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SCMP Reporter

With so many bands bringing listeners down with heavy tales of alienation and angst, The Crustation's are a breath of fresh air.

  The band are programmers and instrumentalists Stig Manley, Ian Dark and Mark Taylor, plus vocalist Brenagh Slevin.

  'We want to put a chuckle in your heart,' Manley said.

  From the outset the aim was something a bit different.

  'We were about producing deeply evocative music of intense warmth and humanity,' he said.

  Formerly a guitarist with a number of bands in Bristol, England - including The Glee Club - Manley threw his lot in with Dark, a local DJ.

  The West Country city launched a whole new trippy club scene in Britain and Dark was part of that.

 'We had all been working separately in bedroom set-ups for quite a while,' said Taylor.

  'We just used the equipment which we had. Bits of cruddy old studio gear, all distorted. That's where the name Crustation comes from really.'   As a trio, Crustation released two instrumental EPs, 1995's The Fool Damage and Now Til Never/Big Bong Theory, both on Bristol's Cup of Tea label.

  Their debut album, Dope On Plastic, followed.

  Then along came Slevin. 'I came to Bristol to study as a classical pianist and cello player,' she said.

  'A musician friend brought me to visit the Crustation studio and despite having no previous vocal experience, I offered to write lyrics and sang on a track the band were putting together.'   Manley explained: 'She had just gone into the kitchen/vocal booth and was dead nervous. But she just went for it and it was obvious that she was totally sorted.'   Slevin wrote and performed a set of intensely powerful lyrics, giving the new 10-track album, Bloom, inspired poetic beauty.

  She also brought a fresh attitude to the Crustation camp.

  'I had no preconceived ideas about what any of this would be like,' Slevin said.

 Manley said record company executives hoping to sign the band had become a source of great mirth.

  'It became a standing joke,' he said. 'They'd all walk in the room, clap their hands and say, 'Right, what's the plot then, and is it going well?' We'd just turn around and say, 'There is no plot and it is going very well, thank you'.'   Bloom is excellent.

  The best tracks are Close My Eyes, Flame and Purple.

  'We wanted to make a record that demands your attention, that makes you sit there and listen to it,' Manley said.



Bristol trio in full bloom e