The second new i/o track is called The Court, which is about justice and the law. The lyrics move around these themes in free association. Gabriel says: "The justice or legal system is something that we impose to try and bring some element of order to the chaos. That's often abused, it's often unfair and discriminatory but at the same time it's probably an essential part of a civilised society."
The song is inspired in part by the work of NAMATI, which aims to give people around the world access to justice they could not otherwise afford.
At almost four and a half minutes long, The Court is quite short for Gabriel, considering that on Up the majority of tracks were between six and seven and a half minutes long. It is also noticeable that there is definitely nothing left of the world music sounds of past times. The music seems rather alienated and unwieldy.
Manu Katché had already mentioned the track in an interview last year. According to this, the song underwent a clear transformation during the band rehearsals, originally had a fast tempo, but was then radically slowed down (however, this is not clear from the excerpts of the published "Deep Dive Video").
Two music videos were released for the track, both of which illustrate the Dark-Side Mix and were awarded in Gabriel's #DiffuseTogether Competition. Here we have gathered some background information on the clips by Oranguerillatan and by Junie Lau.
As with Panopticom, the lyrics were formed from an original line. In the case of The Court, according to Gabriel, it was "And the court will rise". This sentence forms the short refrain, supplemented by "While the pillars all fall".
The verses each have four lines and consist of very associative statements that are more felt than thought. They describe the struggle to find security in social structures, describe confusion in confusing images.
And again and again, judgment rises while all the pillars fall.
In the middle section, which also comes to a musical climax, it is also proclaimed that the voice of the law can be heard, outside on the market where our lives are sold. In the last verse it finally becomes quite concrete: "We lost the line between the good and the bad [...] the sane and the mad".
A little sympathetically, it then says in the coda that so many are reaching out "for it".
On the whole, the lyrics remain elusive and are not half as concrete as those of Panopticom, for example. As a result, the whole song is more in the vague - which is, however, in line with its intention.
All lyrics of the album can be found on Peter Gabriel's website here.
The track is accompanied by a photo of the ritual installation Lifting the Curse by artist Tim Shaw. Gabriel first liked the picture and only then learned about the story behind it: The object, about three metres high and made of a metal framework with branches, fabric and charcoal inside, was burned at the end of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2021 to lift a "curse" pronounced by two artists a year earlier.
A photograph of this event (by Steve Tanner) represents the "cover" motif for the single.
We have gathered more about the artworks and artists behind it here.
As announced, Gabriel does not necessarily release the Bright-Side Mix for the full moon - in February we first get to the dark side of the music.
After a darkly creeping opening sound, a cool, sober groove starts - acoustic drums and electronically alienated sounds. An approaching drone, which we have already heard in a similar way on Birdy, then the first verse begins in chanting.
The song remains in high tension for its entire duration, lurking and a little inhospitable. For the chorus, which consists of only one phrase, the groove and accompaniment are pulled back, only to be picked up again with slight compression in the second verse.
After the third verse, a bridge section follows with roughly amplified drums and atonal, frantic strings. For the following verses, the arrangement again thickens slightly with more percussive elements and filling sound insertions.
After the fifth chorus, the song suddenly changes into a kind of interlude with the focus on piano, which seems somewhat warmer and more grounded. It turns out that this interlude leads seamlessly into a coda with a text passage repeated three times. The song ends quite unexpectedly as the arrangement becomes more dense, ending with a sparse chord.
Musically, the piece is not in the tradition of past Gabriel albums, but perhaps best in that of songs like The Veil. It is not a catchy tune, not to mention radio-friendly, but it has a dark tension and urgency.
On The Court, too, the regular band Katché, Levin, Rhodes laid the foundation. Here in the Dark-Side Mix, however, this is not as clear as on Panopticom. Electronics are too much in the foreground, which was provided by Richard Chappell and Brian Eno in addition to Gabriel himself.
It is remarkable that there is an orchestra section of about thirty musicians - strings and horns. Except for the bridge, however, there is not really anything to be heard of them. But this passage was particularly important to Gabriel. And it was pleasing for him that not only John Metcalfe was involved in the arrangement, but that many of the musicians from the ensemble of the Scratch My Back time were there again.
Gabriel also made a point of having his daughter Melanie sing backing vocals. He feels that there is something warm and "innocent" in her voice that he wanted to have in the song to counter the elements of coolness and rigidity that can be inherent in the world of justice.
The track was again produced solely by Gabriel. The mix (like all "Dark Side" mixes) was done by Tchad Blake.
Just in time for the February New Moon, the Bright-Side Mix of The Court is released. The release principle remains the same (at least as far as the two main mixes are concerned - see In-Side Mix below). And it proves once again that Mark 'Spike' Stent's mixes have a more airy and rounded feel. Gabriel thinks Spike loves balancing and assembling.
As with Panopticom, the weightiness is reduced here compared to the Dark-Side Mix. For example, the drone in the verses seems less oppressive, while in the short, calm chorus the basic rhythm clicks remain more present. In general, many musical details are more audible (percussion effects, cccompanying sounds) and in the middle section the strings are more emphasised (and now it is also noticeable that wind instruments are present - in low registers).
The coda, however, seems emptier because of the all-round restraint. The repeatedly sung "oh" remains weaker, in "remember justice is blind" individual voices become audible, which makes it sound less like a united choir. The song's conclusion thus makes a comparatively thin impression.
As with Panopticom, the instrumentation for the two mixes is the same. The weighting of the individual elements is just different. Surprisingly, however, Melanie Gabriel's contribution to the backing vocals, which Peter emphasised in his accompanying video as being so important to him, and which already remained rather inconspicuous in the Dark-Side Mix, has been completely omitted here (or at least reduced beyond recognition).
Contrary to the expectation that could be derived from the previous month, the In-Side Mix was released together with the Bright-Side Mix on the February New Moon. Apparently, apart from the two main mixes, the times for the other releases are not strictly fixed and are sometimes set differently.
This In-Side Mix once again is currently only available on Apple Music and Amazon Music. Like always Hans-Martin Buff is responsible for the mix.
From the basic rhythmic motif of the song, the individual percussive elements can be heard somewhat distributed in the sound picture. Already in the Dark-Side Mix, there are a few low electronic tones that resemble laughter shortly before the vocals start and during the swelling drone. While this element was completely omitted in the Bright-Side Mix, it reappears in the In-Side Mix. However, it is much more discreet and subtle.
In the following verse, short sounds can be heard that are not included in the other mixes and fill the vocal breaks. After the first chorus, the first orchestral elements start at exactly these points. Earlier than you know it from the other two versions. After the second chorus, rhythmic gimmicks between the lines surprise again. Here, additional percussion or drum accents can be heard, which were used exclusively for the In-Side Mix. Similar to Panopticom, exactly these accents sound almost unpleasantly loud in proportion. However, in this case one cannot speak of distortion or overdrive. So the effect is apparently intentional.
The drums, which herald the more orchestral part, sound very quiet and restrained in comparison. Similar to the Bright-Side Mix, however, the orchestra comes into its own a little more overall. In the last verse, the instrumentation increases with a mixture of percussion and orchestra.
The outro then sounds subdued and especially the piano and drums seem comparatively restrained. In the lead vocal, similar to the Bright-Side Mix, Peter is clearly more in the foreground than Melanie. The polyphonic vocals heard in the other mixes seem somewhat thinned out here and less like a choir.
Overall, one gets the impression that the In-Side Mix oscillates a bit between Dark Side and Bright Side due to its instrumentation, but at the same time also has its own elements and its own line to offer. As with Panopticom, 3D-elements were not overused and thus have a rather tasteful, restrained effect.
The promised further version of The Court took quite a long time to arrive - then in mid-March it was delivered (one day after the waning crescent moon). It is the so-called Pre Band Demo. This is the version recorded with a synthetic band, which was given to the real studio band for preparation. All the essential elements of the later song are already together, but a certain simplicity is also perceptible, which is obviously meant to be filled.
The demo is exclusively reserved for Bandcamp subscribers.
The drum loop does not differ much from the later finished piece; due to the missing filler sounds, some details even become more audible. Even the approaching bass beat sounds very much like the later final result.
For the chorus line "and the court will rise", the arrangement is cut back even further than known from the other mixes. In the further course, the verse accompaniment hardly undergoes any changes, let alone an increase, and continues rather uniformly. The middle section is dominated by dark electric piano with added synthie dabs that replace the orchestra - everything is also very simple.
The final part is particularly gentle and withdrawn - something is still clearly missing here. There is a textless vocal improvisation by Gabriel instead of the sung lines ("so many reaching for it...") and the answer ("you know that justice...") is also omitted. Otherwise, all lyrics are identical to the finished version.
This final part, by the way, is much shorter than in the official mixes, which explains the shorter total running time.
Towards the end, the version runs dry, the rhythm loop breaks off abruptly.
Since this is the Pre Band Demo, no one else was involved here but Gabriel himself. Technical support was provided by Dickie Chappell, who also contributed to the rhythm programming.
The recording is basically of high quality, made with effort and attention to certain details. Elements like the rhythm loop and the bass beat are even finished. In the overall experience, however, it remains the preliminary version of an unfinished piece.
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