230503

STUDIO ALBUM

Released October 18th 2009

Robert James Moulding
Vocal, Bass Guitar, Guitar, Percussion and additional Keyboards, Sound Effects

David Eaton
Keyboards, Guitars, Harmonies, Sound Effects

Steven Eaton
Drums, Percussion, Hamonies

Douglas Skene
Lead Guitar, Harmonies

Dean Bennison
Production, Guitars on 'Leaving', 'Flying Falling', 'The Collapse' and 'Disinfected', Lap Steel on 'Leaving', Harmonies on 'Leaving' and 'Disinfected'

Nick Antoinette
Bass Guitar on 'Deepest Wound', 'Leaving Here', additional bass on 'Disinfected', Harmonies on 'Leaving' and 'The Collapse'

with

Lachlan Rankin
Lead Guitar on 'The Doctor', 'Anonymity'

Martin Cook
Saxophone on 'Disinfected and Abused'

Released 18th October 2009

Produced and Mixed by Dean Bennison
Assisted by David Eaton and Robert Moulding

Mastered by Reece Tunbridge

230503 was a concept piece that examined the effect of loss and grief, and was loosely based on the accidental drowning of a close friend of David and Robert. 

The music was mostly written by Robert Moulding and David Eaton from mid 2004 through to early 2006. The album took close to five years to complete. It was further arranged and mostly recorded by the initial line-up of Robert, David, Steven, Doug and from early 2007, Nick. With Dean Bennison producing and making some key guitar and vocal contributions, he joined the band officially in time for the official release of the album.

230503 was released independently on October 19th 2009. A full scale digital release followed worldwide from April 2010, and the album went on to sell unexpected numbers all over Europe, South America and Japan.

The band performed the piece live in April and May 2010 to general acclaim, performing the final full rendition of it at The Annandale in Sydney on May 15th 2010.

The album could best described as a continuous piece of music, split into ten separate ‘movements’. Featuring much of what a progressive rock fan comes to expect- layered, lyrical musical passages; stark, exposed acoustic passages; ballsy agitated rockers; experimental soundscapes; electronica; musique concrete and world music; tempered with multiple time signatures and anything up to six part vocal harmonies. All culminating in the album's all-but 18 minute centrepiece, Disinfected and Abused.

As a journey, the album is both melancholic and uplifting, soothing and occasionally downright frightening. It encompasses a gamut of moods and colours, but is buoyed with a real, genuine emotion that is perhaps, hopefully, the reason why the album seemingly resonated deeply with people.

The Story of 230503

Unidentified male, 20 years old, frustrated in the lack of direction and meaning in his life leads to his searching for what he believes is missing. Confused by his shyness and naivety, he finally meets a girl on the internet, and shortly afterward leaves to be with her. After a romantic date on a houseboat, he gives his lady a silver pendant, and, disguising the emotion, steps outside for some air. In some sort of freak accident/ misjudgment he disappears off the edge of the boat and is not seen again. Police helicopters circle, failing to detect anything. The dreadful news is duly delivered to his distraught family.

Floating aimlessly in the inky-black amnionic fluids that surround him, he is roused by the itch of sand on the back of his head. Battered and sore, he struggles to his feet. Unaware of his whereabouts, his name, his life, he slumps and begins to make his way toward the lights in the distance. Taking shelter in an abandoned wreck of a house, he is alerted to the fact he is not alone. He has stumbled into a drug den, operated by a dealer known only as 'The Doctor'. A real bastard. With no other option beckoning, our man relents and falls into a rut of supplying and using to exist. Supply and Demand? Flying and falling. Barely aware of either.

When he collapses in a busy street some time later, people walk by, unmoved. Another degenerate who’d OD'd. They'd seen it all before. Someone eventually calls the emergency services. They arrive at the hospital as he's drifting in and out of consciousness. Duly assessed and processed by the casualty nurses, he's dispatched to a bed where he remains in a semi comatose state for a few days.

As the days roll by more and more faculties return, and he is drawn to a pendant worn around the neck of one of the junior nurses. A similar one to the one he'd given to his lady a few years previously. A rush of confusion is followed by a single positive recollection. The first exploration into the hitherto concealed vault of memories. The experience gives way to an exhaustive torrent of repressed experience, and the battle between the two selves begins.

Racked with guilt over his decline, but buoyed with optimism for a return, he struggles with the ghosts and corpses he has left along the way. But worlds away, a woman puts the faded photograph back on the table. The phone has been ringing again. All of this never happened. The ringing simply served to remind her of the moment she found out her brother had drowned. What if he hadn't gone? What if?

The Deepest Wound
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

Listen to the voice that speaks
Without idea or thought
I knew that I could hear it
So I've never gotten caught
Paint my face and show my name
Hide reason from you all
I'd played the part so well
that you'd forgotten that I'd fall

Keep me safe and keep me warm
Keep me from losing sight
Keep me from dreaming same old shit
From night, to night to night
I can't think and I can't feel
The way I always was
Hold back the tears and show no fear
Shake and I dissolve

I never had it, I'm bleeding from it,
I never had it, I'm aching for it,
I never had it. 
The Deepest Wound.


I never stayed, I never left,
I'm always in your heart.
Another thought, another dream
That's tearing us apart.
I found no gain, the pressure held,
It's breaking at the seams
One on one, we held the sun,
Your laughter turns to screams

You're next to me but far away,
I brought what I had sold
See the noise and taste the smell
It burns when I turn cold
Melt the bricks and drink the fire
Discover my insides
My Insides turn to outsides
when I left it all behind.

I never had it, I'm bleeding from it,
I never had it, I've never lost it,
I never known it. The Deepest Wound.



Leaving Here Tonight
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Dean Bennison)

All that I've known
All that I've felt
Everything I've been through
Everyone I've met
Never, ever knew
What it's really like
To hold in the one hand
Believe in the right

Take my wounds
Patch them up tight
Discover my pain
And cure it tonight
One stolen kiss
That cuts like a knife
Scrambled my feelings
Straightened my life

Time has sent me away
Face to face, don't ever stray.
Don't ever...


You never seem to notice
when I know it's right
I've made my decisions
I'm leaving here tonight
Please stop crying
This river of tears
I have to be with her
And spend my life near her

One more time
Look in my eyes
Melt my soul
And say our goodbyes
Break my fall
Keep me safe
And tell everyone
They won't see me again

I can only make it
When the time is right
There's only one future
And it's looking so bright
GIve me all the riches 
That life can bring
Open up to me
And show me everything

The moments tick away
More than most
I'm clearing out my closet
Like some homeless ghost
GIve me all the memories 
Of this lonely taste of life
Cure me of this nightmare
Is the end in sight?


Breaking Water
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

A silver pendant's just the gift
To show you how I feel
It shows you I'm committed
and my feelings are for real

It's hot in here, I need some air
Not much inside this room
I know it's cold, I'll be OK
I'll come back very soon

You take a dive and realise
it's colder than you thought
You cannot breathe, your legs are numb
Your clothes have gotten caught

You fight to rise for air but find
That everything is screwed
She calls your name, you realise
There's nothing you can do


Waterfall
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

All my broken dreams
My final daylight scene
I slaved away my days
As the skin peeled away
I tried to hold my own
When they stood on me

Take me to a place where the pain fades away
The insanity breaks and I fade to grey

So as I lie back in the water
Why fight it anymore?
The night decides to grin
as the pain begins
I scream across the air
But no-one's answering

I think of my sister, what will she grow to be
I say goodbye to my mother, what must she think of me?

Thrashing and turning
Bleeding and burning
Dark and alone, Flesh, Water and Bone
I can hear you cry but I can't see the sky
From the water above me, it will not free me
As I find my way down, 
down
down
down
down
down


Anonymity
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

When I'm gone, release me.
Let me go. I have many things to see and do.

I don't think you've noticed.
I don't want to be found.


The Bond of Mutual Distrust
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Douglas Skene/Steven Eaton)

Cross out everything you know
And I will tell you how
How to think and how to breathe
Do you understand me?

You only know what you are told
And I will tell you now
You're not the one that you think you were
The one you were has gone

My face pushed to the floor
By force and without gain
As the city around me screams so loud
It blows my ears right off my head

Suffocate from the inside out
my skin is turning blue
The doctor comes to comfort me
To trust that I can't trust you

Bound by the knowledge that you're trying to kill me
I can send you to hell
It's just a bond of mutual distrust
But it suits me well

My blood drips to the floor
It pools like fallen rain
My cries for help are a bitter defeat
As I let it all go like the skin from my feet

The lights that blind my opened mind
Will you tend to my wounds
The men in blue will be here soon
The secret is no proof

No time to lose, no rights to prove
Nowhere left to go
You vultures pick the meat from my bones
I - prey. You - leave me alone.

I'm laid out on the floor
Struggling for breath again
I don't trust you but I know I need you.
So I do what I'm told.


The Doctor
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

As I squat and I squirm
I live in fear of a life returned
I see the memories don't belong to me
I broke out this shell so I can see

A time and a place for me to breathe
And watch the nights roll into fear
I hold what's mine so you'll keep yours
Please, please, help me.

Cure me of this disease
I keep falling inside of me
Promise me safety
From all these blinding dreams


What can I do? Anything for you
I scream until I turn blue
My blood boils through
And I'm all yours for you to use

You're kicking me around this room
Until I find I'm broke in two
Until I find I've found the need
To be released

One little voice to change my life
One little voice to tell my soul
To burn it all right to the ground
To walk alone and find myself
Amongst the bone of memories
To separate this afterlife
Seems all this time it wasn't me
Crying tears in fear of fear
The purest of the pure
Won't save me now
Someone bring the remedy
The remedy to save this day
And after all that I have done
It seems that I'm not anyone
It seems that I'm not anyone.
Anyone?


Flying/Falling
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

I'm Flying
I'm Falling


The Collapse
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Steven Eaton/Douglas Skene)

As it grows, I'm burning.
Throw me some water let me soak it up
I'm shaking in fear. Looking through blinded eyes

A strung out mind, scared to think a single thought
Closed the doors. Everything has blown apart.

Break my skin, with your needle
Tattoo my soul, tell my story
Now in a whole new world of pain
Both your hands upon my reins
Just leave me to die again


Beads of sweat
I'll hold them in with a stronger vice
My tangled veins
Keep me away from the knives and the forks
A misplaced sound
Fills my head as it hits the ground
My sonic dreams
I wish I'd never heard that sound

Feeling dizzy?
Time to make or break my day.
Hello to you. When did I come across your hate?
Your burning fire perished in the light of day
I'm slowly fading
And served up to you on a silver plate.

In my dreams it was a different story
Love and life and happiness
Another sits all alone
Waiting for the thing that's best

A mother is born before her child
We all walk in single file
Bygone times and spoken minds
Nobody knows what he's left behind.

And worlds away, he fades away
Tomorrow's gone and turned it's back
No help for him, he lives in sin
Left to dream in white and black
He's frozen into one pose
As every heartache never mends
The final page of this forgotten tale
Is this the way his story ends?


Damp rises in the night
Misty streets became his home
Wind and rain stood in his way
Living life all on his own

More and more, time ticks away
Moments come, they never stay.
Another song, another day
Written down as he slips away


Disinfected and Abused
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Steven Eaton/Douglas Skene/Dean Bennison)

From the deep dark pits of my insanity
I sit waiting for you to come for me
I swear I recognise you
From something shiny I used to know

It's said beneath this second skin
Lies a person free of sin
And although I think they lied to me
There's nothing else I can believe

They said I died, they say I'm dead
Visions of this run through my head
Beneath the soil they piled on me
I wash my hands until they bleed

Deep beneath this destructive hue
Lies a person of virtue 
Who wants to see the light of day
And preys to no-one again and again

I lost my faith in the human race
With visions of strange, familiar faces
I cannot place this silver chain
It seemed I'd never see it again

Disinfected and Abused
Remorseful and so confused
Would I have died if I'd not used
The line that delivered me from truth?

Just another corpse, just another day
Just another corpse, just another grave

You tell me so many stories
Of battles won and your glory
Pay to play and nothing's free
Your ignorance astounds me

Poised upon a knifes' edge
It's nearly time for supper
But eating your own flesh
It seems is just the beginning

And he smiled as he finished his supper
Safely fed and ready for bed.
Never mind the bloodstains on your sheets
That's what comes of eating raw meat.

Knives and forks
Knives and forks
Knives and forks


I broke so many hearts,
And slit so many throats
All for the pleasure of pain
And the remorse that I'd feel

So soon it will be your turn
To lay upon the bed I made
And when the fire burns me
I'll laugh so hard I explode

Wait for your turn in the sun
As I crush your time away
The fight for my life is over,
And all that's left is my cold blood.

The habit of eating my fill
Has come to haunt my nights
When will you see over this?
When I throw you to the wall?

From the deep dark pits of my insanity
I sit waiting for you to come for me
I swear I recognise you
You're a person I used to know

I guess it's time to shed this skin,
And find the one that lies within
And hope that what we can see
Is something more than fantasy

But worlds away a telephone call
Breaks her from pictures on the wall
She turns to face her brother's end 
And realised all this never happened.

Lyrics © 2008 RJ Moulding and D Eaton

230503

Anubis

The Story of 230503

Unidentified male, 20 years old, frustrated in the lack of direction and meaning in his life leads to his searching for what he believes is missing. Confused by his shyness and naivety, he finally meets a girl on the internet, and shortly afterward leaves to be with her. After a romantic date on a houseboat, he gives his lady
The Story of 230503

Unidentified male, 20 years old, frustrated in the lack of direction and meaning in his life leads to his searching for what he believes is missing. Confused by his shyness and naivety, he finally meets a girl on the internet, and shortly afterward leaves to be with her. After a romantic date on a houseboat, he gives his lady a silver pendant, and, disguising the emotion, steps outside for some air. In some sort of freak accident/ misjudgment he disappears off the edge of the boat and is not seen again. Police helicopters circle, failing to detect anything. The dreadful news is duly delivered to his distraught family.

Floating aimlessly in the inky-black amnionic fluids that surround him, he is roused by the itch of sand on the back of his head. Battered and sore, he struggles to his feet. Unaware of his whereabouts, his name, his life, he slumps and begins to make his way toward the lights in the distance. Taking shelter in an abandoned wreck of a house, he is alerted to the fact he is not alone. He has stumbled into a drug den, operated by a dealer known only as 'The Doctor'. A real bastard. With no other option beckoning, our man relents and falls into a rut of supplying and using to exist. Supply and Demand? Flying and falling. Barely aware of either.

When he collapses in a busy street some time later, people walk by, unmoved. Another degenerate who’d OD'd. They'd seen it all before. Someone eventually calls the emergency services. They arrive at the hospital as he's drifting in and out of consciousness. Duly assessed and processed by the casualty nurses, he's dispatched to a bed where he remains in a semi comatose state for a few days.

As the days roll by more and more faculties return, and he is drawn to a pendant worn around the neck of one of the junior nurses. A similar one to the one he'd given to his lady a few years previously. A rush of confusion is followed by a single positive recollection. The first exploration into the hitherto concealed vault of memories. The experience gives way to an exhaustive torrent of repressed experience, and the battle between the two selves begins.

Racked with guilt over his decline, but buoyed with optimism for a return, he struggles with the ghosts and corpses he has left along the way. But worlds away, a woman puts the faded photograph back on the table. The phone has been ringing again. All of this never happened. The ringing simply served to remind her of the moment she found out her brother had drowned. What if he hadn't gone? What if?

The Album:

230503 was a concept piece that examined the effect of loss and grief, and was loosely based on the accidental drowning of a close friend of David and Robert.

The music was mostly written by Robert Moulding and David Eaton from mid 2004 through to early 2006. The album took close to five years to complete. It was further arranged and mostly recorded by the initial line-up of Robert, David, Steven, Doug and from early 2007, Nick. With Dean Bennison producing and making some key guitar and vocal contributions, he joined the band officially in time for the official release of the album.

230503 was released independently on October 19th 2009. A full scale digital release followed worldwide from April 2010, and the album went on to sell unexpected numbers all over Europe, South America and Japan.

The band performed the piece live in April and May 2010 to general acclaim, performing the final full rendition of it at The Annandale in Sydney on May 15th 2010.

The album could best described as a continuous piece of music, split into ten separate ‘movements’. Featuring much of what a progressive rock fan comes to expect- layered, lyrical musical passages; stark, exposed acoustic passages; ballsy agitated rockers; experimental soundscapes; electronica; musique concrete and world music; tempered with multiple time signatures and anything up to six part vocal harmonies. All culminating in the album's all-but 18 minute centrepiece, Disinfected and Abused.

As a journey, the album is both melancholic and uplifting, soothing and occasionally downright frightening. It encompasses a gamut of moods and colours, but is buoyed with a real, genuine emotion that is perhaps, hopefully, the reason why the album seemingly resonated deeply with people.
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