Tongues.

This is a remix of both Speaking with tongues and Culture Shack. I have a lot of people to thank. I was blown away by Speck’s Crack the Kobe Galaxia and Super Sigil’s merging of my shakuhachi in Kooler Than Kobe and the slowed-down ukulele from Wheels – something which I would never have considered myself. Added to this some very original vocal impro by panu and ciggi burns and it was just perfect to morph with my already-composed Speaking in tongues. Thanks too to all the contributors of samples used by the artists already mentioned above.
This is dedicated to Kahil (Kahlil) Jureidini in Adelaide, the greatest wordplay wordsmith I’ve ever heard and the original inspiration for the poem which I began last year.

speaking in tongues
for Kahil Jureidini

speaking in tongues.
i mean the way the sounds roll off that labial organ
like saliva alive alive-o… saliva alive alive-o
linger on the lingua
[franker on the franca]
the fatwah patois
videomatic idiomatic
give us a slug of the argot
of escargot
the gringo lingo
the vermicular vernacular
worming its way into the language
a blister on the Mother Tongue
it’s only words
and words are all
i have to take your heart away
(extinct as Thoracic Park)
extreme onion unction
tongue-and-groove junction
of lung removed-function
old/young luncheon at the old factory
olefactory stimulus, tremulous lips
slip of the tongue
sleep of the young
soothing unguent
balmy salve
lubricant ointments
lubra appointments
defoliant emollient
global roaming in the robal gloaming
various vagarious
shockjock theorem viper serum
vituperous
blamegame
glossalalia

it’s only words


and words are all I have.


it’s only words…




text © rob walker, 2012. (Previously unpublished.)

The rest of the vocalisation is my improvised gibberish. Or I was imbued with the Holy Spirit. Choose your own belief system.