Firstly, a bit of band history:
An abstract, down-tempo UK electronic act comprising Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin, who attracted accolades from all quarters of the music press with three limited edition 10-inch vinyl EPs on their own Impotent Fury label, released between 1998 and 2000. The releases were notable for their dazzling, 60s-influenced artwork, their childlike melodies and vocal samples taken from children's television programmes. Referring to a 70s children's television character, the magazine Straight No Chaser described the sound as "Bagpuss with breaks." Franglen and Deakin were childhood friends but did not form Lemon Jelly until 1997, after attending a 23 Skidoo concert. Before this, Franglen composed commercial music for adverts for clients such as Sony Playstation and Sega and occasionally for film and television soundtracks. He also contributed his keyboard and drum programming skills to Primal Scream's Xtrmntr and to projects by Björk, Hole, Blur, Spice Girls, All Saints and Daphne And Celeste. Deakin's background was as a club DJ (the wacky "Impotent Fury") and promoter but he also worked as a designer and illustrator for magazines such as The Face and Nova and indeed, it is his designs that grace the sleeves of Lemon Jelly's releases. The EPs, In The Bath, The Yellow EP and The Midnight EP led to the duo being named by the New Musical Express as one of the "Tips for 2000". Released in October 2000, Lemonjelly.ky (named after their website that was registered in the Cayman Islands in order to gain the "ky" suffix) gathered the three EPs on one disk and received universal praise. Drawing comparisons with the Beta Band, Air, Groove Armada and Bent, it was described by The Times newspaper as "the music playing in the cocktail bar at the end of the universe."
from The Guardian website
Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons
(XL)
Pascal Wyse
Friday October 25, 2002
What on earth am I doing with my life? Unless you are six, that is a question you might find yourself asking halfway through this album. We've had the sweet little Play School piano part of Space Walk, and actor John Standing listing things soothingly over chummy guitars and smiley electronics: "Over, under, around, apple, orange, banana, lemon." Then comes: "All the ducks are swimming in the water, falderalderaldo, falderalderaldo."
It may sometimes have that broadcast-for-schools feel, but it makes for great exuberance. When the flugelhorn arrives on Nice Weather for Ducks it is impossible to believe there is any evil in the world.
Everything is approachable and purely crafted, but Lost Horizons cheats banality with some choice quirks: Magnificent Seven strings, astronauts chatting, panoramic sound effects. Return to Patagonia shifts to a more after-hours club feel, upbeat jazz colliding with the big Russian sound of a male choir.
All this means that the one pool of darkness - Experiment Number Six, in which a detached scientist narrates a death by drugs - comes as quite a shock. Otherwise, Lost Horizons should make you feel like a Tellytubby.
from
www.bigchill.net
B I G C H I L L R E C O R D O F T H E W E E K
14/10/02
Lemon Jelly
Lost Horizons
(XL)
The new Jelly is a very different beast to the first album – which itself was a composite of the first three hard-to-find 10? EPs. Make no mistake, 'Lost Horizons' moves things forward forcefully and cohesively, with a strong and engaging selection of new material.
Initial rumours that Deakin and Franglin had hit a creative impasse in the studio seem to be totally without substance. What we have here is wall-to-wall Jelly classics, kicking off with 'Elements' complete with LJ trademark spoken word voiceover. Lemon Jelly are quick to set the tone for an album that will appeal to many – a relaxed, carefree, highly melodic, tour-de-force that should put a smile on the face of all but the most cynical. Never predicatble, towards the end of the opener comes a Macedonian folk tune – sounding like something you might hear on a Blowzabella record – to keep us on our toes and offset the lounge vibes nicely.
'Spacewalk' – 36 with a bullet in the pop charts on week of release – starts with astro space chat before moving into an ornate strummed acoustic guitar and tinkling piano shuffler, overlaid with a repeated sampled 'beautiful' vocal.
'Rambin Man' is the Jelly's paean to the loose-footed adventurer in all of us. Over a highly cathchy chord-progression – one of those epic workouts that just builds and builds – the ultimate global checklist is recited … Paris, Tibet, Sydney, Naxos … good to see the Aegean's finest making it into the LJ lexicon. Not sure about Kentish Town and Felixstowe though!
If there's another chart contender here, it's the totally original 'Nice Weather For Ducks', (a Naxos classic in no uncertain terms) which starts from a re-created lift from what sounds like an old English folk song (?All the ducks are swimming in the water, al-deral-deraldo?) , before mutating into a unique dance groove – part acoustic guitar strum, part drum'n'bass drum pattern, part triumphant Herb Alpert tijuana brass motif. And then that glorious salsa break! Spin the wheel and see what comes out … fit it all together and you've got one glorious and quite unique musical melange.
Elsewhere, we have the darker 'Experiment No6', which features some fine muted trumpet, a subtle grower 'Closer' and two groove-led jazz-filmic excursions 'Return To Patgonia' and 'The Curse Of Ka'zar', the latter of which starts with a stunning vocal choir arrangement not unlike The Kings Singers.
An album of contrasts, surprises and delights, made by two people who clearly love many styles and influences and one which proudly expounds The Big Chill ethos. Experimentation, fun and musicality – in this case producing one of the records of the year.
and from
www.robotfist.com
LOST HORIZONS
Lemon Jelly
Sony
I AM naturally suspicious of novelty packaging for new albums. It immediately plants a seed of cynicism in my mind that this CD is likely to prize style over substance. All that time and effort put into producing what is merely the clothes of the music - we are more interested in the naked truth. It seems like they are trying to draw attention away from the fact that the accompanying album is actually not very good.
Of course, there are exceptions, as Spiritualized have proven once or twice but not invariably. Thankfully, this debut album proper from Lemon Jelly, a.k.a. pals Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin, does not purely rely on it's cardboard colour collage of a case for it's undoubted pleasures.
Lemon Jelly are on of those irritating groups you'll have probably heard subliminally all over the place before you actually listen to the album. Thanks to my flatmate's impeccable taste in candle-lit, chilled-out, jazz-tinged music, I'd previously heard their collection of EPs, and this new release blends seamlessly in with that musical extravaganza of sound.
The thing that this album is, above all, is fun. Most of the tracks have a acoustic base, from which is built soundscapes of great integrity and ingenuity but with a healthy dash of humour, wit, spoken word and wackiness. Witness the terrifically fruitily English contributions of John Standing to Elements and Ramblin' Man and the excited spaceman commentary of Space Walk and this is an album that genuinely makes you smile as you listen. You will be laughing out load when the ridiculously wonderful Nice Weather For Ducks spins round and left utterly bemused at Experiment Number Six's wilfully abstract tones.
The sound itself lies somewhere between early-doors Air, dark-edged Zero 7 and a whole ghettoload of hip-hop, trip-hop and chill-out. The backdrop of layers of superbly constructed melodies and waves of sound added to the crazy excerpts and spoken overdubs is a seducing brew of muzak that is as entertaining as it is sonically enjoyable. And the extravagant packaging and design only add to the experience, instead of consisting of it. That spirit of fun persists through the entire record, as you would expect from a band that registered their name in the Cayman Islands for the sole reason so that they could be
www.lemonjelly.ky. Says it all really.
listen to a tiny snippet from the first track, 'Elements'
see the 'Nice weather for ducks' video
buy 'Lost Horizons'
visit their stonking feel-good website
Mark's rating: All your lovely memories of running through sunlit cornfields and discovering birds eggs out of 10 