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Al Al Who (2007) "Inventive gravel throated punk with a top sense of humour, fantastic sampling and brilliant song titles including "You Can Stick the War Of Terror Up Your Arse", "Bog Wash", "All Psychiatrists are Bastards" and "Puerto Rican Sex Chant". A spirited punky racket that will make you smile and which wears its idiosyncrasies on its sleeve". "This band is like Muhammad Ali on a skateboard". "The
genius of Ceramic Hobs. I don’t use the word lightly either . . . they
are as utterly uncompromising as ever, regaling us from the off with the
collage of Midas Case – a Northern drone-athon supreme with samples
smeared over the basic, erm droning . . . Suddenly we have Cup Cakes, a
ridiculously catchy paean to cup cakes and other forms of savoury
products. It’s classic Ceramic Hobs and we are hooked. Puerto Rican Sex
Chant is the usual angry amalgam of samples and monolithic pounding. As if
this wasn’t enough we have Explosion in A Dustbin Factory which doggedly
pursues the most luddite beat it can muster up and grinds it into our
brains with no respite. These three tracks are like sitting next to the
angry drunk in a bar in Burnley, who constantly tries to tell you about
Newton’s Laws; yes he’s an MA but he’s 6 foot four and has egg
stains on his nose which makes you wonder why you were talking to him in
the first place . . . |
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20 Golden Deathtrips / Golden Hour of the Ceramic Hobs / Celebrating 20 Years of Mental Illness (2005) "All the singles that the ageing Hobs fan wore out & needs a compilation of, all in one place. What more need be said?" |
Shergar Is Home Safe And Well (2004) The Ceramic
Hobs are a unique musical act. "New
punk stains of various sounds filter strange fabric flying saucer wisdom |
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Of the Tin City (2002) "A ‘Psychiatric Punk Explosion’ . . . Headlining for the first time in the capitol in front of 150 rabid fans (literally) the Hobs rip through 16 of their tip top pop platters and even have time to chuck in bewildering versions of . . . ‘Eve of Destruction’ and . . . ‘Jet Boy Jet Girl’ . . . the sound quality is a bit rough . . . but what the fuck we’re not here for Dolby like production values. We’re here to feel what it was like sat at the front row of a Hobs gig with 150 loonies . . . That it succeeds in doing that is a testament to how damned good the Hobs are live. Chaotic, shambolic but always entertaining." |
Ultramont! (2002) "With a whiplash bass line weaving all over the road like a drunk driver at five in the morning, the Ceramic Hobs career into view with another molasses thick stab of Lancashire lunacy . . . A world without the Hobs would be like a world without . . . without . . . lost coins down the back of your sofa . . . the rips in the tops of your milk bottles caused by hungry blue tits . . . First new five [tracks] are like a drive in open top car, the world going by picking up the debris of reworked radio samples and lost voices to the background of that chugging bass and ethereal vocals; ‘Altamont - Birkenau - Masada (Never Surrender)’ takes you on the longest journey, a fifteen and a half minute drive from Lancaster to the old eastern bloc with the never ending mantra of ‘Never Surrender’ that waspy bass line nagging all the way . . . Neil Young gets the old nostalgia treatment on Country Home . . . Hang around for the hidden Lancashire inventors and you have the best CD this year. I fuck you not." |
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Straight Outta Rampton (2001) "Straight Outta Rampton comes screaming into the house with a full colour sleeve, full bomb making instructions and pictures of bendy bananas. This will become a stone cold killer classic. It cannot fail. Eighteen tracks of never ending sample madness chopped up and stir-fried into the best CD this year. I've played this to death since I got it. It's to be hoped that the Hobs never recover from what it is they suffer from. The rest of the world look out, the Hobs are coming and they're rather potty." "Ceramic Hobs are unique in the rock 'n' roll field by being completely up-front about their status as users, and their lyrics somehow continually have the shadow of the nearest psychiatric hospital in the background, regardless of what themes they tackle . . . any radio-friendliness is deliberately undermined by abrasive production techniques. There's much humour on this album, but Ceramic Hobs are angry as hell . . . simultaneously one of the funniest, but also most furious rock bands imaginable. Redemption for Ceramic Hobs lies in the act of rebellion, and in extremely dark humour." |
Psychiatric Underground (1998) "The music throws itself around from gnarled, distortion-packed & chaotic punk rock to implosive clatter & strum pieces that make room for narrative and suchlike. Delirious and often coming across like a chimp's tea party held in a recording studio, there's a serious screwball aesthetic afoot that's rarely found these days . . . sometimes, the unstoppable blend of bared-teeth psychosis, screaming, noise and dizzy tape snatches make way for songs that, between them sound like Throbbing Gristle . . . or an eco-warrior's campfire protest piece. Altogether, an eclectic dip into the pool where those voices in your head also happen to reside." "The Ceramic Hobs strap you into a dentist's chair and probe your subconscious with a helium-powered Bosch drill. Plundered, noised, fuctup nonsense a-go-go, not always pleasant but then not much is." |
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Bring on the Coincidancing Horses Orange Sunshine (1996) A recording project between Simon & Syd of the original (1985-88) Ceramic Hobs. "The whimsy that drew me into the Hobs world. Back on the plate currently (2006) with the advent of Hobs semi-acoustic sets. Balding men set the pace (but not here, like)." |
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Top Buzz (1995) The ultimate collection of rave anthems - direct from Ibiza "The birth of the modern Hobs, with The Gay Skinhead shining out in its first, tentative incarnation. Many are the folk who have thought it was conceived by sometime-Radio One DJ Mikee B & his Top Buzz outfit & were all ready to break out the Vaporub before I schooled them. Possible Love Da Capo influence in the album's balance of tracks?" |
Nihilistik Subkultures shall Thrive upon these Deathly Visions (1993) (release pseudonym: Salty Grouse Castration Squad) "Having escaped the Blackpool nuthouse . . . finds an atomic clock and finds he can't handle his beer even in his own shaven haven . . .unspeakable pleasure turns to unspeakable pain . . . this is what happens when you spend too much time with people with Sid Vicious tattoos. 'Tie your grandmother to the bed and force her to listen to this'." |
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You dont need a Pickaxe to collect Ghoul Soil (1995) (release pseudonym: Blood Klat (in Spume Bummer)) "The best of the really loose Hobs sets? Well worth any measly amount pStan is likely to ask for it." |
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Bedrooms and Knobsticks (1987) "A dense post-bedroom-punk piece with lots of echoing sounds building up to transform it into a far more experimental piece. Indeed, the various usage of echo gives this fantasy a wide range of sounds & shapes. Distortion is used, as are shouted voices and way-out guitar which is played so ineptly midway through that it actually sounds quite wonderful. It's built on a single riff which keeps the variously dense piece in necessary restraint." |
| For less information, or at least for not much more information, you could visit the official Ceramic Hobs website at: http://www.livejournal.com/~ceramichobs |
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