The Balky Mule is the alias of Sam Jones, a self-taught home recordist and song writer, who over the past decade or more has been a key member of the vibrant Bristol post-rock scene, contributing live or in-studio to numerous bands, including Movietone and CRESCENT (alongside his bandleader brother, Matt), Flying Saucer Attack, Minotaur Shock, and Third Eye Foundation. During this time the majority of his output under the name The Balky Mule had been CD-Rs on request and tapes swapped among friends, although he had also recorded a handful of remixes (of Pram and Vase tracks) and songs for compilations, including one of his first ever tracks making an appearance on FatCat’s 2001 compilation, ‘No watches. No maps’, which comprised material sent in to the label as demos.
The Balky Mule's debut self-titled CDR album was released in
a small (and hard to find)edition on his brother's Archipelago label in 2000,and is comprised of instrumental four-track cassette recordings featuring the strange harmonies of malfunctioning bootsale keyboards,manipulated tapes and 'saxacorder'(a cheap approximation of the more popular 'saxophone').
Self-recorded either side of a move between the UK and Australia, The Balky Mule’s last album ‘The Length of the Rail’ was released on FatCat in March 2009,and marks the fusion of his home recording techniques with his guitar based song writing.
For his first solo set back in 2000, Sam was booked to open for Pram at the legendary Cube Cinema in Bristol. In a worrying stroke of luck for a first gig, the venue burned down the night before, cancelling his debut. The Cube recovered from the damage and the show with Pram was later rescheduled, with a line-up extended to include his brother Matt and Kate from CRESCENT and Movietone. plotting a course between electronic instrumentals and acoustic songs, live shows in the years since have also featured the accompaniment of Tom Cops (of My Two Toms), Francois Marry (Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains), George McKenzie (Headfall, Fringes, Arctic Circle), Naoto Kawate (Maher Shalal Hash Baz),John Chantler,Peter Emptage, Kishore Ryan (Oto Uto) Matt Loveridge and Mike Lollipop Keane.
since Sams return from Australia in 2009,the Balky Mule has toured in the U.K.three times and continues to play occasional shows to the home crowd in Bristol.
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