Staff Reviews

Hefner - Dead Media (reissue)

Review by Aaron Lavery

A band that had pretty much done all they could with one particular musical avenue, and were brave enough to head in another direction. »

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this two-disk reissue tells the full story of hefner's valedictory folly, with a hefty 20 extra tracks including the complete 'hefner brain' ep, b-sides, live tracks, unreleased songs and an exclusive, unreleased remix by electronic music pioneer daniel miller. in their relatively brief lifetime, between 1996 and 2002, hefner enjoyed an incredibly productive four-album, multi-ep career. their beautiful, concise, intelligent songs earned a fiercely loyal, cult audience and the long-term support of legendary dj john peel, for whom they recorded innumerable sessions. originally released in 2001, their final album, dead media, found hefner reaching out and taking risks. keen to break free of their indie-folk roots, they cocooned themselves in a home studio with broken analogue synthesizers, antique drum machines and battery-powered amplifiers. the band's naivety and guile produced some curiously engaging music, with frontman darren hayman's precise, economic, poetic dissections of quotidian romance draped over awkward, fuzzy beats: something like cat stevens covering warm leatherette. dead media caused confusion at the time and ultimately lead to the band's break up.
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