| Lemon Jelly | |
|---|---|
Lemon Jelly, performing at De Montfort Hall on 13 August 2005 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | London, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Downtempo,[1] IDM, Electronica[1] |
| Years active | 1998 – present (on hiatus) |
| Labels | Impotent Fury, XL Recordings |
| Website | www.lemonjelly.ky |
| Members | |
| Fred Deakin Nick Franglen |
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Lemon Jelly is a British electronic music duo from London, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen. Lemon Jelly has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and BRIT Awards.
Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen briefly met in North London and became friends before going their separate ways. Deakin became a DJ and co-founded his very own Airside studios and Franglen became a studio programmer, before the two became reacquainted in 1998.
Lemon Jelly released three critially acclaimed EPs in 1998, 1999, and 2000 respectively, which secured them a record deal with Impotent Fury, a subsidiary of XL Recordings in 2000. The band subsequently released three full-length albums before going on hiatus in 2008.
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Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen grew up with the same group of friends, although the two weren't truly acquainted with one another.[2] The two eventually became friends but went their separate ways not long after.[3] Deakin moved to Edinburgh for 10 years and became a DJ and co-founder of Airside, a graphic arts company.[2][3] Franglen gave up his job as a landscape gardener to become a studio programmer, who eventually would work with Primal Scream, Björk, and The Spice Girls.[3][4] The two would periodically bump into each other at 23 Skidoo concerts.[2] The two once again formed a friendship, and bonded over a mutual appreciation for rock music – Deakin cites XTC and A Certain Ratio as personal favorites – and eventually dance music.[2]
The two began recording under name "Lemon Jelly", which according to Deakin comes from an incident when Franglen came into Deakin's kitchen and said "It smells like Lemon Jelly in here."[2]
From 1998 to 2000, Franglen and Deakin released three limited-circulation EPs, The Bath (1998), The Yellow (1999), and The Midnight (2000), on their very own label, Impotent Fury.[3] The EPs were a critical success,[5] and led to the duo being signed to XL Recordings.[3] Franglen and Deakin then collected their three limited-edition EPs into a widely-released album in 2000, Lemonjelly.ky.[2][3]
After the release of the album, Lemon Jelly licensed songs for advertising and incidental music.[5] Notably, music from In the Bath, "A Tune for Jack", was featured in an episode of CSI: Miami,[6] and "The Staunton Lick", from The Yellow, was used during the final scene of the British sitcom Spaced.[7]
Their second album (and self-proclaimed first studio album), Lost Horizons, was released in 2002, and was another success. The album featured the singles "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather For Ducks" and was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize[8] and a BRIT Award for the now defunct "Best Dance Act" category in 2004.[9]
A number of their tracks have been used by the BBC and other British broadcasters for trailers and incidental music, including "Nice Weather for Ducks", featuring an impersonation of John Langstaff, and "Ramblin' Man".
In September 2007, "Space Walk" was used in an American advertisement, "Through the Eyes of a Cat", for Friskies cat food.
Also in September 2007 "Experiment No. 6" was used for a BBC trailer for a catch-up marathon of the hit TV show Heroes. More recently, the track "Space Walk" was used in the United States for a 2009 Cadillac television campaign.
"The Curse of Ka'Zar" was used in Turner Classic Movies' 31 Days of Oscar advertisements, played in a montage (occasionally aired with alternative music by Imogen Heap) used for filler and in information about the film about to air prior to its actual airing.
In 2003, the BBC announced that Lemon Jelly would be contributing to a remix album based on the music and sound effects of the television program Doctor Who as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the series.[10] This project was abandoned, however, owing partly to the announcement of the 2005 revival of the series.[11]
Their most recent album, 2005's '64–'95, featured a sticker to warn listeners that "This is our new album. It's not like our old album." The title comes from the fact that each track features a single sample drawn from years between 1964 and 1995, incorporating each sample in a variety of different ways. It contains a track (Track 10 – "'64 – Go") featuring a vocal performance by William Shatner, with whom they collaborated for a track on his album Has Been. The album was complemented by the release of a DVD under the same title, with each of the album's audio tracks accompanied with colourful visuals executed mostly in 2D and 3D animation. Some of these visuals are progressive and would work as stand-alone music videos, while others are more repetitious, ever-changing variations of a given visual theme. The audio on the DVD is available as both standard stereo as well as 5.1 surround sound (5.1 audio mixed by Franglen and Dom Morley). The visuals were created by the Airside design studios. Telstraclear later sampled "'93 (Don't Stop Now)" in their 'Hello World' campaign of 2006.
In late 2005, Franglen did remixes of Coldcut's "Man in a Garage", and of the original The Sims 2 and its expansion pack The Sims 2: University Buy/Build Mode Soundtracks for another expansion pack for The Sims 2; The Sims 2 Nightlife. In 2006 Franglen produced Badly Drawn Boy's studio album Born in the U.K. and in 2007 Deakin released an eclectic three-volume mix album "The Triptych".
The duo announced Lemon Jelly would be taking a hiatus as of 2008. Fred Deakin released the news on their forum, also stating that whilst there was a possibility the two would work together again, they would be pursuing solo careers for the time being. Nick Franglen stated on the forum that the two are still good friends and plan to work together again in the future. Their now updated website states that they are "Not dead, but sleeping."[12]
In 2011 Deakin formed a collaboration with Robin Jones of The Beta Band, called Flashman, and released their debut album To The Victor – The Spoils!.
In 2003, Lemon Jelly performed a number of concerts around the UK. Instead of having a support act, Franglen and Deakin organized a giant game of Bingo, presided over by Death and played by members of the audience.[13] Entrance to one of their shows was by wearing a limited edition red or yellow coloured t-shirt which was sent to you in the post, instead of a physical ticket. In other shows, support was provided by Don Partridge – a traditional one man band – whilst "Jelly Helpers" distributed sweets to the crowd. They also played a Saturday Morning gig named "Jelly Tots" as a charitable event for children. In between sets, classic British children's cartoons were played over a projection screen, and the event featured bouncy castles, clowns and hundreds of balloons. They have performed headlining sets at Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, Reading Festival and The Big Chill amongst others.
Many of the bands releases and videos are designed by Fred Deakin's Airside studios.
The album '64–'95 was released simultaneously as a DVD featuring animated videos for each track.
Their packaging is designed by Deakin's Airside studios. The bright colours and graphic elements, together with the Lemon Jelly typeface, contribute to the Lemon Jelly "brand". Their first three EPs were released on 10" vinyl in hand screenprinted sleeves and now trade on eBay for large sums of money. Other interesting sleeves included Soft/Rock, an unofficial release pressed on pale blue 7" vinyl in a denim sleeve that also contained a condom,[14] and Rolled/Oats, another unofficial release pressed as a gold picture disc in a hessian bag.[15]
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [16] |
US Elec. [4] |
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| 2000 | Lemonjelly.ky[A] | — | — | |
| 2002 | Lost Horizons | 20 | 24 | |
| 2005 | '64–'95 | 17 | 8 | |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [16] |
||||||
| 2001 | "Soft/Rock"[B] | — | N/A | |||
| 2002 | "Space Walk" | 36 | Lost Horizons | |||
| 2003 | "Nice Weather for Ducks" | 16 | ||||
| "Rolled/Oats"[B] | — | N/A | ||||
| 2004 | "Stay with You" | 31 | '64–'95 | |||
| 2005 | "The Shouty Track" | 21 | ||||
| "Make Things Right" | 33 | |||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart. | ||||||
Notes
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