back
"Must be a
complex issue tied up with ego"
Press Reviews
There have been millions of reviews and press features over the years, here are a
few
of our favourite and
recent reviews...
Shenaniganism
(Tape Hiss & Other Imperfections)
Fuzz
pedals and song craft to the fore as Lo-Fi beatniks set their name up in
lights.
Handmade
sleeves and affirmations that no studios were used in the creation of
Beatnik
Filmstars
new record set you up for an album that really does transport the band into
your
front
room. Conspiratorially British with song titles such as ‘The Affable
Gaffer’s Drinking
Club
Song’, ‘Blackpool’, Devil Minkeys’ and ‘The Oldest Profession In
England’, Beatnik
Filmstars
come across as a heady cocktail of Guided By Voices, pre ‘Shame About
Ray’
Lemonheads
and the Style Council. Trading on the fuzzed up cornucopia of staccato
chords
and
rolling riffs that have been the fair of every band this side of Billy Childish
to affix ‘Thee’
to
their name, Beatnik Filmstars manage to take a well ploughed furrow and garner
new
growth
from the much tilled earth.
The
recording of the album without computers in various rooms across Bristol helps
preserve
the
energy and innocence of the songs, injecting a quality similar to early Joy
Division into
songs
such as ‘Madmen & English Dogs’ where distorted vocals slide over
piercing keys and
quasi
Kraftwerk breaks. There are moments of quintessential English guitar pop that
will have
some
thinking of The Boo Radleys or Wonderstuff with added quirk and minimalist
production
values.
Of course the minimalist, Lo-Fi production is the key to this album, but it
showcases perfectly
that
money and fancy studios can’t buy you great songs. Bona fide filmstars never
sound so good.
( Jonathan Sebire - Subba-Cultcha)
Flitting
between gloriously shambolic art rock that sounds like it was recorded
on
a cheap tape recorder and played back in an aircraft carrier hanger and
romantically
inclined pure pop, veterans of the UK lo-fi scene Beatnik Filmstars
return
here with their latest record, SHENANIGANISM (TAPE HISS & OTHER
IMPERFECTIONS);
another LP flying the flag for ragged lo-fi glory.
Opener
A MAN WITH A PURPOSE is a languid acoustic affair, a song that begins
things
with a whimper rather than a bang, suggesting the Beatnik Filmstars as
fey
indie singer/songwriter types rather than the more Sonic Youth meets
Pavement
esque noise rock the makes up much of the rest of the record. LIFE
MODEL
for instance is a song that's all dirty guitar riffs and distorted vocals
before
taking
a turn for electronica meets lo fi in its dying moments, sounding for all
intents
and
purposes like the Aphex Twin being remixed by Polvo.
MADMEN
& ENGLISH
DOGS
is another gloriously off kilter and awkward sounding slice of noisy
art rock
whilst
the peculiar pop machinations of AIR STEWARDESS JACKIE HARRISON
melds
casio keyboard riffs to ragged guitars and skewed vocal whimsy.
DEVIL
MINKEYS, finds Beatnik Filmstars delivering a pop song trapped in a sea
of
sonic sludge, snappy guitar riffs and cheeky keyboard stabs creating a sound
not
unlike
Bis courting The Fall.
Continuing
in the skewed pop tradition,
BLACKPOOL
is another shining beacon
of
bright neon light here - a glorious collision between Urusei Yatsura and
Pavement.
The
new wave pop of LITTLE LOST SOUL is a song buried in enough sonic
experimentation
and fuzzy noise to put a smile on even the most jaded hardcore
noizenik,
the pummelling drum rolls and catchy melodies leaving you breathless.
SHENANIGANISM
(TAPE HISS AND OTHER IMPERFECTIONS) is a record that reminds
you
of the power of messy, chaotic, noisy rock - the kind of music that inspires you
to
go
out and form a band, that like minded folk and a bunch of cheap equipment is
all
you
need to change things for the better.
Beatnik
Filmstars bring a sense of joy and wonder to the indie rock scene,
creating
songs
that excite and inspire - a reminder that music can be experimental and
noisy,
frightening
and inventive, yet inviting,
warm and fun.
(
Mike Bond /
UK
Music)
The
first track of the nineteen packed into this energetic melting pot of lo-fi
experimentation
could easily lull you into thinking this will be pleasant, easy-
on-the-ear,
acoustic fare. But then the scruffy layers of 'Are You Doggin' I Up'
introduce
themselves like an Alka Seltzer fizzing in your cochlea (a note for the
prudish:
doggin' apparently means 'looking' in Bristol-speak and has nothing
to
do with sex in alleyways) and you know you are in for quite a ride.
For an album that was recorded in just two weeks and without the aid
of
computers,
this is not the stripped-down record you might expect. As well as
the
largely omnipresent crunchy guitar riffs, there is radio interference,
looped
samples
of football commentary, a bit of saxophone here and there and, most
bizarrely,
I swear there is a six-year old boy playing PacMan during both 'Life
Model'
and 'Air Stewardess Jackie Harrison'.
Influences seem to stretch far and wide. There are echoes of the Kinks on
'
Blackpool
', perhaps the most obvious choice for a radio single, as a playful
xylophone
teams up with plenty of alcohol references to create a great summer
tune.
The bright guitar riffs of The Hives drive the superbly titled 'Inside the
Mind
of Sam (The Breakfast Serial Killer)' while the vocals veer from George
Harrison
to Kasabian and back again.
But the Beatnik sound is very much their own, creating layers and textures
that
sound
unlike anything you will hear on a commercial radio station. The lyrics
and
tunes
are strong and varied, even on the gentler numbers like 'Awake?' which is
a
very
decent brass-infused ballad squeezed in before another Kinks' inspired
number
'Psychedically
Inclined Man About Town'. Closing stomper 'The Affable Gaffer's
Drinking
Club Song' affirms just how good Beatnik Filmstars' eighth album is. If
this
is
what can be achieved with two microphones in a house in
Bristol
, who needs
recording
studios? (TASTY)
Boss
Disque
Arriving
with a tirelessly eclectic mixed bag of powerful hooks, spacey keyboard sounds,
moody
strings and every single home recording trick and tactic known to man,
Beatnik Filmstars aim
to confound and surprise the listener at every step. And
now that I can't rightly compare them
to The Fall or Guided By Voices anymore,
they've made my job considerably more difficult.
Watch for them on tour if you
know what's good for you. (SKYWAY)
There
is life beyond Trip-Hop in Bristol and Beatnik Filmstars are the proof.
Producing some of
the most delectably flawed gems in all of pop music, the
Filmstars read lke some insidious
concoction of the Boo Radleys, Beach Boys and
Guided By Voices. Boss Disque represents a
beautifully twisted amalgam of all
things hummable. 'I Can Tame Lions' catches you with it's
harmonica hook,
'Consolation To A Bar Room Socialist' could fit nicely on the Boo's 'Everything's
Alright Forever' (a high compliment) and 'Less Than One In Ten'
thrashes in away that will make
college radio programmers cream. And the best
part: here's 19 other equally beguiling offerings.
(CHART, Toronto)
Fans
of lo-fi 4 rack pop music like Guided By Voices will most likely find these lads
appealing.
Extremely appealing. The Filmstars pack more into their CD than most
bands would dare to.
With 22 cuts of multi-tracking pop, the band isn't afraid to
delve into the many facets of the genre.
Short ones, long ones, any kind of song
ones; Beatnik Filmstars deliver more pop wallop for your
dollar than any
commercial rock out there. the British invasion continues. Get It!
(Greg
Barbera SPECTATOR)
Phase
3
I
used to have this really old clock radio and this Panasonic tape recorder that I
used to tape
cool
stuff off the radio. The set-up was really basic - lo-fi, if
you will. I had the tape recorder
placed right next to the clock radio so the
built in mic would catch as little outside noise as
possible. Then whenever I
heard anything that sounded promising, I'd push record.
The mix tapes that
resulted from that period contained fuzzy AOR radio hits, Dr. Demento
bits, ends
of commercials, snippets of DJ's talking, accidental bumps and pauses but I
still
listened to them over and over until they became familiar and comforting
to me. Those tapes
have long since disappeared or worn out. Thank goodness
Beatnik Filmstars came into my life.
Beatnik Filmstars are pure sonic euphoria.
They record their randomized pop ditties every
which way but right then tape it
together and make them all better. Drums sound like guitars,
guitars like drums,
organs like vocals, vocals like organs. It's dizzying. And when you're done
you'll swear the ever present static is just someone humming. (GRID MAGAZINE)
Bristol,
England's Beatnik Filmstars are like the disorganized and ill dressed but clever
kids in
school: from all appearances, they don't seem to have their act
together, but when it's time to
turn in a project, they assemble a surprisingly
impressive piece of work that reveals their ultimate
brilliance. Akin to those
kids term papers, complete with bad penmanship and entirely lacking a
bibliography, 'Phase 3' the group's fourth album, is a scrappily recorded
collection of songs which
are actually quite cogent and tuneful. Talking an
everything but the kitchen sink approach to
recording works in the Filmstars favor, as they capture their raw musical ideas without any studio
hands ironing
out the wrinkles, exposing the melodies and clanking percussion in all their
glory.
Sometimes this means that the band emerges with melodies as sweet as a
stick of rock candy, as
on the bouncy 'Milk', the Teenage Fanclub-ish 'New Jam
Shoes' or the ballad 'Rumpus Throw' and
sometimes it turns out clanking,
energized, highly percussive romps that could be the product of
The Fall's kid
brother (see 'Favourite Stuff' or 'Wing Off A Plane' among others). But what's
most
enjoyable about Beatnik Filmstars is that they're unpredictable in all ways
but one; they
consistently turn in excellent work and reveal a startling
amount of creativity with each successive
project. (Lydia Anderson / CMJ WEEKLY)
If
imitation is really the sincerest form of flattery, Mark E Smith should get a
restraining order
slapped on fellow Englanders Beatnik Filmstars pronto. If you
can get through this album
without jumping up and shouting 'Hit The North-ah'
you have some serious repression.
Phase 3 is a fantastic album nonetheless,
rotating wildly around the indie-art-noise axis with a
scuzzy charm and vicious
attitude that've been missing in British music since, well, the last
release
from The Fall, or maybe Gallon Drunk. This is definitely a low tech recording.
Songs ending halfway through and jumping boots first into new tunes, radio
static, and
deliberately messed with instrumentation trailing streamers of white
noise across the already
distorted vocals, and an eight dollar Bontempi
piping up on practically every track. And yet
Phase 3 doesn't fall into the rut
of white-boy-in-the-bedroom lo-fi. With three guitarists,
Beatnik Filmstars have
a big sound and Jerry Francis' killer bass rumbles like a flying fortress.
Beneath the chaotic surface, Phase 3 is packed with clever pop songs and
sharp lyrics, stand
out tracks being he surprisingly gorgeous New Order-ish
love-rant 'Disco-Tech' and the acidic
clang-a-thon 'White Bloke With Skin' where
the two vocalists Andrew Jarrett and John Austin
list vaious ways to "Put
yourself under pressure This is Beatnik Filmstars fifth album. If they're
news
to you, it's time to catch on (and plan a fun excursion into their back
catalogue)
(Michael Hukin - PUNCTURE)
Beezer
Like
driving a bulldozer through a Hatton Garden window. Like dynamiting a hologram
of Sonic
Youth. Like the Northern Lights on the Isle Of Wight. Like a dolphin in
Peckham Rye Pond.
This is an incongruous, sparkling, fractured gem of a record.
These are out-takes and singles
and things. That means there are proper LP's
somewhere. That means I've got some phone calls
to make. (Mark Luffman / MELODY
MAKER)
Apathetic
English Swine
Great
song title! This is shockingly sexy in a 'makes you want to go out with a
sharpened coat
hanger and stab policemen
to death' sort of way. It's about the
sort of person who'd rather stay
in and watch Rumblefish on video again with a
pizza, a spliff and a can of Diet Tizer than go out
and set fire to the House Of
Commons. This is up there with Senser's 'Age of Panic' and
S*M*A*S*H's 'Kill
Somebody' A clattering stick-a-pencil-in-your-ear piece of petulant tantrum
pop
that, rather than reflecting the zeitgeist, hunts it down to it lair, and chucks
in molotov
cocktails, waits until it runs out screaming with it's fur on fire
and then destroys it with a well
aimed barrage of white phosphorous, high
explosives and napalm before shagging the still
smoking corpse. (Steven Wells /
NME)
Difference
Engine may well be the worst band in the world. Beatnik Filmstars are the second
worst band in the world, even worse than Gutless. They do things with their
guitars that hurt
your ears, scream loudly in your face and then go all coy.
This is the work of males who will
never grow up to be men but just big boys.
Put them in a pit and cover them with fast drying
cement. Quick! Before they
contemplate releasing another record. (Sarra Manning / Melody Maker)
Astronaut
House
Consider
this: Beatnik Filmstars were originally featured in 'On' in the spring of 1991.
Almost
half a decade on, as the commercial world spins on in blissful ignorance,
the Bristolian
fivesome could be forgiven for sinking into a morass of resigned cynicism, sobbing over their
guitars while the likes of Gene gently
sweep into the arse-end of the nation's charts.
Not so. Astronaut House is in
fact the kind of crazed barrage of underground noise all too
infrequently made
by insipid British sorts, with angst in their proverbial pants and a frenzy of
frustration feeding the Beatniks collective psyche. The splendidly named Arthur
Jarrett howls
and grumbles through a table-thumping collection of gripes and
utterly gripping sonic blasts.
Take the seismic slacker mentality of 'Apathetic
English Swine' (cue Arthur bellowing "I don't
wanna go anywhere!") as
your starting point, and then stand sensibly aside as the Beatniks
sprint you
through a clanging cavalcade of machine gun drumming, battered strings and
squabbling Fall-style stampedes. Clichés are twisted . Tempers are frayed. Fingers are pointed.
And then 'What Goes Around Comes Around' decides to take
the foot off the belligerent pedal,
armed as it is with a smart jazzy intro.
Ultimately, stuffed with an eye-widening assaults or not,
'Astronaut House' is a
frantic, FUNNY, punk-tastic by-product of some seriously scrambled,
hyper-active
imaginations. As Arthur points out so succinctly amidst the caustic whiteout
bursts
of 'Protein +' "I've only been in love once / It left me full of
hate..." One of the chewiest records of
the year. Obviously. (Simon
Williams / NME)
Revolt
Into Style
Three
guitars! In these days of recession, it can hardly be responsible to have three
guitarists.
There are plenty of unemployed flautists out there. There are
hundreds of recorder players on
the breadline, as Lush so wonderfully proved at
the 4AD celebration last week. This record is
loud. It has no tune. But that
didn't stop me from giving U2 Single of the week.
(Caitlin Moran / MELODY MAKER)
Laid
Back & English
Now
who's for an English Pavement then? Alright go on, hide behind the sofa, but the
Bristol
based Beatniks will probably get you in the end. This second album
contains a value for money
16 tracks, at least half of them packed with the kind of intelligent, guitar driven whimsy that
most indie bands would give the right
side of their brain to think up. Sadly the other eight are
total bollocks. (C.C
/ SELECT)
It has a
sleeve you could stare at for hours. Highly enjoyable. Tangibly experimental and
often
brilliantly funny. 'Kick It In The Head' makes a self pitying melancholic
wallow into a superb
angst anthem, and the addictive 'Tearing Apart My World'
shows that they are more than
capable of the pop masterpiece. It's not often
that the word 'innovators' doesn't go hand in hand
with the words 'tedious',
'annoying' and 'bollocks', so extra marks for that. (CATHARSIS)
This album, it has
to be said, does not make for an initially enticing prospect. A childish collage
sleeve, a clumsy, over-mannered title and an opening track that is little more
than a clueless
racket. But from there on in the second LP from these Bristolian
indie-poppers improves
dramatically. The 'Niks take what is essentially an over
used formula - clanging guitars and
dreamy vocals - but give it a sufficiently
idiosyncratic twist that it sounds as fresh as an entire
field full of daises.
And when they couple their guitar swirl with that elusive beast known as the
Great Pop Song, the angst flows like Tizer, and they're little short of
magnificent. So 'Clean' is a
striking juxtaposition of driving, urgent guitars
and whispering, melancholic vocals and 'Tearing
Apart My World' a fantastic
chugalong anthem, while 'Orange' proves their ability to slow down
and go
mournful with some aplomb. Ironically, what lets them down is their desire to
transcend
the obvious Ride and Wedding Present influences. The chiming pop songs
are interspersed with
way too many attempts at art school weirdness that simply
don't ring true. If they hadn't
overreached themselves (16 tracks is undoubtedly
value-mungous, but not if you can live without
half of them), Laid Back &
English' would be right up there with the high numbers. As it is they'll
have to
settle for a potential-drenched 6. (Mark Sutherland / NME)
Maharishi
While
you're still holding on to your hats as prog rock makes it's comeback, here is
prog pop:
a piercing melancholic guitar sound alongside the quiet and loud
shuffling rhythms and
deadpan vocals sung with sublime wit: " Who needs a
life when you've got a TV", mutters vocalist
Andy during 'Ian Day'. The
Beatnik Filmstars plan to be ragged intellectuals who do their
washing up in the
bath and wear baggy sweaters in dark colours with holes in. 'Maharishi'
is their
debut LP. Printed boldly on the label are the words 'Play Loud' which no doubt
refers
to the simple, laced guitar harmonies of 'Breakable', the hot and cold of
'More' with it's biting
countdown of a guitar solo almost exactly like Galaxie
500's very last single and even the drifting
tempo of 'Down', which seems to be
slipping away from itself. Are you getting the
hang of this?
At times things
seem to go a little slow and you want to hurry them along. But this is a band
who wear their L plates proudly on their sleeves. (Ngaire / Melody Maker)