Bratislava
© Copyright-Big Block 454
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Big Block 454 is a semi-amorphous post-modern / situationist neo-dada cross-platform compositional construct from Manchester, England (featuring people from Liverpool, Leeds and Lincolnshire).
Over the years, Big Block 454 have unleashed a series of albums and multi-media happenings upon an unsuspecting public, combining influences such as Faust, Can, Brian Eno, The Residents, the Bonzo Dog Band, King Crimson and the BBC Radiophonics Workshop - surrealism meets Krautrock meets downright Northern stupidity. We play whatever we bloody well like, alright?
Big Block 454 have worked on multi-media projects with famed dada artist Russell Mills, and have been championed by such people as the BBC\'s Stuart Maconie and Sunday Times writer/comedian Stewart Lee.
Big Block 454 have guested on Stuart Maconie\'s BBC 6 Music radio show The Freak Zone. Stuart said, after playing \"I name this child Acker Bilk\", \"we\'re all pretty much agreed here that that was genius... terrific stuff.\"
Reviewers have said :
\"this excellent album / outrageously funky / moments of real beauty / strange humour. \"
\"brilliant arrangements, well engineered... humbling, really, and very imaginative as well.\"
\"ethereal, stripped down beauty / sublime trippy ambient loveliness / owls quarrelling in a bicycle factory / the music sounds as if Fela Kuti has been taken hostage by a convention of table tennis enthusiasts / a great release and one you should hunt down without delay.\"
\"fascinating and sometimes scary world / wander through someone elses dreams and nightmares, funny and frightening ... uneasy listening, sub-genre fractured genius.\"
An American fan said:
\"I will treasure the experience of hearing Big Block 454 for a very long time. Actually, I\'m not quite sure the effects will ever wear off. What I felt was on the same level of intensity as my first read of Naked Lunch, my first view of Eraserhead or the time my music professor played Bartok on a Steinway baby in our classroom with tears in his eyes.\"
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Progression Magazine No.55 - review of "Bratislava"
author: Colin Robinson
Track 5 is entitled "I was Arthur Browns Health & Safety Advisor" The Cardiacs along with Frank Zappa, Gong, and the Residents are listed as influences. The warnings were there: Strap yourself in before playing.
Bratislava is one wild ride. Compositions are all over the place. To say the instrumentation is unorthodox would be a gross understatement. If you don't like a passage, wait a few seconds.
Dont be fooled by the opening numbers relatively straight yet humorous rock maneuvering... that just lures you in. The next tune sounds like a crossbred Sun city girls/Coyote Poets of the Universe. An Arabian acid trip would best describe track three. This is followed by an indescribable dub influenced piece with accordian and crazy mumbling.
The aforementioned "Arthur Brown" is strangely beautiful with acoustic guitar, electronics, and clattering percussion. The next cut sounds like it's lifted from one of Eno's early vocal albums! And thats just the halfway mark!
Each succe
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Review on Progressive Ears website
author: Colin Robinson
Big Block 454; taking their name from a particular type of engines used in cars manufactured in the US in the past, is a UK band who's been at it for some time. According to their MySpace page they have 7 more releases under their belt - but with the tongue-in-cheek manner they present themselves, I can't vouch for the truthfulness of that fact though. Bratislava is their latest album, released in 2008.
And the dozen compositions on this CD are something special, that's for sure. Rather unique in approach, these songs are a mix of influences from all manners of music; at the least experimental they sound like a mix of Beatles, Madness and The Cramps; at their most experimental world like krautrock and avant-garde comes easily to mind.
These guys play around with sound, song structure and preconceived notions on what music should sound like. There's not much dissonance or disharmony here though, there's a focus on delivering melodies. It's all done in a very whimsical manner thou
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Review on Manchester Music website
author: Big Block 454
When the MM website first started up at the end of the 90’s, a bizarre collective based in Prestwich offered an album of their wild and frankly disturbing leftfield, progressive pop. I seem to remember there being a track about sausages – or something similar... Fast forward to now and this latest long player from Big Block 454 maintains this skewered intelligence and allows the low slung new wave strangeness to shine through on “Motorcycle Au Pair Boy” – can you get the flavour now ?
I for one think that the world has only just caught up and as BB454 also now take a more accessible route, this album is immensely relevant and ground breaking, given that many other (obscure and often American) bands have begun to explore similar territories. Whilst made and forged in northern England, this genre twisting affair combines the outlandish ideas of bands like The Cardiacs whilst sounding occasionally rustic, or twangy, or brittle. The superbly titled “I Was Arthur Brown’s Safety Advisor”
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How are you finding us?
author: Big Block 454
Good things come to those who make a BIG EFFORT. For some of you, this will involve crawling through mud in a debased way, or expending all your energy on hikes up impossible mountains. Why? Because Big Block 454 have secreted, like a mollusc. We have hidden copies of our album in locations throughout the UK for you to find. Or, if not you, then someone else. Once found, the album is yours to cherish. If you do find one, tell us and you will get a LOVELY SURPRISE. Really.
“But where on earth are these treasured artefacts hidden," we imagine you asking. We have clues for you. Visit our myspace page and turn your rheumy eyes to the blog section.
Oh, come on, we're not doing everything for you.
We are Big Block 454. You are a lesser creature.
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