Toil and Trouble, by Angelo De Augustine

Toil and Trouble

by Angelo De Augustine

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thefox15 I only learned of Angelo De Augustine because of his collaboration with Sufjan Stevens. I figured I'd give this album a chance since I enjoyed the collaboration so much. It turned out to be a good bet because this album is AMAZING! Favorite track: I Don't Want to Live, I Don't Want to Die.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
140g "Cauldron Fire" marble LP is housed in a full color gatefold jacket. DL card included. Limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Includes unlimited streaming of Toil and Trouble via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 500

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Features a copy of the AKR exclusive "Cauldron Fire" Toil and Trouble LP, plus a t-shirt and a copy of Angelo's 2019 record Tomb.

Includes unlimited streaming of Toil and Trouble via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Purchasable with gift card

$60 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Glassmastered CD, housed in a tip-on jacket designed by Eric Timothy Carlson.

Also includes three Toil and Trouble themed collecting cards, randomly selected by universe.

Includes unlimited streaming of Toil and Trouble via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$12 USD or more
T-Shirt/Shirt
The official Toil and Trouble T-shirt, designed by Eric Timothy Carlson and hand screen-printed on unisex Comfort Colors blanks in Atlanta, GA.

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$25 USD or more

1.	Home Town 03:10	lyrics	buy track
HOPING THERE'S LOVE DOWN THE LINE PRAYING FOR PEACE IN THIS LIFE ALL MY HEART BEATS FOR YOU OUR HOME TOWN TAKEN DOWN TOO RED LIGHTS ON THE BORDERLINE THIRTEEN GHOSTS WALK INTO THE NIGHT ALL MY HEART BREAKS FOR YOU OUR HOME TOWN TAKEN DOWN TOO THERE'S NO SENSE ANYMORE AND NO ONE LEFT TO BLAME I FEEL RESPONSIBLE JUST AS WE ALL MAY BE HEARTLESS IMPOSING DESIRE THERE'S NO HOPE JUST ETERNAL FIRE ALL MY HEART BURNS FOR YOU MY HOME TOWN TAKEN DOWN TOO
2.	The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill 03:16	lyrics	buy track
IN ANOTHER LIFE IN ANOTHER PLACE AND TIME I SAW THE LIGHT FOLLOW THE HILLS IN ITS DISGUISE THEN A BLINDING FLASH WHAT DID BETTY HAVE TO SAY? BARNEY, I’VE TRIED TO REMEMBER BUT MY MIND HAS SLIPPED AWAY I'M A RENEGADE WHO'S BEEN LIVING IN A DREAM THAT SET THE COSMOS ALIGHT LIKE A FLAME ON GASOLINE WHEN WE TOOK THEM BOTH I WAS ANXIOUS AT THE START I COULD FEEL REMORSE IF NOT FOR THE POISON IN MY HEART WHEN WE BOTH WERE YOUNG AND LONGING TO BE FREE TRAVELING THROUGH THE WHITE MOUNTAINS TO ZETA RETICULI RIDICULED AND SCORNED ON THE TELEVISION NEWS LIKE THE RUBBLES IN BEDROCK VISITED BY THE GREAT GAZOO DON'T MAKE A SOUND JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES A VOICE REPLIED INSIDE HIS MIND IT WANTED ME BUT I RAN FOR MY LIFE I JUST WANT I JUST WANT TO GO HOME
3.	Memory Palace 04:01	lyrics	buy track
ON MY OWN I'VE GOT NOWHERE TO ROAM OPTIONS DISAPPEARING REVELING IN OBLIVION VOICES CALLING THE GAME I LENT THEM MY NAME WITH DESIRE TO KNOW HOW LONG WILL YOU ENDURE IF YOU'RE ALL I'M WAITING FOR EARTH AND LOAM LOVE HELD CAPTIVE IN STONE THAT MEMORY PALACE LEFT YOU CALLOUSED AND OUT OF CONTROL VOICES DIVINE AND DERANGED WAGED WAR ON THE PAGE WILL THEIR WISDOM BESTOW A LIFE WHERE WE FIND OUT WHY YOU'RE ALL I DREAM ABOUT? NOW THAT ALL THE SONGBIRDS HAVE LET YOU DOWN AS THE SILENCE OFFERS TO TURN YOU AROUND WHERE YOUR INNOCENCE HAS DIED I'LL LEAVE AN OPEN DOOR IF YOU'RE ALL I'M DREAMING OF IF YOU'RE ALL I'M DREAMING OF IF YOU'RE ALL I'M DREAMING OF THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? MAUSOLEUM LIFE INSCRIBED INTO STONE MALICE COUNTERBALANCED A MILLENNIUM REGRETTABLE VOICES FRAIL AND VAIN SLEPT IN THE WIND AND THE RAIN LAID TO REST EVERMORE NO HURT LEFT TO ENDURE BEING ALL I'VE WAITED FOR
4.	Healing Waters 01:22		buy track
5.	The Painter 03:11	lyrics	buy track
OH MY DARLING I PAINT WITH PATIENCE ADORNED MY EASEL AND READ ON THE SOLEMN AND FORLORN FACES WITH COLORS OF THE WIND LIKE THE PAINTER I SIGN MY NAME WHERE I WANTED TO BE FOUND BUT YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS NOW LIKE THE POET WHO CAME BEFORE US NOW NESTLED IN THE GRAVE NEVER ONE TO REJOICE IN CHORUS OR LOOK YOU IN THE FACE MORE LIKE THE OCEAN THAT FINDS ITS HOME ON THE BRIGHT CREST OF A WAVE AS THE MOON WOULD SHINE ON ITS BREAKING FACE RUN FAR AWAY FROM YOUR KIND AS YOU CARRY THE LIFE THAT YOU LEFT FAR BEHIND LOST FOR WORDS TO CONVEY AS THE ARTIST RELIES ON THE EYES TO RELAY OH MY DARLING I WIELD MY WISHES ALONG THE CANVAS END CRIMSON, CAD YELLOW, BABY BLUE, AMARANTH ARE MY OLD FRIENDS ALL THE COLORS THAT LEND THEIR BLESSING OF KINDNESS AT A GLANCE AS THE LIGHT WOULD SHOW YOU HOW THEY DANCE AS THE LIGHT WOULD SHOW ALL THE LIGHT WOULD SHOW AND LIFE WOULD THROW YOU ONE MORE CHANCE
6.	I Don't Want to Live, I Don't Want to Die 04:21	lyrics	buy track
IS THIS ALL IN THE DIVINE PLAN? MA GAVE BIRTH IN A BROKEN DOWN VAN I DON'T WANT TO LIVE, I DON'T WANT TO DIE I'VE BEEN TOO AFRAID TO TAKE A STEP TOWARDS LIVING MY LIFE IN BETWEEN THE FENCE FROZEN IN DEFENSE ETERNALLY PRESERVED IN CRYSTALLINE LIKE MISS HAVISHAM OH, MY BROTHER YOU'LL SOON BE A MAN NEXT TO YOU I'M JUST A BOY TRAPPED LIKE PETER PAN I DON'T WANT TO LIVE, I DON'T WANT TO DIE I KEEP A COLT 45 IN MY DRAWER IF I CHANGE MY MIND UNPREDICTABLE SYRINGE AND SPOONFUL EYES WERE BLAZING FIRE LIKE A DRAGON FROM THE UNDERWORLD OH, MY FATHER THE BEAST HAS BURNED YOUR LAND GOLDEN SHEERS TO TEND THE FLOCK CUT OFF YOUR RIGHT HAND I DON'T WANT TO LIVE, I DON'T WANT TO DIE I RULED OVER ALL THE LAND WITH A SCEPTER IN MY MIND POWER WAS MY GUEST IN ABSOLUTE JEST CHRISTOPHER ROBIN INFORMED ME RABBIT WAS A COMMON PEST TERROR OF THE MIND WIPED ME OUT IN TIME DEATH WAS AS PERSISTENT AS FRAU BLÜCHER IN ‘YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN’ OH, MY MOTHER I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT SEND FOR ME TO GREET THE KING AND TURN MYSELF IN
7.	Another Universe 02:42	lyrics	buy track
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO BREAK THE CURSE? I FOUND ANOTHER UNIVERSE ONE WHO WOULD HAVE ME ONE I WOULD BELONG IN GROWING TIRED OF THE OFFENSE FATEFUL DESIGN OMNIPOTENCE I VOWED TO USE BOTH MY HANDS FOR LOVE FOR LOVE ALL I'VE WANTED I AM TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER PLANE WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES AND LAY ME DOWN OH WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES AND LAY ME DOWN IF I CREATED MY OWN WORLD MINDS WOULD BE OPEN AND UNFURLED I'D NAVIGATE OUR WAY OUT OF THE STORM THERE WOULD BE NO MORE HURT OR PAIN DELIVERANCE WOULDN'T ASSUAGE THE GALAXY WOULD BE A GUIDE FOR LOVE FOR LOVE ALL I'VE WANTED I AM TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER PLANE WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES AND LAY ME DOWN OH WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES AND LAY ME DOWN
8.	Song of the Siren 03:14	lyrics	buy track
I'LL LEAD THE LIGHT IN BUT I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOUR HEART GOES SONG OF THE SIREN PLAYED ON THE SHORE DROPPED ON THE FLOOR ALL MY THOUGHTS COME BACK TO YOU LIKE THEY DID FROM THE START WISE AND NEW LIVED MY WHOLE LIFE JUST TO MAKE OUT THE TUNE OVER THE MOUNTAIN WAS A LOVE I KNEW VOCAL AND VIOLENT UNCONTROLLABLE LIKE THE INFERNO ALL MY THOUGHTS COME BACK TO YOU LIKE THEY DID FROM THE START WISE AND NEW LIVED MY WHOLE LIFE JUST TO MAKE OUT THE TUNE I'VE LIVED MY WHOLE LIFE JUST MAKE OUT THE TUNE I'VE LIVED MY WHOLE LIFE JUST MAKE OUT THE TUNE
9.	Blood Red Thorn 03:33	lyrics	buy track
ON MY OWN I DON'T NEED NO ONE BLOOD RED THORN VELVET CRIMSON PALMS YOU PLAY SO SLY BUT YOU HELD ON FOR TOO LONG NOW YOUR HEART IS GHOSTLY WHITE IN CHANCE DEVOTION FROZEN IN TIME OH MY LOVE SOMEDAY YOU’LL FIND YOUR HOME LIFE ON THE RUN IS ENOUGH TO WEAR ONE DOWN YOU FLY SO HIGH IN A STEEL BIRD BURNING THE SKY NOW YOUR EYES WORK OVERTIME ARRANGING OCEANS AND WATCHING THEM DRY AN ANCIENT TONGUE THE ALCHEMIST WAS WRONG PHILOSOPHER'S STONE MADE YOU LIVE TOO LONG ABUSING FIRE A SELF INFLICTING DESIRE A RITUAL PERFORMED AN OBLIGATION A SINISTER CYPHER
10.	Naked Blade 03:32	lyrics	buy track
I SEE THE LIGHT ALL AROUND AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT’S MINE SOLILOQUIZE FOR A SIGN ONE TO TAKE MY OWN LIFE I CANNOT EXPLAIN IT TO YOU OR ANYONE LIKE A DOG WHO'S BEEN SUFFERING YOU NEED TO PUT ME DOWN I DARE YOU TO PUT ME DOWN REST ON THE WINGS OF A STAR SUMMITEER REDEFINED IVORY WHITE DRAGON FIRE IS GONNA WIPE OUT MY LINE I CANNOT EXPLAIN IT TO YOU OR ANYONE IN THE TUB WITH A NAKED BLADE OH IS THAT MY BLOOD? OH GOD IS THAT MY BLOOD? BLACK MASS ON CAVALCADE I FELT JUST LIKE A CHILD WITH A BROKEN LEG LONGING TO PLAY I HEAR THE WIND ALL AROUND ROUND THE CLOUDS IN MY MIND I CAN'T LOOK DOWN THOUGH I TRY TRY TO MAKE UP MY MIND I CANNOT EXPLAIN IT TO YOU OR ANYONE LIKE A DOG WHOS BEEN SUFFERING YOU NEED TO PUT ME DOWN
11.	D.W.O.M.M. 03:28	lyrics	buy track
DESPITE ALL AGENCY I'VE LOST THE PATH TO LOVE I CAN READ THE SILENCE ON THESE WALLS THAT WERE PUT UP THOUGH LOVE IS VILIFIED IT ALWAYS HANGS AROUND IF YOU LET ME IN SOMEDAY I'LL NEVER LET YOU DOWN BUT WILL THE LIGHT SOMEDAY RETURN TO BOTH OF OUR EYES? THOUGH THEY'VE GROWN DARK WILL YOU STILL KEEP THEM DEEP IN YOUR HEART? TO FIND THAT THIS LIFE WAS FULL OF SURPRISE HOPING THIS PAIN WILL PASS AS BODIES SHALL DECAY THE MIRROR REVEALED TWO EYES SCATTERED AND FAR AWAY WHAT ONCE WAS THOUGHT OF AS THE PAST IS PRESENT TIME LIFE WAS ONLY A REVISION DEATH WAS ON MY MIND
12.	Toil and Trouble 02:23	lyrics	buy track
I'LL BELIEVE IN ANYTHING IF YOU TAKE AWAY ALL THIS PAIN OH GOD IS THIS THE END? I'VE SEEN IT BEFORE ON CNN ALL OF THE MIND HELD AN EVIL INSIDE I DON'T KNOW WHERE DARK WAS THE NIGHT TOIL AND TROUBLE MY ONLY DELIGHTS I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WENT WRONG YOU WILL DO ANYTHING IF I NUMB AWAY ALL YOUR PAIN THE POPPY FIELD AND THE GOLDEN GATE THE DRAGON'S FIRE A FALL FROM GRACE ALL OF THE MIND HELD AN EVIL INSIDE I DON'T KNOW WHERE DARK WAS THE NIGHT TOIL AND TROUBLE MY ONLY DELIGHTS I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WENT WRONG I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WENT WRONG

about

The fourth solo album from Angelo De Augustine, Toil and Trouble exists according to its own quixotic logic, inhabiting a psychic landscape as sublimely mystifying as a fever dream or fairy tale. In creating such an all-enveloping body of work, the Southern California-based artist spent nearly three years working alone and exploring the vast expanse of his imagination. “This album came from thinking about the madness of the world right now and how overwhelming that can be,” says De Augustine. “I used a sort of counter-world as a guide to try to gain some understanding of what’s actually going on here—I had to take myself out of reality in order to try to understand reality.” At turns bewitching and devastating and ineffably lovely, the result is the most visionary work yet from a singular songwriter, revealing his profound capacity to alchemize pain into extraordinary beauty.

Arriving on the heels of 2021’s A Beginner’s Mind—a critically acclaimed collaboration with Sufjan Stevens—Toil and Trouble marks De Augustine’s first solo effort since his breakthrough album Tomb (produced by Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman). In a return to the self-contained approach of his 2015 debut Spirals of Silence and 2017’s Swim Inside the Moon, De Augustine wrote, arranged, recorded, produced, and mixed Toil and Trouble, shaping the album’s ornately detailed sound by performing on 27 different instruments (including such oddities as a xylophone made of glass). In the midst of that highly experimental process, he endured an ephemeral but nightmarish period of otherworldly sensations and supernatural visions—an experience that briefly disrupted the album’s creation but in the end helped to enrich Toil and Trouble’s immense emotional depth.

Although an abundance of original and mythical characters populate the songs of Toil and Trouble—Peter Pan, Miss Havisham, Christopher Robin, to name a few—the album opens on the quiet sorrow of “Home Town,” a despairing yet dreamlike track born from De Augustine’s reflection on a tragic mass shooting that occurred near his former residence. “It felt like if something like that could happen in this little town, then nowhere was safe,” he says. “And that feeling of not being safe anywhere is what led me to start thinking about a lot of themes on this record.” Next, on “The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill,” De Augustine mines inspiration from one of the stranger chapters of human history: the account of a rural New Hampshire couple who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in the early 1960s. “It’s a bizarre story, and of course nobody knows if it’s true, but it’s probably the UFO abduction story that’s got the most credibility,” De Augustine notes. Spotlighting the unbridled ingenuity of his sound design, “The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill” unfolds in unearthly textures achieved in part through his use of elegantly warped field recordings of ambient noises like cars, frogs, and teapots, as well as the extremely rare DG-1 Stepp Guitar synthesizer (an item invented in the 1980s by a British instrument designer named Stephen Randall). “It is a mysterious instrument unlike anything I have encountered,” says De Augustine, who adds that “there are entire worlds waiting to be discovered within it.”

All throughout Toil and Trouble, De Augustine magnifies the mesmeric effect of his songwriting by uncovering new and wholly unexpected possibilities within the album’s vast array of instruments, many of which he’d never worked with before. “Memory Palace,” for instance, interweaves lush Mellotron tones and delicately layered percussion with the bell-like timbres of a Mustel celeste (a type of small piano invented by Auguste Mustel in 1886). “I loved that instrument since I was a kid and went to see The Nutcracker, and found out that the magical sound you hear in ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ is the celeste and the Glockenspiel piano playing together,” De Augustine explains. “The celeste I have now was made by Auguste Mustel, who gave Tchaikovsky the celeste he used to compose parts of The Nutcracker ballet, so that feels very special to me.” Meanwhile, on “Another Universe,” a Japanese guitar synthesizer known as the Unisynth lends a gloriously cosmic quality to a track whose lyrics echo the intense longing at the heart of Toil and Trouble (e.g., “If I created my own world/Minds would be open and unfurled…The galaxy would be a guide for love”).

Another piece laced with the celeste’s sweetly luminous tones, Toil and Trouble’s title track closes the album with a heavy-hearted reverie reflected in the cover art: a painting created by Ghanaian artist Daniel Anum Jasper, depicting an anthropomorphized and wild-eyed cauldron surrounded by test tubes and spell books and brightly blooming opium poppies. “After three years of creating everything myself, I’d gotten to a place of feeling stuck and not knowing how to finish this record—but the moment when I got the cover art from Daniel, I knew the way out,” De Augustine recalls.

While De Augustine refers to the making of Toil and Trouble as a painful and emotionally demanding process, each track embodies the kind of rarefied grace that can only come from a certain purity of expression. “For me songwriting has always felt like something that I need to do, and even if I don’t understand why, I completely trust that feeling,” he says. And by fully surrendering to his instincts, De Augustine ultimately arrived at a selection of songs whose transportive power is both immediate and indelible. “When I made the album I was so disheartened by the world that I needed to use an alternate world to get away from it,” he says. “But even though it’s a very personal record, it also feels more broad than that—like something bigger than just me and my story.”

credits

released June 30, 2023

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about

Angelo De Augustine Los Angeles, California

Arriving on the heels of 2021’s 'A Beginner’s Mind'—a collaboration with labelmate Sufjan Stevens—'Toil and Trouble' marks Angelo De Augustine’s first solo effort since his 2019 LP, 'Tomb.' His fourth solo LP exists according to its own quixotic logic, inhabiting a psychic landscape as sublimely mystifying as a fever dream or fairy tale. ... more

shows

Aug 22

Barnsdall Gallery Theater

Hollywood, CA

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