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'Danger Of Deaf' - Career highlights from habitual lowlifes.
"Breathe deeply and you can almost smell the beer,vomit and mild terror.In and attempt to capture the chaos
of the Ten Benson live experience,the band have re-recorded their favourite songs in blood-and-spittle,
one-take style. Cue songs about tits, war and Christmas, sung with abandonment like a junkie in a stairwell.
They sound as fresh as a rotting cadaver, but you'd expect nothing less from a band who've consistantly tried
to confound. So 'Black Snow' and 'Robot Tourist' get reinjected with sleaze, and they lurch from fetid disco-punk
to gurning rockabilly to AC/DC with a severe personality disorder. Intriguing, perplexing and slightly scary.
This summer,Ten Benson undertake their first American Tour. God only knows what they'll make of them." |
NME 24/05/03
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'Danger Of Deaf' Must Destroy
"Growl-toned Chris Tekkam once again leads quirk-rock individualists Ten Benson into a world of music populated
by no other. Through several twists, turns and band members they've now evolved into a menacing horde of thundering
rockers, but, luckily without losing their off-kilter twist. With the dual thrust of a twin rock-a-boogie guitar attack,
a spritzing of keyboards and the slyly darkhumoured lyrics this is a rock album in a chart of its own." |
THE SUNDAY MAIL
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'Danger Of Deaf' Must Destroy
"As chaotic as a twister in a trailer park, Ten Benson punch AC/DC riffing onto white trash country to make a dirty
noir wattage. This is a collection of their most crowd-pleasing tunes,re-recorded in one take. It makes for wonderful,
pulsing rock,and reinterprets earlier gems into the muscular,noise frenzy of their live shows." |
THE INDEPENDANT
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'Danger Of Deaf' - The gnarliest band in Britain refuse to go away.
"If bands were sex then the emo hordes would offer a gentle caress
and burst into tears at climax. The Red Hot Chili Peppers would be a highly dexterous jungle-f**k, and Ten Benson would be
a one-off knee-trembler down a town centre alley reeking of rat-piss and beer. Sleaze-drenched and sneering, 'Danger Of Deaf'
is basically a reworking of previous Benson moments recorded in one cheap take and is consequently closer to the overblown
chaos of the band's live shows than anything else they've put out. Subtleties (such as they were) are drowned in a wash of
tongue-in-cheek rock posturing, with every song sounding like a cross between Zodiac Mindwarp and AC/DC fronted by a mad old
tramp. And yes, that is a very good thing." |
KERRANG - PAUL TRAVERS
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'Danger Of Deaf' Must Destroy
"They're a rum bunch Ten Benson. They sing, as far as it's possible to tell, about robots, global death, dodgy sex and
breasts. On 'Rock Cottage', Chris Teckkam growls: "Rock cottage! High wattage! Mmmmmm, hot sausage!" Those who have even a
passing interest in feminism should probably steer clear of the track 'Tits'. To give the band a little credit, though, these
lyrics are steeped in the tongue-in-cheek camp sexism of The Cramps and AC/DC that has always been a staple of rock music, rather
than the moronic misogyny-posing-as-humour of The Macc Lads. What else does Danger Of Deaf have to offer apart from idiotic lyrics,
though? Well, after picking their favourite tracks and recording them in one take, Ten Benson have sneaked out a live album of sorts.
And it sees them taking on the role of a stripped down, fuzzed-up Black Sabbath to The Darkness' AC/DC. Which is, of course, a
great thing." |
BANG - JOHN DORAN
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'Danger Of Deaf' - Veteran disgustarinos re-record their greatest tits. Sorry, hits.
"Ten Benson treat
rock 'n' roll like it's something nasty they found in the bottom of a skip, a grimy, mysteriously
stained artefact that they might, with a bit of luck, be able to trade for cash, sex or illicit fun.
Here, 11 enduring tracks from their illustrious career have been re-recorded, all the better to sound
like men who have spent a feral childhood in ZZ Top's beards. The seedy likes of Tits, Sweat Pt 1 & 2
and the child-frightening Christmas song Black Snow are as greasy as you'd expect from stubbled Englishmen
pretending to be sweating in a Texas fry shack, and while songs like Rock Cottage ("Mmmm, high wattage/Mmmm,
hot sausage") should clearly be taken with a pinch of salt, not to mention disinfectant, their filthy
allure is undeniable." |
MOJO - Victoria Segal
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'Danger Of Deaf' Must Destroy
"Growl-toned Chris Teckkam once again leads quirk-rock individualists Ten Benson into a world of
music populated by no other. Through several twists, turns and band members they've now evolved
into a menacing horde of thundering rockers, but luckily without losing their off-kilter twist.
With the dual thrust of a twin rock-a-boogie guitar attack, a spritzing of keyboards and the slyly
dark-humoured lyrics this is a rock album in a chart of its own." |
Mail on Sunday
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'Satan Kidney Pie' Art Rocker
"We deal with things no one else wants to go near," says Ten Benson
leader CHris Teckkam, "I mean, I wrote Satan Kidney Pie (Artrocker) after reading
Dennis Wheatley - we wore black string vests as a nod to him." Goodness knows what
the writer of such devilish pot-boliers as Shafts Of Fear would have made of Ten
Benson; adopting the look of Deep South trailer dwellers (long before that look hit
trendy Hoxton), theirs is a funny/scary sound of hard, heavy riffing given extra
zing by country and electronics. Formed in east London in 1997, they're onto a third
album, Danger Of Deaf (Must Destroy) which presents big-bottom re-recordings of
their nearly-hits. They threaten more symphonic stadium sounds on their next album,
with Bitch City already in the can. |
MOJO - Ian Harrison
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'Satan Kidney Pie' Art Rocker
"Pitch-black, decidedly demonic, utterly fucktastic, rawk beast - the spawn of AC/DC, ZZ Top and Melvins
ground out in taut, untouchably cool, monster riffs with awesome muscle-power and much humour. 'Dark Forces'
opens and does exactly what it says on the tin - if you're not immediately gagging to play it three times
over at max volume, you're clearly dead. Rock as it was meant to be (steam)rolled." |
TIME OUT June 5-12 2002
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| "Second album from the UK's finest sarcastic mock-rockers EVERYTHING ABOUT Ten Benson sounds ironic.
From the pseudo-occult imagery employed throughout to the way opening track 'Dark Forces' sounds like Steve
Albini's Big Black playing AC/DC covers with a wry, knowing smile rather than the full-on, crotch-grabbing
assault of old, Ten Benson obviously take a perverse delight in turning rock tradition on its head.
Mixing a swamp-blues swagger with the dry, robotic grind of Kraftwerk and the demented punk-psychedelia
of the Butthole Surfers,'Satan Kidney Pie' finds Ten Benson perfecting a sound that they can truly call
their own. They are, without doubt, one of the UK's more original rock bands. Grab yourself a slice of their
silly satanic pie, pronto!" |
KERRANG
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"Satan Kidney Pie is a bad-ass QOTSA record as interpreted by an AC/DC cover act fronted by a
dying cowboy. Monolithic guitar riffs do battle with Chris Teckkam's parched roar as the mighty Benson do
their nihilistic tango over Black Sabbath's grave. No-one else is doing this sort of music - no-one else
would want to - but Ten Benson remain our premier death-rattle rock caberet act. Brilliant and extremely stupid." |
NME June 15 2002
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Satan Kidney Pie "From the stop-start guitar intro of opener Dark Forces it's clear that
Chris Teckkam's Ten Benson remain as brazen as on 2000's Hiss. Subtlety, scruples and musical finesse
are all bent to their iron rock will. This approach makes the band ideal figureheads for a stylised
greaser rock revival, mixing AC/DC with the kind of conceptualised take on rock heritage employed by
Earl Brutus. The heads-down redneck racket is loaded with knowingly trashy lyrics. The dumb metal
assault is leavened by the hillbilly-ish Nobody's Wife with its intricate synth-banjo plucking.
Riotously enjoyable." |
Q MAGAZINE July 2002
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| "London rockers Ten Benson are an unusual proposition ''Dark Forces' opens this a album (which
has one of the best titles I've seen in ages), and thunderously signals the sound of a band intent on
classic heavy rock a la AC/DC. The next track 'One Way Ticket' does nothing to change that fact, but
what does emerge is a lyrical kinship with the black humour of Killdrozer or Ween. This becomes more
evident with the grinding country bumpkin of a song 'Nobody's Wife' or on 'Sweat Pt.3', with which anyone
familiar with Ween's 'The Pod' will feel immediately at home. They are not a band to discover after
nightfall, because something evil is lurking in their minds. Clearly they are having fun, but at whose
expense? There is an inherent challenge in every song. Face value - you can take it or leave it.
Dig a bit deeper and then it's all in your mind. If you love your pies, then have a taste." |
ROCK SOUND July 2002
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"Almost from nowhere Ten Benson thunder into earshot with a tremendously weighty album. These
unsung riff-rockers twist through realms of metal with quirkiness set at eleven. Thrashing guitars
and spookily rustic vocals, insecurity and distant yet forceful lyrics. 'Come Home To Me' is the
sound of pure evil in its most eerie form, disturbing-nice. Lazy comparison: AC/DC and Thin Lizy.
If these are your gods you'll be far from disappointed." |
FLUX July 2002
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Satan Kidney Pie "Now this is what we're talking about. Dirty, bluesy, rock back-to-basics
Ten Benson (surely it should be Ten Marlboro Light?) strip it so far back they make Papa Roach look like
Genesis. Think the bastard offspring of Dr Feelgood and AC/DC and you won't be far off. And if that
wasn't perfect enough, the third track is called Tits - and you can't say fairer than that." |
DAILY EXPRESS Fri June 14 2002
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Satan Kidney Pie "With this real corker of a set, Chris Teckkam's decidedly-odd,
East London-based quartet (who possess one of the greatest rock 'n' roll band names since Bad Dress Sense)
have belatedly followed-up their debut album of 2000, Hiss. In the current (Hives and White Stripes-accepting)
musical climate, the 'Benson - who look like out-of-work garage attendants and sound akin to an amalgamation
of prime AC/DC and The Glitter Band plus some deranged backwoods preacher - should be drawing fans like flies.
The tracks contained on this stoopidly-titled album's first double A-side single, One Way Ticket b/w The
Loozin' Line, are both featured here. Amazingly, they're only two of the nine good reasons included on this
waxing as to why you should love the 'Benson without reserve. Basically, Ten Benson are a different breed of band
from the indie drones which are clogging up the cistern of the UK's music scene and they're here to grab that
chain and give it a ruddy good flush." |
YAHOO! MUSIC July 2002
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| "A sneering, nasty, booze addled lash of gritty rifforama, Ten Benson are as
ugly as a bevy of Lemmy-faced hags pole dancing for a lunchtime crowd
of deformed dwarves... " |
SLEAZENATION June 2002
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| "Following the release of McLusky's superb album a few weeks ago, it's good to see the lunatic fringe
of British Rock get another boost with this addictive slab of wierdness: dirty guitars sounding like AC/DC played
through the cheapest radio, voices of a Devo bent and a Johnny Cash swagger all meld together intriguingly well." |
'One Way Ticket' Single of the Week - Independent 20-26th April
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| "And so, 15 months after The Great Strokes Explosion, a wire finally reaches the deserted gas station
in Sisterfuck, Arizona where Ten Benson always looked like they lived: "raw-arsed-rock'n'roll back! Stop. Return
immediately with your hoariest AC/DC riffs. Stop. No novelty twaddle about claws this time. Stop." Hence the
timely arrival of 'One Way Ticket', astutely sounding like the White Stripes trying to eat a hitch-hiker's thigh
on a rollercoaster. Or a listenable Moldy Peaches. (MB)" |
NME single review of 'One Way Ticket' - 27th April
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| "They are a thunderous, sprawling, joyous, genius, near mess of heavy rock, country, swamp blues and punk,
a loose and unlikely amalgam of AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Johnny Cash, The Cramps and The Fall bound together with the
gaffa of wry humour, self-awareness and the determination to have a bloody great time...Forthcoming single
'Black Snow' is a rifftastic, rough-arsed riot of chugging, punch-drunk guitars." |
Time Out
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| "Ten Benson definitely seem like the embodiment of the unhinged outsider-men with laundry issues.
Men with blocked drains. Men who, for no apparent reason, suddenly decide to build themselves a patio in the
middle of the night." |
NME
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| "Ten Benson are a strange commodity. Everyone on the session adores them, but it's rather like getting
a joke no one else does. No matter how we try and explain it, many people simply stare blankly at their homemade
no-fi sounds. And the more people look confused, the more we love them." |
BBC Online - Radio 1 - Alternative Review of 1999
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| I Don't Buy It - "A filthy, half-eaten pop song that seems to have been gnawed by urban foxes before
10B pulled it out of the rubbish, gave it a wipe down and decided it would still work fine." |
Victoria Segal/NME
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| "So perfectly shit it's shittily perfect in a shit/perfection interface scenario." |
Melody Maker
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| Hiss - "Opener 'Robot Tourist' sets the tone, with gasoline-guzzling Sabbath riffs and Glitter
Band drums binding up the vocoder'd tale of an alien outsider." |
Select
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| "An obscene feast of dirty bastard riffage. Filth, squalor, bad, bad men:
pretty much an irresistible package" |
Mojo
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| "Now we're playing Ten Benson mixed with Boyzone people seem to go for it." |
Marc "Lard" Riley - BBC Radio 1 (NME Jan 99)
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