Lemon Jelly

For other uses, see Lemon Jelly (disambiguation).

Lemon Jelly

Lemon Jelly are a British electronica duo consisting of Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin.

Music

Franglen and Deakin initially released three limited-circulation EPs, The Bath (1998), The Yellow (1999), and The Midnight (2000), which were then collected into a widely-released album in 2000, Lemonjelly.ky, which was both a critical and a commercial success. The promo version of this album came in a card sleeve which featured artwork from each of the EPs on the front. On the back was the text: "This CD is for promotional use only and is not for resale. Neither is it for taking down to Reckless Records to swap for half a seven inch single. It can however be used as an attractive drinks coaster should the need arise." Reckless Records was a London-based chain of music exchange shops, which has since closed down.

Their second album (and self-proclaimed first studio album), Lost Horizons, was released in 2002, and was another success. The album featured the singles "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather For Ducks" and was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize and a BRIT Award for the now defunct "Best Dance Act" category in 2004.

Their most recent album, 2005's '64 - '95, featured a sticker to warn listeners that "This is our new album. It's not like our old album." The title comes from the fact that each track features a single sample drawn from years between 1964 and 1995, incorporating each sample in a variety of imaginative ways. It contains a track (Track 10 - "'64 - Go") featuring a vocal performance by William Shatner, with whom they collaborated for a track on his album Has Been. The album, available on both CD and vinyl, was complemented by the release of a DVD under the same title, with each of the album's audio tracks companied with colourful visuals executed mostly in 2D and 3D animation. Some of these visuals are progressive and would work as stand-alone music videos, while others are more repetitious, ever-changing variations of a given visual theme. The audio on the DVD is available as both standard stereo as well as 5.1 surround sound. The visuals were created by the Airside design studios.

The duo announced Lemon Jelly would be taking a hiatus as of 2008, Fred Deakin released the news on their forum, also stating that whilst there was a possibility the two would work together again, they would be pursuing solo careers for the time being.

The single "Cold Fusion" includes a sample from the 1977 Documentary The Glory Of Their Times, in which Rube Marquard relates about John McGraw: "He was the finest and the grandest man in the world to work for. He loved his players and the players loved him; he was wonderful. Although the newspapermen called him 'Muggsy', and that's the only thing he despised. Anybody called him, he didn't care who it was, he'd take a pop at him and he couldn't lick a stamp."

Live performances

Lemon Jelly are known for their imaginative live performances. In 2003, Lemon Jelly performed a number of concerts around the UK. Instead of having a support act, Franglen and Deakin organized a giant game of Bingo, presided over by Death and played by many members of the audience. In other shows, support was provided by Don Partridge - a traditional one man band - whilst "Jelly Helpers" distributed sweets to the crowd. They also played a Saturday Morning gig named "Jelly Tots" as a charitable event for children. In between sets, classic British children's cartoons were played over a projection screen, and the event featured bouncy castles, clowns and hundreds of balloons. They have performed headlining sets at Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, Reading Festival and The Big Chill amongst others.

Lemon Jelly in media

A number of their tracks have been used by the BBC and other British broadcasters for trailers and incidental music, including "His Majesty King Raam" in Jamie's Kitchen, "Nice Weather for Ducks", featuring an impersonation of John Langstaff, who later founded Revels in the U.S., "Ramblin' Man" and "The Shouty Track". Other television programmes have also used their music, such as "The Staunton Lick" being used during the final scene of sitcom Spaced. They have also been heard on other television advert campaigns. Most notably, music from In the Bath was used on Motorola's earlier "Hello Moto" adverts, with newly recorded voices recorded over Lemon Jelly's original track. Recently, "The Curse of Ka'Zar" was used in Turner Classic Movies' 31 Days of Oscar advertisements, played in a montage (occasionally aired with alternative music by Imogen Heap) used for filler and in information about the film about to air prior to its actual airing. "A tune for Jack" was in an episode of CSI Miami as well as an episode of Malcolm in the Middle titled "Book Club". In September 2007, "Space Walk" was used in an American advertisement, "Through the Eyes of a Cat", for Friskies cat food. Also in September 2007 "Experiment No. 6" was used for a BBC trailer for a catch-up marathon of the hit TV show Heroes. More recently, the track "Space Walk" was used in the United States for a 2009 Cadillac television campaign.

Airside

Their packaging is designed by Deakin's Airside studios. The bright colours and graphic elements, together with the Lemon Jelly typeface, are instantly recognisable as the Lemon Jelly "brand". Their first three EPs were released on 10" vinyl in hand screenprinted sleeves and now trade on eBay for large sums of money. Other interesting sleeves included Soft/Rock, an unofficial release which was pressed on pale blue 7" vinyl in a denim sleeve. Another unofficial release, Rolled/Oats was pressed as a gold picture disc in a hessian bag.

Other projects

In 2003, the BBC announced that Lemon Jelly would be contributing to a remix album based on the music and sound effects of the television program Doctor Who as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the series. This project was abandoned, however, owing partly to the announcement of the 2005 revival of the series.

In late 2005, Franglen did remixes of Coldcut's "Man in a Garage", and of the original The Sims 2 and its expansion pack The Sims 2: University Buy/Build Mode Soundtracks for another expansion pack for The Sims 2; The Sims 2 Nightlife. In 2006 Franglen produced Badly Drawn Boy's studio album Born in the U.K. and in 2007 Deakin released an eclectic three-volume mix album "The Triptych".

As of 2008, Lemon Jelly are not working on any new projects as a duo. However, they will continue work on their own side and solo projects.

Discography

Albums

• Lemonjelly.ky - 23 October 2000
• Lost Horizons - 7 October 2002 #20 (UK)
• '64 - '95 - 31 January 2005 #17 (UK)

EPs

• The Bath EP (1998)
• The Yellow EP (1999)
• The Midnight EP (2000)

Singles

• "Soft/Rock" (2001)
• "Space Walk" (2002, #36 UK)
• "Nice Weather for Ducks" (2003, #16 UK)
• "Rolled/Oats" (2003)
• "Stay With You" (2004, #31 UK)
• "The Shouty Track" (2005, #21 UK)
• "Make Things Right" (2005, #33 UK)

Note: Soft/Rock and Rolled/Oats were not released under the Lemon Jelly name, however the musical style and distinctive cover artwork style made it apparent as to the source of the release.

References

• "Lemon Jelly, Forum, London" by Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, March 8, 2003, retrieved July 2, 2006

External links

• Lemon Jelly official website
• 64 - '95 Album Review at UKEvents.net