Colin Ward · CRFW

water — submerged ecosystems, pools, rain, the fluid register

The single longest-running register in Colin’s catalog. Water threads from
the earliest 07_08 alphabets sessions (first otter water, bodyocean,
Sperm Whale) all the way through the polished Killd By era
(__gong-water, _river__in_side, SWIM (someone who isn't me),
tsunami). Across roughly a decade and several project aliases, water is
the most reliable Colin-coded environment.

Distinct from the underwaters series — that’s six discrete
albums with a unified aquatic mythology. This motif page is the broader
register: every track across the catalog where water is the setting, the
material, the metaphor, or the pun. Many of these tracks belong to the
underwaters series; many do not.

Tracks / coinages (selection)

The underwaters series — the dense core

The series page (underwaters) lists all six volumes’ track
listings. Standout titles for motif purposes:

  • underwaters/01 webbystreets.mp3 — the title that names the alphabets
    street-grid-as-tide-pool conceit.
  • underwaters II/06 lusty crawfish fuck hard.mp3
  • underwaters II/robo whale growl swims.mp3
  • underwaters III/01 glam fish bubble barf.mp3
  • underwaters III/09 sad whale.mp3 — the emotional anchor of the series.
  • underwaters IV/03 whistle whales whisper tells.mp3
  • underwaters IV/06 deepsea doctor operate.mp3
  • underwaters V/02 deep creak speak.mp3
  • underwaters V/06 sea sick.mp3 — closing note of the series; voyage as
    affliction.

Killd By era — water makes it onto polished records

The motif survives the alphabets→Killd By transition and lands on Colin’s
mature releases:

  • killd-by-court-clothes/12 __gong-water — Court Clothes (2015) track 12.
    The motif on a finished album.
  • killd-by-court-clothes/13 _river__in_side — Track 13 immediately
    follows. Two consecutive water tracks anchor the album’s late side.
  • killd by - 2014-2016 -Bsides- - 01 SWIM (someone who isn't me) — the
    B-sides compilation opens with water.
  • killd by - 2014-2016 -Bsides- - 09 rain HuLa.mp3
  • B-SIDES2017/tsunami.aif
  • killd by/Court Clothes/river in me (aac vers).m4a — Court Clothes had a
    pre-release track called “river in me,” later reframed as
    “_river__in_side.” Same idea; water as interior territory.
  • RcvryDrafts/SWIM 22.aif — Recovery-era continuation of SWIM.
  • SLOW&CUT/swim11 slow cut.mp3 — slowed-and-chopped variant.
  • SLOW/no memory SLOWswim.mp3
  • SLOW/DjpOoLsiDe set#1take3 [underwaters edit].mp3 — explicit late-era
    callback to the alphabets-series. The DJ persona’s set gets an
    “underwaters edit.”

DjPoolside — water as DJ-persona

Colin’s DJ-set release name. The whole identity is water:

  • DJpoolside Vol.1, DjpOoLsiDe .1 [FuLLmiX], Dj_pOoLsiDe 1,
    DjpOoLsiDe .1 - U.F.O. Flow — multiple takes/typographies of the same
    set; preservation of the alternate spellings is part of the motif.
  • freakeasymix_NU-NU/poolside3&LonelyPPL.aif — pool returns in the
    freakeasymix project.

alphabets singles — water across the years

A roll across calendar-folder releases shows how steadily water comes back:

  • 07_08 [_]/first otter water.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/Sperm Whale.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/bodyocean.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/01 maybe seahorse.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/06 Dusk Fish.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/14 Sperm Whale.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/DancePopDolphinIslands.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/DolphinIslandsPart_2(dos).m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/Rooms, Spaces, Dolphins, Whales, Birds, Brainwaves, Joyous.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/Starfish Breakfast.m4a
  • 07_08 [_]/Golfcourse_rivers_cunts_bulldozeroses.m4a
  • 09 [_]/swim it (fantasia mix).mp3
  • 09 [_]/swimmer or skier first.mp3
  • 09 [_]/different boomboxes droppd in pools.m4a
  • 09 [_]/the largest living animal on par with the largest animals that ever lived_blue whale.m4a
  • 09 [_]/bubblerings loop.m4a
  • JANFEB09/bubbletrance__soccermatch.m4a
  • JANFEB09/getting astounded by blue whales on videos.m4a
  • M_A_Y_09[...]/03 maybe seal or otter.m4a
  • M_A_Y_09[...]/07 melee_ rough seas angler fish lantern fights.m4a
  • JUNE_MONSTERS_09/06 beach monster wave pump.m4a
  • sep09/04 plesiosaur howl outs and swim bump.mp3
  • sep09/07 jive shark and lulla fish.mp3
  • BESTUV09/13 angler fish lantern fights.m4a
  • samplebooks/starfish mobiles.mp3
  • 2010[_]/07 ocean swimmers.mp3
  • 2010[_]/09 river swimmers.mp3
  • 2010[_]/11 webbystreets underwater.mp3 — explicit “underwaters” callback.
  • 2010[_]/11 beachy shells.mp3
  • 2010[_]/18 lake pears.mp3
  • 2010[_]/sad whales.mp3 — singular sad-whale flag preceding the
    underwaters III “sad whale” track.
  • JULY2010/07 sharky shirt.mp3
  • OCTOBRR2010/04 dark w33d whales.mp3
  • OCTOBRR2010/12 big wave stuff.mp3
  • OCTOBRR2010/19 simba color autumn tide.mp3
  • 2011 [_]/sharkdraft.mp3
  • 2011 [_]/pool feet.mp3
  • 2011 [_]/floody.mp3
  • 2011 [_]/lifted all rainy weedy.mp3
  • MAY2011DTE/05 happy new year aqua sports.mp3
  • MAY2011DTE/06 cardio waterbaby.mp3
  • instrumental/slow aqua.mp3
  • instrumental/happy new year aqua sports.mp3
  • fantazia2010/14 moving bear octopus.mp3
  • fantazia2010/16 pond fish swim teams.mp3
  • BIEBER JERBOA/07 (getting astounded by) blue whales on videos.mp3
  • BIEBER JERBOA/02 brain waves dance hall.mp3 — wave as both ocean wave
    and brain wave.
  • DDR/02 fish _ jelly.mp3, DDR/03 turtle _ rainbow bee-eater.mp3,
    DDR/05 dolphin _ shark.mp3, DDR/06 seal _ sandpipers.mp3,
    DDR/crab-eater seal.mp3, DDR/dolphin.mp3, DDR/fish.mp3,
    DDR/shark.mp3 — the DDR series carries the water-creature inventory
    forward.
  • CAN U STAND THA RAIN/... — release titled after rain.
  • _naturenature spring_summer 08/06 some sort of cool looking bird trapped in water and yelling for help.m4a
  • NW wierd summer 08/dramdrams (deepsea jams).mp3
  • NW wierd summer 08/otter's water.mp3
  • alphabets accomp/oceangun120.m4a
  • antPAD/01 oceangun.mp3
  • TRIPLE PARROT/deep trunk when you hyper tank 1.aif
  • SUNPOWER3/03 manajunk n floody.mp3
  • may10/friend ships.mp3 — boats as friends, the friendship-as-flotilla
    pun.
  • soundtracks/forest green sea blue see blu e.mp3
  • Other Projects/Colin Ward/backpack circle/05 more deeper than.mp3
  • backpacksamples/more deeply.mp3
  • 400YEN/05 waver.mp3
  • @PRILOSAURUS09/12 hot mess ankylosaurus drowning in a tar pit.m4a —
    drowning as the verb-state.

Rain — water from above

Rain is its own tight sub-cluster:

  • CAN U STAND THA RAIN (release)
  • 2010[_]/06 get all rainy.mp3
  • 2011 [_]/lifted all rainy weedy.mp3
  • killd by - 2014-2016 -Bsides- - 09 rain HuLa.mp3
  • 2014-2016 Bsides/rainHulaPad.aif
  • 07_08 [_]/04 Rainbow Blanket Cuddle Puddle.m4a and 08 Rainbow Quilt Cuddle Puddle.m4a — rainbow as wet-aftermath of rain.
  • 07_08 [_]/Rainclouds(icanfeelthem,youaretheuniverse).m4a
  • freak medicine winter 07/05 (rainbow elvis.m4a — the earliest documented
    rain reference.

Reading

Four operations Colin reliably runs on water:

  1. The submerged ecosystem as character cast. Underwaters I–V is the
    pure form: each track names a sea creature and gives it a domestic, pop,
    or emotional context (lobster party, fashion fish dance clubs,
    seacow beauty contest, otter shaman dark magic potions). The fish
    are not symbolic — they’re the cast.
  2. Water as interior territory. river_inside, bodyocean, more
    deeper than    , brain waves. The body / mind contains a body of water.
    This operation is what carries the motif from alphabets-era cartoonery
    into Killd By’s more inward register.
  3. Water as social register. DjPoolside is the canonical move: the DJ
    persona is the pool, and “poolside” is where the listener sits. swim
    teams    , aqua sports, friend ships, blingbling mermaids — water
    pulls in the language of leisure and sport.
  4. Rain as time-marker. Rain pieces tend to land at the edges of
    sessions — get all rainy on the 2010 batch, rain HuLa late-era B-side.
    Rain marks weather changes, mood pivots; it’s distinct from ocean as
    place.

The unifying logic across all four: water is the wettest available
substance for whatever the song is about. If a track is about feeling, it
gets a river inside. If it’s about a creature, that creature lives at the
bottom of an ocean. If it’s about a DJ, the DJ is at a pool.

Notes for future passes

  • The water motif survives the alphabets → Killd By transition more
    cleanly than any other single motif    . This is the strongest evidence
    that Colin’s late records are continuous with the early ones — not a
    break. Worth flagging on the website as a through-line that bridges the
    two project eras.
  • Sad whale (track on underwaters III) and sad whales (singular track
    in 2010 [_]) suggest the same emotional figure recurs intentionally. May
    be worth a one-line note on each track entry.
  • The gong-water / river-inside adjacency on Court Clothes (tracks 12
    and 13) is structural — Colin sequenced them next to each other on the
    album. Worth noting in the Court Clothes release page if it isn’t
    already.
  • DjPoolside identity has multiple folders with different typographies —
    DJpoolside Vol.1, DjpOoLsiDe .1 [FuLLmiX], Dj_pOoLsiDe 1, etc. The
    underwaters edit (SLOW/DjpOoLsiDe set#1take3 [underwaters edit].mp3) is
    the explicit Killd-By-callback to the alphabets series. If a project
    page for DjPoolside doesn’t exist yet, that edit is its load-bearing
    link.
  • Sub-motifs not yet broken out: rain as its own page, the bubble
    family     (bubbles and vitamins, bubbletrance__soccermatch,
    bubblerings loop, glam fish bubble barf), deep / depth (deep creak speak, deepsea doctor operate, deepsea pegasus armies, more deeper than, more deeply, dark w33d whales). Could each merit their
    own thinner motif page if the website wants finer-grained navigation.
  • Pairs with animal coinages — absurdist creature collisions (much of the underwaters cast is
    animal-coinage applied to aquatic species) and the partly-implied
    kid/youth/play motif still on the carry-forward queue (pool, swim
    teams, beachy shells).

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