i’m currently older than bis at the release of this, which is wild. considering this is actually decent. and sci fi? shhhhh…
it is too long and is disjointed in places - but kids wrote this.
i genuinely think the biggest failings on this album are the business ones, but again, wains. kandy pop probably should’ve been here and should’ve been a single available for remembering via a woolworths cashier.
i love this album as everyone (with joy and whimsy in their hearts) does. the aesthetic is so genuinely unique and creative, the cohesion in covers and imagination through half-written lore is amazing. this album is the perfect introduction to bis, especially coming from being a riot grrrl listener as i did.
maybe it’s cliche in the sense of bis but this is a record you read your own meaning into. either you click or you don’t.
maybe they wonder why it’s always gays that find a connection in bis. but this album kiiiinda tells you why. it makes me cringe a little to talk about but considering i’ve mentioned it to sci fi while drunk, it gets a mention. there’s constant themes of “yeah i’m not you, what about it?”, finding the fun in being different for the first time. and explicit support for queerness, which twenty years on, i was still pleasantly surprised by as i still don’t think that happens often enough. there’s a lot of like - genderbending? and x defect is this in its most explicit sense.
this album is for anyone who had things thrown at them in the street as a teenager.
i feel hypocritical saying i love the “the 80s probably sucked if you weren’t a kid” lyric, but i do love it. even though i yearn to be in my 20s or teens in the nineties rather than being in my 20s in the 2020s. i love the writing/role reversal in photo shop, it’s a fun song but i do kind of just find steven singing about boys a bit funny. if you read this steven i am sorry.
i do think quite a bit about what could’ve been and maybe i wish it had been the popular songs on the big debut album. but then i look at my inbox and see bis and ill keep them my niche so i can BOTHER them and BEFRIEND them.
i don’t have many necessarily “fun facts” for this album, although was once told by the daughter of an amphetameanie that everybody thinks is considered an absolutely peak scottish ska song. and it irritates the ska-players of scotland that it was released by a not-ska band.
this album sold 100,000 copies in japan and that is still how i justify bis’ level of being an actual band to strangers.
The New Transistor Heroes is an album that means a lot to me, but not a lot of info about it is really presented, if you have some neat facts about the album as whole or maybe even some background information before if was released, or the critical response, id love to hear ALL of it #teencnation
i’m gonna write an actual post tomorrow but sci fi told me if it was a food, it would be sweet popcorn!!
i’ve had like three interactions on here in the last couple days which is super cool!!! i should start posting more, feel free to send asks about bis!!
when i say i know a dangerous amount, i mean it. i’m also friends with one of them now. oops.
i’ve had like three interactions on here in the last couple days which is super cool!!! i should start posting more, feel free to send asks about bis!!
when i say i know a dangerous amount, i mean it. i’m also friends with one of them now. oops.
Data Panik is a phrase familiar to a very select group of people, a band that existed exactly one calendar year.
Rising from the ashes of bis 1.0 in the early 2000s, they provided a very specific aesthetic in a specific pocket of time. Taken directly from their short-lived website; “formed from the ashes of the dear-departed Bis in early 2005.” Data Panik consisted of bis’ Sci-Fi (Steven), Manda and John with bassist Stuart Memo and drummer Graham Christie.
(bis-diots that i love so much, numbers four and five)
It makes almost zero sense that bis was retired in 2003 when you realise John was literally 22 years old.
But does make more discouraged and tired sense knowing every record label became disinterested in the band by the year 2000. Bis were written off by name and bubble gum pop, masculinity-lacking associations. It doesn’t make sense on paper but in a post-Oasis British press it certainly did.
In a Diskant.net feature Manda explains; “We reached a 3rd album with Bis and we feel we took the band as far as we could. The name Bis was stopping any progress that any good record could have had.” So, in understandable frustration, bis was revamped.
On February 22nd 2005, Data Panik was announced on the bis website, two years from “the end” of bis; “SO THE NEW BAND WITH MANDA, JOHN AND STEVEN IS GOING TO BE CALLED "DATA PANIK" (HAILING FROM STEVEN BEING A FAN OF PERE UBU). THE DATA PART IS TO BE PRONOUNCED "DAH TAH" AND NICE IF YOU PUT ON A GERMAN ACCENT!”
Data Panik brought total live instrumentation which squashed a favourite critique in the bis-world, “I can hear drums but cannae see them?”
(Stuart + Graham)
That ended up being one of Sci-Fi’s favourite aspects of the era. “I loved it from a “being a normal band” perspective. No more where’s the drummer/I hear drums but I can’t see them shite.”
Although, Data Panik is probably about as normal as bis can get and is still some glorious, nerdy electro-pop rock.
The appearance of Data Panik is distinct and neat. With matching uniforms for their, probably very Slime City-esque, tech company. Not only do they match their outfits but everything is distinctly grey, black and red. The band was visually appealing, which fittingly, is an incredibly nerdy appraisal.
(Steven’s stare in this photo is terrifying it kills me. Idek if he’ll read this but he looks like he trusted a fart that was not a fart)
Data Panik would have three physical releases.
Cubis (I Love You)/Sense Not Sense would release on 7” in April 2005, limited to 500 copies and the split single with Colonopenbracket came in 2006. The split was a picture disc featuring Control The Radical, and was also available on promo CD. The third physical Data Panik release was the CD promo of Rulers and The States.
Data Panik’s live history held roughly 25 gigs, the final at Mono in Glasgow on August 24th, 2006. The choice was made to make this the last after saying; if nothing happens in a year we’ll drop it. In a year no record labels contacted them and as if the Beastie boys started a pop side project, bis was still attached by association of three distinct voices.
In 2014 the Data Panik songs saw release as a compilation, the non-canonical bis album, Data Panik Etcetera. Data Panik Etcetera received RSD release in April 2014 on limited edition white vinyl.
Obviously, a great release. And the addition of Graham and Stuart is something that’s mega interesting to me. A handful of my favourite bis songs are on this record, but alas. I am a purist and very very glad bis never stayed split.
You can hear the changes, Data Panik was essential to letting bis exist after Return to Central.
