After Brilliant Corners called it a day following a decade-long career, guitarist/vocalist Davey Woodward and bassist Christopher Galvin founded a new and arguably more striking group in the form of Experimental Pop Band. Initially founded as strictly a studio project, the band started to take on its own life as the two recruited other musicians to help on early singles in the mid-'90s. Originally named the South West Experimental Pop Band, initial press releases claimed the members as "New York dance lynchpins relocated to Patchway in Bristol by the CIA with their dog called Satan," though the truth came out shortly thereafter. The group's approach was a very English form of hip-hop filtered through multiple styles, eschewing smooth, radio-friendly touches for a generally rougher but still very appealing feel. Comparisons flew thick and fast to Beck, then reaching the height of his fame with Odelay, but Experimental Pop Band had their own particular way around things, as much indebted to the Fall as to Mantronix. Initial singles were compiled on Woof, while a full debut album, Discogrotesque, appeared in 1997. The following year a follow-up album, Homesick, was recorded and polished for release, but in a terrible turn of events Galvin fell terminally ill and died in December 1998 after its completion. Homesick appeared the following year, while Woodward took some time off, returning in 2001 on the German-based City Slang label with a new lineup and a new album, The Tracksuit Trilogy. ~ Ned Raggett