Before the Fall

[Intro ] [slow breakbeat, sub pulse building from silence, 72 BPM] [Verse 1 — 72 BPM, nocturnal, melancholic, sparse] I've seen the water rising At the edges of the square The merchants still are trading And the children still are there The temples are still standing The priests still know their lines But I have read the ocean And I have read the signs And there is something in the knowing That I cannot quite explain The most beautiful of sunsets Always come before the rain~ [Verse 2 — 88 BPM, breakbeat enters harder, analog synth stabs begin, bass becomes syncopated] I watched the engineers Debate the walls Heard philosophers argue In the marble halls Lovers making promises Beneath the amber light None of them are wrong None of them are right Because what is civilisation But a dream we all agree? Atlantis was the boldest map Of all we'd never see [Instrumental break — 100 BPM] [Breakbeat swings harder, cello ostinato rises in pitch, wide stereo pads sweep left to right, spring reverb on snare, parallel compression kicks in, sub pulse doubles — 8 bars pure chase energy] [Verse 3 — 112 BPM, shorter phrases, urgency building] Now the water's at my door Now the square is gone Now the temples crack and fall Now I can't hold on The priests have stopped their lines The merchants dropped their gold The children aren't running They're too young to be told And I'm standing in the middle Of everything I knew Watching Atlantis Come undone Come through [Pre-Chase — 120 BPM] I said I wouldn't run I said I'd stand and stare But the wave has got a name now And that name is everywhere It's in the stone It's in the prayer It's in the gold beneath my feet It's in the air It's in the street It's in my chest It's in my— [CHASE SEQUENCE — 144 BPM, full breakbeat explosion] [Swung breakbeats, off-grid kick snare, tape saturation, all elements collide] Running through the marble now The columns fall behind Every door I built is underwater Every road — The water takes the archive first Then takes the square Then takes the— I built this Every stone I laid this Every— The wave does not hate Atlantis As it pulls it from the— Beautiful We were beautiful Before the— [BREAKDOWN — sudden silence, single cello note] [Final Hook — 144 BPM but sparse, just voice and sub pulse] Before the fall~ [beat drops back in, half time feel] We were beautiful Before the wave We touched the sky [full band returns, slower now, exhausted] Before the end~ We were every~thing Before the fall~ [longest pause] Before good~bye~ [Outro — instrumental, 144 BPM fading to 72 BPM] [Breakbeat slows like a dying heartbeat Cello ostinato descends Gospel keys hold one chord Sub pulse fades to silence Spring reverb tail disappears last]