the chills, “ submarine bells,”
from: Submarine Bells, 1990
“Snow alights as dark sea grows
Then far below lies softly glowing
Snow turns slowly into water
I know deep down hidden in you submarine bells chime
Gold and groaning, sunlit toning, submerged sound sublime
So the colder, deeper tolling
Reaches dissolution
You wish a vicious whirlpool go swirling round and round
I can watch in wonder as your gaze shifts past my shoulder
Just a glimpsed abyss that flashes at me
I know deep down hidden in you submarine bells chime
Gold and groaning, sunlit toining, submerged sound sublime
Since the weakest currents bruise it
Someday I may lose this
Immersed in words sand miss you
Kiss foaming waves goodbye
I slice the surface here beside you
Lungs filled liquid yell I love you
Sound moves further underwater
Deep and dark my submarine bells groan in greens and grey
Mine would chime a thousand times
To make you feel okay
K-k-k okahy”
A quiet, gift-giving anthem by any measure, from an indispensably organic record, courtesy of this legendary New Zealand band. If music can heal anyone, this composition is a leading candidate. The records’ interplays mesh together like the secret joinery found in the competing elaborations of Japanese temples. Seeking the divine, the zany, structural peacefulness of those wily carpenter monks. “ I know deep down hidden in you submarine bells chime.” It just gives you the chills!
