Following the release and critical acclaim of their first two EP's, and one further single in 'Technologica', Bang Bang Machine released their debut album 'Eternal Happiness' in 1994, which included just one song from each of the EP's alongside a number of new recordings. More singles followed in 1995, and a second album 'Amphibian' was issued later that year, but soon afterwards the band split, leaving a small, but always intriguing body of work. The 'Geek' EP had attracted the attention of John Peel, who offered them a session in 1992, where they recorded two tracks from their records alongside two new songs. In 1993 they appeared on the Channel 4 programme 'The Word' performing 'Technologica', and they were also featured in the 'Volume' magazine/CD series, contributing a cover of T. Rex's 'Life's A Gas', which later turned up as a b-side to their 'Give You Anything' single. They made the unusual choice of having different songs on the b-sides of some of their 7" singles, meaning that songs such as 'I Smile' and '(You're No) Good To Yourself' only appear on vinyl and not any of their CDs. For this second post from the band I've collected the 1992 John Peel session, the otherwise unreleased title track from that first album, a couple of those 7" b-sides, and an extended take of their first album cover of Psychic TV's 'Godstar', for a companion album to 'Geek Love' which completes the discography for this short-lived but under-rated band.
Track listing
01 Justine (John Peel session 1992)02 Monkey (John Peel session 1992)03 A Charmed Life (John Peel session 1992)04 Say It Again Joe (John Peel session 1992)05 Eternal Happiness (previously unreleased 1994)06 Life's A Gas (b-side of 'Give You Anything' 7" 1994)07 (You're No) Good To Yourself (b-side of 'Love It Bleeds' 7" 1995)08 Godstar (b-side of 'Show Me Your Pain' CD 1995)09 I Smile (b-side of 'Show Me Your Pain' 7" 1996)
Bang Bang Machine were a cult indie band from Evesham, Worcestershire in England, who were formed in 1989 by guitarist Steve Eagles, Lamp on drums, Stan Lee on bass, and enigmatic vocalist Elizabeth Freeth. The group experimented with different styles of music, and so the media found them hard to categorise, as they could covered alternative rock, Goth, pop, ambient and dance over just a few songs, and although they were sometimes classed as a Shoegaze band, musically they fell more between the Britpop and Grunge camps. Their most famous song, 'Geek Love', was released on their own Jimmi Kidd Rekordz label in 1989, and was inspired by the book by Katherine Dunn about a family of freaks in a travelling circus, and uses audio samples from the controversial Tod Browning film 'Freaks'. The single was championed by John Peel as a perfect example of a band self-financing their debut single, and were invited to record a session for his show in 1992. They were known for creating moving songs about unusual topics, and their song '16 Years' was about the Stefan Kiszko case, where an innocent man was jailed for a crime he did not commit. Their first two EPs from 1991 and 1992 contained a total of seven songs, including the lengthy 'Geek Love', and they could easily have issued them as their debut album rather than splitting them into two separate releases, so this bringing together of all the tracks from those EPs is what that album could have sounded like. 
Track listing
01 Geek Love (from 'The 'Geek' EP' 1991)02 Flower Horse (from 'The 'Geek' EP' 1991)03 The Fuck Machine (from 'The 'Geek' EP' 1991)04 Lovely Lily (from the 'Evil Circus E.P.' 1992)05 16 Years (from the 'Evil Circus E.P.' 1992) 06 Red Sun (from the 'Evil Circus E.P.' 1992)07 Jane Says (from the 'Evil Circus E.P.' 1992)
