"Vortex" is a contemporary modernist mass in the guise of rock ballads and love songs. It is laughter, tears, and lust for life sonically manifested.
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The Banquet Years is the most recent sonic multimedia project of Mark Watt and Arthur Algier (co-founding member of the NYC-based rock band The Algiers and London-based indie-folk duo At the Horse Race aka Art&Alex). Watt is a Scottish, London-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and rocket scientist. Algier is a guitarist, drummer, and singer raised in NYC. They formed, with Chilean drummer Rodrigo Young, in London, UK, in 2012 in the former site of the Rebels Art Centre on Great Ormond Street, where the Vorticist movement in art and poetry was founded in 1914 by Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound. They have been actively recording music and playing live as a group since 2012, and have been an integral part of the London indie and art music scene with performance exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and legendary venues such as the Brixton JAMM, The Barfly, Scala, and The Windmill, and have been called "London's veritable indie legends" by the London Zine GODISINTHETVzine.

Though they have released several DIY singles and EPs in the past, "Vortex" is their first full-length studio album. It features instrumental contributions from Harrison Lee of North Carolina-based band Ships, Chilean drummer Rodrigo Young, and London organist and synth-specialist Benedict Mortimer. The songs are a sonic pilgrimage and its aims are liberation and transcendence.

01 Timbuktu
02 In Dreams My Heart Will Remain
03 Only Girl
04 Keep Talkin'
05 Fall from Grace with the Sea
06 Azrael
07 Question Time
08 Isolation
09 Hearts Apart

Lyrics:
1. Timbuktu (06:36)
Davey and Arthur went to Macy's
They talked about women and their lives.
Their hearts were ready for solitude,
But frantic were their lives.
So they started the Wives.

Davey and Arthur took the rest of them
On the voyage of their lives.
Nothing could stop them now
As they travelled up to the sky.
Where they started the Wives.

Jonny said, "Where you guys going now?"
Davey and Arthur knew the time (was right).
"We're going down to Timbuktu now,
Where our sound can resonate to Heaven."

2. In Dreams My Heart Will Remain (02:36)
I woke up one morning, fresh from a dream
That took my Heart away -
The Silhouette of her as she opened the blinds
Will never leave my mind.

Without hope I searched,
Longing to find her, but
In dreams - my heart will remain.

I searched and I searched,
Hoping to find her, but -
In dreams my heart will remain.

Emily,
Emily -
In dreams my heart will remain.

Emily,
Won't you please tell me,
In dreams will my heart remain?

3. Only Girl (04:44)
Please stop
Cause I dunno where to go -
You left me in the freezing cold.
I'll chase you to the end of the world,
You'll always be my
Only girl.

Love comes to the ones who will fight for it
If you want it, be ready to die for it.
Peace comes to the ones who will fight for it.
If you want it, be ready to die for it.
I'll run to the end of the world,
You'll always be my
Only girl -
My golden girl -
My perfect girl.

4. Keep Talkin' (05:55)
I don't wanna listen to the things you have to say.
I don't wanna hear about me and my mistakes.
But please keep on talking - or else I'll be afraid
(That the demons who have taken me to a place I can't remain,)
That the demon who has followed me, will take me to my grave.

Nothing should have stopped me from being a good man.
The heaven that I felt with you would've saved any man.
The follies that will follow me from my childhood's lonely ways,
Will shake my soul and keep me from the happiness I crave.

But I just keep myself from holding on to you,
The whisky keeps the fire burning till my soul is black and blue.

I don't wanna listen to the things you have to say.
I don't wanna hear about me and my mistakes.
But please keep on talking - or else I'll be afraid
That the demons who have taken me to a place I can't remain,
That the demon who has followed me, will take me to my grave.

5. Fall from Grace with the Sea (05:50)
Why are you sad? Why are you weeping?
Has the engine broken down?
The Owls don't hoot, they only frown.
I wish upon a solution, but the heavens let us down.
Where shall we go, where shall we look?
Is the solution within a book?
Where is the ladder to the sea?
Can the uncanny puppet breathe?
The enemy comes from within.
The enemy comes from within.

You've been holding us back for ages,
You've been taking us for a stroll.
We've been living without any wages;
Now we don't know where to go.

You've been holding us back for ages,
You've been taking us for a stroll.
We're like sailors who fall from grace with the sea,
Now we don't know where to go.

All us modern kids are wasted;
Wise old men on mountaintops:
They are sitting there placated,
Waiting for the sky to drop.
None of us know what we're facing,
The end of all we love;
The end of all we love.

You've been holding us back for ages,
You've been taking us for a stroll;
We've been living without any wages,
Now we don't know where to go.

You've been holding us back for ages,
You've been taking us for a stroll;
We're like sailors who fall from grace with the sea,
And we don't know where to go.
We're like sailors who fall from grace with the sea,
Now we don't know where to go.

6. Azrael (04:14)
It doesn't matter where you go,
You will never be
All alone.
She can help you
Hide from the cold.
She can help you
When you're growing old.

You will find her in the end;
Let her come and take your hand,
She will guide you up to heaven,
Where you can rest forever.

The winter can be -
Oh so cold.
It doesn't matter who you are,
Time will take its toll.
It doesn't matter where you go,
You will feel alone.
It doesn't matter what you do,
You can't help growing old.
It doesn't matter where you go,
You will feel alone,
Until you find your home.

You will find her in the end;
Let her come and take your hand,
She will guide you up to heaven,
Where you can rest forever.

It doesn't matter where you go,
You will never be
All alone.
She can help you
Hide from the cold.
She can help you
When you're growing old.

You will find her in the end;
Let her come and take your hand,
She will guide you up to heaven,
Where you can rest forever.
She will guide you up to heaven,
Where you can rest forever,
Where you can sleep forever.

7. Question Time (04:36)
Is it too much to ask for,
That you'll love me some day -
I don't have a penny;
It's a crying shame.

Is it too much to ask for,
That you'll love me some day -
I don't have nothing;
It's a crying shame.

But please, please, please,
Remember me -
You're all that I ask for,
You're all that I feel.

And please, please, please,
Be kind to me,
I'll love you forever,
If you'll do the same.

And please, please, please,
Be kind to me -
You're all that I asked for,
You're all that I need/breathe/dream/leave.

8. Isolation (03:18)
Isolation sets me free -
Isolation helps me breathe.
Hoping to find a place
Hoping to find a cave
In the sea.
Isolation, with me.

Isolation sets me free -
Isolation helps me breathe.
Hoping to find a place
Hoping to find a cave
In the sea.
Hoping to find a place
Hoping to find a cave
Within me.

9. Hearts Apart (02:30)
There ain't no hell too harsh for the purest hearts;
There ain't no hell too harsh.
I wanted to tell you everything I knew,
I wanted to tell you everything I felt,
I wanted to tell you everything I ever dreamed about -
So you could tell me, we could be together forever.
So you could tell me, we would never be apart -
So you would tell me, our hearts would never be apart.