Crazy Penis

The funkiest house you ever did hear!

Whilst the name Crazy Penis immediately conjures up several a lame joke to those not strictly into house music (particularly when you know their first single was 'Summer Bummer'), for the hadz (geddit?) the name has always meant quality deep and funky disco house. Their album 'The Wicked Is Music' has caused a stir in Australia, scoring several spins and big attention from Triple J DJs as well as rave reviews across the country.

Crazy Penis started out as a duo made up of Jim Baron and Chris Todd. They met at Nottingham University where they were studying to further themselves, or rather, sitting around trying to make records. They did make a record called "digging deeper" and it was released on the UK musica vitae label, which was run by a friend of Jim's. The track received rave reviews from the likes of Ashley Beedle, The Murk Boys and Laurent Garnier, which encouraged Jim and Chris to continue with their compositions and begin looking further afield to a successful recording career.

The second project was the one that would start their association with the UK label Paperecordings, and included the track "Summer Bummer" which triggered an outstanding response internationally. This track relied on classic tones of Jim's trombone playing, a cheeky sample and an infectious house rhythm that set the ball rolling to the second EP "Baby We For Real" and their debut album.

Requests for live appearances started to come in and Jim and Chris realised they couldn't successfully recreate their sound live with just the two of them onstage, so new recruit Tim Davies was brought in. The result of this was the album "A Nice Hot Bath With", one of Paperecordings' biggest selling albums to date further proving the popularity of the band with brilliant worldwide sales.

Since the release of their debut album they have all been busy on different projects. Both Jim and Chris have been DJing in places such as Chicago, Istanbul and Huddersfield. Chris has been working on his solo project under the name "Hot Toddy" and he released his album "Super Magic" in September 2000 on Paperecordings. This too was well-received and proved Chris's ability to cut it alone.

Jim has also written some solo material, which will feature on Paperecordings sister label Repap under his new DJ alias Sir Ron Basejam.

2000 saw some changes within the band. They had usually been an instrumental band, but due to the influx of performance requests they thought a singer would add something special to their live show. And it did in the shape of Danielle Moore. Danielle is a local DJ from Manchester whose voice and name were well recognised for her Shirley Bassey impressions. Once approached by the members of Crazy Penis, Danielle stopped her covers work and started writing lyrics and melodies to past Crazy Penis tracks and working with them on their second album. Lastly percussionist Mav was thrown in to complete the live line up.

In 2000 they produced many remixes for Paperecordings and other labels such as Naked Music in San Francisco and Genoa in Italy. It has also seen more and more live gigs and DJ work for the band with an appearance in Genoa, Italy as part of the city's New Year celebrations.

With the new and complete band line-up of Jim and Chris, Danielle Moore on vocals, Tim Davies on bass and Mav on percussion Crazy Penis are beginning to make a real name for themselves on the live circuit.