A Short Musical Biography
Peter John Ashby is an English multi-instrumentalist and composer,
In 1977 he formed Frenzid Melon with Barry Lamb when they were just young teenagers. Frenzid Melon released several diy cassette albums between 1977 – 1981 which earned them a local cult reputation as an enthusiastic ensemble with a loose style containing elements of avant / psych / punk and prog and they attracted the attention of Virgin records in 1978. Ashby was also a founder member of Spasmodic Caress during this period and he spent some two years with them touring and recording, the pinnacle being a short spell on 4ad records.
He left Spasmodic Caress at the beginning of 1982 to reconvene working with Barry Lamb and with the addition of Owen Turley saw Frenzid Melon evolve into the insane picnic who’s edgy mix of post punk, experimental and Doors influences thrived in the post punk, winter of discontent environment and were critically acclaimed in the fanzines and mainstream music press. Ian Pye (Melody Maker) wrote of their debut e.p. Four days in April in 1982; "A twisted cross between Echo & the bunnymen and The Fall, the Insane Picnic succeed where most others fail by creating an atmosphere that may not be totally unique but is at least threateningly distanced from the obvious possibilities."
In 1983 Ashby released his first solo album “The Science Project”. Ashby’s solo work has often been more experimental in nature than some of the band’s that he has worked with but he has explored many styles and his work is eclectic and non-constrained by any particular genre.
Ashby’s roots may lay deep in the early 80's cassette culture but he has been influenced by everything from Zappa through jazz, heavy rock and psych, all the way to British folk music, Debussy, Ravel, avant garde and musique concrète each of which is evident in his solo releases.
Interesting fact: Peter bought his first portastudio second hand from Martin Newell, who was a major influence on his diy attitude.
Sometimes Ashby’s music has been accused of lacking identity and though it is difficult to give a generic description to his music, it is best heard as an audio aesthetic experience that is expressive and observant to the context it is placed in. Commonalities in his music and approach are a very distinctive guitar and piano style and a quintessentially English voice that would fit neatly with the Canterbury scene of the late 60’s & early 70’s.
In recent years Ashby has been involved in a diverse range of projects including contributing to the highly acclaimed album “The Pillory / The Battle” by Jasun Martz (ex- Frank Zappa & Michael Jackson), working with Keith Levene (ex-PiL), producing Barry Lamb’s solo albums, recording with Hilda Garman and hip hop artist Tor Cesay. Ashby continues to deliver a prolific output of his own work and other projects that he is involved with.
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