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Retrofuturism

by Funan Beat Empire

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hansbik
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hansbik long awaited album after having seen them live multiple times!! Favorite track: Megacity.
JulietteWibaut
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JulietteWibaut Amazing album, powerful... love it !
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1.
Megacity 04:07
VERSE 1 (Mike Dynamo) You don’t trust people but you trust technology? You really think men lie women lie and numbers don’t? Who gave you the numbers? What contract did you sign to get that device Play with your porn and Pop your soma! Anything to dull the pain from the highjacking of your brain Spinning out till the techs too complex for the unenhanced man Do you even have the credits to afford the prosthetics? You don’t trust people but you trust your senses? You corporations learned how to manipulate those first Breaking down the nerves so you never feel nada It’s a utopia For anyone more than a product VERSE 2 (Initial G) March into the drudgery bludgeoning up the burgeoning masses surgeons cutting virgins up into powder like detergent i’m yearning for the turning of the tide that will right the burning desire to exit the inferno Republic gone septic So cryptic are the laws that govern the infernal machine that keeps spurning the will of the majority bullying the minority sacrificing the core of me pumping the authority so march in ya VERSE 3 (Mike Dynamo) Black jackets New funk Afropunk We’ll never be owned New order Cyberthump It’s the beat that’ll lead toward the revolution It won’t be televised but the execution will be showing world wide First digital homicide Cut the brains off from the hive mind It’ll hurt at first But it’ll hurt the megacorps more to impede and shift the bottom line Hackers and mindjackers are on the front lines While cryptocurrency is our gold mine We barely trust each other but we have to Because we know full well we can’t trust you. Eyes open Overlay Reality Augmented Can’t trust what you see or what anyone says It’s not over but it’s damn close And we aint winning yet But we will strike a blow VERSE 4 (Initial G) Throw away all of your dreams and learn to glean that reward only lies in between the lean mean money making machine that’s bustin at the seams while ya megacity grows nasty from clean while residents like refugees are fleeing no hope of ever being freed corporate greed is about to deplete all of the resources And all of the green like the horsemen of the apocalypse just recovered their steeds the megacity no longer safe for the teens the air sound and water pollution always careens the parks and riverside no longer serene just look at the overpopulated area you’re in Blast it can’t block out the sirens and the backed up traffic the homeless and the criminals make it seem so drastic rampant prostitution drug peddling so classic pride of the city now lies flaccid dripping acid corroding ya fair city and smelling so rancid how would you go about killing the cancer I asked the question who’s got the answer globalization urbanization leading population displacement no disposable income causing frustration suicides and homicides the new norm of capitalism’s abrasion trying my patience downfall of my generation
2.
Candyman 03:42
Verse 1 (Last Honest Man - Initial G) Stop drop and roll but I bet you still can’t put the fire out in ya soul that burning desire that obese greed that feeds little seeds that breeds the hunger for the little sweet beads that the candyman feeds when they start doing bad deeds fill their mad needs for the sad treats the craving for riches scratching their itches till their petty crimes turn into encumbering twitches while the programming glitches till the innocence switches and they become society’s leeches that beseech us to let them profess whatever the candyman preaches whatever the mirror teaches to the candyman’s creatures Verse 2 (Candyman - Mike Dynamo) We want You! To really feel that you have a place here Forget anything you’ve heard on those fake news programs about the EVILS of what we do. Those people just hate success! You’re family now Don’t you want to be part of a rich and powerful family Of course you do It’s not like you can take care of yourself. Verse 3 (Last Honest Man - Initial G) Focus narrow down on the locus you’ve already been taken in by the hocus pocus the candyman’s the fire starter you’re fire stokers you’re like demons some fallen angels just invoke us the wolves of wall street beelzebub’s brokers here to pollute the environment mute the siren of the warning of the fatal attraction that the planet earth is mired in it's all wired in to our most basic thinking where your money gonna float to when the whole world is sinking media circus but not from brothers like ringling the aftermath of the apocalypse still lingering Verse 4 (Candyman - Mike Dynamo) What you have is an opportunity to be best! To put difficult decisions in the hands of your betters I mean those better equipped to make good choices for you We’re the ones that went to the best schools Crafted all the best rules Rules that help you help us best our enemies and build the best society for us to rule over I mean live in We know all the best people. We are the best people. Verse 5 (Last Honest Man - Initial G v Candyman - Mike Dynamo) Candyman: You keep pretending that you’re not happy with your life and nobody likes a liar It’s trickle-down economics we trickle down more work for you to do to give you purpose Last Honest Man: But that's the con that lets you remain the don while I become the pawn Why do you get the stream while I get the trickle where you enslave my offspring to be indebted to your fucking spawn Candyman: That’s because family matters Continuity Legacy You’d give the world to your kids if you owned it. We do Including your environment That’s why we drill where we like but not where we are Last Honest Man: Some of us might act like we’re the heir apparent but the government’s never been our fucking parent Opioid addiction got lost eyes staring while legal alcoholics straight judging them glarin Epilogue (Candyman - Mike Dynamo) And maybe If you work hard enough for us buy our products and do everything we tell you We’ll let you think you’re as good as we are And that ain’t nothing Of course we’ll have our best laughs about you behind your back. We the best But we invite you to keep trying. You eat the candy from the candyman We’ll eat the filet mignon, the lobster tails, and the gold leaf Just so our shit can shine like justice Something else we own, by the way. I advocate for the greatness of our collective I market to you a magical world Infecting your brain with the notion of meritocracy We let you think you matter to us because you do You really do If you didn’t do all this labor we’d have to though we’d take the whip to your ass long before that’d happen. This is economics This is your education and acceptance to middle management This is you doing your best to keep the rabble in line Until we decide to let you die
3.
Dark Tower 03:07
VERSE 1 (Initial G) Dark tower bow down to the higher power where the dark priests They congregated to devour leaving their skin torched, scorched and scoured still empowered where all your happiness turns sour where extra dimensional beings glower as the clock strikes the twelfth hour the menace that wilts the flower leaving virgins deflowered in the acid rain showers where the cowards they towered where the heroes they cowered disposition dour the monolith the one with the columns split call em filth the scholars built a monument for the fallen guilt appalling lilt coming from them swollen gills disappear behind the rolling hills hit em with the emboldened skills trying to grasp the golden pills the blood it spills civilization’s ills the hope it kills crushing wills settling for cheaper thrills costing steeper bills as the reaper steals what’s real CHORUS You ask me! The whole world’s coming down around our heads Who you push in the thresher to get your bread For who’s fortune have you bled Did they unravel your mind pull your thread You ask me! The whole world’s coming down around our heads Who you push in the thresher to get your bread For who’s fortune have you bled Did they unravel your mind pull your thread VERSE 2 (Mike Dynamo) I’ve been careful with nothing I think despair got me I traveled the college route and felt the debt squash me I can’t breathe I can’t sleep Even the money that I make don’t really belong to me All I wanted was to see Was the view from the ivory tower find a patch of sky to raise a family I didn't make it I couldn't even see it Only the images of it flashing at me from my phone screen The good life Where the one percent sits with their gifts and labels me a nuisance Because I want what they get Am I a hypocrite or a devil worshipping capitalist Sacrilegious To speak ill of the money The only god all of us respect The same criminal that puts the knife on your neck Is the same one that's signing your wage slave check. The same one leave you screaming in crime alley But now I’m ass out Forced forever to do without Stuck in a loop Only one way to cash out Take what I can til I burn out CHORUS You ask me! The whole world’s coming down around our heads Who you push in the thresher to get your bread For who’s fortune have you bled Did they unravel your mind pull your thread You ask me! The whole world’s coming down around our heads Who you push in the thresher to get your bread For who’s fortune have you bled Did they unravel your mind pull your thread You ask me!
4.
Give it up 03:57
Intro (Mike Dynamo) Crime pays Crime pays because crime cares Crime fixes what nobody can repair Crime feeds Crime needs Crime’ll open up your heart to watch it bleed What about trolls? Raise a glass folks This next track goes out to the bad guy. VERSE 1 (Mike Dynamo) What do you do when nobody gives a shit about you or the things that you want or what you dared to flaunt some kind of bespoke cosmic joke made for the cruelest entities who love everything petty In the face of the dereliction of grace No coordination save the twitches on your face No illumination save depictions of your rage in your own imagination No one should be saved Why give a damn about anybody else For your morality Drop it like it’s too heavy Claim a power famine Make it happen Grab it, build it smack it wear it down until you have it Minimal resistance is a gift innit Went from pumped up kicks to a data mining business And if And if crime pays Supercrime reshapes History, economics and even mindscapes If what we need resists the great greed then you rolls with henchmen to arch enemies Breakdown (Initial G) Let’s take a moment for the dearly departed though not highly regarded who got what they had coming for all the shit that they started CHORUS (Mike Dynamo) Give it up for the bad guy! (Initial G) Dark Clouds, they gather in the sky It’s time for the truth seekers to ride Manipulators there’s no place to hide Cause the Funan Beat Empire dont’ take no sides (Mike Dynamo) Give it up for the bad guy! (Initial G) Dark Clouds, they gather in the sky It’s time for the truth seekers to ride Manipulators there’s no place to hide Cause the Funan Beat Empire dont’ take no sides VERSE 2 (Initial G) I launch like a nuclear warhead And when I step into the theater I leave the whole war dead Have you force fed On a farce that forks left Where your retorts kept came to collect on all your lost debt Leaving scores bled out On your whore’s bed Eating some smores While you’re snored out on your bedstead Missed out on a jetset lifestyle Now you’re bored instead Just sordidly appease Those binge eating till they’re morbidly obese I’m polarized like a polaroid whatever the opposite of bi-polar is Freud Solitary like a polar bear Uh But spare me the lecture While I’m glaring brighter than a solar flare So step into my polar lair Blanketed in icy cold winds Frozen stalactites and stalagmites Watch me with a polar stare While I write I’m tasting pickles Of icicles My throat tickles But in my belly there are only ripples Fingers crippled with frostbite Hypothermia unless I’m thawed right The Iceman cometh Ushering the ice age And thus this glacial tundra becomes the right stage Even though my mettle stands currently thrice gauged Even though my rage is currently thrice blazed CHORUS (Mike Dynamo) Give it up for the bad guy! (Initial G) Dark Clouds, they gather in the sky It’s time for the truth seekers to ride Manipulators there’s no place to hide Cause the Funan Beat Empire dont’ take no sides (Mike Dynamo) Give it up for the bad guy! (Initial G) Dark Clouds, they gather in the sky It’s time for the truth seekers to ride Manipulators there’s no place to hide Cause the Funan Beat Empire dont’ take no sides Dark Clouds, they gather in the sky It’s time for the truth seekers to ride Manipulators there’s no place to hide Cause the Funan Beat Empire dont’ take no sides
5.
VERSE 1 (Initial G) The prospect of peace has been properly made into a monopoly of sloppily thinking oligopolies incorporated and fated away from those of us lowly rated the credit traded dead debated disenfranchised and the uneducated the deception is porous why cuz the laws are for us politicians quit chiming in like a chorus quit thinking we keep shafting them but the poor adore us never forget there's more of us and less of you so confess your views And call a truce before there's nothing left of you but propaganda juice clues I leave behind in these schools spouting all these rules led to believe only to eventually be led to be relieved a gold watch and a plaque and a pittance of your salary white collar nightmare inevitable malady how do we validly protect ourselves from placidly letting these powerbrokers parody our very reality cmon get mad with me about the paradox of inequality while we savagely ravage the rabid and the ragged and dab at the scabs of those already treated lavishly that's trash to me all the hero worship from the fanboys and fangirls leading to nothing when the fad downward spirals but viral is the name of the game these days you know, whatever the internet plays who cares whose eyes is glazed friends and family don’t seem fazed CHORUS (Mike Dynamo) It’s all happening at the same time 10 different dimensions all spinning at the same point What thine eyes haven’t seen is the ending Time may be linear to you but it’s uh naked to me It’s all happening at the same time 10 different dimensions all spinning at the same point What thine eyes haven’t seen is the ending Time may be linear to you but it’s uh naked to me VERSE 2 (Initial G) As the gunpowder pours out from the barrel I start to channel all the blood spilled on my apparel soaking like I walked in from a downpour I cure my need to be sure of the curves to the contour until I lure away all your distaste because hate recognize hate like game recognize game until you combine in the shame from whence I came to what I became it must be the price of fame VERSE 3 (Initial G) All icons eventually become bygones Taking less space on their Nikons As they get bombed out like Saigon That’s the cost of going digital Try not to lose the visual The more you go virtual The less you stay physical You knew this feeling was visceral But you went and called it mystical Stop please don’t be so statistical Cuz your actions indicate you are egotistical You ain’t ready for these fisticuffs My encryption Doesn’t fit any description You’re in need of help now Um fill out the prescription I live a life so unreal it must seem like fiction And I can never be too fussed with my depiction That is straight sick son Now you need to pick one You choose you lose You snooze you get used This just goes to prove You’re not over your addiction Of peeling off the scabs Off your affliction CHORUS (Mike Dynamo) It’s all happening at the same time 10 different dimensions all spinning at the same point What thine eyes haven’t seen is the ending Time may be linear to you but it’s uh naked to me It’s all happening at the same time 10 different dimensions all spinning at the same point What thine eyes haven’t seen is the ending Time may be linear to you but it’s uh naked to me
6.
Collision 03:41
Opening Skit (Police (Initial G) vs. Protester (Mike Dynamo)) G: Officers, maintain a perimeter and hold the line Mike: Yo why won’t they let us in here G: Sir, we are trying to maintain law and order Mike: Uh uh this is a peaceful protest there is no law and order to maintain here G: Sir you need to step back ten paces Mike: Step back? I’m not even moving! This is a peaceful protest G: This is an authorized zone only Mike: Yeah This is an authorized protest G: Sir stop breaching! Mike: Yo Chill out man! Chill out man! G: Sir stop reaching into your pants! Mike: I’ve got my hands up, man! I’ve got my hands up! G: Officers, Open fire! Verse 1 (Initial G) All this anarchy sounds like a lot of malarkey cuz when you fall below a certain shade you're just a darkie but when I wear the blue, green and khaki none of you slackers can mock me you're mackerel I’m the shark see I mean it's kinda your fault partly if I'm not the good guy your vision is distorted like a scanner darkly and ya disrespect is gonna leave ya children's tears sparkling Verse 2 (Mike Dynamo) Whether it’s the public square of the DMZ Where mortar shells could fall and end everything Or whether it’s the steps of the capitol building Where we fight for the laws determining our needs Or it’s the stoop of the house where your children sleep And we want payback for tainted water we drink Or it’s the heart of the violence inside of a riot Where nazis get punched for all their fascist lies just know CHORUS We won’t come alone Alone… alone Just know… Just know No We won’t come alone Alone… alone Just know… Just know No We won’t come alone Alone… alone Just know… Just know No We won’t come alone Just know… Just know Epilogue Verse (Initial G) I wanna talk directly to the polarized masses populists progressives get up off your asses authorities wanna govern with extreme prejudice while runaway licentiousness falls off the precipice United we never stood and divided we fell regardless which side you choose we still chose hell but I guess everything ebbs and everything rises so we might as well bet on the winners gambler's license
7.
Verse 1 (Initial G) No hesitation in the face of instigation incineration of your own manic inclination no indication of your intent to go for syndication the vindication exploring your own intonation spitting in the face of infiltration no insulation silly no relevance to the implication that leads to your insulation enforced intrinsic application the stipulation of capricious constipation catapulting over your own subjugation the objectification of a cause for incarceration a constant consternation the condensation of conscious lyrics in a cogent compilation a con of a conversation the undulation of the common denominator Initial G the coroner of this callous convocation a cause of frustration when you try to figure out the connotation don’t give me pause for consecration Verse 2 (Mike Dynamo) I do! Whatever I wanna do I don't ask permission I don't even switch position see My gaze is orbital Everything happening I got the math that captures reality I see Each thing you try to be A homunculus of all of the worst bits of humanity You are on the wrong side of history I am Whatever you say I am Beyond the jam I preside over the harvest I'm the smartest when it comes these metaphors and references defecate on your memory like time traveler's diarrhea Dynamic Halving Gift to the gods Accept the blessing Dynamo having un All he needs Smothered in dressingik The caloric intake gets greater as I feast on emcees all comers Welcome to Valhalla Verse 3 (Initial G) Cynicism in miniscule lyricism the heresy of villainous schisms prisms affecting these baptisms missions bigger than your visions so scrape off those scabs of legions of lesions that you get from wheels you’ve been greasing trying too hard to always be appeasing and you wonder why your actions always get rewarded with treason infecting your breathing I can hear ya lungs wheezing hearts already seizing but life was always only teasing Verse 4 (Mike Dynamo) You could set sail on the waves we creating Get Lost in a waterworld till you drinking your own disease I surf on these seismic creations birthed by the greatness of the Funan Beat .Empire no desire Is ever more empty than achieving great fame without respect Self disconnects as spiritual threats mount to unravel everything you've ever been about Live long enough to see yourself become the villain? I'll live long enough to feel myself become the rhythm I create As the lyrical magistrate Magician administering law Enforcer of this infernal syndicate No more imagination Only unfounded righteous indignation Hatred in a bottle Exploding and trying to take all of us with you. We aint going You can’t kill us Find out Verse 5 (Initial G) All this cognitive dissonance keeps giving me visions since these missions got blitzed in my innocence got me tender like venison poet like lord tennyson kept giving cynics the pittance when critics kept menacing shut em out and kept finishing first cuz I thirst for the truth I used to lust for the loot but I was worse for the boot kicked out the clinic I had to be nursed up to toot my own horn but I was cursed to the root and that's why that shit never ever felt right
8.
VERSE 1 Thinking like an eco terrorist Bury this terrible Insensitive narrative That this is the way it is Like it’s always been That what the science says somehow won’t affect me The heat is unbearable More so, every year The storms we endure Take more of our brethren The coasts are prohibited Unless you’re amphibious Or richer than the reptiles choking the populous ...Hearts darker than black lung So profit motivated they must think they got a new planet to live on Oily ocean water Dying aquatic giants Herald the ending reliance On the sea that birthed us Eternally tenuous alliance ready to be severed An angry goddess with a grudge to carry A water woman scorned Bearing down on us biding her time Before she turns the 7 billion of us into food for worms Provided that the sun won’t first scorch us… stuff us in urns VERSE 2 I don’t… Feel fear But only cause I don’t think about it ..The planet’s gonna burn without me The planets gonna burn with me doing what I’ve been And that’s thinking I can make a difference.. by myself… Without everyone else We’re all forgettable We stay up on the shelf We see our power suppressed or co-opted by our leaders When we need to uncork and out power all those blood feeders 100 Companies 71 percent of Emissions choking out our lives supported by our governments Somebody’s getting rich. Rich enough to avoid filthy air like we breathe at street level Rich enough to outrun a tsunami bearing down on our cities folding buildings like origami When the futures sold for duckets By the people that we trusted Planet of the humans end up as dust The Funan Beat Empire… The Funan Beat Empire... They know who they are We… Know who they are Inception your mind! You think you put those ideas in your head Or is that your television education Are we distracted or brain dead They know who they are We know who they are How will we heal a planet sized scar Can humanity survive like this Can humanity survive the blitz The hurricanes and the tidal waves Brought about by a hateful nature Uncover more hateful nature Can humanity survive like this Can humanity survive like this Uh! We eat the rich or we eat each other We only love one another for the flavor
9.
Hold on! What do you know! You speak of streets like there’s pavement in your bones Like you been drinking not to know To feel the pain with every blow Cause each one is low! To make sense of the movement It’s about more than… who you gotta hit You lashing out will leave you whipped You calculate it wrong and them boys are gonna watch you drip Blood from wounds Cash from contusions The broken always pay.. You think you want a fair shake but that’s some bull shit that they invented to keep us complacent! So take it all Everything you want The war of structure’s never over til we own t

credits

released April 17, 2021

Produced by Funan Beat Production
Recorded By Elie Ommering at "Funan Beat Studios" (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Mixed By Elie Ommering at "Funan Beat Studios"(Phnom Penh, Cambodia) and"Studio de la voisine" (Asquins, France)
Mastered By Blanka at "Kasablanka Mastering" (Marseille, France)
Cover by David SN

Mike Dynamo : MC/Lyrics
Initial G : MC/Lyrics
Pierre Lenormand : Programming, Drums, Synths
Adrien Gayraud: Bass synths

Sreng Naline, Sreng Sopheary, Sokha Vipouy, Veng Sreyoun: Khmer Vocals on Megacity
Juliette "Shiny" Wibaut: bird calls on Candyman,
Niko Yu: Cuts on Desert of the real

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