BUSHPILOT

The Wire [Edwin Pouncey]:
“More techno tinged with a prominent Krautrock influence burning through.,, with vocalist Ross Holloway evoking the spirit of Damo Suzuki over the bands metronomic trance beat.”
Cosmic Carnage:
“Absolute kraut wizardry.”
The Sleeping Shaman:
“This, as with their contemporaries Slint, is how great post-rock can sound, the songs experimental yet never meandering too far into the avant-garde abyss. John Lennon once described the avant-garde as French for bullshit (ironic coming from him), thankfully bushpilot never fall into this camp.”
Perte & Fracas:
“A curious mixture of Public Image Limited-style post-punk, krautrock without the spacey scents, arid psychedelia and a twisted groove that is sometimes funky. Like an experimental music that has kept its sense of rock and rhythm and never does the same song twice.”

Bushpilot – usually styled all lower case as ‘bushpilot’ – were formed in Leeds in late 1992 by Karl Berlin (bass).
Phil Leigh (drums), Adrian Gans (guitar), Daren Pickles (guitar) and Ross Holloway (vocals) in Leeds, England.
Fired by a love of Can, the Jesus Lizard, and Slint as well as less obvious influences such as Talk Talk.
Talking Heads and techno, bushpilot set out to make a rhythm centred non-rock music that would use ideas like Can’s ‘spontaneous composition’ and Eno’s ‘oblique strategies’, to hopefully make something new and surprising.
Before playing live they spent a week in a cottage in the Lake District writing material and recording on a Tascam 4-track – documented in the cassette ‘Live from Brotherswater’.
Soon after they recorded a first demo with Leeds music legend Richard Formby at Hall Place studios.
This demo led to a single – ‘Canine‘ (1993) b/w Then Big Quaalude Thunder Nothing – released by London label Frog Records, and a getting a play by John Peel on Radio 1.
On a trip to NME offices, to take part in the final of the NME pop quiz, Ross gave a demo tape to then NME editor Mark Sutherland, who asked what it sounded like.
When Ross mentioned Can he reckoned ‘no one will want to listen to anything like Can, well maybe I can put it on Edwin Pouncey’s desk‘.
In 2020 Edwin Pouncey reviewed bushpilot’s ‘23’ album for the Wire.
They played their first gig at the Duchess of York supporting Truman’s Water in 1993, and regularly played in the city’s thriving noise rock scene often sharing a bill with Zoopsia, members of whom went onto form Bilge Pump (and later Objections).
A first London gig at Camden Falcon in June 1994 led to signing with Cherry Red Records, but disaster struck when Phil decided to leave.
He later set up and still runs Norman Records.
Richard Formby stepped in temporarily on bass, Karl switching to drums, and they started writing material for a planned Cherry Red album.
The Cherry Red deal collapsed following Daren declining to sign, as his breakbeat band Supercharger were looking like a better career prospect, they soon signed to China Records, releasing two albums, touring the USA with Aphex Twin and supporting the Prodigy at a football stadium in the Czech Republic.
Following a hiatus bushpilot returned to play at Leeds Sound City in the summer of 1996.
A gig with Union Wireless led to an interest from a major record label, but that again came to nothing, until 23 years later Jason agreed to release bushpilot’s archive recordings on God Unknown.
‘Already!’ was released in March 2020 to some excellent reviews and gigs were lined-up only to be cancelled due to Covid.
The last archival release is Rockitman, recorded with new drummer Nick Tonge from Zoopsia, in the summer of 1996.
The single has a video by artist and Leeds native Sarah Doyle.
Bushpilot are pleased to play live at God Unknown’s 10th anniversary all-dayer.