Biography
Despite limited recordings and scant press coverage, Bark Psychosis stood among their period’s most inventive acts. Starting from unremarkable teenage roots as a Napalm Death cover group, the British ensemble advanced rapidly, progressing through moody, rich pop, ambient textures, and finally taut, atmospheric experimental sounds; their output proved so singular and resistant to classification that critic Simon Reynolds coined the term “post-rock” expressly to frame their aesthetic.
The group formed in 1986 while its members attended school in Snaresbrook, England, with vocalist Graham Sutton, bassist John Ling, and drummer Mark Simnott averaging just 14 years old. Drawing from sources as varied as Joy Division, Swans, Sonic Youth, Five Star, and early Level 42, the quartet began treating music seriously only after Sutton and Ling finished school, at which point they shifted to writing original material. After signing to the small Cheree label, they issued their first release, the 1988 flexi-disc “Clawhammer.”
They returned in 1989 with the proper single “All Different Things.” The hazy follow-up “Nothing Feels,” released in 1990 and backed by the equally striking “I Know,” brought early recognition. Keyboardist Daniel Gish, formerly of Disco Inferno, joined that year. The next year’s Manman EP extended their striking evolution, revealing Sutton’s deepening engagement with techno and the creative uses of synthesizers, programming, and sampling, and leading directly to the landmark 1992 release Scum, an ominous 21-minute improvised ambient piece recorded live inside a Stratford church.
At the height of their activity, Bark Psychosis entered the studio in November 1992 to record their long-anticipated debut album Hex. In total the sessions spanned more than a year and brought the band to the edge of emotional and financial exhaustion. Once the album was finished, a tour was scheduled around the single “A Street Scene,” but Ling left the group.
Although Hex received widespread acclaim—Reynolds’ review supplied the first published use of the post-rock label, later applied to similarly uncategorizable acts such as Tortoise—Bark Psychosis had already ceased to function as a working unit, aside from one final 1994 single, the techno-inspired “Blue.” The band formally disbanded in 1997; two retrospective collections, 1994’s Independency and 1997’s Game Over, gathered their earlier EPs and singles. Following the breakup, Sutton and Gish immersed themselves in drum’n'bass under the name Boymerang. By the time Regal released Balance of the Force in 1997, the project had become Sutton’s solo vehicle. In 1999 Sutton began work on a new Bark Psychosis album with substantial assistance from former Talk Talk drummer and Boymerang contributor Lee Harris. The resulting album, Codename: Dustsucker, was scheduled for release on Fire in March 2004.
The group formed in 1986 while its members attended school in Snaresbrook, England, with vocalist Graham Sutton, bassist John Ling, and drummer Mark Simnott averaging just 14 years old. Drawing from sources as varied as Joy Division, Swans, Sonic Youth, Five Star, and early Level 42, the quartet began treating music seriously only after Sutton and Ling finished school, at which point they shifted to writing original material. After signing to the small Cheree label, they issued their first release, the 1988 flexi-disc “Clawhammer.”
They returned in 1989 with the proper single “All Different Things.” The hazy follow-up “Nothing Feels,” released in 1990 and backed by the equally striking “I Know,” brought early recognition. Keyboardist Daniel Gish, formerly of Disco Inferno, joined that year. The next year’s Manman EP extended their striking evolution, revealing Sutton’s deepening engagement with techno and the creative uses of synthesizers, programming, and sampling, and leading directly to the landmark 1992 release Scum, an ominous 21-minute improvised ambient piece recorded live inside a Stratford church.
At the height of their activity, Bark Psychosis entered the studio in November 1992 to record their long-anticipated debut album Hex. In total the sessions spanned more than a year and brought the band to the edge of emotional and financial exhaustion. Once the album was finished, a tour was scheduled around the single “A Street Scene,” but Ling left the group.
Although Hex received widespread acclaim—Reynolds’ review supplied the first published use of the post-rock label, later applied to similarly uncategorizable acts such as Tortoise—Bark Psychosis had already ceased to function as a working unit, aside from one final 1994 single, the techno-inspired “Blue.” The band formally disbanded in 1997; two retrospective collections, 1994’s Independency and 1997’s Game Over, gathered their earlier EPs and singles. Following the breakup, Sutton and Gish immersed themselves in drum’n'bass under the name Boymerang. By the time Regal released Balance of the Force in 1997, the project had become Sutton’s solo vehicle. In 1999 Sutton began work on a new Bark Psychosis album with substantial assistance from former Talk Talk drummer and Boymerang contributor Lee Harris. The resulting album, Codename: Dustsucker, was scheduled for release on Fire in March 2004.
Albums
Singles
