Released 1998 Language English Release date 1998 | Length 50:05 Artist Spratleys Japs Producer Smith | |
Recorded Sparrows Wars, The New Forest, Hampshire, United Kingdom Label All My Eye and Betty Martin Music Genres Psychedelic rock, Experimental music Similar Sampler, Cardiacs and Affectiona, Tim Smith's Extra Special O, Guns, Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake | ||
Pony is the debut and only album 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 fact Smith and Spratley were the only musicians to have been involved with the recording.
Contents
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. A further reference was made to the alleged New Forest studio ('Sparrows Wars') on the 2007 album 'Yoni' by Ginger Wildheart which was produced by Tim Smith, where Smith allegedly recorded a church organ for the track 'Smile in Denial'.
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.
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 album, 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
Songs
1Burnt0:53
2Vessel2:33
3Fanny6:23