Prior to starting Assemblage 23, Shear experimented with music under the name "Man on a Stage", beginning in the early 1980s. Most of Shear's music at this point was instrumental, as he lacked the confidence to sing; the quality of the music itself was highly questionable by his own admission. Shear eventually began to add vocals to his music; at the same time, Shear was also playing bass in a punk band called the "Advocates".
Assemblage 23 got its start in 1988, when at a "Depeche Mode" concert, founder Tom Shear heard the opening DJ spinning industrial dance music. Prior to hearing this type of music, Shear had been creating primarily synthpop and post-punk type music.
Hearing industrial music for the first time proved to be something of an epiphany for Shear, as he had finally found a form of music that combined the electronic sounds he loved from his synth-pop background with the heavier, darker aggression punk represented. Even so, the project was more of a hobby for Shear at this point; it took until 1998 for Assemblage 23 to gather enough positive acclaim to attract the attention of record labels.
Shear signed a deal in 1999 with the Canadian label Gashed! for a full-length album, "Contempt" (released in November 1999). A second album, "Failure", followed in March 2001 and was released by Gashed! in North America and Accession Records in Europe. A single from "Failure", "Disappoint", was released on Accession in October 2001. The song dealt with Shear's sense of loss after his father's suicide on October 28, 1999.
After falling out with Gashed Records following "Failure", Shear signed with US label Metropolis Records later in 2001; Metropolis re-released "Contempt" and "Failure" that November. A remix release, "Addendum", was also released in November only on Accession. By this point, Assemblage 23 had become fairly popular within the ebm genre.
The third studio album, "Defiance", was released in October 2002 on Metropolis and Accession, preceded by the single "Document" in September. October 2004 saw the release of a fourth album, "Storm"; two singles were taken from the album, "Let the Wind Erase Me" in August and "Ground" in November.
Almost three years later, in March 2007, Assemblage 23 returned with a new single, "Binary", which debuted at #21 on the Billboard US singles chart. This was followed by the album "Meta" in April.
In September of that year Shear released "Early, Rare, & Unreleased [1988-1998]", which is a limited edition collection of A23 tracks taken from the years 1988 - 1998, on his own label 23db records. This was followed in February of 2009 by a second collection "Early, Rare, & Unreleased: Volume Two", which was also limited to 1000 copies.
Late 2009 saw the release of "Compass". Both regular and deluxe limited 2CD editions were released in October 2009, preceeded in September by the single "Spark".
The latest album "Bruise" was released on June 12, 2012. It is also available in both regular and 2CD versions.
Shear also has a side-project, "nerve filter", which has been running alongside Assemblage 23 since 1995. However, no more albums will be released since the project is now open for remixes only.
Official website: www.assemblage23.com
Divide
Assemblage 23 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Whose depths concealed more than they showed
Beliefs obscured by mists around them
A legacy they'd been bestowed
Columns of ice paint awkward pictures
Distorted forms that once seemed real
Engulfed inside transparent textures
For all the noise filling the landscape
Whispers and cries with no reply
It's quiet here within these boundaries
And thoughts collect like pools of light
My eyes divide the sky
As sirens sound in heaven
My will brings down the moon
And shatters it to pieces
The silence grew inconsequential
The day became a paradigm
A thousand years, a hundred decades
An arbitrary slice of time
I found myself with no companion
Except the salty earth and sky
And suddenly there came my focus
The world around me clarified
My eyes divide the sky
As sirens sound in heaven
My will brings down the moon
And shatters it to pieces
And so I walked in isolation
Hoping solace would cross my path
Ignored the road that lay behind me
And stepped away from the aftermath
I lost myself in shapeless oceans
Whose waters turned from dark to clear
I floated there, a tiny island
With no more doubt, with no more fear
My eyes divide the sky
As sirens sound in heaven
My will brings down the moon
And shatters it to pieces
The first verse of Assemblage 23's "Divide" is a vivid depiction of feeling lost and overwhelmed in life's uncertain seas. The oceans are described as "shapeless," with "depths that conceal more than they show," and a "legacy" that is difficult to comprehend. The second verse details the strange and distorted shapes that the world takes on when one is feeling overwhelmed, with "columns of ice" and "billowing curtains as hard as steel" standing in as metaphors for difficult terrain. Despite the noise that surrounds him, the singer feels a sense of quiet within himself, where "thoughts collect like pools of light."
Line by Line Meaning
I lost myself in shapeless oceans
The singer feels lost and adrift in a formless, chaotic situation.
Whose depths concealed more than they showed
The depth of the situation seems to hide more than it reveals.
Beliefs obscured by mists around them
The singer's beliefs are obscured and unclear, hidden behind a fog.
A legacy they'd been bestowed
The singer feels that this confusing situation is something that has been passed down to them.
Columns of ice paint awkward pictures
The ice formations create confusing, distorted images that are difficult to make sense of.
Distorted forms that once seemed real
Things that the singer once thought were real and easy to understand now seem distorted and confusing.
Engulfed inside transparent textures
The singer feels trapped within invisible barriers that are hard to see.
Billowing curtains as hard as steel
The barriers around the singer are so strong that they seem impenetrable, even though they are not visible.
For all the noise filling the landscape
Despite all the chaos around them, the singer feels that nothing is actually being communicated.
Whispers and cries with no reply
The singer feels that the sounds around them are empty and meaningless.
It's quiet here within these boundaries
Despite the noise, the singer feels trapped in a zone of silence.
And thoughts collect like pools of light
Amidst the confusion, the singer's thoughts are clear and focused, shining like pools of light in the darkness.
My eyes divide the sky
The singer's perception is so strong that it seems to be able to break the sky apart.
As sirens sound in heaven
The chaos of the situation is likened to the sound of emergency sirens.
My will brings down the moon
The singer feels a sense of power and control, as if their will could move mountains.
And shatters it to pieces
This feeling of power leads the singer to feel they can destroy even the seemingly immutable.
The silence grew inconsequential
The confusion and noise seemed so overwhelming that silence itself no longer mattered.
The day became a paradigm
The singer had a sudden realization about the world around them, causing them to see everything in a new light.
A thousand years, a hundred decades
The scale of time, which had once seemed important, now did not matter to the singer.
An arbitrary slice of time
All moments in time seemed equally pointless and arbitrary.
I found myself with no companion
The singer feels alone and isolated in this confusing situation.
Except the salty earth and sky
The only things the singer feels any connection to are the elemental forces of nature.
And suddenly there came my focus
The singer's experience of being alone helped them to finally zero in on what was really important in this situation.
The world around me clarified
The fog cleared, and the singer was finally able to see the world around them.
And so I walked in isolation
The singer chooses to keep walking alone, even though it is a lonely path.
Hoping solace would cross my path
The singer holds out hope that they will eventually be comforted by someone or something.
Ignored the road that lay behind me
The singer chooses not to look back, and only focuses on moving forward.
And stepped away from the aftermath
The singer lets go of the past and moves on from it.
Whose waters turned from dark to clear
The previously dark and murky situation becomes more transparent and clear to the singer.
I floated there, a tiny island
The singer feels like a small, isolated island amidst a vast sea of turmoil.
With no more doubt, with no more fear
Despite the chaos and confusion, the singer feels a sense of clarity and peace.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: COS, K. MANN, L. BANKOUADAGBA, M. MOSLEY, S. THOMAS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind