''New Art Riot E.P.'' is an EP by Welsh

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Wales, Welsh Rock music, rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, in 1986. The band consists of Nicky Wire (bass guitar, lyrics) and cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, le ...

, released on 25 June 1990 by Damaged Goods. It was the band's first release to feature the four-piece line-up of

James Dean Bradfield James Dean Bradfield (born 21 February 1969) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He is known for being the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. His cousin Sean Moore is a ...

Nicky Wire Nicholas Allen Jones (born 20 January 1969), known as Nicky Wire, is a Welsh musician, best known as lyricist, bassist and secondary vocalist of the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. Prior to the group, Wire studied politics ...

Richey Edwards Richard James Edwards (22 December 1967 – disappeared 1 February 1995, declared dead 24 November 2008), also known as Richey James or Richey Manic, was a Welsh musician who was the lyricist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band ...

and Sean Moore. Featuring short, fast-paced hard rock songs and influenced by favourites of the group such as

The Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

, the EP provided the musical template for the band of what was to come.

Background

On the synthesis behind the record's creation, lyricist and

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

ist

stated: "We've just got pissed off with seeing so much ugliness about. Everybody knows life is ugly, but it seems to me all bands around today want to do is reflect it".

Recording

''New Art Riot'' was recorded in March 1990 at Workshop Studios in

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, England. It was produced by Robin Wynn Evans of

The View ''The View'' is an American talk show created by broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. , in its 28th season, the show has aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC as part of the network's ABC Daytime, daytime programming block since August ...

, Sam Brown and

Dodgy Dodgy are an English rock band formed in Hounslow in 1990. The band rose to prominence during the Britpop era of the 1990s. They are best known for their hits "Staying Out for the Summer", "If You're Thinking of Me", and " Good Enough". "Go ...

fame. When Edwards asked for the sound of a guitar smashing to be added to one of the tracks, Evans replied "smash your guitar then!" The dismembered neck of the guitar was then signed by the band and Evans, and was used as a doorstop at his

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

T Pot studio.

Release and reception

''New Art Riot'' was released on 25 June 1990 as a limited edition

12" vinyl The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compar ...

of 3,000 copies by record label Damaged Goods. The release led to a reasonable amount of media coverage on the band. ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' qualified the EP as Single of the Week. The promotional video for the song "Strip It Down" features the band wearing spray-stencil slogans on their shirts, Bradfield sporting bleached blonde hair, performing in front of a psychedelic

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...

backdrop. ''New Art Riot'' has since been repressed and reissued on CD and vinyl, as well as being made available digitally. A live version of "New Art Riot" (titled "New Art Riot in E Minor") featured as a B-side on the band's later single "

Faster Faster or FASTER may refer to: Music * "Faster" (George Harrison song) * "Faster" (Matt Nathanson song) * "Faster" (Within Temptation song) * "Faster" (Manic Street Preachers song), a double A-side single by Manic Street Preachers * "Faster", ...

Track listing

Personnel

; Manic Street Preachers *

– vocals, guitar *

– guitar * Sean Moore – drums *

(as Nickey Wire) – bass guitar ; Technical personnel * Mark Tempest –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

References

External links

''New Art Riot''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) * {{Authority control 1990 debut EPs Manic Street Preachers EPs Punk rock albums by British artists