Family Bizarre - Freeka

The Family Bizarre was a short-lived Manchester-based group. The five-piece band was centred around A Certain Ratio's Jez Kerr on bass and vocals and Simon Wolstencroft who played drums for the Fall between 1986 and 1997. Its other members included Keo Martin on guitar and keyboards, Marc Hough also on keyboards and Lis Murphy on violin and backing vocals. The group formed under their original name of Carpe Diem in 2011 and toured with New Order last year, but announced their split on May 23rd, days after releasing 'Freeka', their download-only debut single. 'Freeka' combines together stubby electro beats; waspish funk guitars, echoing backing vocals from Murphy, and a typically abstract main vocal from Kerr about A Certain Ratio's first trip to New York in the early 80's, which culminated in him being told to turn his music down in the apartment he had been renting by his neighbour, 'Taxi Driver' and 'Mean Streets' star, Harvey Keitel. 'Freeka' captures the dislocation of being a stranger in a foreign land. Like all the best of both Kerr's and Wolstencroft's music, it is both offbeat and thick with distorted melody, as well as providing a glimpse into what turned out to be only a brief musical partnership.