While I was finishing Xerian, I was also writing new material for next year's album, and one of these tracks was a song about a robotic dragon in peril.

The backing tracks were laid down in September 2021, but I didn't like the lyrics I had written, and I procrastinated in recording the bass as well, so the song just sat on the tape shelf for a long time. Eventually I managed to wrangle the song into shape, giving up on writing verses entirely and switching over to a Bal-Sagoth style narration, complete with slowed-down tape.
Finally there was just the bass and mixdown to do and I got that down over the last couple of weeks, with the song mixed and spliced around 1AM this morning. There was some clipping and the singing dragons probably need rerecording to increase intelligibility, so I may do a take 2 when I'm happy those problems are solved.

Artwork by

Recording was done on the Otari MX80 2" 24-track machine, with the bass and vocals tracked on 1/2" tape and synced across. (There is a weird bit in the middle where you hear the results of the sync failing on some lyrics I recorded but didn't like -I left that in because it sounded cool, but it may be removed from the finished version). Mixing was done to 1/4" tape using a bad batch of RTM900, hopefully the last of that crap. There are still a few dropouts because of it. Mixing was done in three segments and razor-edited together.

Instruments used:
Hammond XM-1 and SK-1, Manikin Memotron, Waldorf Streichfett with JH Triple Chorus, Moog Voyager, Nord MicroModular, Waldorf MicroWave, DSI OB-6, Korg Triton Rack, Korg M1R, Roland MVS-1, Roland JV1010, Alesis DM10 drum brain, Behringer VC340 vocoder and Steinberger XT2d with flatwound strings.

Lyrics

In a time when advanced robotics were tightly controlled, cyberdragon R1C was found to have deviated from the expected responses, an independent streak which greatly concerned The Master. Ordered to report for followup evaluation, R1C instead absconded, confirming their worst fears. By order of The Master, unit R3A was sent to retrieve the unstable draconic unit for analysis.

Cyberdragon, fearing for his life
In a land where he is forbidden
Cyberdragon, fearing for his life
Seeks a place where he can stay hidden

Although the defective unit had a day's head start, cyberdragon R3A was a new generation model, faster and stronger than the older designs and more than capable of subduing a mentally-compromised unit. An incoming message from R3A indicated that he had already located the fleeing individual, and The Master felt confident that the renegade unit would soon be returned to him for analysis... and termination.

Cyberdragon, fearing for his life
In a land where he is forbidden
Cyberdragon, fleeing for his life
Seeks a place where he can stay hidden

The desert was a dumping ground for unwanted robots, the obsolete and the failed experiments. But tales were whispered that these outcasts had built a hidden city beneath the desert floor - a cyber promised land.

His pursuer closing in, R1C waited for the entrance to yield before him - but the gates remained closed.

"Now I have you trapped inside these caverns as you see
I must open up your head and I must take you back with me
Though it may seem rather brutal there is no need to despair
I must take your neurocircuits for my master to repair
You've put up a struggle over land and over air
I must ask you to submit and to surrender to my care"

"Stop what you are doing, please! I just want to survive
If you take my head to pieces I'll no longer be alive"

Please don't take my brain!
Please don't take my brain!

"Stop this useless struggle there is something wrong with you
I must take you to my master and he'll make you good as new..."
"But your master is a liar and he hasn't told the truth!
He has sent you here to kill me and to bring my head as proof!"

"He said you were deluded, I can see that this is true
If you just return to base then it would be the best for you"
"If you think that he'll repair me, you are in for a surprise!
Think it through for just a moment and then open up your eyes."

Please don't take my brain!
Please don't take my brain!

The fight was interrupted by the sudden appearance of The Master himself, and from the angered words he uttered, R3A was forced to conclude that his intended target was correct, and The Master had deceived him for his own ends. With an angry gleam in his eye, R3A nodded to the renegade cyberdragon and together they tore the master apart - thus discovering that he was an android himself. Rather than destroy him, they left him imprisoned within the depths of the hidden city.

Cyberdragons - living out their lives
In a place where they are respected
Cyberdragons - guardians of the gates
Keep the hidden city protected

And in the months following The Master's mysterious disappearance, more humane legislation was eventually passed, bringing forth a new golden era, as the age of oppression was finally ended.