Rupert The Sky, by Bilge Pump (CD on Gringo)

A Norman Records recommendation (28th March 2008)

Description:	CD on Gringo, WAAT 033	UK ORDERS OVER £50 SHIP FREE!
Format:	CD
Label:	Gringo
Price:	£8.99
Availability:	despatched in 1 working day

What you say

1 person has reviewed this record. It made them ecstatic! Write a review!

Last 1 review(s):

Rating: ecstatic This record left Nick B. feeling ecstatic.

Every song on here is killer. Living in Leeds, I've seen Bilge Pump have an audience in raptures countless times (the labels blurb does not lie when it says they blow other bands off stage), but when I got the album, I thought this probably won't receive too many listens as I see them live a fair bit and so sitting down to hear the record could never really compare... I was totally wrong. The amount I've played this record has really surprised me, I've had this a fair few weeks and it's been played more than anything I've bought for years.

The drummer IS one of the best in the world right now - apparently he once had a nervous break down and played with no shoes for 24 hours straight. The guitarist is also one of the best and most original guitarists I've ever seen - he also builds amps that bands all over the world snap up (comets on fire, trans am, fucking champs...) - so their sound is deadly. The bassist is no slouch either. Needless to say, these guys have their shit together - tightest band you could ever see without ever being loosing that anything-could-happen edge.

In this day and age, people are always moaning about the relentless barrage of really shit music hitting the cyber shelves every week. So little of it ever really grabs you - well here is a British band, with an undeniably British charm - even if a lot of their favourite bands (Butthole Surfers, Lungfish, Trumans Water etc...) are American, that make music that will still be talked about in 20 years. Probably considered more than any other to be the most important British DIY band around right now by certain underground circles across the country. Don't snooze on this folks.

Review date: 06 April 2008

Read all 1 reviews.
Give us your opinion on Rupert The Sky by Bilge Pump.

What we say

Rating: ecstatic This record left our BRIAN D feeling ecstatic.

Whilst trying desperately to stem a hangover from seeing Bilge Pump (for about the 12th time) last night, I decide the best cure is probably slap their new album on loud. Really fucking loud. The last one wasn't much cop i mutter to myself. It was recorded in a bin for 8 pence and a used kebab I chuckle. Well local legend Richard Formby (who's done the deed on waxings by Cud, Hood & The Telescopes amongst many others) has earned himself a pint from this man's pocket! When I first saw th' Pump years back i gawped, blinked & shook my baldie head and exclaimed WHERE on earth did they get that drummer? HOW does he DO that? They're the tightest, wildest 3 piece free jazz post hardcore juggernaut i've (still) ever seen. Somewhere (very loosely) between Rush, Trans Am, At the Drive In & Morcambe & Wise with an irreverent dose of knowing humour, they snake, contort, bend backwards, spiral into sludgey mayhem then kick you in the face whilst consistently making your body buckle & your feet burn the floor. Or they just freeze you to the spot in shock. You feel like laughing, it's such a delightful funky noise. Folks LOVE them round here. they truly are Leeds best kept secret. That's why 'Rupert The Sky' has made my week (if not year) It's a spirited gallop through some songs they've been barking at people for a few years now from squatted council buildings to plush clubs. They don't care. The noise wins every time. The guitar squalls & growls like an insane wasp in a loudhailer, the bass grumbles like it's having a heated conversation with a mountain and the drums. The drums. Oh...the drums. Honestly, you get the chance to see these boys play, get RIGHT down the front (they won't bite - promise!) and watch Neil Turpin play. He's like John Bonham on acid. The lyrics are just great too, absurdist & conversational and decidedly British. Not bad for a band who've taken the history of US alt rock and thrown it up in a dayglow fountain. I'm hoping this could be an AOTW here at the towers. If not, i implore you all to buy it anyway. Thankyou Gringo (and the aforementioned Mr Formby) for finally representing this superb group adequately. CD/LP

What the label says:

Bilge Pump have a disturbing ability to be better than any band they play with. Imagine a boiling-over bastard concoction of all the best bits of The Jesus Lizard, Led Zeppelin, The Fall, Blue Cheer, Funkadelic and King Crimson. A thick broth of art-punk fractured progressive noise, condensed into atonal pop songs free of power chords. Nitro-fuelled avant-jazz rhythms create enough structural form amongst the twisted guitar and off-the-cuff witticisms to provide an uncanny ability to incite dancing! It doesn't matter how wired or weird Bilge Pump get; behind the progressive noise there are clear, distinctive, memorable songs: a rare and winning combination! Formed in Leeds during the murky depths of the mid 90s, it didn't take too long for the NME to churn out their now infamous declaration that Bilge Pump are "unlistenable guff"; so far, so good. It took them 7 years to produce their first album, 'Let Me Breathe', released by Gringo in 2002. It has taken another 5 years for their second album to arrive, but in that time they have probably played with, dismayed and blown away all your favourite bands (Lightning Bolt (Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt admitted he's a one-trick-drum-pony compared to Bilge’s Neil Turpin), Erase Errata, Part Chimp, Trans Am, The Mars Volta, Hella, Foals, Get Hustle, Les Savy Fav, Enon). They will probably make you want to quit playing music, but you'll get over it. They may not have done an interview in a magazine for you to read. But they probably are the best thing you've ever heard, and if you haven't heard them, they probably are the best thing you've never heard, and if you've never heard them, you probably should, and here's your chance! Brace yourselves, lock up the liquor cabinet, and throw logic out the window, because Bilge Pump is comin' atcha with a hardcore ear-assaulting noisy punk rock free-for-all. Indecipherable shouted vocals -- sort of like David Yow from The Jesus Lizard singing through a sweaty Army vest -- a rambling, almost free-jazz bass line, shrieking guitars, and racing apoplectic drums come together for... cacophony. Fierce! – Epitonic 1 The Rise and Fall of The Alpha Male, 2. A Storm in a Teardrop, 3. Brown Ale for Sister Sarah, 4 Om Nom Savoy, 5. I Am Perfectly Fine, 6. Archaeological Diggin’, 7. The Fuckover, 8. Can I Touch Your Leg, 9. Thank You Very Much, 10. If She Sees My Little Face, 11. Moil .

Other customers buying this also bought:

From Under The Trees by Gonga
(CD, £6.49)

A Joy by Four Tet (Fourtet)
(12", £5.49)

Soft Touch of Man EP by Kill Yourself
(CD, £3.99)

Quique (Redux Edition) by Seefeel
(CD, £11.99)

The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull by Earth
(CD, £12.99)

Other items by Bilge Pump:

Let Me Breathe by Bilge Pump (CD, £9.99)

Rupert The Sky by Bilge Pump (LP, £7.99)

Request more details

If you would like more details about Rupert The Sky by Bilge Pump, fill in the form below and we'll get back to ya.