Lunatic Calm were an English electronic music group formed in 1996. Despite a wide-ranging sound palette, the group was best known for their high impact, industrial-tinged big beat compositions.
Formed in 1996 and composed of Simon "sHack" Shackleton and Howard "Howie" Saunders, they released two well received albums, as well as several singles and a wide range of remixes. The two had known each other since an early age, and prior to forming Lunatic Calm, they also played in several bands with Thom Yorke (Radiohead frontman), namely Headless Chickens and Flicker Noise.
Their debut album Metropol was often compared to the works of The Prodigy and other bands, although it ranged from offbeat and psychedelic trip hop to heavy turbo-charged big beat. Record company MCA failed to support the band and they switched their attentions to the American market where they enjoyed a series of successful tours with other groups including Crystal Method. The most notable track from that album, and the one for which the group remains best known, is "Leave You Far Behind". This track has appeared on numerous movie soundtracks including The Matrix, Charlie's Angels, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, also including The Crow in 1998-1999. A number of Lunatic Calm's tracks were used on video games, and the group did numerous remixes for various artists including Bush, DJ Scissorkicks, and Curve.
Lunatic is an informal term referring to a person who is considered mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable, conditions once attributed to lunacy. The term may be considered insulting in serious contexts in modern times, but is now more likely to be used in friendly jest. The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck". The term was once commonly used in law.
The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word lunaticus, which originally referred mainly to epilepsy and madness, as diseases caused by the moon. By the fourth and fifth centuries astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases. Philosophers such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced insane individuals with bipolar disorder by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible individuals through the well-known route of sleep deprivation. Until at least 1700 it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of epilepsy and other diseases.
Lunatic is the fifth book in the Lost Books series, written by Ted Dekker, and the first book in the series written with Kaci Hill. It is set at the beginning of White, from Dekker's Circle Trilogy. It, along with the sixth book, Elyon, was released on June 2, 2009.
Lunatic picks up where Chaos left off. Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal have returned from the other earth, having claimed all of the lost books of history only to lose them again. More importantly, the world that they have returned to has changed completely. Their home is overrun by their enemies and the healing water of Elyon no longer heals.
Much as the first four books of the series make a set, Lunatic and Elyon are a whole story of their own. One difference is that in the first four books, each had an individual story that would be followed through to completion before leaving the main story to be continued. Lunatic and Elyon are one story, completely incomplete without each other.
Lunatic is the second studio album by South African rock band Kongos. It was released independently by Tokoloshe on December 28, 2012. After signing with Epic Records, they re-released the album on February 25, 2014.
This is a re-release track listing. Original is different:
Adapted from the Lunatic liner notes.
Tell tail signs of life behind
those late night bed sit eyes
Embers of the fires sparking
all around the sky's are darkening, yeh
All I guess is things will haunt you
running around the blocks he'll stalk you
That's the point of turning back
the crimson sunset turns to black, yeh
This is the sound of the revolution
I can't hear a thing but now I'm
seeing everything, yeh
Quiet desperation, that late night desolation, yeh
This is the sound of the revolution
It's getting closer, it's getting nearer