Pop Levi

Conceived in a London hospital and born to a Jewish doctor and Gentile nurse, Pop Levi has led what one might call a "melodic" life. He began studying piano at 3, joined a gospel choir at 7, started collecting records at 9 and, soon after, wrote his first song, "Through The Window Of My Life". Although he quickly became a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Levi went unnoticed by the music business for many years. A move to Liverpool in 1997 saw Levi enter a prolonged period of bread-line living where he set up a commune with Snap Ant and Karl Webb. Whilst sharing a large dilapidated Victorian house with these and other like-minded artists, he founded the avant-garde post-rock group Super Numeri. Early recordings of the band found their way to London and in 2002, having been employed both as an ice cream van driver and as a hair model, Levi found himself signed to fabled label Ninja Tune Recordings with Super Numeri. The debut single "The Electric Horse Garden" won wide-spread critical acclaim and the subsequent album "Great Aviaries" and EP "The Coastal Bird Scene" quickly became regarded as modern underground classics.

Hot on the heels of relative success, Levi was appproached by Danny Hunt of Ladytron to join the band on bass guitar for their upcoming World Tour. He duly accepted and spent 2003-4 flying from show to show whilst writing and recording material for his planned "Foxwatch" LP, to be released on Hunt's Invicta Hi-Fi label. Although "Foxwatch" remained unfinished, the first Pop Levi releases came from those sessions. The "Rude Kinda Love" single (and its accompanying controversial video) gained rave reviews and was placed #25 in the UK Indie Chart, whilst the follow-up Christmas release "Reindeer In My Heart" made its way to US radio stations.

Having become a British Embassador in China, performed in a Nazi fallout bunker in Germany, and been rendered penniless, topless and lost in Bulgaria, it was only a matter of time before Levi left Ladytron in search of solo success. As soon as touring ceased Levi went back to Liverpool and recruited his backing band. With his new-found performance skills he was able to quickly rise to the top of the live acts scene and began astounding audiences across the UK and the West Coast of America with soulfull vocal and guitar pyrotechnics that had not been seen in the Pop/Rock/Blues world since the late 1960s. Levi's electric performances had been inspired and fuelled by his insistance on playing every song to the public on Liverpool's streets until it was learned by heart.

During this period Levi, Ant & Webb reconvened to make the second Super Numeri album "The Welcome Table" and Levi briefly rejoined Ladytron to complete sessions for their new album "Witching Hour". Whereas many artists may refer to their "lost weekend", Levi makes claims to a "star-crossed weekend". It started whilst performing new song "Skip Ghetto" on the streets of Liverpool, when Levi became the victim of an unprovoked beating that left him permanently scarred. It ended with a rendition of "Directly From My Heart To You", given to him by Little Richard himself. These events sparked the inspiration behind Levi's next set of recordings. "Skip Ghetto" soon found its way onto the cult Japanese compilation album "The Enochian Way" and "Blue Honey", the third Pop Levi single on Invicta Hi-Fi, followed in October 2005.

Having had it ears to the ground since its inception, and with Levi wanting a world-wide release for his new material, Ninja Tune Recordings signed Levi for his debut solo album, "The Return To Form Black Magick Party" at the end of 2005, and were so impressed with the results they gave Levi his own imprint, Counter Records, to launch the record. A truly bizarre whirlwind of classic sounds, "The Return To Form Black Magick Party" has been described as a New-Wave fusion Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Carpenters, Marc Bolan, Marvin Gaye, Van Dyke Parks, Serge Gainsbourg, Prince, ABBA and John Lennon.

The album was recorded both in a disused warehouse and in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, and is presented in a sound-collage format made from over a decade of home recordings that falls somewhere between the tape experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Yoko Ono. The album includes both the power-dancefloor killer "Pick-Me-Up Uppercut" and "From The Day That You Were Born", an orchestra-soaked love song written for Levi's unconceived daughter.

Now living in an 1897 white wooden house in Los Angeles with his band, Pop Levi is starting to take over the west coast of the US in preparation for his forthcoming Blue Honey EP, Sugar Assault Me Now single, and ultimately the release of "The Return To Form Black Magick Party"