Fridge was an English instrumental

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

band formed in 1995 by school friends

Kieran Hebden Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ( ...

(guitar, samples),

Adem Ilhan Adem Ilhan (born 20 November 1977) is an English composer, producer and singer-songwriter. He has released many albums: his solo music project released under the name Adem, in the acclaimed post-rock band Fridge, alongside Kieran Hebden, and ...

(bass) and Sam Jeffers (drums). Their rhythm heavy sound was influenced by

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

bands such as Can and

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

, while critics view their early works as following similar paths as the contemporary post-rock groups

Tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...

and

Do Make Say Think Do Make Say Think is a Canadian instrumental band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1995. Their music combines jazz-style drumming, distorted guitars and wind instruments, and prominent bass guitar. Biography The band formed in 1995 as a recording ...

. Over time Hebden's interest in

Techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

and

Drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

became predominant, supported by Jeffers' complex drum patterns.Early Output: 1996-1998
. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2022 They released four critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums between 1995 and 2001, of which the last, ''

Happiness Happiness, in the context of Mental health, mental or emotional states, is positive or Pleasure, pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishin ...

'', is generally seen as their high point. Their 2007 double album '' The Sun'' was released after a long period of inactivity, after Hebden had begun a solo career and Ilhan and Jeffres enrolled in college.Fridge
.

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

. Retrieved 18 June 2022 Fridge never officially split up, although their last live performance was in 2007. Hebden and Ilhan record as

Four Tet Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ...

and Adem respectively.

History

Career

Hebden, Ilhan and Jeffers met in the mid-1990s at Elliott School in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

, southwest London, where they became friends with contemporaries

Burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

(William Bevan),

Hot Chip Hot Chip are an English synthpop band formed in London in 1995. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. They are occasionally joined by former member Rob Smoughton for ...

and

The xx The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), a ...

; all of whom members of Fridge have worked with. Recalling the period, Joe Goddard of Hot Chip recalled that "there was a spirit: if you want to do something just go and fucking do it. You didn’t need permission."Kilpin, James.
The unique legacy of the Elliott School
. publicpressure.org, 2002. Retrieved 18 June 2022 Hebden remembers being allowed to "rehearse with my band at lunch and for hours after school without any interference. When I was at school, drum'n'bass happened. Our teachers would let us set up big sound systems and have drum'n'bass parties during lunchtime breaks….we’d be in a drama room with machines and strobe lights for half an hour, dancing to

DJ Zinc Benjamin Pettit (born 12 March 1972), better known as DJ Zinc, is a British DJ and record producer. Zinc first became known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop/jungle fusion, notably one of the pioneering jump-up anthems of its time. ...

's "Super Sharp Shooter" or something blasting out at huge volume." Their sound progressed from

Post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

towards electronica over their career, although their music retained its focus on complex rhythms. Initially Hebden played guitar, Ilhan bass guitar, and Jeffers drums, but Hebden and Ilhan adopted a variety of other instruments. Of their early work, Hebden said that they were "trying to make music that didn't sound like anything else; all of us not quite skilled enough to translate the sound in our head onto cassette, but creatively filling the gaps, using them and making them integral." By 1999's '' Eph'', the sampler was playing an increasingly important role in their music. According to the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

, it contains the "building blocks of their initial sample dabbling...creeping stealthily in and out of songs such as "Helicopter" and the thorny assault of distortion on "Cassette"." They occasionally backed

Badly Drawn Boy Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show ''Sam and his Magic Ball'', which he saw ...

as his live band around this time, and in 2000 remixed his single ''Another Pearl''. The following album, 2001's ''

'', was widely regarded by critics as their best to date. It was retrospectively described by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

as "slightly more difficult han "Eph" and containingmany excellent moments..."Cut Up Piano and Xylophone" is a soft, gauzy piece reminiscent of '70s minimalism and "Five Four Child Voice" a precocious time-signature jam."Bush, John.
Happiness
.

. Retrieved 18 June 2022 Their final album '' The Sun'' was released, after a six-year hiatus, to critical acclaim in June 2007.

Inactivity, solo work

Although inactive since 2007, Fridge have never officially split up. In August 2007 they played their first gig after six years at Bardens Boudoir in

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...

, London, followed by a performance that year at the

Field Day festival Field Day is an outdoor music festival held every year on New Year's Day in Sydney at The Domain. It is a one-day music festival showcasing hip-hop, house, indie and electronic artists from all over the world. The event has been running sin ...

in East London's

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

. Hebden solo career as

dates from the late 1990s, during downtime when Ilhan and Jeffers had returned to college. Ilhan has released three solo albums, '' Homesongs'' (2004), '' Love and Other Planets'' (2006), and '' Takes'' (2008) under the name Adem. The 21-track compilation album ''Early Output 1996–1998'' was released in 2009.

Discography

Albums

* ''

Ceefax Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...

'',

Output Recordings Output Recordings was a British independent record label run by Trevor Jackson, between 1996 and 2006. Output released 100 records over the ten-year period, and several bands first appeared on this label, including Fridge, Lisa Germano, Four ...

, 1997 * '' Semaphore'', Output Recordings, 1998 * '' Eph'',

Go! Beat Records Go! Discs was a London-based record label, launched in 1983 from offices in Wendell Road, Shepherd's Bush, by Andy Macdonald and Lesley Symons. The pair founded the label after Macdonald left his job as press officer at Stiff Records, and Symo ...

, 1999; reissued in 2002 with a bonus disc containing the combined material from ''Kinoshita Terasaka'' and ''Of'' EPs * ''

'',

Text Records Text Records is a British independent record label founded by Kieran Hebden in 2001. Hebden has released much of his own music through the label: several albums and singles as Four Tet (including collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke) and t ...

, 2001 * '' The Sun'', Text Records (UK),

Temporary Residence Limited Temporary Residence Limited (shortened TRL) is a Brooklyn, New York-based record label. TRL was started in Louisville, Kentucky in 1996 by Jeremy DeVine, and initially concentrated on releasing music by Louisville-based bands.

(US), 2007

Compilation albums

* ''

Sevens and Twelves ''Sevens and Twelves'' is a compilation of early singles by Fridge, released October 19, 1998. It compiles all the singles released on Output Recordings Output Recordings was a British independent record label run by Trevor Jackson, bet ...

'', Output Recordings, 1998 **Two-CD compilation of all the singles and EPs recorded for Output (''Lojen'', ''Anglepoised'', ''Lign'' and ''Orko''), previously released only on vinyl * ''Early Output 1996–1998'', Temporary Residence, 2009

EPs and singles

* "Lojen", Output Recordings, 1997 * ''Anglepoised'', Output Recordings, 1997 * ''Lign'', Output Recordings, 1998 * ''Orko'', Output Recordings, 1998 * ''Kinoshita Terasaka'', Go! Beat Records, 1999 * ''Of'' Go!, Beat Records, 1999

Compilation appearances

*''

Brain in the Wire ''Brain in the Wire'' is a compilation by Brainwashed Recordings, which is a collection of mostly rare, unreleased alternate versions of songs by many influential groups that Brainwashed's website promotes hosting for. The first CDs of the set ...

'', various artists *''Thank You'', various artists,

, 2004 * ''Destroy Independent Music!'', various artists, Temporary Residence Limited sampler, 2006–2007

References

External links

Fridge official site
* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1995 English electronic music groups English post-rock groups Folktronica musicians Temporary Residence Limited artists Go! Beat artists