Category Archives: Bent

Best Of – Deluxe Edition with new unreleased tracks!

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Godlike & Electric announced today the availability of ”Best Of” in a deluxe edition with 8 (well, actually 7) previously unreleased tracks! For now, it’s only available for streaming but let’s hope for at least a downloadable version soon.

The new tracks are:

New Holland Blue
The Second Colour Blue
A Ribbon For My Hair (Demo)
Cylons In Love (Instrumental)
High Fever
I Love My Man (Instrumental)
Rocky
Terry (Demo)

The reason I said 7 is because ”Rocky” was actually one of the bonus tracks on the limited edition of ”From The Vaults”! Go and check these tracks out on several streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal – here is the Spotify link: tinyurl.com/yjcahy9k

So what else has been going on since the last update? A whole lot, actually.

There’s a Bent remix and a Simon Mills remix on this EP by artist Zero Netcost. Coming out on vinyl later on! zeronetcost.bandcamp.com/album/remixes

Simon has released ”Shelf Life – Unreleased Demos ’91 to ’21” volumes 2 and 3, 39 more great tracks which you can find here: simonmills.bandcamp.com/ and keeps releasing house tunes with Somethin’ Sanctified on Soundcloud.

Neil’s band Champyun Clouds are working hard. Together with Asa Thomas Hudson they’ve already released two full albums, five singles/EPS and a live album in little over a year! champyunclouds.bandcamp.com/

Neil himself is also keeping busy. As well as a steady flow of new and previously unreleased house tunes on 89ghost.bandcamp.com/music, how about some deep, deep dub under the name Nitroman? Two albums, right here: The Return of the Dub Calculator and Nitroman Meets the Dubmariner in a Scubadub Style?

Want more? Thought you would. A wide variety of things can be found on neiltolliday.bandcamp.com/ – admittedly some of it’s very experimental, but let me point you to the fourth album by Goose Fair Island called ”Rope”.

”Up In The Air” Second edition and more!

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More stuff from the boys: ”Up In The Air” gets a ”second edition” vinyl pressing in cornflower blue. Limited to 250 copies, released May 7th exclusively from Rough Trade so get it before it’s gone: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/bent/up-in-the-air/lp-plus-x2-2

Selected remixes of ”Friends” will get a 12″ release in June, preorder soon available from Juno here: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/bent-friends-feat-ashley-beedle-crazy-p/812621-01/

Nail has a new project together with Asa Hudson called ”Champyun Clouds” which you should check out immediately. Their album is already out on Bandcamp, where you can stream it, buy it digitally and on limited different coloured vinyl: https://champyunclouds.bandcamp.com/album/champyun-clouds

There’s also the ”Daddy Dusty” EP which will be available soon from Juno right here: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/champyun-clouds-daddy-dusty/819853-01/

And on top of this, there’s even more Bent in the pipeline imminently…

”Exercises: Part 3” and more!

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Another new release from Bent dropped today – ”Exercises: Part 3” which you can get from Bandcamp right now:

https://napoleon-tunes.bandcamp.com/album/exercises-part-3

If you missed it back in November, there were a bunch of remixes of ”Friends” which also is on Bandcamp, but a couple of them will also come out on vinyl later on.

https://bent-world.bandcamp.com/album/friends
https://bent-world.bandcamp.com/album/friends-part-2
https://www.juno.co.uk/products/bent-friends-feat-ashley-beedle-crazy-p/812621-01/

Review: Up In The Air

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Has it really been fourteen years? Yes! Also, no. ”From The Vaults: 1998-2006” came out in 2013 and ”Best of” in 2009, but the music on those were either previously released, or only new in the sense that it was so far unreleased and not newly composed. But yes! It’s been fourteen years since ”Intercept!” and finally Simon and Neil got back together to record brand new music for us. While ”Up In The Air” is apparantly an EP to preface an entire full length album, it’s still eight real tracks totalling 40 minutes which is more than some people’s albums these days. Not only that, they’re all worth your time.

On my first listen, the second track called ”Come on home” is the one that I like the most. Probably not in small part due to the wonderful and silly ending, I’m sure. But after a few listens, other tunes emerge clearer winners. The odd singing of ”Misty” create an original atmosphere, and ”Friends” is a perfect relatively-uptempo ending to the whole thing – a ”single” track which any other band would have fronted their record with. ”Eagle and Swan” is absolutely wonderful, while ”When you come by” and ”A girl like you” definitely echoes Simon’s recent solo output with the analog synths and big chords.

As usual, for manic fans like me there’s a list of samples to identify and the old, scratchy vinyls they’re on to purchase. And while my interest over time has given me questional material in my crates such as Captain & Tennille and David Essex, this time I’m gaining insight into great music by Tír na nÓg and Risa Potters.

”Up In The Air” is all we want from Bent, and sure – I could register a few minor complaints but I don’t really want to. Especially not with even more Bent on the way in the new year. Perhaps there’s not enough random injections of fun just for the hell of it? In any case, I love it, probably more than ”Intercept!” on the whole, and since I’m only on about my 20th listen so far I should get back to it. I can’t seem to get all these new tracks out of my head, and I’ve been listening to them for weeks.

”Up in the air” announcement!

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Bent just posted information on their new record on Facebook, along with some artwork:

”BENT – ”UP IN THE AIR”

The new album, released November 2020.
8 brand new tracks, available as download, CD, standard double 12″ black vinyl and special limited Rough Trade exclusive crystal clear double 12″ vinyl.

Dear all,
We are so excited to announce this new release, it’s been a while – 14 years in fact – since our last album ”Intercept!”, so we’re super happy to be able to share this new music with you in November!
Details about how to pre-order the album will follow soon, but yeah, we couldn’t wait any longer to tell you..
More info coming soon, but for now.. YAY!

Love, as Always – M&N xx”

Preview and pre-order the black vinyl version on Juno here!

Pre-order the crystal clear vinyl on Rough Trade here!

Pre-order the CD from Plastic Head here!

Catching up!

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Has it really been fourteen years? Yes! Also, no. ”From The Vaults: 1998-2006” came out in 2013 and ”Best of” in 2009, but the music on those were either previously released, or only new in the sense that it was so far unreleased and not newly composed. But yes! It’s been fourteen years since ”Intercept!” and finally Simon and Neil got back together to record brand new music for us.

Since ”Intercept!”, Simon and Neil have been keeping busy with their own projects. Neil released a whole lot of deep house vinyls as ”Nail”, several sample-heavy albums as ”Goose Fair Island” and uncountable experimental electronics under an ever increasing number of pseudonyms. Simon upped the analogue flavour of Bent with two albums and about a million EPs as ”Napoleon” before changing the all too ubiquitous artist name to his own for the following records, and has been releasing house tunes in projects ”Pincer Movement” and ”Somethin’ Sanctified”.

One fun thing about listening to their separate output is that you kind of get the feeling of who-does-what in Bent. The most Bent-comparable output of Neil would be the Goose Fair Island stuff, which is sample heavy, more out there and more unpredictable. Simon on the other hand, as Napoleon, is more about classic analogue sounds and big chords. Bent then, always worked best with the two mashed together. I think many fans with me love Bent as much for the lush reverbs, great melodies and emotional songs as they do for the odd samples, unique twists and, you know.. being quirky.

The announcement of their new release is imminent, so keep track of their Facebook to know all about it.

Simon Mills / Napoleon on Bandcamp

Neil Tolliday / Goose Fair Island / etc on Bandcamp

Nail vinyls on Juno

Nail digital music on Juno

MP3s, GORK and Yonks.

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Bent-BestOf-Japan-DiscDearest of friends, here are some news for you! First of all, I’ve updated the MP3 Clips page, and so you can now listen to 57 new clips, or grab a playlist of them all with a total running time of over 105 minutes! An update of the remix section on that page will follow.

Various tidbits have been added to parts of the discography as well, and I’m awaiting some records I’ve ordered to be able to add even more images. More on that later!

Simon has been busy with Pincer Movement, whose ”G.O.R.K. EP” is out soon. Samples below:

Nail isn’t resting either, with his own 12″ called ”Yonks” and participation on a 12″ from Fear Of Flying with his tune ”Glazed”. Grab them from Juno using these links:
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/nail-yonks/500660-01/
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/497195-01.htm/?ref=label_fearofflying

Mashups

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Here’s a classic mashup from way back. Bents ”Always” and Whitney Houstons ”I Wanna Dance With Somebody”. I don’t know who did it, and I haven’t been able to find it in better quality. Do you know anything about this? Let me know!

More mashups from the old Bent forums comes from (defunct?) Radio Earwax: Act of Dogs ”Always The Sun” which mixes ”Always” with The Beloved’s ”The Sun Rising”, and Phil n’ Dogs ”Falling into the waters deep”, mashing up ”The Waters Deep” with Julee Cruises ”Falling”. Available in normal and beatless versions.

Here are two of my own terrible mashups: ”Sweet Chime O’ Mine” mixes ”Sunchime” (from the ”Comin’ Back” single) with Flatpacks cover of ”Sweet Child O’ Mine” with Katty Heath on vocals. Kind of meta. The second one is just a simple music + rap acapella: ”Invisible Pedestrian” with Roots Manuvas ”Witness (One Hope)”.

Do you know of any other Bent mashups? Let me know!

Sample source: Katie Lee – Will To Fail

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I’m working hard (*giggle*) at finishing all these MP3 clips which needs to be added – over 80 of them! – and while you wait, why not have a listen to a song which was used in the intro of Bents ”Cylons In Love”? I don’t know why not. Fun fact: The first editions of ”Programmed To Love” had ”Cylons In Love” played faster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI5Z9B7dki4