simulacraton

Mood Red · 2025 · Hip-Hop · 11 tracks

The copy of a copy of a copy. simulacraton interrogates what's real when everything is simulation—eleven tracks inspired by Baudrillard's hall of mirrors.

Tracklist

  1. Duplicate
  2. Wound Up
  3. Night Flight
  4. Whisper Comes
  5. Negatives
  6. Watched
  7. Crush
  8. Wake
  9. Loops of Fury
  10. Ghost
  11. Flat

Lyrics

Duplicate

Smile for the camera
Hold it
Hold it
There
Say the right words
Soft voice
Soft hands
Soft lie

This is real
This is real
This is real
Isn't it
This is love
This is love
This is love
Isn't it

Wear the dress
Play the part
Learn the lines
Break the heart
Morning mirror
Stranger there
Same face
Empty stare

Started so small
A little lie
To make it easier
Now can't remember
What was true
Before

Touch means nothing
Kiss means less
Performance, perfect
Tenderness
Audience of one
Applause
Standing ovation
For the cause

Built a house
Out of glass
Lived inside
Couldn't last
Everyone sees in
No one sees
The actress dying
By degrees

This is real
This is real
This is real
Isn't it
This is me
This is me
This is me
Isn't it
Isn't it
Isn't it
...isn't it

Duplicity
Du...pli...ci...ty

Wound Up

Turn the key
Watch me go
Little dance
Pretty show
Spin for you
Spin on cue
Do it again
Again, again

Wind me up
Wind me up
Watch me move
Can't stop
Wind me up
Wind me up
Entertain
'Til I drop

Painted smile
Painted eyes
Jerky arms
No surprise
Gears inside
Gears inside
Nothing left
Left to hide

Slower now
Winding down
Turn the key
Turn it
Turn it
Go again

Child gets bored
Put me down
Shelf life
Dust now
Wait in dark
For the hand
Turn the key
Dance again

What's inside
Springs and wire
No heart
Just desire
To be held
To be wound
To be played
To be found

Wind me up
Wind me up
Watch me move
Can't stop
Wind me up
Wind me up
Love me
'Til I drop

Love me
'Til I drop
'Til I drop

Night Flight

She speak my name
Like poison now
Tell the world
What I never done
Words like knives
Thrown at shadows
Cutting deep
Into everyone

Lies you told
Lies you told
I was good to you
Now my name is cold
Lies you told
Lies you told
Truth don't matter
When the story's sold

I held you close
Through the darkness
Gave you shelter
Gave you time
Now you paint me
Like a monster
For the crime
Of loving blind

They believe her
They don't ask
My face
Becomes a mask
I wear the shame
Of things I never did

Walk the street
Eyes look away
Guilty man
Nothing to say
Can't defend
Against a whisper
Truth gets lost
In the grey

One day sun
Will burn the fog
And they will see
What you have done
'Til that morning
I walk alone
Innocent man
Turned to stone

Lies you told
Lies you told
Lies...
Lies...

Whisper Comes

Whisper comes
Through the window
Soft like light
On the pillow
Voice I know
From before
Can't see you
Feel you more

Still here
Still here
Closer now
Than you were
Still here
Still here
Angel voice
In my ear

You left quiet
Winter morning
No goodbye
No warning
But you visit
In the stillness
In the space
Between heartbeats

I forgive you
For leaving
I understand
The weight
You carry nothing now
You carry nothing

Sometimes feel
Your hand guiding
When the dark
Comes riding
You protect me
From the other side
Gentle presence
Gentle guide

One day I'll
Meet you there
'Til then
You're everywhere
In the music
In the rain
In the quiet
Past the pain

Still here
Still here
Still...
Here...

Negatives

Face in the photo
All fading now
Colors bled out
Don't remember how
Held it to the light
Every day
Still it slips
Slips away

Negative in a box
Can't hold your past
In your hands
Roll of film
Undeveloped
Image fades
It was destined

Who is that young man
Standing over there
Full of time
Full of air
Empty eyes looking back
Fading frame
But the light
Not the same

Used to remember
Every detail
I smell the room
Now just shapes
Now just colors
Now just...

Shoebox in a closet
Hiding ghosts
People loved
People lost
Faces in a fog
Names go soft
This is what it costs
What it costs

Photo in a drawer
Forgotten now
Still a stranger
Yellow and brown
No one left
Holding the frame
No one left
Who knows the name

Everything burns
Light leaks in
Fading out
Fading...

Watched

Shadow at the window
Was it there
Footsteps in the hallway
No one there
Phone buzzes
Unknown number
Who gave them
My name

Watching
Always watching
Eyes I can't see
Hands I can't feel
Watching
Always watching
Can't tell anymore
What's real

Lock the door
Check it twice
Check it again
Not enough
Car parked outside
Engine running
Same car
Three days now

They know where I work
They know where I sleep
They know what I said
Back in 2003
Nothing disappears
Nothing gets deleted
Everything's a file
Somewhere

Smile at the neighbor
Does he know
What they're saying
Where they go
Trust no one
Trust nothing
Even the mirror
Looks wrong

Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe I'm right
Can't tell the difference
Late at night
But if I'm wrong
Why the feeling
Something coming
Through the ceiling

Watching
Always watching
Eyes everywhere
Hands in the data
Watching
Always watching
Paranoia
Or just awake

Watching...
Watch...
Wat...

Crush

Stone on stone
Grey morning
Mountain there
Before naming
Pressed flat
Pressing slow
Nowhere else
To go

Concrete
Concrete
No blame
Just weight
Concrete
Concrete
No malice
Just fate

Ocean floor
Doesn't wonder
Gravity
Pulling under
Bones returning
To the powder
Silent things
Growing louder

Want is for the living
Pressing down
That's all

Stars going dark
Not goodbye
Just math
Just sky
Time moving through
Not taking
Just passing
Just waking

Head on surface
Holding there
Not comfort
Not care
Just solid
Just old
Just here
Just cold

Concrete
Concrete
Before
After
Heavy...
Just is...

Wake

My eyes open
Ceiling there
Let my lungs fill
Morning air
Light through glass
Dust floating
My heart still beating
Still going

Dawn again
Dawn again
Nothing promised
But here I am
Dawn again
Dawn again
Another day
For who I am

My feet find ground
Wood is cold
Coffee brewing
Something good
I hear the birds
Who know my name
Say it wrong
Anyway

Fifty-eight times around the sun
Some mornings
That's enough
Just this
Just light
Just breath

Passing storm
Through the night
Window still
Facing day
Waking cold
Face the day
Kneel alone
As if to pray

Let me stretch these bones
Feel the ache
Proof of living
Give and take
Sun doesn't care
Rises anyway
Let me see it
One more day

Dawn again
Dawn again
Still here
Still here
Let me breathe...
Let me breathe...

Loops of Fury

I heard you
Listening
Speaking to no-one

Fury rising
Feels so right
Clenched fist
Ready to fight
Blood hot
Vision red
Same thoughts
Circling head

Loops of fury
Round and round
Digging deeper
Underground
Loops of fury
Can't get out
Swallowing
What I'm about

You said
No, you said
Don't tell me what I heard
I was there
I was right there

Someone pays
Someone bleeds
Feed the fire
What it needs
Justified
Every time
Righteous anger
Righteous crime

You think I don't remember?
Every word
Every look
I remember all of it
All of it
All of it

Why won't you answer
Say something
Say something back... Hello?

Mirror cracked
Who's that there
Same face
Same glare
Became the thing
I hated most
Haunted by
My own ghost

Nobody here
Just me
Talking to...

Karma coming
Slow and sure
Poison drunk
No cure
What you give
Comes back around
Loops of fury
Run aground

Loops of fury
Burning down
Everything I built
On the ground
Loops of fury
Now I see
Only one destroyed
Is me

I was listening
I swear I was listening
...nobody there
Round and round...
Round and round...
Round...

Loops of Fury
Loops of Fury
Loops
of
Fury

Ghost

Never born
Not really
Walked through rooms
Nobody saw
Face painted
For no audience
Smile fixed
On a broken jaw

Ghost clown
Ghost clown
Never lived
Never mattered now
Ghost clown
Ghost clown
Take a bow
No one's watching anyhow

Performed tricks
Empty tent
Juggled days
Where'd they went
Balloon animals
For no child
Honked a horn
No one smiled

Remember me?
No
Of course not
I was the one
In the background
Of the photo
You threw away

Died quiet
Tuesday afternoon
No headline
No obituary tune
Became what
Always was
Nothing haunting
Nothing because

Now the paint
Runs like tears
Ghost of a ghost
All these years
Still performing
Still unseen
Saddest act
That's ever been

Ghost clown
Ghost clown
Take a bow...
Take a bow...

Flat

Lights flicker
Nobody home
Smile like plastic
Heart on a loan

Conversations
Made of air
Hands keep reaching
Nothing there

We find joy
Wasteland
Find joy
Stand
Find joy
Nothing promised
Dance
Be astonished

They dissolve
Like morning fog
Names carved
In a rotting log

So what so what
Let them fade
Joy's not something
Others made

You want meaning?
Make it up
You want purpose?
Fill the cup
Yourself
No one's coming
No one ever was
That's the secret
That's the buzz

Sun still rises
On the ash
Beauty growing
Through a crash

Laugh at nothing
Laugh at all
Stand up here
While you fall

Feet on pavement
Lungs on fire
Dancing close
To a wire

No applause
No encore
Dance because
Because because

Find joy
In a wasteland
Find joy
Take a stand

Find joy
Nothing owed
Dance like fire
Down the road

Wasteland...
Wasteland...
Joy...
Joy...