Vile Imbeciles

Vile Imbeciles (or VI) are an English alternative rock band from Brighton formed in 2005 by the ex-The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster songwriter and guitarist Andy Huxley. The band consists of Huxley on guitar and vocals, Evan Reinhold on drums and Deen Lim on bass guitar and vocals.

VI combine funk, post-rock, metal and avant-garde, to make a new genre that has been described as "post-funk", although this has often been referred to as both "junk funk" and "death jazz" by music journalists (the latter owing to their previous concept album of the same name).

The band's work to date comprises four studio albums and three singles, all released on independent record labels.

Inception and ...Ma

The band was formed in 2005 following Huxley's departure from The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. The original line-up was Huxley, James Hair (lead bassist, formerly of Neils Children), and Rob "Bertie" Lean (drums and vocals). The debut album "...Ma", was released on 4 June 2007 on White Heat Records, and was shortly followed by the single "Slack Hands" on 18 June 2007. The album title was a dedication to longtime friend and supporter Dave Ma, who directed the video to "Slack Hands", and was also in part a tongue-in-cheek payment for the video. The album was recorded by Huxley in his bedroom in Hove on a Zoom 8-track and received considerable attention from the press, being reviewed in both NME and Kerrang! amongst others, the former giving it 2 out of 10 and the latter 4 out of 5. Owing to the album's often grating vocal delivery alongside a chaotic and untidy production quality and the obtuse songwriting style characteristic of the band's earlier work, the band received a mixed reception from previous fans of Huxley.

Queenie Was A Blonde / Death Jazz

With the working title "Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This. It Gets Worse" the band finished recording their follow-up to ...Ma in late 2007. The album was initially written by Huxley as material for a new project in response to a particularly unsuccessful gig in Brighton in which his guitar broke. Finally released under the name "Queenie Was A Blonde" on 14 July 2008 on Tea Vee Eye Records, the album included the addition of Caspian Rospigliosi on guitar and marked the start of Huxley's brief stint as purely a vocalist. The album title was taken from the opening line of the Joseph Moncure March poem The Wild Party. The first single from the album "Bad Ideas" was released on 18 August 2008, the promotional video being shot in the same room as the band's music video for "Slack Hands", and on the same day that Lean quit the group. The band went on to promote the album with new drummer Evan Reinhold, who had previously collaborated with Huxley in bohemian cabaret band The Dirty Cakes (featured on the BBC Three Reality TV Show Singing with the Enemy) which Huxley was a songwriter for.

The band completed their thirty-minute one song mini-concept-album "Death Jazz" in late 2008; the recording features Reinhold and Lean drumming alongside each other on the work, and owing to Lean's departure mid-recording the band have never been able to perform the album live. The self-styled Death Jazz genre and concept album of the same name had been continuously referred to in interviews since the band's inception, with the concept of death jazz subsequently being used by The Guardian in an article referring to it as a new musical genre,^[1] the article only briefly mentioning the band. The band have since discarded the death-jazz label, owing to some confusion around their own self-identification as a Death Jazz band. Huxley has since commented on the concept album, "The idea was that it would be a sort of homage to Ornette Coleman’s album Free Jazz. It was meant to be a sort of metal-jazz backwards thing. We recorded it anyway, but Death Jazz is probably not the best term for it: it’s more free post-rock or something like that."^[2] On 16 March 2009 the band released the mini album as a B-side to the double A-side single "Jennifer"/"Tramp", both A-side tracks being taken from the "Queenie Was a Blonde" album. The album was reviewed by the NME who noted "Brighton four-piece Vile Imbeciles show scant regard for the traditions of the recorded format" in their decision to release an album as a B-side to a single and gave the album 8 out of 10 stating the work was "the manifestation of a magnificent perversion".^[3] The videos to both A-side singles were shot on location in the disused bank Reinhold was living in, and in which the band would then go on to build a studio in to record their next album.

D Is For W

In October 2009, shortly after the band had begun recording their fourth studio album, Hair announced his retirement from music to launch his new company Mr Hair's Pie Factory.^[4] Early 2010 saw the band's return to live performances playing completely new material as a five-piece with the addition of Deen Lim and Liam Dowling on bass and synths respectively, with all five members of the group sharing vocals. Whilst the band continued gigging through 2010 and 2011, honing their live sound for the new material, the already largely recorded album found itself in a constant state of editing and re-recording for the studio release owing to its challenging textures and the band's own deliberation over the work, with the band using a total of 4 producers for it. The album was finally released on 3 October 2011 as a joint production by Cameron Devlin & former Pink Grease songwriter Steven Santa Cruz,^[5][6] and was ambiguously titled "D is for W" as a result of a complaint "D.. No, D. D as in W... No, D. D for W... D is for W" Huxley overheard and "completely understood" whilst working in the complaints department of an Insurance Company.^[7] The album was described by Huxley as both born of a "severe inner struggle" and "positive and perfect". The album received positive reviews with Uncut describing it as a "Hyper-intense and malevolent, brilliantly well-crafted, math-funk/death jazz hybrid that suggests a cerebral aneurysm reaching critical point" and MOJO calling it "pop that simultaneously grates, intrigues and beguiles".^[8] No additional promotion in the form of singles or videos were released by the band in support of the album.

Return to a three piece and unannounced hiatus

Throughout 2012 VI again underwent major line-up changes. Keyboardist/guitarist Liam Dowling's departure from the group was announced via the band's website in March, and following a short French tour as a four piece the band ceased playing live. After a summer of inactivity Huxley returned to touring with The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and an announcement on the VI Facebook stated that guitarist/vocalist Caspian Rospigliosi had left the band and that Huxley, Reinhold and Lim were continuing as a three piece.

After a tour playing a large amount of new material in 2013 the band returned to the studio to work on their fifth album. Although no announcement was made following this, the band appear to have gone on an unofficial hiatus without releasing the material. No other information is known.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Videos

The video for debut song "Slack Hands" was shot by Dave Ma in one take on a single roll of Super 8 film in Brighton.

The video for the first single from Queenie Was A Blondie, "Bad Ideas" was released on 9 July. The video was made by Chris Moore.

The video for "Jennifer" was released on 12 January 2009. The video was made by Jack Dixon and Millie Harvey.

The video for "Tramp" was released on 19 January 2009. The video was made by The Softbox.

Band members

References