Customer Reviews

Programmed to Love

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album was hailed as "the Best Chill Out CD of the Year" by New Music Review and Revolution. It is a perfect title. But that doesn't mean that some of the songs won't want to make you drive a little faster or tap your toes. It's more emotional than anything, using samples from Nana Mouskouri (remember her?) to bring out rapturous feelings of love and joy or sorrow. This is especially true of "Ribbon in her hair" and "I love my man" or "Swollen". "Cylons in love" is another create combination of the hard and soft with the cold "electronic" sound of the cylons (Battlestar Galactica)singing gently to each other. Each song is quite unique and stands alone, transporting you to a different place each time. There is definately no "formula" here, yet the songs still have a melodic underpinnings that prevent them from sounding like harsh, random electronic noises that can sometimes be found in other "experimental" electronic music. I like to think of it as a "soundtrack for my life". Each time I listen to it, the memories and emotions of when I first heard the album come welling back and highlight the time and place where I am now. "Chill out, forget the troublesome past, focus on the happy present."

I was recently introduced into Bent by a friend at work who knows of my appreciation for material such as Everything But The Girl, Air, Zero 7, Tosca and Thievery Corporation. He wasn't wrong. This debut album by DJs Simon Mills and Nail Tolliday totally blew me off my feet! They make extensive use of loops and samples, as well as some robotic-sounding vocoders here and there, but still retain a very unique sound to them, thanks to the atmospheres they successfully create with the synthesizers in the backgound.

Most likely you have heard the two hits, "Swollen" and 19-minute-long "Always" with samples of Norrie Paramor in the first third of the song ("Always in my heart"). However the rest of the album is every bit as good. In particular the first half of it is my favorite: "Exercise 1," "Private Road," "Cylons in Love" (uhhh! Battlestar Gallactica times... they were, oh so good!) and "Chocolate Wings."

As a last comment, you might want to dig into the UK release from 2000, as it contains a couple of tracks not present on this, the US version, or the "combined" version which contains a total of 18 tracks, which attempts to sum up the US and UK versions. All in all, an excellent choice to drive, read, write or program to, or if nothing else, simply to chill out to.

If Bill Leeb & Rhys Fulber (Delerium) took happy pills, they might produce something like this...

Having only heard "Invisible Pedestrian", "Swollen", and "I Love My Man", I expected more sampling and Stereolab-ish compu-tweaking... So much for expectations. In this case, that's a good thing.

The samples here are interwoven close to seamlessly, and are well-chosen and integrated to fit the composition like hand in glove. It's almost as if the samples were originally written for these compositions... The tweaking is also subtle, except on "Swollen" - a terrific, moving and ambient track (and the strongest here, in my view).

The individual songs are a little repetitious at times, but not gratingly so... The rhythms and melodies are infectious, smooth, and even have a pinch of latin seasoning here and there. A couple of the songs offer quite a bit of 'disco remix' potential, probably already out there somewhere. The soundscapes are lush and involving - really, really nicely arranged.

If you're looking to sample songs, try "Private Road", "A Ribbon For My Hair", "Swollen", and "Always."

Though you might not be bowled over song-by-song, the CD as a whole is a well-assembled, fluid, interesting and very pleasant collection. If you're a fan of Thievery Corporation, Mandalay, newer Delerium, or even Pet Shop Boys, you'll likely find this CD a happy home in your collection.

Very accessible - highly recommended.

If the whole "Electronica" genre reminds you too much of meandering un-involving Chill-out music, then this demands closer investigation. Not strictly Dance music, but far removed from deary "Late night Chill out albums", endlessly inventive, gracefully melodic, and a real sense of diversity and musical soundscape creation.....It's hard to classify this album in any one particular genre, particularly because the music is incredibly textured & layered, and yet feels like these a bizarre underlying Coherence linking all the individual tracks, but if other artist comparisons had to be made...then filing this next to artists such as: "Plaid / Black Dog / Mouse on Mars" would be a fair approximation to make. But irrespective of lazy labelling, this is electronic music at it finest, and a relatively undiscovered album by most people, that forgoes "mainstream accessibility" of something far more worthwhile.

I was first introduced to Bent while backpacking through Europe... a stopover in Amsterdam for some essentials lead me to a cafe where the first "programmed to love" was being played. The vibe that that music set off was amazing! I proceeded to find a record store and bought the UK version. That was my soundtrack that summer. Now with the re-release with bonus tracks I have to say that Bent has outdone themselves. So many people want to classify them as sounding like "Air" or "The Avalanches" I disagree. They have a sound of their own. So buy this album, search out all of their older work and get it, light some candles and just chill. 10 out of 10!

Don't judge an album by its cover. I played my Bent CD at my workplace, which allows music to be played for everyone else to listen, and the next thing I hear is "Who's this???"

I've heard the name Nana Mouskouri a hundred times, but never cared enough to listen to any of her songs. I'm mesmerized everytime I listen to Track #4 (I Love My Man) and Track #10 (A Ribbon for My Hair), since Bent uses samples of her music and lovely voice. Track #12 (Always) is the first song I fell in love on this CD. What an ingenious idea and a unique sounding to borrow a sample from an old, old, old song (you know, the kind of singing you hear on those early 1900 black n' white films)! Track #2 (Private Road) and Track #8 (Swollen) contain no samplings, but original singing by co-writer Zoe Johnston, another spellbinding voice on the CD.

The rest of the songs seem to have a sprinkle of "cuteness" and "humor" in them. Overall, this album is programmed to put listeners in a good mood. If only there was a way to listen to it while floating amongst the thick white clouds above blue sky.

Bent are exactly as the name suggests,a little distorted,but always good fun."Programmed to love" is a masterpiece of musical brilliance,courtesy of the faultless standout tracks "swollen","private road" and "always".Band member Zoe Johnston's vocals melt straight into the music,and will leave you in chillout heaven.But dont expect all the album tracks to just blend into each other,because the other side of Bent comes to the party with some weird and quite humorous selections,"chocolate wings" being a perfect example.Check the credits on a couple of the sampled vocal tracks,you will be surprised what you will find.Bent?yes,brilliant?definitely.

i had never heard of Bent before hearing this cd--guess they haven't quite broken the US mainstream yet. nonetheless, this disc is packed with lush, sometimes playful tunes that become more and more interesting with each listen. the vocals from nana mouskori are somewhat unusual but round out the songs nicely. a real pleasure, not a bad track on this cd

I heard Invisible pedestrian when I stepped into HMV at Oxford Street to buy the Verve's Urban Hymns.

Programmed to Love contains some of the most amazing music that I have ever heard

Okay, so they're not terribly original. Okay, so listening to Bent can devolve into playing a game of Spot The Sample (they seem to like Nana Mouskouri a lot). They're no less enjoyable for all that, though; that they sound like a lot of other similarly-inclined outfits shouldn't stop anyone from checking them out (they seem to like Yello a lot). They have a knack for combining lovely musical passages with absurdist humor, and they don't sound like they are trying incredibly hard, which is good (they seem to like Telex a lot). My Major Gripe Department admonishes, however, that even the most absurd ideas are subject to overkill (they seem to like 'Gilligan's Island' a lot). Hence, as enjoyable as tracks like 'I Remember Johnny', 'Invisible Passenger', and especially 'New Wig For Me' are, they'd be twice as good at around half their length- -which is about where the songs' punchlines begin to lose their impact and the absurdity factor- -Bent's manifest raison d'etre- -becomes cloying (they seem to like Hawkwind a lot). But what the heck, a good joke is always worth hearing again. And check out that hidden track (they seem to like bathos a lot).