Napoleon

NAPOLEON

In the early 1800s Napoleon marched across Europe. A couple of hundred years later a different Napoleon traversed from Nottingham to Ireland and set about a very different type of mission.
Far from a crusading conqueror the modern day Napoleon in question is Simon Mills, a man who spent the majority of the first 00s decade as the diminutive (and occasionally colourfully coiffured) half of Bent, Mills built up a musical portfolio that graced everywhere from Eastenders' Queen Vic to the acropolis in Athens and featured cameos from members of Faithless, Simian and The Beloved, not to mention a multitude of revived songstresses from crackly charity shop records.
Now marching out alone under his new Napoleon moniker, Mills' new sound is more akin to the world of bleep driven club of Manhattan rather than the rural trappings of the Irish coast.
As Bent's own sound developed from much lauded down-tempo artists to their final swan vitriolic sonic bow, 'Intercept!', so too did Mills' personal DJ style. While his earlier outings on the decks reflected his diverse taste in music and penchant for late 70s and 80s nuggets, his focus begun to fix on a slew of disco-inspired house records from the likes of Daniel Wang and Metro Area – from these foundations the blueprint for Napoleon started to emerge.
While the gurgling warped opening of 'Destiny' hints of possible twisted music box folk, it's follower '1973, 1975' sparks the affair into life with a sparky canon of bleeps and beats. Elsewhere balearic siren song breezes through on 'Love of a lifetime' and a cheeky mash-up of 1930s swing and juicy early house morphs together in 'Jazz Steps'.
He came, he saw, he conquered.