will etch the name Ned Collette into the lexicon of great Australian songwriters.

credits

released August 24, 2018

Ned Collette: voice, guitar, piano, bass, synths, percussion, recorder

Joe Talia: drums, machines, drum machines

Ben Bourke: Moog and vocals on Sacred Cats, vocals on Snaky Song

Anthea Caddy: vocals on Grant’s Farm, cello on The Optimist, cello and vocals on June 

Alexander Garsden: steel string guitar on The Optimist 


& Chris Abrahams: piano on June 


Recorded and mixed by Ned Collette and Joe Talia in Berlin and Melbourne 


Mastered by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin

Cover Artwork by Maria Torres

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it records Melbourne, Australia

Underground music out of Melbourne, Australia

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