‘The Best Of Bent’ promises to be the retrospective album of the summer - Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills, AKA Bent, are back with a highly anticipated best of collection, due for release on the 20th July. Spanning the career of one of the UK’s most influential artists – famous for hits such as Always, I Love My Man, Swollen, Magic Love and To Be Loved, it respectfully nods to their past, present and future – further proof why Bent remain not just important to the development of UK electronica, but to contemporary music altogether. 

Celebrating 10 years and 4 critically acclaimed albums - the last being 2006’s mould breaking ‘Intercept’ - Bent celebrate this musical milestone by including a second CD of new un released material which the band have been working on to give a taster of whats to come when they begin work on their fifth studio album in January 2010  - a new vision for the scene that the band were pivotal in shaping. Their ethereal, and poignant sound has been likened to Air, Moby and even Badly Drawn Boy. Alongside these artists, Bent remain a discerning choice for music aficionados everywhere. From the beautiful, mellow tones of Magic Love and Always to the Balearic, 4-4 funk of ‘Comin’ Back’ and the synth-laden harmonies of Leavin’ Me, The Best of Bent promises fans – new and old – an unforgettable sonic journey.

The influence of Bent’s work has garnered praise from the likes of NME, DJ, Jockey Slut and Mixmag, who all praised their intricate, all-encompassing sound and sampledelic genius, celebrating Bent’s ethos of taking obscure recorded gems and extracting exceptional sounds. Their unique musical blueprint was first laid down on their masterpiece debut ‘Programmed to Love’, which subsequently sold 56,000 copies in Europe within the first week of release, laying the foundations for more widespread critical acclaim -                        

“Programmed To Love' … builds genuinely beautiful music out of whatever Bent have scavenged. There's a thin line between clever and ironic, of course, but much here tends towards elegance rather than car-boot-crazed wackiness”. – NME, 2000.

Bent have created the ground work for some amazing and beautifully crafted remixes, most notably Ashley Beedle’s massive Mahavishnu remix of ‘Always’, Francois K’s vocal mix of ‘Swollen’ and a sublime mix from Serge Santiago. In addition, Bent in their own right sprinkled a little of their own remix magic on to tracks by Faithless (‘Reasons’), Morcheeba (World Looking In), Matthew Jay (‘Please Don’t Send Me Away’), Hall and Oates (‘I Can’t Go for That’) and even Dolly Parton (‘Early Morning Breeze’).

Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills conceptualised Bent in Nottingham in 1997 after becoming disillusioned with the state of dance music at the time. 1999 saw the band release debut album ‘Programmed For Love’, to critical acclaim and received groundbreaking response and praise. Since then, the Bent machine created three further albums, ‘Everlasting Blink’(2002), ‘Ariel’s’ (2004) and ‘Intercept’, all selling in excess of over 350,000 copies.

Since the release of Intercept, Nail has been working on his Goose Fair Island album, whilst Simon has been behind the boards with Lenny Annex. 

This album keenly displays Bents huge musical depth, serving as authentication of the scope and breadth of Bents musical legacy. To prime the release of the Best Of, Bent will be performing a special ONE OFF show to coincide with the albums release on July 22nd, a welcome return to the stage and their first live UK gig since closing The Big Chill Festival in 2006

For more information, interview requests, photos and dates, please contact  HYPERLINK "mailto:joe@leylinepromotions.com" joe@leylinepromotions.com or  HYPERLINK "mailto:Adrian@leylinepromotions.com" Adrian@leylinepromotions.com. Alternatively, please call 07871031755 / 07971555020