Latest - we are busy working on our latest album. So far, about 12 finished pieces and about 25 unfinished ones. Expect a different sound; acoustic backdrops, harmony vocals, fretless bass... Sounds like "Pet Sounds"?... Only if your pet is an iguana.

Our Total Plays on this page reached 10,000 on 26th Sept 2003, so thanks for that. However, on 1st Oct 2003 it dropped to 6,181... Why did that happen?

Listen to more Big Block 454-related material on the Big Block 454 Station.

Read an interview with Big Block 454 on the Zeitgeist site.

The Chain DLK forum is conducting an online interview with Big Block 454. You can read it by going to Chain DLK. If you register on the forum, you can ask questions too.

Review by Daniel from Onion Jack : It's just absolutely bloody bonkers. It shouldn't make sense, but it just does. "Eating Soap Alone" is simply magical..
From an American fan : "I actually hear a lot of German psychedelia in your music. If compared to art it would be a cross between Dali and Hieronymus Bosch. I don't know if having done LSD allows me to approach music like yours from that angle but I'm sure it helps."

"Eating Soap Alone" is now available through mp3.com - check below to listen to it. This extended piece exposes a lot of our influences; Eno, Faust, The Residents, hints of Zappa in the editing, some Beefheart-style reeds...

Big Block 454 are making a series of short films, featuring our music - imagine "Eraserhead" meets Monty Python in 2 minutes... Films finished include Mark Joell's vigorous performance of his own song "We are the men who like to say Yo!" and "Tyres", based on the Big Block 454 piece "Hillman Imp Owners' Club Initiation March."

Big Block 454 have been collaborating with electronic poet John Siddique of Jowonio Productions (from Hebden Bridge) - the first result was the ambient piece Region. We're also on his "Meat and Bread Variations" 3" CD along with Merzbow. Check out his stuff at the Jowonio Productions site. Live, John plays a shovel using a violin bow - we really dig his music, he is the Ace of Spades... (more avant-gardener puns to follow...) We're hoping to play some improv gigs with him in the near future.

Film-maker Mandy McIntosh has used three Big Block 454 pieces in her animated film "Toonhoff", produced for Culture Castles, an architecture and new media education project for Liverpool-based community groups. Culture Castles is part of the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology. The tunes were "Oh, By The Way...", "Mash Tubb Dung Dragg" and "Curb Greedy Shopkeepers (anag.)", all from the "Fistula !" CD.

Big Block 454 performed recently at the Salford Artists Collective's cross-platform video and live music event Salford Centric. The band had been working with film-maker Les Howarth to create a film and associated soundtrack. The film, entitled "An Evening at Blank Frank's Bun Factory", was shown on large screens whilst a streamlined version of Big Block 454 (Pete Scullion and Liam Robinson on guitars, Colin Robinson on fretless bass and drum machine) played live. The event was staged at St.Philip's Church on Chapel Street, Salford - a fantastic evening and a great venue.

Review in Modern-Dance : BIG BLOCK 454. That's A Nice Hat. Treading very carefully, I placed the cdr into the awaiting tray. I pressed play, and gingerly waited. Words like, hell fire!, and stunning immediately sprang to mind. Above all, the four tracks on here represent, for me, what being your own boss is about - the freedom to create music that is highly original (and yet acknowledge its roots). There's some brilliant musicians on here, but above all it's mixed with a bit of fun. Y'see, when you get lyrics like 'warm water, cold milk, I name this child Acker Bilk' backed with some inspired music it's a bit like Zappa's occasional classics where there was a big dose of humour, but it was all underpinned with great music. There's six musos that make up Big Block 454, and when you read their influences (Zappa, Bartok, Captain Beefheart, Faust, Eno, Syd Barrett and the Residents), you have a clearer idea of the quality of the gear on here. At over 20 minutes, the four tracks are as different to each other as though it was a compilation of different bands. The second track reminds you of Eno, with its gentle piano and backdrops of found sounds/sfx. To me this is what music should be all about, exploring, having a great time, being inventive, and ending up with some awesomely inspired music. Eating Soap Alone, Canned Food In Combat and I Was Just About To Yodel - too good for my limited grasp of the language. It's worth getting your own computer to hear this! I mean these guys can REALLY play their instruments! (Dave W)

Read more Big Block 454 reviews....

BBC Radio One's John Peel and Jo Whiley have been playing Big Block 454 on their shows, whilst Stewart Lee on The Sunday Times said : "...dadaist source materials create genuinely discombobulating moments ... Big Block 454 are never less than intriguing."

A recent major project has been the soundtrack to the latest Les Howarth film "Fistula". Big Block 454 have recorded a double album for it, heavily influenced by early 70's Krautrock - so expect "Faust Tapes 2002", volumes 1 & 2. The band will also be appearing in the film... Les has been filming some members of the band in rather strange locations recently.

Big Block 454 played at the Termite Club Festival in Leeds in Nov 2000. Review : "Big Block 454 played an excellent set - pretty 'kraut' in places and I even recognised some renditions of tunes from their previous releases. The hidden air-raid siren was great too. I realised later that their flyers had instructions about what to sing on them but I didn't realise that at the time, being sat in the dark... " More events coming soon...

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'That was inedible muck, and there wasn't enough of it.'