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The Compartmentalization of Decay

by Kira McSpice

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    12" vinyl of The Compartmentalization of Decay. Pressed on translucent red vinyl.

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1.
I won’t let you hurt me Anymore I won’t let you hurt me Anymore If you try to find me I’ll board up my door I won’t let you hurt me Anymore
2.
I’m still awake as the red dawn comes down on me The road stretches away as I lean my head out The window Watch me forced Out of my body Tear me away From the screen I look out I sit at a table with a glass I want to tip over That hovering Feeling I Want to destroy you Help me escape Through the dark night with fire burning Collapse as I bleed into the hall From the knife like a spile That hole you made Inside me still I want to destroy you
3.
Oh of all the roads I walked along This one is the darkest that I roamed Not one headlight here to guide me home Heaven knows oh heaven knows I am lost There’s nothing here but a dark and endless fog And when the monsters came I could ward them off With my shield and fiery, heavy sword But I am wounded now I keep bleeding on The ground, I made a trail that they can follow There’s something there but I can’t see cause the fog When I lose the fight When they come for me They won’t find nothing but a cavity There’s nothing there but an empty, sunken house There’s nothing there but the bridge where we both sat There’s nothing there but the university There’s nothing there but a dark and endless fog There’s nothing there but the place I used to live There’s nothing there but a piece of myself There’s nothing there but the university There’s nothing there but a dark and endless fog
4.
Get You Out 03:36
Drifting like clouds overhead A phantom, phantom Conjured to haunt me late at night In the hallway with a candle And I can’t get you out Still I fight sorrow and the fear With prayer and burning Pages of poems I had read And nettle from the garden But I can’t get you out No I can’t get you out I had left you to die You limped back home through the night Through the night And I can’t get you out
5.
Blackfly 04:44
I’ve been a wounded traveler For a decade and a year I could wander through the woods But you call me back, “come back” To the old cul-de-sac In the morning with the blackfly That swarms and swallows me up Among trillium and flowering redbud A thousand yard stare Sees below and through Don’t make me cut it off Don’t make me lose it all To the dark, wet road With no stars that shine on me You approached as I withdrew Took the spile and drove it through “It’s only wood” “It’s only wood” It’s only my heart It’s only my heart
6.
Please can you leave me alone Please can you leave me alone Please can you leave me alone Supplication of the Maple Beg and beg but I’m not able Lay my head on something stable Supplication of the Maple
7.
Can I make it out Of this hell somehow Then the stars would shine On my path again I like to stay lost Somewhere you can’t find In a frozen pasture As the dark night falls Fighting once again Pills and protein shakes Cold impermanence Through a filtered light Sunlight sugar day No it’s not too late Help me recreate All the leaves in Spring
8.
Sugaring 03:57
Can’t stop me sugaring There’s money beside the bed Tapped myself clean again For no good reason All love is gone and dead Won’t see me round here again Something’s been happening Guess I’m in trouble now Cause I can’t feel nothing No I can’t feel nothing
9.
I found you In the wild I bet you Get around I’ve fought so long I can’t take no more I can’t hold No more inside of me here and wherever I go I go Hey honey I’m so tired My head spins From denial There’s something else out there I can never control So evil it follows me out wherever I go I go Wherever I go
10.
Evaporate 04:27
The morning came stark and blood red The compulsion to repeat It birthed again something I’d regret Cause the loop inside of me Kept me blank and suffering Kept me weak and turning in At least I knew that I was lost When I held your hand the next morning So I turned inside always hoping for No more dreams of constantly running Through a field or alleyway Far from all the same mistakes I must have known the difference Just flame on a boiling pot But during that time I forgot My hands my body reaching for a new way to boil me down The fresh wound sugar syrup blood Is dripping on the ground You could not evaporate All the love inside of me You could not evaporate All the love inside that shaped me You could not evaporate All the love inside of me You could not evaporate All the love inside that shaped me
11.
Home, to lead me Am I strong enough Am I ready for Am I resolute Am I liable Who’s to know? A ghost, a wounded traveler Through cities and woods I’ve gone To distance myself from aching fear I wander in search of my home Got to press on Let the wall form It’ll go away I tell myself Like a wave or a broken arm An ache burrowed in, it never leaves A hole tearing through my side I can feel it form around me I can feel it form around Home, home Am strong enough? Can I give it up? Have I suffered enough? To let it go To lead me home to lead me home to lead me home
12.

about

Gothic folk singer/songwriter Kira McSpice's desire to grow a garden led to a fortuitous exploration of her own trauma in upcoming LP "The Compartmentalization of Decay" (CODIT), out April 12.

When she stumbled upon a video detailing how maple trees are tapped for syrup, McSpice was struck by a comment in which someone inquired whether the process harms the tree. She discovered that much like the mechanisms humans use while protecting themselves from traumatic experiences, maple trees, forever scarred by mankind's greed, survive by forming protective layers around their wounds.

"I was raped when I was 19 by someone that I loved, and I continued to be with that person for years after. As soon as I learned about this method of how the trees seal the wall, it made me think of that immediately," says McSpice. Like the maple tree, McSpice found herself using the album CODIT as a way to compartmentalize her trauma and process it. "I wanted to get vinyl made and be able to hold it outside of myself. Be able to hold this compartmentalized trauma as if it was a sliver of a tree," she explains.

Through the maple tree, she revisits her own healing process, from the self-preserving disassociation following the initial harm in "Knife Like a Spile," to the dawning of finding inner strength to move forward in "To Lead Me Home." With the assistance of longtime collaborators Tyler Skolgund and Will Ponturo (Wiles), McSpice crafts lush modal soundscapes out of glass harp, corrugaphone, musical saw, cello, synths, and trombone to evoke elements of a haunted forest, with intrusive distorted guitar from Ponturo protruding at key moments to signal the tree's desolation.

With its conceptual focus and sonic grandeur, CODIT is McSpice's most direct work yet. Establishing different roles to each instrument (most of which performed by McSpice herself) to represent each of the story's characters creates an enthralling narrative that draws you in. The album serves as a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is beauty waiting to be uncovered in the defiant spirit of perseverance.

-Written by Tatiana Tenreyro

credits

released April 12, 2024

Written and Produced by Kira McSpice

Recorded, Mixed, and Produced by Tyler Skoglund

Mastered by James Plotkin

The characters:

Narration - vocals - Kira McSpice
Spile - distorted guitar - William Ponturo
Red Sky - synth - Tyler Skoglund
Fog - effected guitar - William Ponturo
Maple Tree - cello - Kira McSpice
Bucket - bucket - Tyler Skoglund
Sun - trombone - Kalun Leung
Earth - electric guitar - Kira McSpice
Water - glass harp - Kira McSpice
Wind - corrugaphone - Kira McSpice
Spirits - musical saw - Kira McSpice

Special Thanks:

Zoe Lober, Joachim Petzold, Trina Merz, Jack Whelan, Robyn Graygor, Karen Skoglund

Album art painted by Robyn Graygor

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Kira McSpice South Salem, New York

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