Bent are an electronica act from Nottingham in England, consisting of Neil "Nail" Tolliday and Simon Mills. They released their debut album Programmed to Love in 2000. The duo were initially noted for their ability to create their own mischievous style of recordings by sampling their private record collections. On the 2003 single "Magic Love" they sampled a Toni Tennille performance. Nana Mouskouri is one of the artists they have sampled the most so far. Another notably sampled artist is the Canadian singer Anne Murray, whose song "Just Bidin' My Time" is heavily used for the lyrics of "Leavin' Me". With the release of 2004's Ariels, Bent took a sharp turn into live-based recording using predominantly original material. 2006's Intercept! saw the duo taking a step back into the style reminiscent of the first two albums, although adding a more discoesque touch. Their prankster-ish reputation is reprised with the track "Stay Out All Night", in which the sole lyric is "People who are afraid of the dark send their children to bed and stay out all night". Following the relative hiatus of the band, both Nail and Simon Mills have maintained musical activity of their own. Simon Mills launched a solo project called Napoleon, with a self-titled first album digitally released in 2011, very similar to early Bent in its delicate blending of soft electronic music and vintage samplings. A second album, Magpies, also close to the Bent sound, followed in 2013, and 2014 saw for Napoleon the release of twelve EPs, at the beginning of each month. Simon Mills collaborated with Capital Cities, recording two songs in 2011, "Postcards" and "Two Timin' My Mind", both of which were released on Napoleon's debut album, and two remixes, "New Town Crier" for Capital Cities' Kangaroo Court EP USA release, and "Patience Gets Us Nowhere Fast" for In a Tidal Wave of MysteryDeluxe Edition. This album also contains the Mills-produced track "Lazy Lies".
Use in advertising
The song "Private Road" was used in the 2001 Carlsberg "Bank" commercial. "Invisible Pedestrian" was featured in an Absolut Vodka commercial that aired in 2003, as well as a commercial for Dutch Railways in 2006. Both songs are from the albumProgrammed to Love. The song "Silent Life" off the album Ariels was featured in a Coca-Cola commercial that aired in 2006. In the run-up to the 2005 United Kingdom General Election, the song "As You Fall" was featured in an imagined Conservative Party Political Broadcast commissioned by Channel 4 News. In television, the song "Beautiful Otherness" was used on the showKeen Eddie. "Thick Ear" from The Everlasting Blink was used in a TV campaign for Tax Credits, with a voice-over by Jenny Eclair. It was also used by digital radio stationBBC Radio 7 on some of its trailers. "Silent Life" has been used since 2009 in various Impresa Semplice TV campaigns in Italy.
