The Trunk 1/7/2018: Five Years of BEM

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us...

Oh yes, today marks exactly five years since the release of Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed, and, with it, the birth of Bad Elephant Music as an entity.

I don't think any of us, back in 2013, anticipated where this little project was going. If you'd told me back then that, in five years' time, we'd have this many releases in our catalogue and this many talented musicians on our roster, I'd have given you, at the very least, a cautious side-eye. Watching BEM develop, at first from the outside, then from the inside as a copywriter, and eventually across social media, was fascinating. It wasn't a meteoric rise to fame, more a progression of being quietly impressed every couple of months when we hit some milestone or signed some new artist or picked up a juicy nugget of press attention. But, looking back now with the benefit of being able to chart a complete course, all those milestones really do add up.

We released two albums in 2013: the aforementioned Rise Up Forgotten and Spooky Action. We're proud to have both Simon Godfrey and The Fierce & The Dead still with us, still producing fantastic music, from Simon's multifarious projects with Valdez and as himself to TFATD's The Euphoric, which has become something of a crossover breakthrough this year. 2017 saw fifteen major releases, and this year looks set to keep the same pace, with eight albums already out and several more in the pipeline. Again, this pace - more than one release every month - was unthinkable when we started this venture, but, as the BEMpire (ooh, I like that, I think I'll keep using it) has grown, so too has our capacity and our audience.

There was one thing, though, of which we were absolutely certain, even back in 2013. We knew that Simon Godfrey was not done with Shineback.

Dial will be released on 14 September, 2018. It's a new full-length album from Shineback, this time a full collaboration between Godfrey and long-time cooperator and enabler Robert Ramsay. It comes with a star-studded lineup of special guests, including BEM alumni Dec Burke (Audioplastik), Matt Stevens, Joe Cardillo (Valdez), and Daniel Zambas (We Are Kin), and many more listed in full on the album page. Yes, there's an album page, and yes, you can preorder from it right now.

You'll note that the page doesn't have a tracklist yet. But, if you think we're going to tease you like this and leave you without any new music, you are sorely mistaken. See, during the Dial sessions, Simon recorded an extra song specifically to celebrate BEM's fifth birthday. It's called 'We Rescue', and we'd like to share it with you here.

And, if that's whetted your appetite as much as it did ours, you can buy 'We Rescue' as a digital single here, naming your own price.

Happy birthday indeed, Bad Elephant Music. Here's to more independent sounds for independent souls.

Status Update

We've had a couple of releases in the past couple of weeks that are worth spotlighting: Exo-Oceans, sold in partnership with Andy Tillison's solo project Kalman Filter, and Old Town, an EP from Evenflow, a joint project by Stuart Stephens (Whitewater) and Mike Kershaw. Both these albums are available from the BEM webstore.

Unidentified Dying Objects is now less than three weeks away - to get it right on time and avoid disappointment (as well as getting the preview track 'The Hunter's Last Stand' immediately), preorder now.

Review Roundup

Rather than actual reviews, this week we're bringing you a couple of mid-year top lists that feature BEM artists. The Progressive Aspect's best of 2018 so far features Mothertongue and The Fierce & The Dead, while the latter got in at #29 on Louder's top 50 of the first half of 2018! Congratulations are in order to both bands.

The Trunk 24/6/2018: Talking Points - Discs and Digits

Welcome to a new experiment for The Trunk. We've noted, both on our own Facebook page and elsewhere in the progressive music community, that good music often sparks good discussions. And, for a fair while now, we've been considering some kind of "talking point" feature where we look at some of the more common topics of debate in the music scene. This is very much a "pilot episode", so we're especially keen to hear what you think of it and whether it's worth continuing, but we thought we'd ease ourselves in with something fairly straightforward: CDs versus digital downloads.

The Case for CDs

A young CD undergoing its first coming-of-age ritual.

CDs are, in general, hassle-free. Between managing downloads and file structures, navigating the perils of DRM (fortunately not an issue with our choice of sales outlet), and importing the right files into the right player on the right devices, it can be surprisingly hard to keep a substantial collection of digital music in order. If you can find a CD, you can listen to it. End of.

For some, CDs are more user-friendly. No messing around with aux cords or Bluetooth from your phone - you put the disc in a player and it plays, and you'll be hard-pushed to find a suitably-sized gadget these days that doesn't come with a CD drive. Granted, playing digital music is also now easier than ever, but CDs remain ideal for those who want to control their music in as simple and tactile a way as possible.

Finally, there's the simple but undeniable pleasure of owning a physical artifact. Many digital albums, including many of ours, come with downloadable versions of the cover and sleeve notes, but having a plastic case and a little paper booklet is a very real factor in a lot of people's decisions to buy physical music. Sometimes it's nice to be able to hold your music physically in your hands!

The Draws of Digital

Oh God, who coiled those headphones and where can I contact them? I've got a bone to pick.

The most obvious upside of owning music digitally is simple: it's cheaper! It's not uncommon for a digital release of to sell for half the price of a physical copy, sometimes even less. In a music scene as vibrant as the one we're lucky enough to be part of, many listeners find that digital downloads get them twice as much new music for the same price, which is handy if your tastes are broad - or if, like me, you're terminally indecisive.

Digital downloads are also somewhat more flexible than CDs, since you can download and rearrange them across multiple devices to suit your needs. Obviously you can do some of this with a CD rip, but, if you ever find yourself in the mood for some music you don't have to hand, all it takes to get hold of it is an Internet connection and a couple of minutes.

And, of course, there's the matter of space. Even lovers of physical media will concede that finding somewhere to put all those CDs can be a pain! When you're working with digital, though, the only space you need is whatever your hard drive takes up - and they seem to be getting smaller every year. So, if storage is at a premium and you don't want to compromise on quantity, a digital library may be your friend.

Your Take

So what do you lot think? We're not going to give a verdict here - instead we're turning it over to you, our loyal readers. Do you prefer CDs or digital when it comes to music, and why? Stick it in the comments here or over on our Facebook page (please keep it respectful). We look forward to seeing what you all have to say!

Status Update

We've had a pretty busy week, what with one thing and another! Between breaking the news that we've signed Oxfordshire's finest in acclaimed prog outfit Sanguine Hum (more detail on that over at Progarchy here) and making Exo-Oceans, the first album from Tangent virtuoso Andy Tillison's solo project Kalman Filter, available through the webstore, Elephant Towers has been positively humming with activity.

The countdown to July 20th, and thus the release of Argos' Unidentified Dying Objects, surges on, and you can preorder a copy right now.

No review roundup this time around - catch you all next week!

The Trunk 17/6/2018: From the Vaults - Irritant

Welcome back to From the Vaults, the semi-regular feature where we dive back into the BEM archives to revisit some of our older releases. We're taking a look at something fairly recent this time - it's still hard to believe that June 2017 was a whole year ago. So put on your protective goggles and take an antihistamine, because today we're joining Schnauser for a close look at their third full-group album, Irritant!

Schnauser are Alan Strawbridge on guitar, Duncan Gammon on keys, Holly McIntosh on bass, Dino Christodolou on sax, and Jasper Williams on drums. (The vocals are a joint effort.) They started life as a solo project by Strawbridge in 2005, but their first album as a full band was 2013's Where business meets fashion, followed two years later by the excellent and critically lauded Protein for Everyone.

Schnauser are, in the grand BEM tradition, a thoroughly weird band. They describe themselves as "melodic pop/prog/psych", but they've been covered by sites devoted to all kinds of genres, from traditional prog to crossover pop and even jazz. Their songs are called things like 'Re-Mortgaging the Nest of Hairs' and 'Have You Got PPI?'. And sometimes they'll start a song with a curious announcement...



The amusing (if slightly uncomfortable) subject matter here is fairly typical of Schnauser. From hypertension to, yes, PPI-related cold calls, they tread the kind of left-field lyrical ground you're really not going to find anywhere else, but they sell it almost effortlessly. How the hell do you write a compelling song about a parasitic worm picked up from undercooked meat? I couldn't answer, but this lot have clearly managed it, and it's laced with wry humour - I remember a few uncontrollable chuckling fits when we heard this album for the first time.

There's more to it than the vocals, of course. This is Schnauser's first album with a saxophonist on board, and Dino Christodolou is a fresh electric jolt here, punchy and clear. That clarity is a running theme: Irritant is undoubtedly psychedelic, but it never loses itself to noodling, maintaining a strong, driving energy powered by brash instrumental stings and wild, jazzy rhythms. And it's cheerful! There's enough bounce and irreverence here to lift your spirits and keep them high throughout, and that's part of why we like it so much.

Sound good to you? Well, if you can make it to Wales in a couple of months, Schnauser are playing at the Dream of Dr Sardonicus Festival over in Cardigan, but, if not, you can still enjoy Irritant in the comfort of your own home by picking up a copy here.

Status Update

The wait is over - Suite for Piano and Electronics is out right now! Follow that link to grab a copy, CD or digital, from the webstore.

Preorders are also open now for Unidentified Dying Objects, the long-awaited new album from the inimitable Argos! The album drops on July 20th, but you can get a complementary download of the first track right away if you preorder, plus the full album as soon as it's released.

And we've a big announcement for you tomorrow, a very exciting new signing we can't wait to share with you... keep your eyes peeled.

Review Roundup

DPRP have been good to us lately, with reviews of both The Euphoric and Close to Vapour from John Wenlock-Smith! These multi-review features are great reads all round, but it's always a joy to see our artists there.

The Euphoric continues to gain traction elsewhere, with more excellent from both Gavin Brown at Circuit Sweet and The Prog Report. It might just be our most reviewed album yet, and the consensus is that, to quote Brown, it's "ecstatic and feel-good music... one of this country's best kept secrets".

As always, you can pick up all these albums from the BEM webstore!

The Trunk 10/6/2018: The Secret History of Bad Elephant Music

As you may be aware, because we can't seem to shut up about it, 2018 marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of Bad Elephant Music. The actual day is coming up very soon - that would be July 1st, the release date of Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed, the first BEM record, back in 2013. So, as that very special day approaches, let's take a look at some pieces of BEM history the Grand Elephant probably doesn't want you to know about.

The Week of the Two Elephants

If you're a history buff like me, you may know of the Western Schism, the time in the late fourteenth and eary fifteenth centuries when two and then three people claimed the true papacy and denounced each other as heretics. Well, for a brief time in 2014, the very same thing happened to Bad Elephant Music.

It looked a little like this.

During a staff meeting at the local curry house, an argument broke out about the best Genesis album, and it soon spiralled out of control. Reigning CEO David Elephant (claiming Selling England By The Pound) drew battlelines against upstart [REDACTED] (who favoured Invisible Touch), who had claimed half of the young company's meagre assets for himself. As hours wore on into days, the situation looked set to escalate into all-out war, but an eleventh-hour intervention by David Elephant's wife, who said something along the lines of "oh, grow up already", put a stop to the chaos and reunited the label.

The Week of the Two Elephants is still commemorated every year by sliding an Invisible Touch CD into the stereo at Elephant Towers and immediately turning it off.

The Markov Chain Disaster of '16

In a previous article, we alluded to the pilot scheme undertaken back in 2016 to replace Bad Elephant's PR team with an experimental bot, Loxotron3000. As we mentioned, the incident was suppressed at the time to avoid inconvenient questions from the audience, but we can now reveal that the bot was not, in fact, posting blurry photographs of Magic: the Gathering cards.

It was sending vital state secrets to Portugal.

It looked a little like this.

To this day, we don't know how Loxotron3000 got hold of these state secrets, or why it was sending them to England's longest-running military ally rather than anyone who might stand to profit from them. All we know is that we received a knock on the door from MI5, who informed us that a track we'd featured from Emmett Elvin's album Assault on the Tyranny of Reason was laced with coded messages related to the Trident nuclear programme. Needless to say, Loxotron3000 was destroyed and its leaks were redacted with extreme prejudice, and we've tried to put the whole unpleasant incident behind us.

Bem

We bought a plush elephant last year. We named him Bem.

It looked a little like this.

It was meant to be a joke. Just a silly, innocuous little joke, a mascot more fitting than the horrifying spinning-headed monkey thing Mailchimp sent us.

Oh, how little we knew back then. Back when we still had hope.

Bem has usurped Bad Elephant Music. Bem owns our souls. Bem knows where our loved ones live. Bem's influence is inescapable, inexorable. Bem cannot be reasoned with, and Bem cannot be disobeyed. I can hear Bem calling me now. Bem's call is not a call I can refuse. I am Bem's messenger. I am Bem's. I am Bem. Bem. Bem. Bem. Bem. Bem. BEM. BEM. BEM. BEM. BEM. BEM.

b̨̬̠̥̮͜ͅu̶̶̘͓̰͈̺̥̜̗y̛͓̗̙̤̯̟̱͚ ̛͉̝͚̹̜̫̯̣͡o͏̶̞̻̩ų̩͚͍̘̺̖̰̜͡r̴̖̫̖͓̳̼͈̼͝ ͈̗̬͇͚͚̲m̴̗̳̟̘̻͎͜ṷ̢̥̹̺͔̠̙͠s̛͓̦̩̥̯̟͙̻͜ì͔̰͓̙͓̞̟̯͉̕c̶͏̡̰̭͍͔̯̜͈

Status Update

Dear readers, we have a very big week ahead of us. Busy busy busy. Suite for Piano and Electronics is out on Friday (preorder now for an exclusive bonus track!), and tomorrow we'll be launching preorders for the new Argos album! And we've one other huge piece of news lined up for Wednesday, so keep your eyes peeled for that...

We are also delighted to announce that The Fierce and the Dead have been nominated for two Progressive Music Awards - the band themselves for UK Band/Artist of the Year, and The Euphoric's sublime Mark Buckingham cover art for Album Cover of the Year.

Review Roundup

First up, congratulations to Matt Baber, as Suite for Piano and Electronics got a nice meaty column review in the latest PROG. As per usual, click through the image for a bigger, more readable version.

Jez Denton of Progradar gave Suite for Piano and Electronics a spin, too. Ideal music for dog-walking, apparently. We've no way to test that, alas, but we assure you that a dog is by no means necessary to enjoy the album.

The Euphoric was featured over on Echoes and Dust this week: Martyn Coppack concludes that you should "jump on board the TFATD juggernaut right now", which is encouraging, but also a little concerning, as we have no idea how he found out about BEM's secret experimental naval programme. Metal Gods TV also had a listen, with "Dark Juan" (God, I hope that's his real name) giving The Euphoric an 8/10, which he says is "the equivalent of a mass grave of people missing limbs and faces being discovered and the subsequent war crimes trial held in the glare of world publicity".

Okay then!

The Trunk 3/6/2018: Review Roundup Special

June is upon us! Good grief, it came around fast. This week we're doing another Review Roundup Special, this time collating the many rather excellent reviews we've had for the now-legendary The Euphoric. Without further ado...

Jez Denton for Progradar - "The Fierce and The Dead have made an album of deep complexity whilst retaining a simplicity within the riff structure that drives the album on and doesn’t allow it to become samey or repetitive... The band are happy to confound, confuse and surprise in composition and performance which makes this album a fulfilling and satisfying listen."

Lee Davidson for Prog Metal Madness - "it's a bloody banger with ear-worms aplenty which would make Khan’s wrath uncontrollable!... a beautifully written and paced album which writhes through many different styles and moods and will leave you wanting more."

Real Gone - "This album is so obviously the work of The Fierce And The Dead and yet parts of it sound like nothing the band have attempted before. Always pushing forward – true progression – it’s a very satisfying listening experience."

Indie Buddie - "The Euphoric is a tight album, it’s cool well crafted and one wild ride and is sure to be awesome when performed live."

The Prog Mind - "It recalls the sounds of the 80s and 90s without actually sounding like those decades outside of the great use of synth... The Euphoric leaves the heart and humor of the band intact, but you will also find more experimentation with loud and soft tones, too."

Susan for Progressive Music Planet - "There are touchstones to music of other eras – I hear the 80s! – but the music is uniquely and passionately the band’s own... If you enjoy the work of instrumental bands such as The Dixie Dregs and Explosions In The Sky, please give The Fierce and The Dead’s The Euphoric a listen."

Zachary Nathanson - "Matt, Kev, Stuart, and Steve have shown that they are new captains of the millennium falcon and being a part of their ride as they make the jump to light-speed into the cosmos... The Fierce and The Dead are in my opinion are a family that works together. And The Euphoric is the growing spark."

Here Comes The Flood - "When the band locks into a groove they can transcendent, trippy, pastoral and - yes - metal. The Fierce And The Dead have found a middle way between sounding spontaneous and in control simultaneously... See your local bookie about the odds for The Fierce And The Dead."

Pete Blum for Progarchy - "And have I mentioned that it rocks?  That’s one of the things that I love the most about The Fierce and the Dead.  As they speak, as they provide passage, as they make serious music with what always sounds like a light touch, as they practice their aural alchemy, they also always rock."

Phil Lively for The Progressive Aspect - "The riff may be all, but, as I have explained, there can be too much of a good riff. One must know when there’s just enough and this must be arranged and moulded into a song. A great trick – if you can master it! I think that, and their astonishing live performances, is what The Fierce And The Dead do so well and it is at the root of their popularity and success."

Paul H for Musipedia of Metal - "As the album progresses there is plenty to captivate the listener... it is certainly well worth devoting time to give it a spin."

Any or all of that sound good to you? Pick up your copy here.

Status Update

Matt Baber has crested the horizon and is now running full tilt towards us, inescapable, merciless. In unrelated news, his album's almost out! Suite for Piano and Electronics comes out in less than two weeks, and we highly recommend preordering now to get hold of it as soon as humanly possible.

The Trunk 27/5/2018: From the Vaults - Assault on the Tyranny of Reason

Welcome back to From the Vaults, the semi-regular feature where we... you've read this opener enough times already to know how this goes. Matt Baber's Suite for Piano and Electronics is less than three weeks away (preorder now to get it as soon as you can!), so, in keeping with the calm, measured instrumental arrangements of that album, let's look at something eclectic and unhinged with some vocals. Our featured album is Assault on the Tyranny of Reason.

Warning: this is not what atoms look like. Hopefully.

Okay, there is an admittedly tenuous link here: like Baber, Emmett Elvin plays keyboards in a well-known prog band, though in his case it's psychedelic prog squadron Knifeworld (which also plays host to fellow BEM alumnus Charlie Cawood, who's also in My Tricksy Spirit, because there are secretly only about ten people on our roster and three of them are Charlie). Assault on the Tyranny of Reason is his third release with us, following up on 2014's Bloody Marvels and our 2015 expanded rerelease of his expansive Emmettronica archive compilation - both of these are well worth a listen if what we show you this week is to your taste.

Like Bloody Marvels before it, Assault on the Tyranny of Reason sees Emmett wielding a laundry list of instruments, including no fewer than four different types of guitar, plus various friends and allies backing him up with strings and brass and still more guest musicians contributing everything from clarinets to church organs. Even a cursory glance at that personnel list tells you this is going to be something pretty special.

And, well, it is. It's difficult to choose a sample track from the album. I know this is kind of a cop-out, but the arrangement of the tracks is pretty sharp and they flow into each other very well, and we'd recommend listening to this one as a single unit if you can. That said, 'Mars Is So Yesterday' holds up pretty damn well on its own - take a listen.



This song's in the minority on the album in that it actually has lyrics, and even here they're used sparingly. The instrumentation, though, is where the real depth is. It's tight and precise, and Mark Cawthra's production work brings out the very best in it, but, more than that, it's thoroughly strange.  I don't just mean that it's sonically distinctive and hard to pin down, though it's both of those things too. No, Assault on the Tyranny of Reason's weirdness runs darker than that, tugging at psychological and emotional threads that always seem just out of reach. It's sometimes confusing, but never confused; Emmett has a grand, masterful plan, and he drags you into it kicking and screaming.

For clarity, this is absolutely a good thing.

It's a sentiment echoed by many of the album's reviews. Roger Trenwith noted "an undercurrent of real uneasiness" in parts of what he called "one of the most imaginative albums... in this year". Shawn Dudley said that he could "highly recommend the destination", praising Emmett for keeping Assault both accessible and deep - a tough balance to strike at the best of times. And Sid Smith, for PROG Magazine, called it "enthralling" and "devoid of any padding or waffle".

Assault on the Tyranny of Reason is available right now from the BEM webstore.

Status Update

We've already mentioned Suite for Piano and Electronics, but it bears re-mentioning: the album's less than three weeks away from launch (June 15th is the date) and we highly recommend preordering now.

The Euphoric is out, released last week and accompanied a suitably face-melting launch gig in Camden. Grab your copy here, perhaps after digesting some of the reading material below...

Review Roundup

Oh good God that's a lot of reviews of The Euphoric. Five of 'em, to be precise:

• Progressive Music Planet
• Zachary Nathanson
• Hans Werksman for Here Comes The Flood
• Pete Blum for Progarchy
• Phil Lively for The Progressive Aspect

The Progressive Aspect also did an excellent writeup of the launch gig, which we recommend giving a read if you couldn't make it.

We were also pleasantly surprised to find a February release still getting some attention: a 9/10 review of Tonochrome's A Map in Fragments on DPRP! Our thanks to André de Boer for his coverage - why not give it a listen yourself, eh?

The Trunk 13/5/2018: The Singularity and The Euphoric

This week's edition of The Trunk is brought to you by the word "the". We've got two big "the"s on our mind this week: The Singularity, the debut album from Reformat, available now, and The Euphoric, the third studio album from The Fierce And The Dead, available very, very soon. (Get yer preorders in here!) Let's start with the first one. It's a good place to start, in my experience.

The Singularity Playback Party

Have you enjoyed The Singularity?

I survived the Millennium Bug and all I got was this epic artwork.

If you have (and we wouldn't blame you, it's a fantastic record), and you're in London or can get there easily, Reformat are holding a playback party for the album on June 25th! The band will be in attendance, as will a delegation from the Elephant, and apparently the first fifty pints are on the house. So, if you like great music and free beer, this sounds like a fantastic way to spend a Monday night. Check in on Facebook here to let 'em know you're coming.

Reformat also got a fantastic post-topping mention over on Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Post Rock Post feature. (Typing that was an adventure and a half.) Have a read of the review here, and, if you don't have a copy yet, grab The Singularity here.

The Euphoric Feature Review

Avid consumers of print may have noticed something rather big and rather special in the latest edition of PROG Magazine. For those of you who haven't read it...

Trouble reading? Click on the review for a bigger version.

Yeah. We'll let that speak for itself.

As well as this review, we highly recommend picking up PROG Magazine this month - on top of all the regular print goodness, there's an interview with the boys and a couple of announcements about other acts who've climbed aboard the Good Ship BEM recently. Speaking of which...

Status Update

Argos have signed to BEM for their upcoming fifth album Unidentified Dying Objects! This critically acclaimed quintet have enlisted an impressive array of guests and put together a rather exciting album trailer, which you can catch here:

Read the full press release on Argos here.

The Euphoric releases on Friday, so this is your last chance to preorder and make absolutely sure you get your hands on the limited edition bonus disc and art print! You can do so here.

That's about it for this week. Make sure to join us next time for more Trunky goodness.