Bent - The Best of...

Two lads still having fun

By pilfering their admittedly dodgy record collections, Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills – aka Bent – crafted a raft of beautifully-textured, post-club woozy anecdotes for a generation of acid-pummelled clubbers. For their first two albums, Programmed To Love and The Everlasting Blink, the boys plundered old material and gently pressed a sampledelic sound with the soul of Nightmares On Wax, layering wisps of sultry vocals over dusty beats and tinkling keys. On third album Ariels, and subsequent offering Intercept!, they voyaged into live-based recording and, as such, the sound developed a slightly more energetic edge, while maintaining a headsoothing charm.

This collection provides an adequate taster for those unfamiliar with the guile of Bent and will offer a poignant reminder of spaced-out Sundays to those who are. For the latter group, the appeal here will be the second disc of new and unreleased material that sees the duo retain the essence of early releases, but with added bleep. The trademark floating vocals and instrumental loops are now underpinned by adeptly juggled beats and glitchy skips, while accented by the same quirky sense of humour and cheeky sonic antics that fans have come to expect.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Godlike & Electric | GAE 007 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Joe Duhig
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