Pony (album)
Encyclopedia
Pony is the debut and only album to date by the English psychedelic rock
band Spratleys Japs
. Released in 1998 on All My Eye And Betty Martin Music, the album was a side-project of Cardiacs
frontman Tim Smith and his then partner Joanne Spratley. Although other musicians are credited as playing on the album, it is believed that this was part of an elaborate fictional conceit, and that in actual fact Smith and Spratley were the only musicians to have been involved with the recording.
The sound of Pony was apparently inspired by a malfunctioning Mellotron
that had been lent to Smith by Mellotron enthusiast Andy Thompson, and the instrument in question features on nearly every track of the album.
album Guns
, including many lyrics sourced from the famously mis-translated 19th century Portuguese-English phrasebook English As She Is Spoke
. For example, the lyric of the song "Oh" is based entirely around text from the "Familiar Dialogues" chapter of the book, incorporating phrases such as "It seems me that the corn does push alredy," and "The field has by me a thousand charms."
, Songs By Cardiacs And Affectionate Friends, released in 2002.
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band Spratleys Japs
Spratleys Japs
Spratleys Japs was a British psychedelic rock band formed by Cardiacs leader Tim Smith and Joanne Spratley. The band is known to have been inspired by the sound of a malfunctioning Mellotron loaned to Tim Smith by Planet Mellotron coordinator Andy Thompson. The Mellotron is used extensively on the...
. Released in 1998 on All My Eye And Betty Martin Music, the album was a side-project of Cardiacs
Cardiacs
Cardiacs are an English alternative rock/psychedelic pop band formed in 1977 and led by Tim Smith. Noted for their complex, varied and intense compositional style and for their eccentric, theatrical stage shows, they have been hailed as an influence by bands as diverse as Blur, Faith No More and...
frontman Tim Smith and his then partner Joanne Spratley. Although other musicians are credited as playing on the album, it is believed that this was part of an elaborate fictional conceit, and that in actual fact Smith and Spratley were the only musicians to have been involved with the recording.
Recording
According to the history of the album presented on the All My Eye and Betty Martin website, Pony was conceived as the result of an encounter between Spratley and a displaced American bar band called The Rev-Ups(Heidi Murphy, Mark Donovan and Viv Sherrif), in a dilapidated recording studio in The New Forest. Spratley subsequently introduced Smith to the band, and work began on recording an album in the Autumn of 1998. However, as there is no apparent evidence that the band nor the studio have ever existed, the veracity of this story is in doubt.The sound of Pony was apparently inspired by a malfunctioning Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
that had been lent to Smith by Mellotron enthusiast Andy Thompson, and the instrument in question features on nearly every track of the album.
Lyrical references
Pony shares a number of reference points with the contemporaneous CardiacsCardiacs
Cardiacs are an English alternative rock/psychedelic pop band formed in 1977 and led by Tim Smith. Noted for their complex, varied and intense compositional style and for their eccentric, theatrical stage shows, they have been hailed as an influence by bands as diverse as Blur, Faith No More and...
album Guns
Guns (album)
Guns is the eighth studio album by Cardiacs, and their last with Jon Poole. It was recorded and mixed at Apollo 8 in London. After a brief period of unavailability, the album was re-pressed in August 2007 and is once again available on the official .-Themes:...
, including many lyrics sourced from the famously mis-translated 19th century Portuguese-English phrasebook English As She Is Spoke
English As She Is Spoke
English as She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th century book falsely credited to José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, which was intended as a Portuguese-English conversational guide or phrase book, but is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations...
. For example, the lyric of the song "Oh" is based entirely around text from the "Familiar Dialogues" chapter of the book, incorporating phrases such as "It seems me that the corn does push alredy," and "The field has by me a thousand charms."
Label
Pony was the first release through Smith's own label All My Eye and Betty Martin Music, and is catalogued as AME CD001. As the album was only distributed by direct mail order it has never been sold in any retail outlets, and has subsequently become exceedingly difficult to acquire due to Tim Smith's recent ill health. However, two tracks, "Cabinet" and "Hazel", were included on the Org Records compilation albumCompilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Songs By Cardiacs And Affectionate Friends, released in 2002.
Track listing
Track 09 is not listed on the back of the CD due to a typographical error.Personnel
- Joanne Spratley – Vocals, Flugelhorn, Theremin
- Tim Smith - Vocals, Bass Guitar, Piano, Organ
- Heidi Murphy - Synthesiser, Mellotron, Electronics
- Viv Sherrif - Drums, Organ
- Mark Donovan - Guitars
- Andrew Dack - Designer(synthesisers)
- Juliette Randall - Designer(electronics)
- Nevergreen Symphonia - Orchestral Parts on 'Oh'
- Wendy Barry - Conductor