1. Bent is a two-piece downtempo act from Nottingham, England consisting of Neil “Nail” Tolliday and Simon Mills. They gained critical acclaim from their debut album, Programmed to Love, in 2000. The song “Invisible Pedestrian” of the album “Programmed to Love” was featured in an Absolut Vodka commercial that aired in 2003, and more famously, a U.S. Volkswagen bus commercial in the late 90’s. Also aired on TV advertisement was “Private Road” also from “Programmed to Love” in the “Bank of Carlsberg” clip in December 2001. Programmed to Love was followed by “The Everlasting Blink” (2002), “Ariels” (2004) and recently with “Intercept!” in October of 2006. This album has seen the band move to a more disco-pop inspired sound There are at least two other artists with the name Bent - a Heavy Metal band, and an Icelandic rapper. It is unfortunate that last.fm cannot disambiguate them. Aah, the difficult, yet all important third album: the first could go either way, but having proven themselves the second was a test to show if the first wasn’t a fluke; but the third, well that’s a whole different story… Thankfully for Bent, in Ariels they’ve nothing to worry about. Joining Programmed To Love and The Everlasting Blink on the coffee table is another worthy companion full of surprises and enriched by beautifully lush ‘n’ dreamy numbers, like the Carpenters-esque “Sunday 29th” sung by longstanding cohort Kathy Heath. Less overtly electronic than what’s gone before, here songs and acoustic instruments replace synths and samples, along with some quite captivating vocals. This time out the Nottingham duo - Simon Mills and Nail Tolliday - have enlisted the services of a handful of accomplished singers to add a variety of contrasting layers to their productions. Notably Rachel Foster from the Weekend Players who adds her lush larynx to the distinctly Air-sounding first single, “Comin’ Back”; she also sounds uncannily like Enya on the ethereal “Sing Me”.|Kosheen’s Sian Evans sounds equally at home on the seductively rich “I Can’t Believe It’s Over”; and X-press 2 and Cassius sessioner Steve Edwards offers a strong male lead on the slow burning toe-tapping optimistically upbeat “Silent Life”. As a whole the chill beats and multi-layered musicianship work well together and certainly wouldn’t sound out of place on the Six Feet Under soundtrack; all of which conspire to make Bent one of the most happening bands in the living room. 2. Bent is an Icelandic rapper, a member of the group XXX Rottweiler. |
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