Bark Psychosis像是常常徘徊在浓雾蒸汽般的雨夜的街道氛围中,“每天晚上/街道在我身上留下印记……我不能找到出口”,他们的身影是蓝色的,凄切的和声和朦胧的钢琴奏响了是孤芳自赏的配乐,最后歌曲往往弱化成荒芜的音响氛围,滑向了伦敦郊外湿漉的青草地,在那里他们等待着一个暗红色黎明的落寞。
Despite a relatively small recorded output and little media recognition, Bark Psychosis was one of the most innovative artists of their era. From rather uninspired origins as a teenaged Napalm Death cover band, the British group evolved by leaps and bounds, moving from moody, lush pop to ambient soundscapes to taut, atmospheric experimental music; their work was so revolutionary, and so impossible to define, that noted critic Simon Reynolds even found it necessary to invent a new sub-genre — post-rock — simply to categorize their vision.
Bark Psychosis was founded in 1986 while its members were attending school in Snaresbrook, England; at the time of their formation, the average age of the group — vocalist Graham Sutton, bassist John Ling, and drummer Mark Simnott — was just 14-years-old. Drawing inspiration everywhere from Joy Division, Swans and Sonic Youth to Five Star and early Level 42, the quartet only began taking music seriously after Sutton and Lings graduation, and soon started composing original material. Upon signing to the tiny Cheree label, they debuted in 1988 with a flexi-disc release titled Clawhammer.
In 1989, Bark Psychosis resurfaced with their first proper single, All Different Things; the gauzy 1990 follow-up, Nothing Feels, was an early breakthrough, a haunting, sophisticated record backed with the equally stunning I Know. Keyboardist Daniel Gish, a former member of Disco Inferno, joined the band that year. Issued the following year, the Manman EP continued their remarkable growth, reflecting Suttons increasingly fascination with techno and the possibilties of synthesziers, programming and sampling while setting the stage for the 1992 landmark Scum, an ominous, 21-minute improvisational ambient masterpiece recorded live in a Stratford church.
At the peak of their powers, Bark Psychosis entered the studio in November 1992 to begin work on Hex, their long-awaited full-length debut. In sum, the LP took over a year to complete, forcing the group to the brink of emotional and financial collapse. Upon the records completion, a tour was planned in support of the single A Street Scene, but then Ling exited.
Even as Hex appeared to massive critical acclaim — Reynolds review of the album marked the first mention of the post-rock label, a tag later attached to similarly uncategorizable bands like Tortoise — Bark Psychosis was essentially dissolved, although one final single, the techno-inspired Blue, was issued by the end of 1994. The group officially disbanded in 1997; two posthumous retrospectives, 1994s Independency and 1997s Game Over, summed up their EPs and singles. In the wake of Bark Psychosis demise, Sutton and Gish plunged fully into the realm of drumnbass, recording under the name Boymerang. By the time Regal issued 1997s Balance of the Force, Boymerang was a solo outlet for Sutton. In 1999, Sutton began working on another Bark Psychosis album, with extensive help from former Talk Talk drummer and Boymerang contributor Lee Harris. That album, entitled Codename: Dustsucker, was set for release through Fire in March of 2004