''Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be'' is the debut studio album by
Max Tundra
Ben Jacobs (born 7 June 1974), more commonly known by the stage name Max Tundra, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is noted for its maximalist approach, which is predominantly electronic music but inc ...
, the alias of English producer Ben Jacobs. After releasing his debut single "Children at Play" through
Warp Records
Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, A ...
in 1998, Tundra signed with Domino Records who released the album on April 25, 2000. The tracks "Cakes" and "Ink Me" were issued as singles.
In 2008, the entire album was reworked by several of Max Tundra's musician friends as ''Best Friends'', which was released as a companion to Tundra's third album '' Parallax Error Beheads You''. The record was re-released in 2022.
Production
Jacobs recorded ''Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be'' in an upstairs flat on
Streatham Hill
Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
Streatham was in Surrey b ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where he was living at the time. The album's experimental sound was conceived as a reaction to "all the insipid, samey rubbish that was flooding the shelves at the time of writing", noting that he has "always been far more inspired by stuff I can't stand than music I love." He set out to make an album which invented eleven new types of music. The tracks on the album are all instrumental in nature, with Jacobs playing a wide range of instruments both traditional and electronic, which are then manipulated in unorthodox ways and sequenced using Jacobs'
Amiga 500
The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, is the first low-end version of the Amiga home computer. It contains the same Motorola 68000 as the Amiga 1000, as well as the same graphics and sound coprocessors, but is in a smaller case similar to that ...
.
Songs
The opening track "Cakes" was chosen as the album's lead single, and was stylistically an attempt at recreating the
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were See You on the Other Side'', though the song's chords were inspired by "Make Your Stash" by Daddy Cool, and makes prominent use of
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
to imitate a CD skipping. The track also features a trumpet that Jacobs bought for £15 off '' Loot'' magazine.https://twitter.com/MaxTundra/status/1254124614885740546 "Lamplite On A One Horse Shoe" was created entirely on a rented
Nord Lead
The Nord Lead is a series of Analog modeling synthesizer, virtual analog Subtractive synthesis, subtractive synthesizers, manufactured by Clavia.
Released in 1994, the original Nord Lead was the digital synthesizer that made the term ''virtual a ...
2 synthesizer, which Jacobs was inspired to use after reading
Autechre
Autechre () is an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all of Au ...
used one to record their ''
Cichlisuite
''Cichlisuite'' is the sixth EP by electronic music duo Autechre, released on August 26, 1997 by Warp Records. The EP was simultaneously released on CD and as two 12” records, all with unique cover art by The Designers Republic. ''Cichlisuite ...
'' EP. The title of "Ah, There's Deek - Let's Ask Him" was inspired by the author
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...
, "Deek" being the Scottish translation for "Derek". The track's instrumentation consists of a
den-den daiko
The is a Japanese hand-held pellet drum, used in Shinto-Buddhist ceremonies, etc.
It has two heads and is suspended on a rod, with beads or pellets hanging on threads on either sides of the body of the drum. The drum sounds when it is turned on ...
, a guitar pitched down to sound like a bass, and multi-tracked recorders.
"Lausanne" is built around a loop of cellphone interference, and features a steel drum Jacobs rented from Beat About The Bush, a film & TV prop hire company. The track's title is derived from a word Jacobs found on the screen of a shortwave radio. "Tuli, A Plain Ride From Canvas" pays tribute to
Tuli Kupferberg
Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs.
Biography
Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a Jewish, Yi ...
from
The Fugs
The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver (musician), Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of The Holy ...
, and was recorded on an old tape Jacobs had found in the street. It was edited from an hour's worth of improvised piano. The title of "Bill Sholem Quintette" is a homage to the
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, record producer, and inventor of electronic instruments.
Though Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is ...
Quintet, and was named after an eccentric teacher at Jacobs' old synagogue. The track was created by Jacobs cycling through five demo songs on a toy keyboard, which is briefly interrupted by a
field recording
Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...
of a
street sweeper
A street sweeper or street cleaner may refer to a person's occupation or to a machine that cleans streets.
Street sweepers have been employed in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A stre ...
, before going "all-out
Fred Frith
Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.
Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...
" with a
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...
.
"Ink Me" was chosen as the album's second single, and the first to be accompanied by a music video, depicting Jacobs playing the record to his "bemused" fictional grandparents. "The Balaton" is a "total acid rave" number named after a village in Hungary. Parts of the track "Subsi Kuku" were repurposed by Jacobs for his cover of " Coming Up" by
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
in 2003. "6161" refers to the call-sign that Jacobs went under during his early job as car courier, which he would later go onto discuss on the songs "Lights" from the follow-up album '' Mastered by Guy at the Exchange''. Jacobs would record a more stripped-back,
harmonium
The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
-based arrangement of the track entitled "61over" for his next album. The album concludes with "Carbon Cones", which is also the album's longest track at a total of 12 minutes. The track originated on a three-track demo tape Jacobs sent to Domino, which resulting in his signing to the label.
Release and reception
''Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be'' was well received by critics upon release. ''
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 ...
'' writer Matt LeMay was particularly favourable, awarding the album 9.2/10, which resulted in the website becoming Jacobs' "sole reliable champion" over the course of his career. LeMay remarked that the album was
''
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 ...
s Mark Richardson gave the album four out of five stars, stating the album
Reflecting on the album in 2022, Fergal Kinney of ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
'' summed the album up as "45 minutes where idea piles upon idea, an attention deficit obsession with multiplying sonic spectacle. Whenever the album feels solid, you’re stood on a trapdoor. It dispenses great ideas like confetti – take 'Lausanne’s thrilling games with audio static (a few years before
Ghost Box
Ghost Box is an independent, UK-based electronic music record label, launched in 2004 by graphic designer Julian House and producer Jim Jupp. Its roster includes artists such as Jupp's Belbury Poly, House's The Focus Group, and the Advisor ...
hauntologists were patting themselves on the back for much the same) or the terrific jammed CD-J sound on 'Cakes'".