The Birth of the Potassium Brothers

My friend Charlie makes industrial darkwave music under the name Area XG. I've gone to see him perform some of his tracks at an electronic night in Brighton, and the some of the tracks he performed at his most recent gig seemed to me that they would lend themselves to hip-hop and rap quite well. I mentioned this to him and my friend Steve at the gig, and the from this the idea of the Potassium Brothers came about.

A month or two later, my housemate was looking for some people to perform at a Hallowe'en party. Impetuously, I signed up the Potassium Brothers, forcing me to come up with some raps to deliver a few weeks later. To fit the theme of the evening, I tried to steer these raps down a scary route, taking inspiration from The Wicker Man and Nick Cave's Murder Ballads album.

Steve's role in the performance was largely unplanned, and resulted in him improvising some interpretative dance to the horror-themed raps. This seemed to go down well, as it was at this party that he met his girlfriend for the first time. Hooray!

Here are the words to the three raps performed on that fateful evening...

*   *   *

Today is Dead

Today is dead are the words that they say to me
I flip 'em off rising up from the cemetery
Decayed skin gonna stretch my delivery
Selling up so now we distribute for free
Stevie K in his undead livery
Y'all be silent like we in a mortuary
Sit yourselves down in my menagerie
Here it comes, time to face your mortality

What's this shit that you've served up in front of me?
Potassium's gonna serve necromancy
Serving up an exhibition of atrocities
With our Franco-darkwave philosophy
We got your blood pumped like we cut an artery
Heed vampiric calls for phlebotomy
Banana bros top the throne with authority
Potassium king the name that they calling me

We from the mausoleum
We want our potassium
You in the mausoleum
You got your potassium

*   *   *

How Fast They Burned?

They take me out to a field with a structure
A wicker man stands tall, man's corruptor
Numb ears won't hear quoted scripture
Here the pagan hand is the instructor
Social rupture has left this land frail
Past the pale only wild morality prevails
And now they sacrifice another virgin male
They sing and pray that the crops will not fail

Now parade is over, here the people come
They gather round my wicker cage, one by one
I can feel the fear like a loaded gun
They cry out for light, replace the dying sun
And then it comes, the sentence is passed
Both my hopes and the daylight are fading fast
Struggling with the rope but it was tied to last
Their torches lower, they ignite the grass

I can hear the tongues of flames crackling
I can feel the fire on my naked skin
My body's bubbling and blistering
My limbs are charring and blackening
My body's bubbling and blistering
My limbs are charring and blackening
And the smoke is rising from my burning flesh
Choking on the ashes of my dying breath
And the smoke is rising from my burning flesh
Choking on the ashes of my dying breath

And the fire eats up the wicker men
And the farmers harvest their crops again

*   *   *

Terrorist Social Network

When winter takes its hold on you and the nights are closing in
There's something in the darkness, there's something on the wind
There's rustling in the bushes, there's creeping on your skin
Don't want to be left cold outside, thank god you let me in

I'll have such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have planned it better if I'd wanted to
I'll have such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have planned it better if I'd wanted to

Thank god you let me in here, there's a madman on the loose
A ripper out upon the heath, a hangman with a noose
You've saved a stranger from his fate, saved me from abuse
You ushered me into your home, oh how could I refuse?

Aren't I lucky I discovered you?
All alone with no one to answer to
I'll have such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have planned it better if I'd wanted to
I'll have such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have planned it better if I'd wanted to

What is this? Don't worry dear, it's just a little rope
Just think of it as a scarf to warm your little throat
Let me repay you this kindness and let me hang you up
Let me feast upon your meat, drink your blood from a cup
I'll tidy up when finished dear, I'll even clean the cup
Then vanish back into the woods before the sun comes up

I've had such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have done it better if we wanted to
I've had such a lovely time with you
Couldn't have done it better if we wanted to

Beware the hangman
Beware the bleating of the flock
Beware the first frost
Beware the visitor, beware the knock