A few things the world needs right now: to chill, to relax with a glass of wine next to a warm fireplace, to decompress from all madness, some humor. The world needs Bent more than ever.
Bent – aka Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills – have answered the call, emerging from a lengthy hiatus to deliver a new album that proves they’ve not missed a beat, er, sample, that is. Bent’s formula is still ever-present: an intricate, all-encompassing sound and sampledelic genius with an ethos of taking obscure recorded gems and extracting exceptional sounds.
The eight tracks which comprise ‘Up In The Air’ were crafted remotely by Nail (four tracks were created in his Sherwood, UK Studio), and Simon (four tracks were created in his rural Ireland Studio) during the quarantine. Joint together, this latest masterpiece from Bent transports us to a world that’s far removed from current realities. It’s cinematic, cathartic, and vintage with a sprinkle of Bent’s cheeky personality laced over the top.
Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills conceptualized Bent in Nottingham in 1997 after becoming disillusioned with the state of dance music at the time. 1999 saw the band release its debut album ‘Programmed For Love’, to critical acclaim, receiving a groundbreaking response and praise from the likes of NME, DJ, Jockey Slut, and Mixmag, among others. Since then, the Bent machine created three further albums, ‘Everlasting Blink’(2002), ‘Ariel’s’ (2004), and ‘Intercept’ (2006), all selling copies in the hundreds of thousands. Collectively, these albums spawned legendary singles including ‘Always,’ ‘I Love My Man,’ ‘Swollen,’ ‘Magic Love’ and ‘To Be Loved,’ while on the remix front, Bent made a name of themselves for standout reworkings of tracks from Faithless (‘Reasons’), Morcheeba (‘World Looking In’), Matthew Jay (‘Please Don’t Send Me Away’), Hall and Oates (‘I Can’t Go for That’) and even Dolly Parton (‘Early Morning Breeze’).
Bent is not just important to the development of UK electronica, but to contemporary music altogether.
Bent ‘Up In The Air’
Label: Godlike and Electric
Release Date: November 27, 2020
Tracklisting
‘Take 15’
‘Come On Home’
‘When You Come By’
‘Eagle and Swan’
‘A Girl Like You’
‘Misty’
‘Remove All Clocks’
‘Friends’
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