Lemon Jelly
Lemon Jelly |
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Lemon Jelly is a Mercury Prize-nominated 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. 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, shows a harder and more complex sound than previous releases. 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 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.
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, Fred and Nick organised a giant game of Bingo, presided over by Death and played by many members of the audience.[1] 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 developed an exciting live show, performing 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 for trailers and incidental music, including "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.
Airside
They are unusual in having a highly distinctive visual style for their packaging, stemming from their work with Fred's Airside design 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 late 2005, Franglen did remixes of Coldcut's "Man In A Garage", and of the original The Sims 2 and its expansion packThe Sims 2: University Buy/Build Mode Soundtracks for another expansion pack for The Sims 2; The Sims 2 Nightlife. It is currently unknown if a new album is in production or the duo are moving on to other projects, though Franglen produced Badly Drawn Boy's 2006 studio album Born in the U.K..
Discography
Albums
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Lost Horizons 7 October 2002
#20 (UK) -
'64 - '95 31 January 2005
#17 (UK)
Singles and EPs
- The Bath EP (1998)
- The Yellow EP (1999)
- The Midnight EP (2000)
- "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.
Trivia
The first Lemon Jelly album, Lemonjelly.ky, was a compilation of three previously released EPs, The Bath EP, The Yellow EP and The Midnight EP. 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.
References
- "Lemon Jelly, Forum, London" by Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, March 8, 2003, retrieved July 2, 2006