B IS FOR BENT (PT1)

Some fabulously quirky downtempo dance music from the turn of this century.

Bent are Simon Mills and Nail Tolliday. Setting up their own label, Sport Recordings, the duo released three EPs (one as Johnny Flash And The Flames) before a highly-praised debut, “Programmed To Love”. They formed Bent in Nottingham in 1997 after becoming disillusioned with the state of dance music at the time. Tolliday had previously been part of a famous Midlands-based sound system, DIY. Their ethereal, ambient, sample-heavy sound has been likened to Air, Moby and even Badly Drawn Boy.

They are said to have made their early recordings with nothing more than a sampler and 2000 second-hand records that they bought for £50. Perhaps an illustration of Bent’s irreverent and genre-defying approach is their use of vocal snippets sampled from Nana Mouskouri on two of their recordings, “I Love My Man” and “Always In My Heart”. Like many dance music producers (notably Fatboy Slim), they take pride in recontextualising somewhat overlooked material. The duo claim influences as diverse as Rolf Harris, Geoff Love, John Lennon, the Beach Boys to more clearly dance music-orientated ones such as Kid Loco and Aphex Twin.

From the Programmed In Love era:

Bent – Cylons In Love

Bent – Good Bloke

Bent – Exercise 1

Bent website (ever contrary, their site looks like Teletext)

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~ by acidted on July 23, 2008.