NEWS ... NEWS ... NEWS ... NEWS ... NEWS
A gentle reminder that the undoneup album is available as a download for under £4 and FREE if bought with Bisonics' mighty Seconds CD. Pop to our SHOP for details.
25.1.12. A belated 'Happy New Year' for 2012 from all of us here, and an extremely premature 'Happy New Year' for 2013. Bisonics have been titting about with their cameras again and putting together some videos for some songs from their 'Seconds' album.
Shark [ YouTube ] uses Stephanie Johnson's artwork from the album's booklet, whilst Soft Afternoons [ YouTube ] was made with the help of London art scene's maverick Harry Pye, for which a prolonged outbreak of curtseys.
Five Little Monkeys [ YouTube ] features Hamilton's nieces Megan and Emily, plus nephew Shaun, going bananas.
My Drugly Past (Part 2) [ YouTube ] features appearances by all three Bisonics. Woooo!
Plans are afoot to make an extended film about 'Seconds'. Rest assured, it won't be a clip'n'quip effort like those yawnful TV arts documentaries - if it gets made at all...
25.11.11 SRCO!
If there's one fault with this modern age, where anything can be accessed in a matter of a few clicks, and where everyone can be informed about it seconds later, it's precisely that: There's no Holy Grail-like quest for something and there's no way of keeping a secret. (That's actually two faults. - Ed.)
The emphysemic insects in the Research & Development Dept of Smoking Ant Records are ancient enough to recall a time when days, if not years, were spent by music fanatics searching for an elusive record - some French-released single, perhaps, with a rare picture sleeve and otherwise-unavailable b-side. And then, one day at a boot fair, hungover and freezing, flipping through some sheepskin-coated scrote's banana box of Tom Jones and Wombles vinyl, it's there! You race home, pour the disc out of its casually-distressed sleeve, slap the b-side face up on your record player, the stylus grinds through the dandruffed and dusty groove, and that long-searched-for song blasts forth. And, verily, it is good. You play it again. It is extremely good. Then you call a couple of mates, tell 'em to drop everything and come round immediately. They must hear this. And hear it they do, and discuss the meanings and importance of this song. Why was it doomed to obscurity? Did The Man try to suppress it?
We know that those days won't come back, but the R & D Dept hope to initiate conversations about music, out of the chat rooms and back into the bedrooms and bars, and want to give people the heartwarming thrill of exclusivity - the fact they have and know something that the internet doesn't.
Therefore, we announce SRCO - the Secret Record Club Organisation. How it works is this:
'Seconds', the next Bisonics album, will not be officially released online via Bandcamp, Amazon, iTunes and the rest until February 2012. However, the CD version will be available from Monday 28th November, a full two months ahead of its scheduled unveiling. Hear one of the albums of 2012 in 2011! The only thing we ask of you is to refrain from putting the album online. Thanks.
Since this is an experiment, we will make a special offer to all participants: With each purchase of 'Seconds', you have the choice of an extra album - Bisonics' 'Play For Today', Doug Murphy & Paul Hamilton's 'Only Two Can Play', Loudsneakers' 'undoneup' or 'The Gloom Of Youth' by Horrible Head - absolutely free.
Go to the Shop page now - go on, go on! - and waste no time in ordering 'Seconds'.
1.11.11 G.T. Thomas Just in case it may have slipped your attention...
4.11.11 Bisonics Smoking Ant's design supremo Stephanie Johnson has an exhibition of her graphics at The Wauregan Gallery, 200 Main Street, Norwich, Connecticut, USA on Friday & Saturday afternoons from 4th November till 3rd December. Amongst other commissions there are prints of her designs for Jazz Cattle, Horrible Head and Bisonics, including the premiere of the 16 artworks that adorn their forthcoming 'Seconds' album. More info at http://ravenseyrie.wordpress.com/
18.10.11 G.T.Thomas will be spending the day of her album's launch (11/11/11) at the Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, Netherlands where she and husband Berend Dubbe (formerly of Bauer and Bettie Serveert), backed by the Metropole Orchestra, will sing the Cab Calloway tune 'Old Man Of The Mountain', which was premiered in the 'Betty Boop' film from 1933, and, yes, you guessed right, we're trying to write the longest sentence ever but, no, we're going to have to stop for a breather.
Well, if you ARE wandering around Utrecht on Friday 11th November and fancy experiencing a live orchestra playing a selection of classic movie themes (including The Godfather, Lawrence Of Arabia, Singin' In The Rain, The Last Emperor), then grab your air baton and check out the official info, maestro: metropoleorkest.nl.
Tickets can be got right here: www.vredenburg.nl
17.10.10 G.T. Thomas has been on the sunny streets of Amsterdam to make a sunny video for her 'Song For A Walk'. As she rightly states in the chorus, "It's nice to be outside", but you'll probably have to be inside to watch it. Here it is: YouTube
12.10.11 Bisonics As their album edges nearer like a man with gout in both of his bare feet (and a wheelbarrow full of Henry Moore sculptures on his back) staggering across a desert made entirely of drawing pins, here is yet another taste of what to expect. A folksy, wistful tale of drink-soaked lust at a school reunion, 'Re: Union' is musically a radical departure from their usual loud shambles. This time, it's a quiet shambles. Click, look and listen: YouTube
29.9.11. Doug Murphy & Paul Hamilton. 'Only You Can Play', their fly-on-the-wall, eye-off-the-ball 25-minute documentary is available for anyone to see here - Vimeo.com. The object of the exercise was to promote their 'Only Two Can Play' CD but, unless it was done subliminally, you'd be hard-pressed to find it mentioned through the non-stop gorging of biscuits.
18 & 30.9.11. Jazz Cattle. Vocals, keyboards and rhythm tracks for nine songs have been recorded in preparation for the 'Zcats' full-length album (due for Spring 2012 escape). Gadget buffs will be thrilled to learn that one song was created with much use of the Teenage OP-1. Subject matter includes the Night Of The Long Knives, alcoholic fathers and junkie daughters, the skin game, senile dementia and double-crossing spies. Hotcha!
22.9.11. Bisonics. Marko's Punk Rock Jukebox radio show in Connecticut, USA (see LINKS page for details) premiered the W.C. Fields tribute 'Looking For Carl La Fong' from their as-yet-unleashed 'difficult Seconds album'. "Who is Carl La Fong?" we hear you cry. Well, just have a look at this... YouTube
3.9.11. Bisonics. The making of their follow-up album to 'Play For Today' has been fraught with a catalogue of upset and disaster, resulting in almost-interminable delays. It was with a heavy heart that, after completing six of the 15 songs, Si Beex announced his decision to abandon his performance and production duties due to protracted ill-health. However, armed with Beex's notes and ideas, Paul Hamilton and Jason Emberton (who mixed and mastered 'Only Two Can Play' to great acclaim) have finished the album, to be titled (for a variety of reasons) 'Seconds'. Despite the growing preference for single-song-downloads, Bisonics are insistent on making the CD very special, being adorned by a book of artwork - something for the eyes to dance to.
1.9.11. G.T. Thomas has contacted us with the excellent news that her album is completed and will be mastered shortly. Gwen's songs will lighten your load and brighten your day - as you can soon discover for yourself. The release date for her debut is, aptly, 11/11/11.
25.8.11. Jazz Cattle have finally remembered that they're supposed to be making music rather than money from winning every London pub quiz they deign to enter. A leper's handful of songs are ready to be recorded, with more on their way. What will they sound like, we hear you scream? Think Lionel Bart Meets Steely Dan...
5.8.11. Loudsneakers went on a surfing holiday on the South Coast of England. Come on, chaps! Relax! You're plugging your album too hard.
4.7.11. Doug Murphy/Paul Hamilton's 'Only Two Can Play' 9-song CD released. It has become something approaching a hit in Norway (Doug's manor) with major radio station airplay and a 5 out of 6 review by Roar Eskild Jacobsen, in the newspaper Haugesunds Avis (14th July 2011), who wrote, amongst other affirmative things, "There is more life here than I have heard for a long time, and in a more local perspective, it's probably the most innovative sound I've heard since Oral Constitution (ca. 1993)... The sound is incredible. This isn't a performance that was phoned in. Every beat, every bass line and, not least, the vocals sound seriously tough and are in fact clearly well thought-out. Nine songs, all solid by themselves, yet fitting perfectly together. Mass suggestion now."
We don't quite know what is meant by the last sentence (Norwegian can be a tricky lingo to translate at times) but we like the sound of it.
Meanwhile, in the colonies, Connecticut's college radio station have also been blasting a large selection of songs from 'Only Two Can Play'. Marko, host of Thursday and Friday's Punk Rock Jukebox, has called it "a bloody excellent album - pardon my English".
A video for the opening song, 'Mr Potter Of Creep St', is here: YouTube
12.6.11. Bisonics' plans to play some gigs with Australian member Si Beex performing via Skype or Face Time or Gargle+ have been scuppered due to a downturn in Si's (already poor) state of health.
1.3.11. Bisonics At last it can be revealed! The reason behind vile despots Mubarak and Gaddafi trying to stop the internet from operating in their respective dictatorships is because Bisonics have released a sneak preview of their album-in-progress. 'A Karaoke Version Of Myself' is supplied with the same footage but re-modelled; a karaoke video of itself. Smoking Queen Ant Stephanie Johnson, our designer uber alles, has opted for a Hollywood look here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tijbLW6tsxM - all Faye-light, eyes-bright, skin tancer, and made to look literally and figuratively like a letterbox screen. The alternative visual mix at http://vimeo.com/20169685 opts for the ghost-in-the-machine approach.
20.2.11 Loudsneakers Despite zilch publicity, their debut album 'undoneup' appears to be quite popular. Americans can obtain this nine-song wonder via mail order from Kool Kat Musik here: https://order-vault.net/
5.1.11 Bisonics are planning live appearances later this year, buoyed by successfully popping out for Bounty bars and Lotto tickets. How can all three appear onstage when they live in different continents? "Skype!" proclaims Doug Murphy. Whilst we leave you to ponder the mind-shattering geopolitical implications, here is Doug's spoken word piece, a 20-minute audiobook entitled 'Dear Santa' - http://subtext.no/kjartan/dearsanta/index1.html Unlike most other Christmas presents, it's one that you'd want to keep - and share.
14.12.10 Reticents celebrate the making of the I Want One Too video by splitting up almost immediately. Living up to the dictionary definition of their band name, Thomson, Toynton and Hamilton are cat's-whiff silent as to the whys and wherefores. It's not important. The songs remain in all their shattered majesty. Never mind the shambolics.
10.12.10 Advertising whizzkids DeLeet, Dunderhead & Skwint produce award-losing promo clips for Loudsneakers' 'Shut Up Shop' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqNZ0yjud4s), Horrible Head's 'I'm A Loser' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFgvpWdzIpE) and Reticents' 'I Want One Too' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LXT2WS4Peg). "Simple but effective," explains effectively simple director Sly d'Sho.
8.11.10 Horrible Head "The Gloom Of Youth", the Horribles' collection of 4-track yellalongs from 1986, is now primed for unleashment. Grab your ear trumpets and monocles and catch them screaming one of their own ballads here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw-XpjXxHJA - and there - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2IP_lEzCI
21-23.10.10 Bisonics A further eight songs are duly recorded for the next album, provisionally entitled 'The Life And Death Of Tall Elf'. These short, sharp shockers include Samuel the goldfish, Carl LaFong (for all you W.C. Fields fans), a school reunion, the fear-frozen grin of an astronaut monkey, chapped lips, a salmon pink raincoat and rum-laced coffees. The day before the sessions commenced, the news broke that Slits screamstress Ari Up had died. In tribute, Bisonics improvised a song for her called 'aRI uP'.
29.9.10 Bisonics The hundreds of photos prepared in June have been junked in favour of a more Bisonical approach to video clip-making. See what Hamilton and Gordon Beswick did to the tune of Bisonics' "Beyond" with just a camera, a bowl of water, some ink and a pipette by leaping over to here: http://www.vimeo.com/15375302
27.9.10 Horrible Head The prospect of "The Gloom Of Youth" [see 14.5.10] edges ever-nearer to becoming a reality as Jason Emberton and Hamilton complete the final mixes, nail the songs into a running order that doesn't trip itself up, and master the monster. With song titles like I'm A Loser, Sinking Slowly, Another Lonely Place, They Don't Need Me and Got To Get Out, you just know it's gonna be a right old family knees-up sing-a-long album. Put your money in razor blades now!
1.7.10 Bisonics Murphy and Hamilton report that sketches for 10 new songs have been recorded. The cast of characters include a shoe-spewing shark, jumping monkeys, a murderer hanging in the hallway, a crowd of legless men in a topless bar, and a conveyor belt of rigid, frigid brides.
9-10.7.10 Bisonics Hamilton catches the RyanAir economy Get Out And Push flight to Haugesund, Norway to see whether he and Doug Murphy can invent any more songs in one take with no rehearsal.
6.10 Bisonics In their respective countries, Murphy (Norway), Beacon (Australia) and Hamilton (England) take hundreds of photos for a film of their song "Beyond", due to be put together by Gordon Beswick (director of Reticents' video "I'm All Right [It's The Others]") in July.
1.6.10 Bisonics Their 19-song CD "Play For Today" escapes.
Arts blog worldwidereview.com had some commentators enthusing or defusing... Here are some extracts:
'[...] one hell of a mixed bag bursting with ideas both good and bad. Most of the songs sound like they were recorded in 1979. (That wasn't meant as a dig by the way - many of my most treasured albums came out that year!)'
'"The Last Post" sounds rather like The Stranglers.'
'"What Happened" is a silly song about two sad men complaining about being let down by the other. It's unintentionally comic and reminds me of the parodies of pop songs on Not The Nine O'Clock News.'
'W.O.E. is, quite frankly, an astonishing mixture of Joy Division, Graham Parker and The Fall. "Starecase" made me want to dig out Alex Chilton's Sister Lovers L.P. "Tender" - another great track that brings to mind Elvis Costello circa "Trust". [However] "The Next Door Neighbours", "This Is" and "Someone Else's Wife" made me cringe and all outstayed their welcome. '
'I asked Gemma what did the record sound like and she went, "Urgh, a bit blokey, anal-retentive trainspottery every-single-copy-of-Q filling the wardrobe kind of thing. Sort of Blur pretending to be someone else".'
'[...] it's probably the most unproduced record ever - certainly since 'Bend Sinister' by The Fall. And that's refreshing because I find that the records in the last couple of years are simply little more than wavering noise tones compressing music like a bus-squelched badger. '
'If there's a fault with it, it's its all-over-the-placeness. But that's also its charm. Whereas most bands can spread the same idea across albums and decades, Bisonics valiantly attempt to crowbar everything in - because it might be the only chance they get. '
'I wish Flaming Lips had this amount of ideas...'
'If they were artists, I'd imagine Bisonics being Stuckists rather than the ghastly tories of BritArt middle-aged contemptibles. '
'I suppose the reassuring thing about the Bisonics is they'll probably only last for one album and then disappear, conveniently for the NME of 2025 to hail them as the true godlike geniuses because, by then, hopefully, they'll be dead and won't be around to spoil the illusion.'
'Hey, I think you might be the victim of a hoax. A few years back Kevin Eldon (from Brass Eye) had a character called Paul Hamilton and I know Chris Morris does brilliant parodies of Jarvis Cocker etc. So I reckon Bisonics is part of some project that will reveal itself next time one of those jokers is on TV.'
'I played the song "What Happened" and it really tore me up. On the surface it's about a gay manager priming his protege for fame and then being rejected but underneath theres this whole subtext of manipulation, emotional uncontrollable forces and the aspect of money and how it goads then corrodes. "What Happened" has this very soft singer with a warm croon - sort of Scott Walker but very English - giving you his side of the story - how he's sacrificed everything for his little star. It ends with the star sounding wrecked like Marianne Faithfull saying, "I didn't want this anyway". If you love musicals and high camp you'll definitely like this but this is kind of butch camp because they have all those rock guitars when it should be Angela Morley orchestrations. Bowie and Sinead O'Connor could do a great hetero cover.'
'Sounds like kweer shit to me. Crack that rock shit fool. that;s well dead. Why you wasting time on old shit? no1 here talkin bout th street'
14. 5. 10 Horrible Head Whilst completing "undoneup", Sean Hyde unearths some tape cassettes of 4-track recordings from 1986 and passes them to Smoking Ant. These Portastudio sessions are digitised by Jason Emberton. They may be released with the tentative title "The Gloom Of Youth".
13-18. 4. 10 Loudsneakers After a year of intermittent activity, Sean Hyde completes the "undoneup" album. Smoking Ant inquire when Loudsneakers are going to go on tour and promote the record. "Well, I've got to collect the kids from school. Then there's the dinner to make. Oh, and the World Cup in June..."
1.4.10 Reticents Appropriately perhaps, the material for their 4-song E.P. is finished. Thomson adding guitar to "I Want One Too" and Hamilton some Stylophone squalls to "John Peel'.
15-18. 3.10 Bisonics With nine songs in the bag after as many months, Simon Beacon abandons his attempt to complete the production on Bisonics' "Play For Today" album due to continual ill-health. Malcolm Gayner and Hamilton mix and master the remaining ten in four days.
22.1.10 Reticents Toynton & Hamilton make unannounced performance at an open-mike evening at The Star & Garter, Greenwich, London and play their tribute to DJ John Peel. The unrehearsed Stylophone solos were acclaimed by two groovers of fine vintage as "Pure Crimson, son. Total Crimson."