Appliance were an experimental post-rock

Post-rock

Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...

 three piece made up of James Brooks (guitar), David Ireland (percussion) and Michael Parker (bass). Original bass player Stuart Christie left in 1995 to form Harmony 400.
They released three 10" vinyl

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 Eps on various independent record labels, including their own self financed Surveillance Records, before signing to Daniel Miller's Mute Records

Mute Records

Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...

 in 1998.

On the Mute label they released Manual (1999), Six Modular Pieces (2000), Imperial Metric (2001) and Are You Earthed? (2003).
Their music was inspired by "Krautrock

Krautrock

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...

", a 1970's Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

 experimental movement involving minimalist song structures, mantra-like rhythms and drones.
Championed by John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

, they recorded four Peel Sessions during their career, and one in 2003 for Jeff Cooper's radio2XS

Radio2XS

radio2XS is programmed and edited in Sheffield, England and uses the on-air slogan "New Music, Live Sessions and 60 Years of Rock’n'roll".The station was formed in 2002 by ....

.
They toured live in Europe and the U.K. with, amongst others; Add N to X, Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo, formed in 1999 in London, England, that consists of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory ....

, Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol are an alternative rock band from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Formed at the University of Dundee in 1994 as an indie rock band, the band is now based in Glasgow...

, Hefner

Hefner (band)

Hefner were a British indie rock and "urban folk" band formed in east London in 1995. They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ John Peel, who was a strong supporter of theirs....

 and Wire

Wire (band)

Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...

.
The band have not performed or recorded since the Montreux Jazz Festival

Montreux Jazz Festival

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...

 in 2003

In October 2010 the band released Appliance, Reconditioned, a retrospective 3 CD box set of early recordings, unreleased material and Peel sessions on the RROOPP label.

In 2011, guitarist James Brooks as Land Observations, released the EP "Roman Roads" on Enraptured Records.

Discography

Early E.P.s and singles

• Organised Sound E.P., (1997, Surveillance)
• Into Your Home E.P., (1997, Plastic Cowboy)
• Outer / Rev A 7" single, (1998, Earworm
  Earworm Records
  Earworm Records was a London-based independent record label, with its first release by the band Hood in 1997. Other bands to release music on the label include Yo La Tengo, Of Montreal, Stars of the Lid, Windy & Carl, Portal, The Besnard Lakes, Fridge, Damon & Naomi and Magnétophone....
  
  )
• Time and Space E.P., (1998, Enraptured Records)

Albums

• Manual (1999, Mute
  Mute Records
  Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...
  
  )
• Six Modular Pieces (2000, Mute)
• Imperial Metric (2001, Mute)
• Are You Earthed? (2003, Mute)

Full Mute discography
Compilation Album

• Appliance, Reconditioned (2010, RROOPP)