Cult DIY outfit and BBC 6 music favourites Mr Ben & the Bens return in 2024 with a brand new 10 track LP Small Wide World via Bingo Records.
After years of steadily touring the back and even-further-back of beyond in the UK, as well as some of the island’s most beloved venues, Ben found himself taking a well-earned hiatus during 2023. Hibernating in his Sheffield studio in an old pewter factory, and in between working as a full-time potter come illustrator, he penned a set of contemplative songs which would later become the new album.
From the ‘Village Green’ era Kinks-style ‘Poor, Poor Me’ to the motoric ‘Listening Party’, Small Wide World combines tried-and-tested methods with sonic departures for the band. Recorded in Tesla Studios and produced by David Glover the new album inhabits a world of vintage drums machines, shimmering acoustics and wiry synthesisers.
Lyrically, kitchen sink realism winds its way around a set of songs jam packed with melancholic melody. ‘So long Sympathy’ speaks of fragile ego and our means of combatting this, and ‘Penny Drop’ of the loudest voice in the room disarmed by a junior colleague. Ben aims to disarm hostility in both society and the self with sensitive, personal sentiment.
With a limited edition vinyl and UK tour in the works for late March this year, Mr Ben & the Bens looks set to take on their ‘Small Wide World’ once again.
