Having achieved worldwide recognition and record sales healthier than a vegan's fridge, the duo are back in 2003. The new album is called 'The Everlasting Blink' and is their second contribution to the cause.

Making their first appearance in 1999, the Bent boys would notoriously fill their Nottingham bedsit with dodgy secondhand records to sample. Fast forward a few years and their Geoff Love and Top Of The Pops 1979 days have been left behind.

'We've done so much random buying that we've got every shit record you can get,' chuckles Simon Mills (giggler, purveyor of bizarre Eighties hairstyles, owns sausage dog called Dallas). 'I mean how many versions of Mantovani do you need?'

Now the proud owners of a suitably vague '30 or 40' synthesisers to tinker with, Simon and other Bender, Nail Tolliday are in danger of coming over all cerebral. Take the new album title, for instance, 'The Everlasting Blink'.

'It's just a phrase that popped into our heads', shrugs Simon, mysteriously adding, 'but a blink can be an eye shut or an eye open. It's about birth and death and this album is talking about preservation of life.'

Thus we experience somewhat surprising but ultimately genius collaborations with David Essex on 'Stay The Same', fleeting Seventies pop icons Captain and Tenille on the Balearic beauty 'Magic Love' and Billie Jo Spears on the country hoedown of 'So Long Without You', not to mention BJ Cole's legendary pedal steel guitar twangs and Nail's newfound talent on the drums.

From the opening angelic auras of 'King Wisp', we're reminded why we love being Bent so much. Harps in dance music? Yes please! Then there are 20 second long mini operatic adventures, The Beloved's Jon Marsh singing sweet as a bird on 'Beautiful Otherness', country and western swings by for a quick one and the future Balearic gem of 'Magic Love' begs to be the soundtrack for a gloopy chocolate bar ad, coming on like Everything But The Girl getting bummed by Grace Jones.

Now standing proud with two albums under their belts, plus Nail coming to the fore as a drummer and vocalist - with a little help from esteemed producer Stephen Hague ('He's the master of pop records and if he can make Bernard Sumner and Neil Tennant sing he can make it work for us!'), Bent are about to prove again why they're the daddies and we're just babies lolling about in soiled nappies needing a change.

Track List:

1. King Wisp
2. An Ordinary Day
3. Strictly Bongo
4. Beautiful Otherness
5. Moonbeams
6. So Long Without You
7. Exercise 3
8. Stay The Same
9. Magic Love
10.The Everlasting Blink
11.Thick Ear

Buy 'The Everlasting Blink'

IMAGE See the Everlasting Blink artwork