Napoleon by One Half of Bent

Simon Mills is One half of Bent. Or should that be that One half of Bent is Simon Mills. Either way, Mills and (‘the other half of Bent’) Neil ‘Nail’ Tolliday, collectively as Bent, first sneaked onto stereos in 1999 with the infectious shuffle of ‘I love my man’.
Quickly garnering a reputation for being thrift store record sampling alchemists, turning musty grooves into redefined downtempo gold.

Bent produced over five albums from 2000 to 2007, shifting and tweaked their subtleties before temporarily bowing out with the sonic statement ‘Intercept!’ before returning in the pandemic panicked 2020 with the much-needed dose of calmed class ‘Up in the air’.

While to the untrained ear, Bent often found themselves labelled as ‘chill out’, their knowing, ever present mirth was matched by an ability to drop roof-raising club anthems (‘Always’, ‘Magic Love’ and ‘Friends’ to name just a clutch).

Rather then us [NuNorthern Soul] waffle on, we asked Simon to tell us about the release.

“Napoleon was the first body of work I produced after Bent went into hibernation in the late 00s, but it wasn’t until I had moved to Ireland were most of the work was written. Released in 2011, I wanted it to continue the sound that we’d developed in Bent, especially through sampled sources, found sound and all of the gear I’ve collected over the years.

I wanted the album to be a mixture of styles, still hinting at an older nostalgic sound (which I always crave.) Ultimately, my personal brief was to continue with an album that mixes hope with melancholy and evolve personally from the Bent sound.

Two tracks on the album feature vocals from Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian from LA’s Capital Cities, as I’d also been producing some of their work at the time before they blew up. “Lament" is a personal favourite track and I went through 20 versions until settling with the final mix.

The artwork derived from the idea of ‘organic meets technical’, and designer Suzan Hill did a great job of capturing this, I think, along with a playful style and a little wink to my love of vintage elements and instruments.”

NuNorthern Soul has been running events since 1996, the label, which was formed in 2012, is about presenting a rich tapestry of music, not restricted by genre or production techniques, it is not a SOUL music label, but a label for music with SOUL.

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