The group began in late 2008, when Portishead producer/multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow, bassist Billy Fuller, and keyboardist Matt Williams jammed at Invada Records' Christmas party, then started playing as Beak> early in 2009. They recorded their debut album in 12 days with a strict set of rules: the trio members recorded all of their parts in the same room, and no overdubbing was allowed. BEAK> arrived in fall 2009 via Ipecac in the U.S. and Invada in the U.K., just before the group made their official live debut at the Ten Years of ATP Festival.
That year, Barrow met and signed the German political journalist turned post-punk singer Anika, with whom Beak> recorded her 2010 eponymous debut album. He also kept busy with a number of other Invada-related projects, including Quakers, an underground hip-hop collective, and Drokk, a collaboration with composer Ben Salisbury inspired by the long-running comic strip Judge Dredd. Quakers' self-titled album and Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One both arrived in early 2012, shortly before a new Beak> album, >>, appeared. That year also saw the release of the Mono/Kenn single as well as a split single with DD/MM/YYYY.
The group returned in 2015 with the BEAK> In 2020, Beak> showed solidarity with protesters who took down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston by reissuing the 2010 EP Wulfstan, which was named after a Norman-era saint who campaigned against slavery. The following September, the band issued the single "Oh Know/Ah Yeh." A year later, Beak> delivered Kosmik Musik. The musical accompaniment to artist Joe Currie and writer/director Ben Wheatley's sci-fi graphic novel of the same name, the novel and the score drew inspiration from sources ranging from Douglas Adams, Star Trek, and Star Wars to Krautrock. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi
1
|
|
Yatton |
2
|
|
Wulfstan II |
3
|
|
Brean Down |