1.When the Angels Play Their Drum Machines [Mothership mix] (3:49) 2.Dark Hearted Discos (5:14) 3.The Baggage Reclaim Song (5:40) 4.Can't Help Losing You (3:53) 5.All I'll Ever Need (2:43)
The farewell release (to date, a mail-order live album excepted) from a band I once dismissed, grew to love, briefly forgot and have now returned to. Mind you, given that there ha already been Hefner Soul and Hefner Brain EPs, maybe it's just as well they didn't continue that sequence of titles. Let's name names, because they were a minor national treasure: Darren Hayman (vocals/guitar/keyboards), John F Morrison (bass), Ant Harding (drums/vocals) and on the later records, Jack Hayter (guitar/fiddle/theremin etc.). Hayman is reportedly the son of Jehovah's Witnesses, who rebelled against his parents by volunteering in a blood donation clinic. He's also a seriously underappreciated songwriter, comparable to early Elvis Costello (with whom he also shares the defiantly un-rockstarish look) but minus the smugness. Indeed, I've been slowed down in my work on this article because I got sidetracked by previous Hefner records. I first encountered them on Steve Lamacq's Evening Session; I heard their early single 'Pull Yourself Together' and thought it irritating lo-fi. My brother was impressed enough by their video for 'The Sweetness Lies Within' (A huge favourite of MTV's Alternative Nation circa 1998) to buy both the single and their debut album, Breaking God's Heart. By their second album album I was a fan too and by the third (We Love the City in 2000), I wasn't alone; they enjoyed a Top 50 single with 'Good Fruit' and seemed poised for at least a minor breakthrough. Maybe this wasn't the ideal moment to introduce the electronica element... but 2001's Dead Media LP was a contrary shift in direction, largely home-recorded and dominated by antique synthesisers - there's a possibly illicit Beach Boys sample in there too.
Where the Angels Play Their Drum Machines is a song from the aforesaid album, a remixed version in fact; it's easy to tell the two are different but harder to tell exactly what the difference is. "Helpfully" the album sleeve lists the microphones and electronics used throughout, so I can inform you that the drum machine used here is Ant's Zoom RT 123. Other pieces of kit featured include the Moog Rogue (used for the solo), the Future Retro FR-777 and the Sony ECM-717 stereo condenser microphone which brings you the vocal. Aren't you glad you know all that?
As for the song itself, behind the bleeps and squelches lurks a fairly typical Hayman composition. "Let me let you let me down again" is the insistent refrain, one that may have seemed a little too apt to those fans not captivated by the new sonic direction. In fact it's addressed by the protagonist to his girlfriend, who says refuses but never seems to mean it. They end up attempting a dirty weekend by the sea, although their fate is unresolved by the end of the song.
Dark Hearted Discos is a slight and somewhat overlong number along vaguely similar lines. There are certainly traces of a disco beat in the tinny production, but it's hard to imagine anybody ever actually dancing to it. The oddly-named Baggage Reclaim Song is a bit better, a second-person litany of youthful misdeeds "Taking far too much cocaine... calling all the black kids names". It still seems undeveloped though.
It proves to be a bit of a refief when the last two tracks revert to more traditional Hefner sound; they were recorded in a studio by regular collaborator Miti [Adhikari] whom they met at the BBC. Can't Help Losing You is a bouyantly sad number bolstered by a lively brass section and given a country tinge from Hayter's pedal-steel, whilst the lyrics border on pastiche with their references to whisky, faintly disappointing sex and being left by girlfriends. In style, if possibly not quality, it could easily have sat on We Love the City.
It's difficult to ignore the fact that All I'll Ever Need is probably the last ever Hefner song released, not only for the line "need to find a new career" in the middle-eight but also for its back-to-basics quality: an unadorned piano ballad that could almost have come from the first album, except that it's rather better engineered. It is a lovely little song, a charmingly idiosyncratic homage to a girl who is "six o'clock on a Friday, she's a strong cup of coffee she's a coastal town in Spain". It makes a fine closer to a slightly variable EP.
ONLINE:
The official site promises an imminent relaunch, though it acknowledges that the band have passed into history.
In the meantime, their record company page has more to offer, including the opportunity to hear the lead track.
It may say something about Hefner's fans that the two most prominent unofficial sites are both named after B-sides: Hello Kitten and Kate Cleaver's House.
In 2003, Hayman and Morrison re-emerged as The French, following a similarly electronic agenda. They have a home-made website and one from the record label.
Meanwhile, Ant Harding, now based in Sweden, has continued his sporadic solo career. More information on his official site, in his blog or at the unofficial FanANTics.
According to the album sleeve, Future Retro's FR-777 is better than a 303.
Back to the random single project