Ratner’s Star split in Paris; tour cancelled; ex-band members go to ground; reports that Foster Frantzen may go solo…NME's Nicky Blackmarket reports
[size=7]Ratner's Star, the ever changing and innovative British six piece art school rock experimenters turned quirky pop purveyors, have announced that after eight studio albums, two live albums, and twenty five singles over a long and productive career, that they are breaking up. The band had just recently released its eighth studio album Nude and was set to go on a world tour, but apparently there had been an unsettled atmosphere within the band for some time. While Nude had initially sold well, its critical reception has been muted, and the second and third week sales figures have been hugely disappointing. The chart performances of the two singles released from the album thus far, "Bland" and "(Nothing But) Wildlife", have also been much less than earlier singles, disappointing the members of the band who were unsure about the musical direction lead singer Jonathan Foster Frantzen was taking them. Frantzen has issued a separate statement announcing his intentions to go solo, and a close associate of his has said that Foster Frantzen has taken a private jet out of Paris to return to his private recording studio in teh bands native Winchester, England to continue recording.
A spokesperson for the band cited “Exhaustion, disillusionment with the music industry, and creative disagreements between singer/guitarist/lyricist Jonathan Foster Frantzen and the rest of the band” as the primary cause of the break-up. The bands forthcoming live appearances and promotional duties have all been scrapped, at incredibly short notice. The band was literally due to open the tour in Paris (where the current album was recorded) tomorrow evening, with the cancellation resulting in hundred and angry and disappointed fans as well as out of pocket promoters. The bands business managers have said that in order to clear outstanding studio bills and to afford compensation payments for the cancelled world tour, there will be two albums rush released to try and generate the extra revenue required. NME understands that these albums will most likely be a Best of collection and a compilation of re-mixes. To date, the band-who has never been on a major label and who run all of their business affairs themselves-has sold over twenty-eight million singles and twenty-seven million albums worldwide.
The bands origins were the south of England satellite commuter town of Winchester, and particularly its famous and much lauded school of art. It was here that six young students-Jonathan Foster Frantzen [Vocals/Lyrics/Guitar/Keyboards/Percussion], Alexei Wright [Bass Guitar], Mike James [Guitar], Daniel Byrne [Keyboards/Synths/Programming/Drum Machines/Samplers/Effects/Sound Manipulation], Jack Lee [Guitar/Backing Vocals], and David Nicholas [Drums/Drum Machines/Percussion]-first gathered together and jammed. Despite each member having their own distinct style and musical interests, somehow the musical chemistry was there, and within a few months the band had already written much of the material that would make up its first two studio albums.
Following their debut gig at the legendary Southampton venue the Joiners Arms, and the release of four singles independently, the band began trying to record its debut album. The initial press interest that the band received dried up very quickly, and despite trying to get signed up, the band grew impatient and decided to go it alone. Initial attempts at recording the album went awry fairly quickly, but eventually the band settled down and finished their self-titled debut within a fortnight. Recorded over a number of months in studios located in places as diverse as their own native Winchester and Southampton, London, Manchester, New York and the South of France, the ten track full length album was incredibly strong, cohesive and full of intent, but there was great scepticism among critics as to whether they could deliver the goods. Despite the bands relatively low critical standing and lack of exposure in the press the album Ratner's Star cracked the U.K. Top 20 and the U.S. Top 50, no mean feat fore a defiantly indie band with no major label marketing muscle behind them or a major hit single to their name.
The band’s first four singles had shown a gradual improvement in the bands commercial appeal, but nothing prepared them for the shock of their fifth single-the stand alone effort Point Omega-going Top 10 in the U.K. and nearly breaking the Top 40 in the United States. It was clear to the band that they could possibly be on the verge of a significant breakthrough, and they decided to record their second album with a manifesto of playing to the strengths of their first album while also going for a more commercial sound.
To record the second album, the band relocated at first to New York and then to Compass Point studios in the Caribbean, to infuse the already electic album with a funkier and more exotic flavour. The first single and preview of the second album, Inherent Vice, was in many ways one of the most commercial and listener friendly tracks the band had yet recorded…but, it wasn’t a significantly bigger hit, peaking at #9 in the U.K., just missing out on the Top 20 in America, and stiffing at the low end of the Top 75 in Europe where the band had anticipated it being a substantial hit. Inherent Vice was meant to be a quirky but accessible dance floor filler, but the DJ’s just refused to play it. The omens for the second album were not good, and the band decided to just pick the antithesis of a commercial hit for the follow-up single, I’ve Lost My Balls Inside My Computer.
Shell shocked and disappointed, the band had low expectations for the single and the album, resigning themselves to being a cult acts. However, then, the unexpected happened: the single got picked up by radio in the U.K. and America, and the music video channels on both sides of the Atlantic took up the bands low budget but endearing video with great enthusiasm. Released the same week as their second album Further Thoughts About Politics and Culture, the single shot to #2 in the U.K. and finally broke the band into the American Top 20. A guerrilla raid on the world’s charts with an anti-commercial rant against the indignity of office jobs had become on of the biggest and most subversive hits in years.
Their second album Further Thoughts on Politics and Culture was unexpectedly also a major commercial breakthrough in terms of chart success, and marked an early high watermark of success creatively, artistically and commercially for the band. Whereas the first album seemed to be somewhat vague in its lyrical themes, the new album saw the band writing big and expansive music to deal with numerous difficult and complex themes and subjects. The album peaked at #3 in the U.K. and #2 in the U.S.A. and contained one Top 20 U.K. single (Halfway House). However, in sales terms, the album only sold slightly more than the debut, and, despite several Birdies nominations, it failed to win much industry recognition at the awards ceremony. The bands subsequent world tour was well received, and exposed the band to more new musical influences that would become apparent on their next few records.
Buoyed by their partial breakthrough, but wary of selling out, the band did some initial jamming and improve work at small studios in Manchester, Cardiff, London and Southampton before deciding the sessions weren’t going well. The band was very burned out, and the mood was at an all time low-but they decided to carry on and turn the negativity into the emotion that would define their next album.
Subsequently, the band retreated to a rented loft space above a disused abattoir in New York, and began rehearsing and recording its third album. Fear of Modern Life was the band's third studio album, and is widely regarded as one of the bands very best. A colder, more emotionally fraught, and less accessible brew that the first two albums, Fear of Modern Life mixes the personal and the political, inner angst and collective fear in an urbanized world. The album peaked at #6 in the U.K. and the U.S.A and sold just shy of two million copies worldwide, suggesting that although the sale figures didn’t back it up, there was a market for this strange brand of “post-modern alienation you can dance to,” in the words of Foster Frantzen. Recorded with outside collaborators for the first time, the album showed that the band had bigger designs than just being a strictly set group set-up. The first single was the underground radical travelogue "Living Under Gunfire", which peaked at #16 in the U.K. and #12 in the U.S.A (probably the first ever disco inflected hit about geopolitics and terrorism to be a Top 20 hit single). The second single from the album was "Afterlife", a very different beast altogether: a slow, semi-acoustic meditation on death and life, it was surprisingly an even bigger hit than its disco inflected predecessor, peaking at #10 in the U.K. and #5 in the U.S.A., giving the band it's first taste of Top Ten singles chart action in America. A final single, the most avant-garde track on the record, the surreal percussion heavy Dada rant of “Play Ball” consolidated the success by reaching the Top 20.
The band subsequently embarked on the "Everything's So Normal It's Crazy" tour to promote the album, which took in North America, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The band went on the road with an expanded 18-person line-up, with additional instrumental augmentation provided by the contributors to the Fear of Modern Life album. The gigs often received rave notices, and the group have often said that this tour has been the very best they have ever been on.
Recording sessions for the band's fourth studio album in as many years, Stay in the Light, were done in Los Angeles, resulting in a combination of experimental weirdness and more upbeat music. Whereas the previous album was very much an urban record, with a feel of steel, enclosed space, concrete and crackling urban tension, the new album looked outwards towards the suburbs and into nature. One early description bandied around during recording that would encapsulate the feel was “organic, ethnographic, wilderness disco” The album was another unexpected commercial success, peaking at #4 in the U.K. and #5 in America, and was their biggest selling studio album up to that point, shifting over three million copies. The first single from the record was 'For Once in This Lifetime...', which in some ways was an atonement for the failure of “Inherent Vice” to be a dance floor smash with guts and brains: the single peaked at #5 in the U.K. and #15 in America largely due to a memorable video. The second and final single was 'Born into Chaos (The Madness Continues)', a raging percussive storm driving forward an incredibly organically funky and rhythmic melody that made the Top 10 in the U.K. and the U.S.
Next, the band compiled and released a stop-gap triple live album entitled "You Will Find This Band on...Ratner's Star", featuring recordings from the bands first five years playing live. This album was a surprising success, making the Top 30 or Top 20 in the charts of most territories and also selling over three million copies worldwide. Three singles were released featuring live cuts from this album, and were minor hits.
The band took a brief break before and prolonged writing and recording session that culminated with the release of its fifth studio album, Talking in Nonsense. This album, although commercially very successful, was seen as something of a transitional effort by the band, recycling many of the same tones, themes and musical flourishes of the previous album as opposed to moving the band forward. However, there was a greater degree of dance floor ready material on the record, which broke the band in dance clubs through a series of acclaimed remixes as well as the success of the singles in their original versions. Talking in Nonsense became another big seller internationally, selling over four million copies worldwide and reached the Top 10 of the albums chart in every worldwide territory. The album contains three big selling hit singles: "Tearing up the Road", "This Must Be the Tune (Happy Place)", and "Better Girlfriend".
After the release of Talking in Nonsense, the band embarked on what would turn out to be its last major world tour, taking its collaborators from Fear of Modern Life, Stay in the Light and Talking in Nonsense on the road once again on a year long jaunt to promote the new album. A live recording at a gig in Hollywood on this tour was used to produce a single disc live album of the 'Nonsense' tour, entitled Stop Talking Nonsense, which accompanied a little seen cult gig film of the band on the ‘Nonsense’ tour. From the new live album came one single, "Afterlife (Acoustic)", which unexpectedly reached #1 in Australia. The live album cemented the band commercial success and viability by reaching the Top 10 worldwide.
With Foster Frantzen feeling that the band had taken its musical experiments are far as they could go for the time being, a new focus and direction was sought, and the band eventually settled on trying to create an accessible but suitably alternative style of guitar pop that dealt with “…love, growing up, children, and blissful contentment despite all the things wrong in the world”. Instead of striving for musical weirdness that just happened to have a tune and some occasionally catchy lyrics, Frantzen insisted that the band work to make the music as tuneful and accessible as possible while he strived to make his lyrics in turn “friendlier”. Echo chambers, crazy guitar tunings, improvised percussion instruments and urban dread were out; sing along lyrics and melodies, accordions, lush arrangements, beat simple beat drumming and crystal clear guitar work were definitely in. Once again recorded in New York (but this time in the comfort of Sigma Sounds), the band's sixth album, Little Animals, fulfilled the mandate Frantzen set by finally earning them a much coveted U.K. and European #1 album slot (going Top #5 in all other territories) and a #1 American single in "So She Was" (which also got to #1 in South America, Asia and the worldwide charts). To date, it is their second highest selling LP, currently residing comfortably in the Top 100 bestsellers of all time. Despite the success, at this time tensions that had come to the fore initially on the tour to promote Stay in the Light began to have a detrimental effect upon the band, with a growing sense of frustration becoming obvious in the bands public appearances.
Keen to capitalise on the success of Little Animals, Frantzen insisted that the band once again quickly returned to the studio to work on unfinished ideas from the Little Animals sessions for a quick follow-up before Little Animals had even left the charts. Other band members were sceptical about the quality of the leftover material, but Frantzen was adamant and they reluctantly re-located to rural recording studios in Texas and Nevada to cut the album. Whereas Little Animals was a semi-concept record about maturing, families, domesticity and settling down, the lyrics for the new album seemed to be more about small-town Americana, twee, fey and wistful, lacking the big themes and ideas of the bands earlier work. After a quick eight-week recording session and a month long mix, the band released its seventh album, Real Stories, early the next year. Musically a continuation of the contemporary alt.pop template first seen on Little Animals but with a smaller and more intimate lyrical canvas, Real Stories was the sound of a band playing by numbers and a singer indulging his own ego to disastrous effect. On this album, the band attempted to create further radio friendly hits, but many have come to view the album as lacking the essential qualities that make the best Ratner's Star albums so successful. Perhaps because of that, although this album was intended to be as commercial as the bands previous effort, this has not translated thus far into equal or higher chart placing and sales.
The band took some much needed time off after the relative disappointment of Real Stories, but when they reconvened in Paris to record their eighth studio album, the writing was very clearly on the wall. Frantzen, who was stung that the album that had been mostly his design had failed to be a big hit, did an about face, blamed his band mates for not working in harmony with his grand vision, and demanded that the group try to appropriate the most commercial sounding current alternative bands music and adapt to the Ratner’s Star set up. The group grudgingly composed and created roughly sixteen instrumentals that were, by Ratner’s Star standards, incredibly basic and pedestrian: tracks featuring obvious touchstones of world music, Caribbean funk, the guitar pop of Little Animals, and the earthy organic disco of Stay in the Light but without the soul and belief were turned in. Frantzen composed and wrote his lyrics around the music, turning his attention back to the political, personal and environmental spheres of earlier albums-on several tracks you can more or less hear him vent his spleen while the band sound oddly laid back and relaxed. Nude, as the album was eventually titled-so named because for the band it was very stripped back and basic, lyrically and musically-made the Top 10 in every territory, reaching #1 in Europe and South America (narrowly missing out in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Asia). Neither of the singles released thus far have been as successful as earlier singles, and the album itself has very quickly dropped in the charts after peaking high.
There have been rumours for some time that Foster Frantzen has been clashing with his band mates, with Daniel Byrne often the most aggrieved as his role as “sound manipulator” and avant-garde ideas generator has been increasingly marginalized since Talking in Nonsense. While it could just be a temporary split after a long period of hard work, all signs suggest that the group is through. Foster Frantzen had recently been talking in interviews about the desire to find other creative outlets for his ideas, while Daniel Byrne has done some very low-key film and theatre soundtrack score work and Alexei Wright and David Nichols have occasionally gigged alone as a duo under the name Beat Box Gang.
Any further developments will be reported.[/siz
