Get all 16 Active Minds releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Active Minds / Pivnica - split album, Active Minds / Kontra Orden - "Inevitable" split EP, Canarian Noise Attack, What If We Decide...?, Blood Is On Our Hands, Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Unreleased Compilation Tracks, Religion Is Nonsense, and 8 more.
1. |
Born In Custody
03:44
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When you’re born into captivity, and it’s all you’ve ever known, then you can have no real concept that your life is not your own. When you’re born into captivity, you can have no idea at all of the possibilities that exist beyond the prison wall. All our dreams are modified by what we’ve known since we were born. We all grow up restricted by the surrounding cultural norms, and in such circumstances it’s not easy to see that we can escape the prison if we can only find the key. When you’re born into captivity, not even realising you’re confined, living any other way may never cross your mind. When you’re born into captivity you can have no comprehension of what life could be like outside of such detention.
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2. |
A Handful Of Dirt
02:03
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August 1998, in the skies over Sudan - another part of the US masterplan. Cruise missiles headed for the Al-Shifa factory - Africa’s only medicine plant not controlled by U.S. companies. Flimsy “evidence” is used to justify why a vital medical factory was blown sky-high. Pentagon whitewash can’t gloss over the facts that economic interests lie behind such attacks. “Good morning, and welcome to the New World Order. The lesson today is a very simple one:- If you won’t buy from me, then you are my enemy, and my enemies don’t last very long.”
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3. |
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Monetary union - an idealist’s dream, but not as benign as it seemed. Nobody took the trouble to explain to those who might have to feel the pain. They created a time bomb, and now it’s ready to go off. When centralised financial control is a system’s ultimate goal, the ordinary people don’t have a say as all of their power is taken away. There’s a heavy price to be paid by those who have been so betrayed - in light of this, is it so surprising to see a popular uprising?
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4. |
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I’ve just seen a banana on sale in a shop - wrapped in plastic, with a little hook for hanging up to make a display attractive enough to entice you to look. There was a label there to inform that “banana” was the name of the product in question - part of a range that they called “fresh fruit”. Just peel and eat it was the serving suggestion. All of this packaging for a single banana - something which is already perfectly packed by nature in its own biodegradable wrapper. It made me wonder if I’d finally cracked. What next? Why not wrap the whole world up in plastic to sterilise it, and keep us safe from germs? But we cannot cheat natural decay forever - there will come a day when we’re all food for worms. The whole world’s gone bananas.
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Capitalist economy grows like a cancer as everyone strives to put themselves first. Limitless growth on a finite planet - inevitably the bubble will burst. Competitive instincts fuel over-consumption. The rich get richer as we all get sucked in. Will things only change when the cracks start appearing? If so, then I can’t wait for them to begin. Recession - the scourge of conventional theorists - means less work to do and less things to buy. That’s nothing to fear, if we share things more fairly. Do we have the will and the vision to try?
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6. |
Threatened
03:00
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I met a man today - I’d never met him before - he said he hated me, but I didn’t know why. He told me that I didn’t fit in. I asked why that bothered him. Maybe it was because I didn’t try. Oh, why do you hate me so? I find it hard to understand. All my life it’s been the same - I’ve never been one of the crowd. People would pick on me at school. Why? I was never sure. Perhaps I made them feel that they weren’t as important as they’d like to think – perhaps that made them a little bit insecure.
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7. |
A Clockwork Lemon
02:17
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What was that I heard you saying? What’s this macho game you’re playing? Talk of violence gives you a high - I can see the gleam in your eye. You brag about the weapons you carry like an anarcho version of Dirty Harry, and your calls for a violent revolution sound more to me like the Final Solution. I’m not ashamed to admit that violence makes me sick, and I’m actually quite glad that I’m not a macho fuckin’ prick. You turn up at demos and I can see you’re itching. You want a riot and your fists are twitching. You say it’s the way that we seize our power, but it just makes my insides turn sour. You’re always looking out for fights - cops and nazis are in your sights. Well, I don’t know how worried they’ll be, but you certainly scare the shit out of me.
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8. |
Loyal To What?
01:30
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Belfast is in flames again - we hoped we’d seen the last, but there are those who keep on dragging things back into the past. They say that it’s “traditional”, but I don’t want to know because some traditions are full of shit and it’s time for them to go. You’re loyal to who? To people who are not like you? You’re loyal to what? To a land that time forgot? Belfast is in flames again because some people insist that the role for the authorities should be that of antagonist. Thrusting flags and opinions in the face of those who don’t agree, and glorying in the memory of an ancient victory. So, you want to remain part of the UK? Well, that’s fair enough, but do you think that on the mainland we identify with this stuff? The country you want to be part of no longer exists today - the role you’re wanting of it’s one it doesn’t want to play.
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9. |
Somebody's Daughter
05:08
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Our moralistic society criminalises those who sell sexual services for money, and condemns them all to hell. With no protection of the law their lives are put at risk. The dangers will increase the more we deny that they exist. It’s somebody’s daughter - somebody’s wife - somebody’s mother. It’s somebody’s life. Someone in trouble who needs some protection - nothing can justify our total rejection of somebody’s daughter. Is it really too much to ask for these women to expect that the law’s predominant task is the duty to protect? The situations that they’re in will often make them fear the worst. So don’t fret that it’s a “sin” - we should put their safety first. Another killer on the loose again - targeting prostitutes at night. Something inside his warped brain makes him think he has the right. Where did he get the thought that they’d no right to be there, and that they were the sort about whom nobody would care?
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The companies have succeeded in re-inventing the wheel with information technology, without which you’re made to feel that you no longer have access to the things that you really need - a small, faltering step for people, but a giant leap for corporate greed. There’s talk of books becoming obsolete with everything on screen - knowledge only for a privileged elite is what they really mean. How ridiculous it is to think that there’ll be a modem in every home when half the world’s population have never even dialed a phone? Communication and information - these are not new ideas. Mankind has been using them for thousands of years. New technology can be helpful, but we are digging our own graves if we make such things essential and we become mere slaves.
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I don’t care who you are, and I don’t care what you do. Nobody deserves a million pound bonus, and if you think you do then you’re a twat.
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12. |
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Some claim that there’s a revolution taking place on the streets, and that there’s an uprising on run-down housing estates, because bored young kids are nicking turbo-charged cars and joy-riding around to show off to their mates. Some claim that there’s a revolution taking place on the streets, and that the proletarian masses are demanding a say by driving cars through shop windows to nick hi-fis and videos. Well, I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it that way. You think you can justify it, but no matter how hard you try - consumerism’s the same, whether you steal or you buy. If you’ve been fooled by the advertising gloss then your rants against capitalism are not worth a toss. The seeds of international corporate greed come from ordinary people who want far more than they need. “Every man for himself” is the corporations’ rallying call - if we reject that idea then their empires will fall.
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13. |
Crocodile Tears
01:10
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Were you shocked to find that journalists hacked the phones of murder victims? Were you shocked to find that journalists made pay-offs to the police? The owners and the editors claim they knew nothing about it, but they would condone any action for an exclusive piece. Murdoch’s apologies shouldn’t fool anyone. We don’t call them the gutter press for nothing. Were you shocked to find that journalists were buying stolen information? Were you shocked to find that journalists felt they were above the law? It isn’t in the public interest just because people want to read it - tabloid clowns don’t understand what press freedom is for.
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14. |
David Bellamy
01:11
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David Bellamy is a knob who really needs to shut his gob - the darling of the NIMBY clan who want to see wind turbines banned. He uses his celebrity status in order to lecture and berate us. Why won’t these reactionary fools see the price we’ve paid for fossil fuels? The future simply has to be in clean, renewable energy. If you don’t like the look of wind turbines then perhaps you find beauty in coal mines? Do nuclear power stations look aesthetic? No - so stop being so pathetic. We must use ways to generate sustainable power before it’s too late.
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If you thought slave labour was a thing of the past, there’s a two billion dollar industry and it’s growing fast in a country which has a quarter of the world’s prison population and jails can be owned by Wall Street corporations. This is the reality is the U.S. of A - “the land of the free”, or so they say. Increasing numbers of people are now doing time. With “three strikes and you’re out”, how can the punishment fit the crime? Judges passing sentences with a profit motive in mind - more of the population behind bars than in the history of mankind. Two million people sitting idle in jail - the basis of a brand new business model that simply cannot fail. Whether making consumer goods or equipment for the state, having a captive workforce means the profits can be great.
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