Bark Psychosis
Encyclopedia
Bark Psychosis are an English post-rock
band/musical project from east London formed in 1986. They were one of the bands that Simon Reynolds
cited when coining "post-rock
" as a musical style in 1994, and are thus considered one of the key bands defining the genre. Graham Sutton
is the leader and consistent core member of the group, which is currently a flexible project consisting of Sutton supported by an altering roster of guest musicians.
During its original incarnation, the group was a more conventional quartet: Graham Sutton
, Daniel Gish, John Ling and Mark Simnett. This line-up recorded most of the early EPs and the seminal 1994 album Hex
. Recent contributing guest members include experimental guitarist Colin Bradley (of Dual) and Talk Talk
drummer Lee Harris.
, introverted indie rock, psychedelia
, post-punk
, cool jazz
, outright mechanical/industrial noise, and electronic dance music
. However, the band's music is best characterised by a sense of acoustic space, moody atmospherics, murmured vocals, abstract but emotional lyrics, and a particularly sensitive and acclaimed mixture of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Bark Psychosis is also noted for an extreme dynamic range, varying from quietly-whispered-and-played songs such as "I Know" or "Absent Friend" to thunderous metallic riffing ("Murder City") or deafening sheets of electric noise (the first half of the track "Hex").
Bark Psychosis' music is also notably melodic and expressive, and arguably owes something to the English pastoral rock tradition. The band is frequently embraced by progressive rock
fans due to their experimental outlook, and their use of both atmospherics and extended instrumentation. Sutton himself seems uncomfortable with the association, commenting, "Sometimes people compare us to Pink Floyd
, and they are just a muso thing. I'm more interested in feeling, really..."
The band started life as a teenage Napalm Death
cover project, reflecting the members' early interest in extreme noise. Other early influences included Sonic Youth
, Talk Talk
, Butthole Surfers
, Big Black
, Swans
and Joy Division
. (Allegedly, the band was also inspired by Romford
pop act Five Star
and the early work of Britfunk band Level 42
.) Graham Sutton has claimed a long term interest in dub
, jazz and classical music
, as well as an appreciation for the work of Nick Drake
.
Bark Psychosis' musical development has also been characterised by restlessness, which has contributed to the band's historical lack of stability while at the same time stimulating its creativity. In another 1994 interview, Sutton stated, "The whole thing about being in this band is never repeating yourself. I've always tried to surprise myself and other people as well, fucking around with people's preconceptions about what you're about and stuff. I really get a real huge fucking kick about giving people the wrong impression. Or twisting things around. Like, it might sound initially sweet, but it ain't. Or vice versa."
. The original two members were schoolfriends Graham Sutton (guitar, vocals) and John Ling (bass, vocals). Both were aged 14 at the time that they started the band, carrying out their initial experiments using a 4-track tape recorder and a drum machine. In January 1988 Ling and Sutton (both aged 16) left school to pursue music full-time. They recruited drummer Mark Simnett, who had previously done community work centered on St. John's Church in Stratford
.
Using Simnett's connection with the church, Bark Psychosis arranged rehearsal space for themselves in the crypt of St John's, a location that would continue to play an important role in Bark Psychosis' music. The trio spent the rest of 1988 rehearsing and composing original material, during which time both Sutton and Ling began to dabble in keyboard playing and digital sampling. A few low-key gigs followed late in the year. One of these concerts was attended by Nick Allport and Vinita Joshi of the small East London independent label Cheree Records. Impressed by the band, Cheree immediately offered to release the band's first recordings. During this period, Bark Psychosis briefly featured a second guitarist, Rashied Garrison. Garrison had previously played in The Moons, a band who had supported Bark Psychosis at early shows. However, his tenure with Bark Psychosis was fairly short and he would later become "a feared journalist", the guitarist in Good Time Pony and leader of The Repton Oaks.
). By this time, the band were back to their original trio lineup. Six years later (on the eve of the release of the Hex album), Sutton was vituperative in disowning the track. The official Bark Psychosis debut was 1989's 12-inch single "All Different Things/By Blow", for which the band was augmented by an extra singer, Sue Page. In 1994, Sutton recalled:
The band's formal live debut (outside of school performances) was at the Sir George Robey public house
in Finsbury Park
, London, supporting Extreme Noise Terror
. Tours with The Telescopes, Cranes
and Spiritualised quickly followed. In 1990, with Sue Page still on board, Bark Psychosis released a 12-inch EP called "Nothing Feels" (backed with "I Know"). Sutton later recalled, "The second single was what(ever) two tracks we had knocking around at the time. At the same time, live-wise at this stage, it was completely different. It was very, very loud and extreme both ways."
By this time, Bark Psychosis were establishing a reputation as one of the most unpredictable, innovative live bands in Britain with a great degree of spontaneity and excitement at their gigs. On record, however, they were developing into a more atmospheric and melodic act, while avoiding many of the standard rock "cliches" such as extended solos and self-mythologising lyrics: beyond their melody lines and rhythms, the band remained abstract and textural. Regarding his musical evolution at the time, Sutton later commented, "For some reason I just flipped one day and I realized silence could have a much greater impact than loud noise... Space and silence are the most important tools you can use in music. I just got really obsessed with that."
Eventually, the band's contract with Cheree was bought out by 3rd Stone Ltd., the Corby-based alternative record label which had headhunted the band on the reputation of their initial singles. Bark Psychosis' debut release for 3rd Stone — 1991's Manman EP — demonstrated clear influences from techno
and musique concrète
. The band's potential had dramatically expanded with the addition of keyboard/synthesizer player Daniel Gish (formerly of Disco Inferno
). By now, Sutton and Ling's interest in digital sampling
and programming had become much more overt. From that point onward, sampling became a major feature of the Bark Psychosis sound, combining with the effect of Gish's own influences (which included Kraftwerk
, New Order
, The The
and Dead Can Dance
). Sutton was later to comment, "To an extent, every record we make is a reaction to the one that came before it."
Scum experimented with the use of space and extreme dynamics, with music that varied between minimal jazzy chording, airy acoustic drums, clamorous noise guitar, space-ambience and random vocal snippets. "There was no part except for a few rough galactic idea(s)," Sutton recalled. "That's how we'd written the past few years, just jamming as a band underneath the church. 99.999% of it, you wouldn't use any of it; but the vibe was really good at the time, so we decided why not just record a jam sort of thing. That's the thing, we tend to try and make life very difficult for ourselves for some reason. I'm not sure why... Ninety per cent of it was recorded live and then there was a few things. Vocals, some piano, some ambient guitar, a few different samples and stuff. The first three-and-a-half minutes of it was actually just the ambient mics left up. We had recorded a few different takes of things and those distance mics were just left up from a previous jam."
Regarding the sudden bursts of indistinct speaking voices that punctuated the single, Sutton noted that "that was just a found thing at the church. On one of the nights we were recording there was a Pentecostal meeting going on in the back room, so we sort of sneaked up to their door and just tape-recorded them because it sounded so brilliant." The single's ominous atmosphere and disaffected, whispered lyric "came about as a general disaffection with general sentiments from records that were being shoved down my throat. Crap house tracks. I just remember this one track had this chorus like "Everybody's free" and it made me want to fucking puke. I just wanted something completely the opposite of that and (to) turn that sentiment around."
The single gained the band a lot of press attention (being awarded Single of the Week in Melody Maker amongst other plaudits), and demand for an album grew.
. The recording of the album consolidated the ideas which the band had explored on Scum. As had been the case with Scum, the sessions made extensive use of the natural acoustics of St John's Church, with other recording work done in studios in Bath, Brighton and London. In an interview with the Audrie's Diary fanzine in 1994, Sutton explained "Most people, to get a big reverb sound, will record something and then run it through a reverb unit. But we've taken the trouble to record in a church... When you set up mics, you capture more than just what is being recorded. You capture an ambience or a feeling as well. It's all about creating something unique and of the moment rather than just another bland factory preset."
In an interview with the Weedbus fanzine at the same time, Sutton commented:
By this point, the band had developed a singularly unique and varied sound — embedded in lush electronic sampling and textures and accented with electric guitars, piano, and melodica. Regarding the sampling, Sutton commented "although the album doesn't sound like it, a good fifty per cent of it was just running from computer... A lot of things. Guitar things. Moving things around, you know, cutting things out, then moving them around. Bits of vocal moved around... There's also a lot of samples of instruments involved. But we do it in a way that is idiosyncratic to us... Although Hex is sample-orientated, it doesn't necessarily sound like that, and there is an acoustic drum-kit in there, recorded in such a way that it sounds quite idiosyncratic to me. The album doesn't fit in that well, which I'm happy about — I wouldn't like it to fit in with a homogeneous agenda like dance music, or ambient music, whatever. The area of ambient music interests me more than any other but it's still too stylised." Sutton himself was moving in the direction of electronic music and paying less attention to his guitar playing. "I had a tremolo pedal, a chorus pedal, a delay pedal. That's it. But I really haven't played much guitar in the last year. I've been mostly fucking around with samplers. I'm more interested in pure sound, than just a guitar or whatever."
Hex featured guest musicians the Duke String Quartet, Animals That Swim
's trumpeter Del Crabtree, Phil Brown on flute, and Neil Aldridge and Dave Ross on assorted percussion. The band also called in vibraphone player Pete Beresford (the father of one of Sutton's friends), of whom Sutton later recalled "(he) was this really, really old guy who used to play in a lot of old war time swing bands for kids going out for a dance in London. He hadn't taken his vibes out of his front room for fucking years, he just plays for his own pleasure, as a hobby. So we got him to come down and it was fucking brilliant, and I want to work with him again."
The recording of Hex
proved to be tortuous, with plenty of infighting centered around Sutton's stubbornness and dominance of the band. In 2001, Sutton would reminisce "I have great memories of working on (Hex
), even if I did do everyone's head in!" However, in a 1994 interview he described the album sessions as "the most intense fucking year of my life. The longest I had been in a studio was ten days for Scum, but this was like a year of my life... It was quite hairy at some points." The band interrupted the album recording sessions on January 31, 1993, to play a one-off concert at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. This was to be their last performance together as a quartet.
Two members of Bark Psychosis were to leave the band during the remaining sessions. The first was Daniel Gish, whose departure was formally announced in Melody Maker on December 18, 1993. Gish would cite "lack of record company support" as his motive for leaving, with Sutton commenting, "all I can say is the split was amicable,": he would also describe Gish as having "gone to Israel for a bit. He's going to come back though and I still want to work with him." The last track from the sessions ("Big Shot") was recorded by the remaining three members. Once Hex
was completed, John Ling also quit Bark Psychosis, feeling "burnt out and unable to play," allegedly due to the stress of making the album. At the time, Sutton commented that "(John) felt he just needed to get some distance from it once we'd finished it. I think he's moved to Holland now to do Spiral Tribe
or squat over there or something... It's just been a fucking intense year, though it might not sound like it on the record. It's been a real head-fuck." Ling would not return to the band. He subsequently quit the music business to spend a period travelling the world, and later pursued a career as a psychiatric nurse as well as starting a family. Many years later, Sutton would admit "I know I can be 'difficult' to work with; I get very opinionated — and I'll fight tooth and nail for what I believe in. John had a problem with that and chose to leave."
rather than use a support act. Hex
itself was released on February 14, 1994. It was licensed to Circa Records (a division of Virgin Records) and released worldwide through EMI. In the USA, the album was released on Caroline Records in the USA.
When British music critic Simon Reynolds
reviewed the album in the March 1994 issue of Mojo
magazine., he used the term "post-rock
" to describe the band's approach to music. He later expanded upon the idea in the May 1994 issue of The Wire
. While this was not the first use of the term, it was the example which brought the "post-rock
" concept to public knowledge to the point where it was a major stylistically-defining term in music criticism and discourse during the 1990s. This review (and the subsequent discussion which it inspired) ensured that Bark Psychosis were one of the first bands recognised as being post-rock
artists. Although Hex
was not a commercial success at the time, it has continued to sell steadily over the years and retains a reputation as a key album in post-rock
and experimental rock circles.
pop single than it did to the moody post-rock
of previous releases. The EP also featured a Rudi Tambala remix of the Hex
track "Big Shot" and (confusingly) a newly recorded track called "Hex", featuring three-and-a-half minutes of deafening noise textures eventually dissolving into ambient keyboards and trumpet, which was also recorded in St John's Church. The EP was mixed at Metropolis Studios in West London.
Blue clearly revealed that Sutton's interest was now heading towards programmed and sequenced rhythms. By this stage he was asking Simnett to replicate jungle breakbeat
s at speed on his kit. Bark Psychosis performed at the Britronica Festival in April 1994 in Moscow alongside Seefeel
, Autechre
, Ultramarine
and Aphex Twin
. After this concert, an increasingly sidelined Simnett left the band. (Six years later, Simnett would resurface in the instrumental post-rock
band Yellow6, playing drums for their two live concerts in 2000 and subsequently moving to bass for five concerts in 2001. He would also contribute to Porcupine Tree
leader Steven Wilson
's Incredible Expanding Mindfuck
project.)
Although Bark Psychosis never formally split up, Simnett's departure effectively ended the band, as Sutton had by now lost interest in experimental rock and become a full-scale convert to drum and bass
music. In a 2001 interview, Sutton recalled, "By the end it was just me with Mark drumming and a nice pool of different people to draw upon. The last couple of tours we did in '94 I just loved. But by that point I knew I wanted to try something else." Later in the summer, Sutton reunited with Daniel Gish to record some new tracks in an ambient and drum and bass
style, which they performed at the 1994 Phoenix Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon). Although the duo's performance was billed under the Bark Psychosis name (and was technically the band's last appearance for ten years), it was in effect the debut of a brand new project which was only tenuously related to Bark Psychosis music.
Later in 1994, 3rd Stone released a posthumous Bark Psychosis compilation album called Independency. This collected together the early Bark Psychosis singles and EPs on both Cheree and 3rd Stone, and included Scum in its entirety. In 1997, 3rd Stone released a second Bark Psychosis compilation album called Game Over, which combined early tracks (as previously released on Independency) with the Blue single and several tracks from Hex
(including the studio outtake "Murder City"). It also contained a rare cover of the Wire song "Three Girl Rhumba" (from the Wire
tribute album Whore). Game Over was not endorsed by the band.
. The new tracks premiered at Phoenix were released as part of an EP (the first release by The Leaf Label), following which Gish left the project. Following his departure from Boymerang, Daniel Gish disappeared into the world of dance music to work in various mysteriously-named sub-genres referred to as "dark garage," "dreamhouse" and "night music": his current whereabouts are unknown. Now featuring Sutton alone, Boymerang released several more EPs and an album (1997's Balance Of The Force). A few musicians from the Bark Psychosis world — most notably trumpeter Del Crabtree — contributed to some tracks.
Sutton also became a significant collaborator to .O.rang
, the experimental band formed by former Talk Talk
members Lee Harris
and Paul Webb
. He contributed instrumentation and programming to the Herd of Instinct and Fields And Waves albums as well as the Spoor EP; and remixed the track P53 for single release.
In parallel to (and subsequent to) his activities with Boymerang and .O.rang, Graham Sutton made a name for himself as a record producer. He has produced albums by Jarvis Cocker
, Delays
, Snowpony
, The Veils
, Coldharbourstores, British Sea Power
, Pellumair and Anjali Bhatia (ex-Voodoo Queens
), plus early recordings by The $urplu$ (a band featuring David Callahan of Moonshake
and The Wolfhounds
). He has also produced single mixes and remixes for acts including Metallica
, Goldie
, Brakes
, Mansun
, Stephen Simmonds
, Mandalay
, Ed Rush
, Collapsed Lung
, Ultramarine
and Wagon Christ.
/.O.rang
drummer Lee Harris. Other contributors to the project were Anja Buechele (the singer for The $urplu$), bass player David Panos, German multi-instrumentalist Rachel Dreyer (piano, vocals, wood flute), Shaun Hyder (Sindhi tamboura), Alice Kemp (bowed guitar) and T.J. Mackenzie (trumpet). One of the clearest indications that the project had changed was that Sutton was now sharing his lead singer's role with others: Buechele and Dreyer covered many of the vocals, sometimes even singing entire songs. Conversely, a link with the past came from Pete Beresford who contributed vibraphone, reprising his role on Hex.
The revitalized Bark Psychosis released a new album, ///Codename: Dustsucker on Fire Records in 2004 (accompanied by a new single called "The Black Meat"). ///Codename: Dustsucker revealed that Bark Psychosis was no longer confined by the formal limitations of either rock band or dance music project, as might have been expected. As opposed to Hexs more consistent approach (which worked the band's influences and ideas around an established rhythm section and melodic instrumentation, and which sounded like the work of an isolated live band with guests), Dustsucker was a diverse — even sprawling — collection of musical ideas. Sutton was exploring separate instrumentation from track to track, with the "trademark" Bark Psychosis approach to dynamics and atmosphere serving as the linking project identity. Although several pieces featured familiar Bark Psychosis ingredients (such as the interplay of Sutton's tremolo electric guitar and minimal keyboards), others were based around strummed acoustic guitar and resembled either folk music or some of the band's pre-"Scum" psychedelic work, while others had elements of cool jazz
, Indian classical sounds, or — as in the case of "Shapeshifting" - a post-Boymerang fascination with the possibilities of extended rhythm and noise.
Rather than make new pressings of the Independency and Game Over albums, 3rd Stone Ltd had apparently already planned to release a new compilation (Replay) featuring previously released material, deleted material and unreleased live tracks. Whether by accident or design, Replay was released at around the same time as ///Codename: Dustsucker. As had been the case with Game Over, the release was not endorsed by the band.
In May 2005, Bark Psychosis released the 400 Winters EP. This featured three Dustsucker album tracks "deconstructed and reassembled" by Colin Bradley.
On February 14, 2008, Pendulum Man featured in the Adam Brooks movie Definitely Maybe (Universal International Pictures), the song also having appeared on the soundtrack to an Israeli documentary about Bryan Adams
, and an Israeli dramatisation of Oliver Twist
.
Boymerang
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band/musical project from east London formed in 1986. They were one of the bands that Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
cited when coining "post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
" as a musical style in 1994, and are thus considered one of the key bands defining the genre. Graham Sutton
Graham Sutton (musician)
Graham Sutton is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer based in Hackney, UK. He is best known as the leader and key figure of seminal post-rock band Bark Psychosis, as well as being an in-demand producer for alternative rock bands since the late 1990s.-Bark Psychosis:Sutton...
is the leader and consistent core member of the group, which is currently a flexible project consisting of Sutton supported by an altering roster of guest musicians.
During its original incarnation, the group was a more conventional quartet: Graham Sutton
Graham Sutton (musician)
Graham Sutton is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer based in Hackney, UK. He is best known as the leader and key figure of seminal post-rock band Bark Psychosis, as well as being an in-demand producer for alternative rock bands since the late 1990s.-Bark Psychosis:Sutton...
, Daniel Gish, John Ling and Mark Simnett. This line-up recorded most of the early EPs and the seminal 1994 album Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
. Recent contributing guest members include experimental guitarist Colin Bradley (of Dual) and Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
drummer Lee Harris.
Sound and influences
Bark Psychosis' sound has covered various musical styles including minimalismMinimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, introverted indie rock, psychedelia
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
, post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
, cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
, outright mechanical/industrial noise, and electronic dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
. However, the band's music is best characterised by a sense of acoustic space, moody atmospherics, murmured vocals, abstract but emotional lyrics, and a particularly sensitive and acclaimed mixture of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Bark Psychosis is also noted for an extreme dynamic range, varying from quietly-whispered-and-played songs such as "I Know" or "Absent Friend" to thunderous metallic riffing ("Murder City") or deafening sheets of electric noise (the first half of the track "Hex").
Bark Psychosis' music is also notably melodic and expressive, and arguably owes something to the English pastoral rock tradition. The band is frequently embraced by progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
fans due to their experimental outlook, and their use of both atmospherics and extended instrumentation. Sutton himself seems uncomfortable with the association, commenting, "Sometimes people compare us to Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, and they are just a muso thing. I'm more interested in feeling, really..."
The band started life as a teenage Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
cover project, reflecting the members' early interest in extreme noise. Other early influences included Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
, Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
, Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
, Swans
Swans (band)
Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...
and Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
. (Allegedly, the band was also inspired by Romford
Romford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
pop act Five Star
Five Star
Five Star are a British pop / R&B group, formed in 1983. Comprising siblings Stedman, Lorraine, Denise, Doris and Delroy Pearson, they were known for their flamboyant image, matching costumes and heavily choreographed dance routines...
and the early work of Britfunk band Level 42
Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
.) Graham Sutton has claimed a long term interest in dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
, jazz and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, as well as an appreciation for the work of Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
.
Bark Psychosis' musical development has also been characterised by restlessness, which has contributed to the band's historical lack of stability while at the same time stimulating its creativity. In another 1994 interview, Sutton stated, "The whole thing about being in this band is never repeating yourself. I've always tried to surprise myself and other people as well, fucking around with people's preconceptions about what you're about and stuff. I really get a real huge fucking kick about giving people the wrong impression. Or twisting things around. Like, it might sound initially sweet, but it ain't. Or vice versa."
Formation and early years (1986-1988)
Bark Psychosis was formed in Snaresbrook, Essex in 1986, emerging from the 1980s East London experimental music scene that also produced AR Kane and Disco InfernoDisco Inferno (band)
Disco Inferno was an English experimental rock band, formed in Essex in the late 1980s, by Ian Crause , Paul Wilmott , Rob Whatley and Daniel Gish .-History:...
. The original two members were schoolfriends Graham Sutton (guitar, vocals) and John Ling (bass, vocals). Both were aged 14 at the time that they started the band, carrying out their initial experiments using a 4-track tape recorder and a drum machine. In January 1988 Ling and Sutton (both aged 16) left school to pursue music full-time. They recruited drummer Mark Simnett, who had previously done community work centered on St. John's Church in Stratford
Stratford, London
Stratford is a place in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located east northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an agrarian settlement in the ancient parish of West Ham, which transformed into an industrial suburb...
.
Using Simnett's connection with the church, Bark Psychosis arranged rehearsal space for themselves in the crypt of St John's, a location that would continue to play an important role in Bark Psychosis' music. The trio spent the rest of 1988 rehearsing and composing original material, during which time both Sutton and Ling began to dabble in keyboard playing and digital sampling. A few low-key gigs followed late in the year. One of these concerts was attended by Nick Allport and Vinita Joshi of the small East London independent label Cheree Records. Impressed by the band, Cheree immediately offered to release the band's first recordings. During this period, Bark Psychosis briefly featured a second guitarist, Rashied Garrison. Garrison had previously played in The Moons, a band who had supported Bark Psychosis at early shows. However, his tenure with Bark Psychosis was fairly short and he would later become "a feared journalist", the guitarist in Good Time Pony and leader of The Repton Oaks.
Cheree singles and early live gigs (1988-1990)
Bark Psychosis' debut appearance on record was the 1988 Clawhammer flexi-disc (a split release on Cheree, shared with Fury Things and Spacemen 3Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...
). By this time, the band were back to their original trio lineup. Six years later (on the eve of the release of the Hex album), Sutton was vituperative in disowning the track. The official Bark Psychosis debut was 1989's 12-inch single "All Different Things/By Blow", for which the band was augmented by an extra singer, Sue Page. In 1994, Sutton recalled:
"At this stage we were so naive we didn't know how things worked, how the whole music business worked. We did two nights of working, from 12 to 8, and gave it to (Cheree)... That's the first time we went in the studio properly, really. Basically, I had my hands on the faders and when it kicked in, I just fucking went to the faders, I didn't know anything about it then. When we were mixing "By Blow" we ended up distorting the DAT and we didn't even fucking notice because it was just monitoring so loud in the control room. It's nice, naive and all the rest of it but it's pretty crap at the same time."
The band's formal live debut (outside of school performances) was at the Sir George Robey public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park, London
Finsbury Park is an area in north London, England which grew up around an important railway interchange at the junction of the London Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney...
, London, supporting Extreme Noise Terror
Extreme Noise Terror
Extreme Noise Terror are a British crust punk / grindcore band originally formed in Ipswich, England in 1985. The band are widely considered one of the earliest and most influential European grindcore bands, and particularly the forefathers of the crustgrind subgenre.Notable for one of the...
. Tours with The Telescopes, Cranes
Cranes (band)
Cranes are a British music group formed in 1986, whose style has been described as "gothic minimalism".-History:Formed in 1986 in Portsmouth, England by siblings Alison and Jim Shaw, and named after the many mechanical cranes around the city's docks, Cranes are best known for the childlike,...
and Spiritualised quickly followed. In 1990, with Sue Page still on board, Bark Psychosis released a 12-inch EP called "Nothing Feels" (backed with "I Know"). Sutton later recalled, "The second single was what(ever) two tracks we had knocking around at the time. At the same time, live-wise at this stage, it was completely different. It was very, very loud and extreme both ways."
By this time, Bark Psychosis were establishing a reputation as one of the most unpredictable, innovative live bands in Britain with a great degree of spontaneity and excitement at their gigs. On record, however, they were developing into a more atmospheric and melodic act, while avoiding many of the standard rock "cliches" such as extended solos and self-mythologising lyrics: beyond their melody lines and rhythms, the band remained abstract and textural. Regarding his musical evolution at the time, Sutton later commented, "For some reason I just flipped one day and I realized silence could have a much greater impact than loud noise... Space and silence are the most important tools you can use in music. I just got really obsessed with that."
A year in the wilderness; signing to 3rd Stone Ltd.; Manman EP (1990- 1991)
Having signed a formal recording contract with Cheree, Bark Psychosis immediately found themselves dismayed by management changes at the label. Cheree's two new commercial backers were later described by Sutton as "a couple of cons, really, that had screwed so many people," with links to various dubious businesses including pornography. The band reneged on their contract and spent a year extricating themselves from the situation, during which time Sue Page left the band. Much-needed managerial and financial support during this period was provided by the band's friend Rudi Tambala of AR Kane. Sutton has commented: "That year was murder. When we were trying to get away from Cheree it was fucking hell. I had a lot of problems after that year. I was squatting and stuff and did a lot of things I shouldn't have done. It's caused a lot of problems."Eventually, the band's contract with Cheree was bought out by 3rd Stone Ltd., the Corby-based alternative record label which had headhunted the band on the reputation of their initial singles. Bark Psychosis' debut release for 3rd Stone — 1991's Manman EP — demonstrated clear influences from techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
and musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
. The band's potential had dramatically expanded with the addition of keyboard/synthesizer player Daniel Gish (formerly of Disco Inferno
Disco Inferno (band)
Disco Inferno was an English experimental rock band, formed in Essex in the late 1980s, by Ian Crause , Paul Wilmott , Rob Whatley and Daniel Gish .-History:...
). By now, Sutton and Ling's interest in digital sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and programming had become much more overt. From that point onward, sampling became a major feature of the Bark Psychosis sound, combining with the effect of Gish's own influences (which included Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
, The The
The The
The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member.-Early years :...
and Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance are an ethereal neoclassical duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart...
). Sutton was later to comment, "To an extent, every record we make is a reaction to the one that came before it."
The Scum single (1992)
In 1992, Bark Psychosis released a hugely acclaimed landmark single called Scum. This was an ominous, 21-minute ambient piece improvised and recorded live in the band's "home" of St John's Church. Recalling the events several years later, Sutton admitted "we had a single to do but we didn't have any tracks that were suitable for a single. We wanted to do something completely new and put ourselves under a certain amount of risk. So basically we hired a load of gear and set up sort of a makeshift string and sticky-tape kind of studio under the church where we rehearsed for ages, and in the church as well... We didn't have a track when we started, so we just set ourselves ten days to do a 12-inch and that's what came out... It's probably the most spontaneous record we've put out."Scum experimented with the use of space and extreme dynamics, with music that varied between minimal jazzy chording, airy acoustic drums, clamorous noise guitar, space-ambience and random vocal snippets. "There was no part except for a few rough galactic idea(s)," Sutton recalled. "That's how we'd written the past few years, just jamming as a band underneath the church. 99.999% of it, you wouldn't use any of it; but the vibe was really good at the time, so we decided why not just record a jam sort of thing. That's the thing, we tend to try and make life very difficult for ourselves for some reason. I'm not sure why... Ninety per cent of it was recorded live and then there was a few things. Vocals, some piano, some ambient guitar, a few different samples and stuff. The first three-and-a-half minutes of it was actually just the ambient mics left up. We had recorded a few different takes of things and those distance mics were just left up from a previous jam."
Regarding the sudden bursts of indistinct speaking voices that punctuated the single, Sutton noted that "that was just a found thing at the church. On one of the nights we were recording there was a Pentecostal meeting going on in the back room, so we sort of sneaked up to their door and just tape-recorded them because it sounded so brilliant." The single's ominous atmosphere and disaffected, whispered lyric "came about as a general disaffection with general sentiments from records that were being shoved down my throat. Crap house tracks. I just remember this one track had this chorus like "Everybody's free" and it made me want to fucking puke. I just wanted something completely the opposite of that and (to) turn that sentiment around."
The single gained the band a lot of press attention (being awarded Single of the Week in Melody Maker amongst other plaudits), and demand for an album grew.
Recording Hex (1992-93)
In November 1992, Bark Psychosis began recording a self-produced debut album, to be called HexHex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
. The recording of the album consolidated the ideas which the band had explored on Scum. As had been the case with Scum, the sessions made extensive use of the natural acoustics of St John's Church, with other recording work done in studios in Bath, Brighton and London. In an interview with the Audrie's Diary fanzine in 1994, Sutton explained "Most people, to get a big reverb sound, will record something and then run it through a reverb unit. But we've taken the trouble to record in a church... When you set up mics, you capture more than just what is being recorded. You capture an ambience or a feeling as well. It's all about creating something unique and of the moment rather than just another bland factory preset."
"If you were making a film or something you want to have special effects — for example, a train going over a cliff. Then you either get a little model of it and simulate, or you can get a real train because that's probably going to be more effective. We wanted to capture real acoustics rather than have everything computer simulated. A lot of keyboards can sound very bland so you have to look at recording them in a different way. We wanted to have a gritty edge to it. We got a PA and set it up in a church, a really huge church in Stratford, east London, just beside a huge traffic island, so we had to do it late at night when there was no traffic! We had the keyboards coming out of the PA and the microphones at the other end of the church. It created a very interesting atmosphere..."
By this point, the band had developed a singularly unique and varied sound — embedded in lush electronic sampling and textures and accented with electric guitars, piano, and melodica. Regarding the sampling, Sutton commented "although the album doesn't sound like it, a good fifty per cent of it was just running from computer... A lot of things. Guitar things. Moving things around, you know, cutting things out, then moving them around. Bits of vocal moved around... There's also a lot of samples of instruments involved. But we do it in a way that is idiosyncratic to us... Although Hex is sample-orientated, it doesn't necessarily sound like that, and there is an acoustic drum-kit in there, recorded in such a way that it sounds quite idiosyncratic to me. The album doesn't fit in that well, which I'm happy about — I wouldn't like it to fit in with a homogeneous agenda like dance music, or ambient music, whatever. The area of ambient music interests me more than any other but it's still too stylised." Sutton himself was moving in the direction of electronic music and paying less attention to his guitar playing. "I had a tremolo pedal, a chorus pedal, a delay pedal. That's it. But I really haven't played much guitar in the last year. I've been mostly fucking around with samplers. I'm more interested in pure sound, than just a guitar or whatever."
Hex featured guest musicians the Duke String Quartet, Animals That Swim
Animals That Swim
Animals That Swim are a musical group who formed in London, England, 1989, with a line-up of stand-up drums, piano, trumpet and "a nifty line in clever narrative lyrics"...
's trumpeter Del Crabtree, Phil Brown on flute, and Neil Aldridge and Dave Ross on assorted percussion. The band also called in vibraphone player Pete Beresford (the father of one of Sutton's friends), of whom Sutton later recalled "(he) was this really, really old guy who used to play in a lot of old war time swing bands for kids going out for a dance in London. He hadn't taken his vibes out of his front room for fucking years, he just plays for his own pleasure, as a hobby. So we got him to come down and it was fucking brilliant, and I want to work with him again."
The recording of Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
proved to be tortuous, with plenty of infighting centered around Sutton's stubbornness and dominance of the band. In 2001, Sutton would reminisce "I have great memories of working on (Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
), even if I did do everyone's head in!" However, in a 1994 interview he described the album sessions as "the most intense fucking year of my life. The longest I had been in a studio was ten days for Scum, but this was like a year of my life... It was quite hairy at some points." The band interrupted the album recording sessions on January 31, 1993, to play a one-off concert at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. This was to be their last performance together as a quartet.
Two members of Bark Psychosis were to leave the band during the remaining sessions. The first was Daniel Gish, whose departure was formally announced in Melody Maker on December 18, 1993. Gish would cite "lack of record company support" as his motive for leaving, with Sutton commenting, "all I can say is the split was amicable,": he would also describe Gish as having "gone to Israel for a bit. He's going to come back though and I still want to work with him." The last track from the sessions ("Big Shot") was recorded by the remaining three members. Once Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
was completed, John Ling also quit Bark Psychosis, feeling "burnt out and unable to play," allegedly due to the stress of making the album. At the time, Sutton commented that "(John) felt he just needed to get some distance from it once we'd finished it. I think he's moved to Holland now to do Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe is a free party sound system which existed in the first half of the 1990s, and became active again in 2007. The collective originated in west London and later travelled across Europe and North America. According to one member, the name came to him when he was at work, staring at a...
or squat over there or something... It's just been a fucking intense year, though it might not sound like it on the record. It's been a real head-fuck." Ling would not return to the band. He subsequently quit the music business to spend a period travelling the world, and later pursued a career as a psychiatric nurse as well as starting a family. Many years later, Sutton would admit "I know I can be 'difficult' to work with; I get very opinionated — and I'll fight tooth and nail for what I believe in. John had a problem with that and chose to leave."
The release of Hex (early 1994)
In January 1994, the band released "A Street Scene" as a single. Although plans for live concerts had initially been upset by the departure of John Ling, the band carried out a five-date promotional tour with guest musicians (including Daniel Gish, who had been invited to rejoin the lineup as a guest musician rather than full band member). The band screened the animated Bolex Brothers film The Secret Adventures of Tom ThumbThe Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is a 1993 stop-motion animated film made by bolexbrothers, and funded by the BBC, La Sept, producer Richard Hutchinson and Manga Entertainment, which also distributed the film on video...
rather than use a support act. Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
itself was released on February 14, 1994. It was licensed to Circa Records (a division of Virgin Records) and released worldwide through EMI. In the USA, the album was released on Caroline Records in the USA.
When British music critic Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
reviewed the album in the March 1994 issue of Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
magazine., he used the term "post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
" to describe the band's approach to music. He later expanded upon the idea in the May 1994 issue of The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
. While this was not the first use of the term, it was the example which brought the "post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
" concept to public knowledge to the point where it was a major stylistically-defining term in music criticism and discourse during the 1990s. This review (and the subsequent discussion which it inspired) ensured that Bark Psychosis were one of the first bands recognised as being post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
artists. Although Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
was not a commercial success at the time, it has continued to sell steadily over the years and retains a reputation as a key album in post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
and experimental rock circles.
The Blue period — mutation, disintegration and split (mid-1994)
Now reduced to a duo of Sutton and Simnett, Bark Psychosis went on to record the Blue EP, released in May 1994, and promoted with a UK tour, also featuring Gish. The title track was comparatively more upbeat than the band's work on Hex (and was apparently therapeutic for Sutton, who was allegedly getting over the demise of a "stormy personal relationship" at the time). Blue was also very strongly influenced by dance music, sounding closer to a New OrderNew Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
pop single than it did to the moody post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
of previous releases. The EP also featured a Rudi Tambala remix of the Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
track "Big Shot" and (confusingly) a newly recorded track called "Hex", featuring three-and-a-half minutes of deafening noise textures eventually dissolving into ambient keyboards and trumpet, which was also recorded in St John's Church. The EP was mixed at Metropolis Studios in West London.
Blue clearly revealed that Sutton's interest was now heading towards programmed and sequenced rhythms. By this stage he was asking Simnett to replicate jungle breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
s at speed on his kit. Bark Psychosis performed at the Britronica Festival in April 1994 in Moscow alongside Seefeel
Seefeel
Seefeel are a British electronic/post-rock band formed in the early 1990s. They are currently signed to Warp Records.-Biography:Seefeel formed during 1992 in London, England; with Mark Clifford on guitar, Mark Van Hoen on bass, Justin Fletcher on drums and Sarah Peacock on vocals and guitar. During...
, Autechre
Autechre
Autechre are an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both natives of Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are one of the most prominent acts signed to Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music and through which all Autechre albums...
, Ultramarine
Ultramarine
Ultramarine is a blue pigment consisting primarily of a double silicate of aluminium and sodium with some sulfides or sulfates, and occurring in nature as a proximate component of lapis lazuli...
and Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
. After this concert, an increasingly sidelined Simnett left the band. (Six years later, Simnett would resurface in the instrumental post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band Yellow6, playing drums for their two live concerts in 2000 and subsequently moving to bass for five concerts in 2001. He would also contribute to Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree is a progressive rock band formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Their music is difficult to categorise, being associated with both psychedelic rock and progressive rock, yet having been influenced by trance, krautrock and ambient due to Steven...
leader Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
's Incredible Expanding Mindfuck
Incredible Expanding Mindfuck
Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, also known as I.E.M., was a musical project by Steven Wilson . Its work is mainly influenced by Krautrock and experimental music from the 1960s and 1970s.-Background and history:...
project.)
Although Bark Psychosis never formally split up, Simnett's departure effectively ended the band, as Sutton had by now lost interest in experimental rock and become a full-scale convert to drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
music. In a 2001 interview, Sutton recalled, "By the end it was just me with Mark drumming and a nice pool of different people to draw upon. The last couple of tours we did in '94 I just loved. But by that point I knew I wanted to try something else." Later in the summer, Sutton reunited with Daniel Gish to record some new tracks in an ambient and drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
style, which they performed at the 1994 Phoenix Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon). Although the duo's performance was billed under the Bark Psychosis name (and was technically the band's last appearance for ten years), it was in effect the debut of a brand new project which was only tenuously related to Bark Psychosis music.
Later in 1994, 3rd Stone released a posthumous Bark Psychosis compilation album called Independency. This collected together the early Bark Psychosis singles and EPs on both Cheree and 3rd Stone, and included Scum in its entirety. In 1997, 3rd Stone released a second Bark Psychosis compilation album called Game Over, which combined early tracks (as previously released on Independency) with the Blue single and several tracks from Hex
Hex (album)
Hex is a 1994 album by Bark Psychosis. The term "post-rock" was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in his review of this album for Mojo magazine.-Reception:...
(including the studio outtake "Murder City"). It also contained a rare cover of the Wire song "Three Girl Rhumba" (from the Wire
Wire (band)
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...
tribute album Whore). Game Over was not endorsed by the band.
Post-split - Boymerang, .O.rang, and Sutton as producer (1994-2003)
Following their Phoenix Festival performance, Sutton and Gish renamed their new drum and bass project BoymerangBoymerang
Boymerang is a DnB project of Graham Sutton, leading light of post-rock band Bark Psychosis. Sutton released one album as Boymerang, the well-received Balance of the Force, a blend of techy intricately programmed DnB and subtle melodies....
. The new tracks premiered at Phoenix were released as part of an EP (the first release by The Leaf Label), following which Gish left the project. Following his departure from Boymerang, Daniel Gish disappeared into the world of dance music to work in various mysteriously-named sub-genres referred to as "dark garage," "dreamhouse" and "night music": his current whereabouts are unknown. Now featuring Sutton alone, Boymerang released several more EPs and an album (1997's Balance Of The Force). A few musicians from the Bark Psychosis world — most notably trumpeter Del Crabtree — contributed to some tracks.
Sutton also became a significant collaborator to .O.rang
.O.rang
.O.rang is a band led by Lee Harris and Paul Webb, formerly of Talk Talk. The group's first album, Herd of Instinct , was recorded similarly to Talk Talk's later albums: guest musicians played hours of improvisational material, then the performances were edited down and pieced together...
, the experimental band formed by former Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
members Lee Harris
Lee Harris (musician)
Lee David Harris is an English drummer and musician. Harris attended secondary school with Paul Webb, and the two became good friends. They played in the reggae band Eskalator before being recruited to form Talk Talk in 1981. Harris played drums for Talk Talk until 1991. In the early 1990s he and...
and Paul Webb
Paul Webb
Paul Douglas Webb is an English musician.Webb attended secondary school with Lee Harris, and the two became good friends. They played in the reggae band Eskalator before being recruited to form Talk Talk in 1981. Webb played bass for Talk Talk until 1988.In the early 1990s he and Harris formed...
. He contributed instrumentation and programming to the Herd of Instinct and Fields And Waves albums as well as the Spoor EP; and remixed the track P53 for single release.
In parallel to (and subsequent to) his activities with Boymerang and .O.rang, Graham Sutton made a name for himself as a record producer. He has produced albums by Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, Delays
Delays
Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, consisting of brothers Greg and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and features Greg Gilbert's distinctive falsetto lead vocals...
, Snowpony
Snowpony
Snowpony are a British indie rock supergroup initially formed in 1996 by Katharine Gifford and Debbie Googe.-History:Gifford, who at the time was in Moonshake, gave Googe a tape of songs she had been working on before Moonshake went on a US tour. Googe, who then had recently left My Bloody...
, The Veils
The Veils
The Veils are a London based Indie/Alternative rock band fronted by lead singer and songwriter Finn Andrews. They are known for their chaotic and highly cathartic live performances and Finn's often scarily possessed stage presence. Head of Rough Trade Records Geoff Travis has referred to Finn as "A...
, Coldharbourstores, British Sea Power
British Sea Power
British Sea Power are an indie rock band based in Brighton, England, although three of the band members originally come from Kendal in Cumbria. Critics have likened their sound to a variety of groups, from The Cure and Joy Division to the Pixies and Arcade Fire. The band are famed for their live...
, Pellumair and Anjali Bhatia (ex-Voodoo Queens
Voodoo Queens
The Voodoo Queens were a North London-based girl group, who reached number one in the Indie Charts in 1993.-History:The band composed of Anjali Bhatia , Ella Guru , Stefania Lucchesini , Rajni Bhatia and Anjula Bhasker...
), plus early recordings by The $urplu$ (a band featuring David Callahan of Moonshake
Moonshake
Moonshake was a UK-based experimental rock/post-rock band existing between 1991 and 1997. The only consistent member was singer/sampler player/occasional guitarist David Callahan, who initially co-led the project with Margaret Fiedler...
and The Wolfhounds
The Wolfhounds
The Wolfhounds were an indie rock band formed in Romford, Havering, England in 1985 by Dave Callahan, Paul Clark, Andy Golding, Andy Bolton and Frank Stebbing. They began as a slightly askew pop/rock band, and signed to the Pink label in 1986. First EP Cut The Cake was well enough received for...
). He has also produced single mixes and remixes for acts including Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Goldie
Goldie
Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist...
, Brakes
Brakes (band)
Brakes is a four member band from Brighton, England. The group formed in 2003. It consists of Eamon Hamilton , Thomas White , Marc Beatty , and Alex White .-Biography:Brakes formed in 2003, when Thomas White and Alex White of The Electric Soft Parade saw Eamon Hamilton perform...
, Mansun
Mansun
Mansun were an English alternative rock band formed in Chester in 1995. The band comprised vocalist/rhythm guitarist Paul Draper, bassist Stove King, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Dominic Chad, and drummer Andie Rathbone. The band broke up in May 2003....
, Stephen Simmonds
Stephen Simmonds
Stephen Simmonds is a Swedish recording artist. He was raised in Sweden, the United States, and Israel. After recording a demo with Swedish producer Peter Cartriers, Simmonds signed a record deal with label Parlophone/EMI in the UK as well as with Priority Records in the US...
, Mandalay
Mandalay (band)
Mandalay was a trip hop duo from the United Kingdom, composed of multi-instrumentalist Saul Freeman and singer Nicola Hitchcock...
, Ed Rush
Ed Rush
Ed Rush is the recording name of Ben Settle; a prominent jungle/techstep/neurofunk DJ, who often produces tracks in collaboration with Optical. Hailing from west London, he came to prominence with the release of the track Bludclot Artattack in 1993...
, Collapsed Lung
Collapsed Lung
Collapsed lung can refer to:* Pneumothorax, accumulation of air in the chest leading to collapse of the lung* Atelectasis, collapse of the air-containing sacs of the lung* Collapsed Lung, a British hip-hop band active in the 1990s...
, Ultramarine
Ultramarine
Ultramarine is a blue pigment consisting primarily of a double silicate of aluminium and sodium with some sulfides or sulfates, and occurring in nature as a proximate component of lapis lazuli...
and Wagon Christ.
Bark Psychosis mark II (2004-present)
After a ten year hiatus, Sutton formally relaunched Bark Psychosis in 2004 and revealed that he had, in fact, been recording new Bark Psychosis tracks since 1999 with various collaborators. The project was now, in effect, a Graham Sutton solo project in all but name, with Sutton playing the majority of the instrumentation himself. Former band drummer Mark Simnett was present, but only in the form of unspecified sampled drum tracks. Sutton's most prominent collaborators were now Colin Bradley (better known as the guitarist from Dual) and the former Talk TalkTalk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
/.O.rang
.O.rang
.O.rang is a band led by Lee Harris and Paul Webb, formerly of Talk Talk. The group's first album, Herd of Instinct , was recorded similarly to Talk Talk's later albums: guest musicians played hours of improvisational material, then the performances were edited down and pieced together...
drummer Lee Harris. Other contributors to the project were Anja Buechele (the singer for The $urplu$), bass player David Panos, German multi-instrumentalist Rachel Dreyer (piano, vocals, wood flute), Shaun Hyder (Sindhi tamboura), Alice Kemp (bowed guitar) and T.J. Mackenzie (trumpet). One of the clearest indications that the project had changed was that Sutton was now sharing his lead singer's role with others: Buechele and Dreyer covered many of the vocals, sometimes even singing entire songs. Conversely, a link with the past came from Pete Beresford who contributed vibraphone, reprising his role on Hex.
The revitalized Bark Psychosis released a new album, ///Codename: Dustsucker on Fire Records in 2004 (accompanied by a new single called "The Black Meat"). ///Codename: Dustsucker revealed that Bark Psychosis was no longer confined by the formal limitations of either rock band or dance music project, as might have been expected. As opposed to Hexs more consistent approach (which worked the band's influences and ideas around an established rhythm section and melodic instrumentation, and which sounded like the work of an isolated live band with guests), Dustsucker was a diverse — even sprawling — collection of musical ideas. Sutton was exploring separate instrumentation from track to track, with the "trademark" Bark Psychosis approach to dynamics and atmosphere serving as the linking project identity. Although several pieces featured familiar Bark Psychosis ingredients (such as the interplay of Sutton's tremolo electric guitar and minimal keyboards), others were based around strummed acoustic guitar and resembled either folk music or some of the band's pre-"Scum" psychedelic work, while others had elements of cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
, Indian classical sounds, or — as in the case of "Shapeshifting" - a post-Boymerang fascination with the possibilities of extended rhythm and noise.
Rather than make new pressings of the Independency and Game Over albums, 3rd Stone Ltd had apparently already planned to release a new compilation (Replay) featuring previously released material, deleted material and unreleased live tracks. Whether by accident or design, Replay was released at around the same time as ///Codename: Dustsucker. As had been the case with Game Over, the release was not endorsed by the band.
In May 2005, Bark Psychosis released the 400 Winters EP. This featured three Dustsucker album tracks "deconstructed and reassembled" by Colin Bradley.
Current activity/releases/etc
There has been little public activity from Bark Psychosis since 2005, predominantly due to Sutton concentrating on his work as a producer.On February 14, 2008, Pendulum Man featured in the Adam Brooks movie Definitely Maybe (Universal International Pictures), the song also having appeared on the soundtrack to an Israeli documentary about Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, and an Israeli dramatisation of Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
.
Current members
- Graham SuttonGraham Sutton (musician)Graham Sutton is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer based in Hackney, UK. He is best known as the leader and key figure of seminal post-rock band Bark Psychosis, as well as being an in-demand producer for alternative rock bands since the late 1990s.-Bark Psychosis:Sutton...
- vocals, samples, guitar, piano, melodicaMelodicaThe melodica, also known as the "blow-organ" or "key-flute", is a free-reed instrument similar to the melodeon and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole,...
, Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, bass, synthesizer, programming (1986–present)
Ex-members
- Daniel Gish — keyboards, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
(1991–1994) - John Ling — bass, samples, percussion (1986–1993)
- Mark Simnett — drums, percussion (1988–1994)
- Sue Page — additional vocals (1989–1990)
- Rashied Garrison — guitar (1988)
Contributors/guest members
- Neil Aldridge — percussion
- Pete Beresford — vibraphone
- Colin Bradley — guitar
- Phil Brown — flute
- Anja Buechele — vocals
- Del Crabtree — trumpet
- Rachel Dreyer — piano, vocals, wood flute
- Duke String Quartet
- Lee Harris — drums
- Shaun Hyder — Sindhi tamboura
- Alice Kemp — bowed guitar
- T.J. Mackenzie — trumpet
- David Panos — bass
- Dave Ross — percussion
Trivia
- The name of the Hex track "Pendulum Man" is derived from Sutton's nickname during the album sessions ("I was mood swinging around like fuck, going from one extreme to another.")
- During the making of ///Codename: Dustsucker, Graham Sutton intentionally leaked parts of the album to various P2PPeer-to-peer file sharingP2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...
s, whilst watching on with bemusement as various fakes did the rounds. - Sue Page (Bark Psychosis' co-singer on the early Cheree singles) has contributed voice-over work for the mystery adventure game Scratches (under her married name of Sue Anderson).
EPs & Singles
- Clawhammer (1988)
- All Different Things (1989)
- Nothing Feels (1990)
- Manman (1991)
- Scum (1992)
- Hexcerpts (1993) promo only
- A Street Scene (1994)
- Blue EP (1994)
- The Black Meat (2004)
- 400 Winters EP (2005)
Compilations
- Independency (1994) - compiles all EP tracks from 1988–1992
- Game Over (1997) - compiles tracks from Hex and previous EPs, plus several rarities and outtakes
- Replay (2004) - similar release to Game Over
Appearances on various artist compilation albums
Bark Psychosis- My Cheree Amour, Cheree, 1992/3
- Signed Sealed & Delivered 1, Virgin, 1991
- World On Edge 2, EMI, 1994
- A Brief History Of Ambient 3, Virgin, 1994
- A Brief History Of Ambient 4, Virgin, 1995
- Ambient Extractions 1, C&S, 1995
- A Taste Of Third Stone 1, Third Stone, 1996
- The Big Chill: Eyelid Movies, Global Headz, 1996
- Whore (Wire Tribute), WMO, 1996
- Sessions Magazine, 1997
- A Taste Of Third Stone 2, Third Stone, 1997
- Ambient Journeys, Virgin, 1997
Boymerang
- Ambient Extractions 2, C&S, 1996
- Classic Plant, Leaf Label, 1998
- Classic Plant 2, Leaf Label
- Derailed Presents Fall Out, Derailed, 1996/8
- Check The Water, Leaf Label, 2005
External links
- Official Bark Psychosis website
- Graham Sutton on MySpace (official)
- Bark Psychosis on MySpace (unofficial)
- Graham Sutton producer page on Rough Trade