
Released 24th September 2001; 2 CD version released 4th July 2011.
In their relatively brief lifetime, between 1996 and 2002, Hefner enjoyed an incredibly productive four-album, multi-EP career. Their beautiful, concise, intelligent songs earned a fiercely loyal, cult audience and the long-term support of legendary DJ John Peel, for whom they recorded innumerable sessions.
Originally released in 2001, their final album, Dead Media , found Hefner reaching out and taking risks. Keen to break free of their indie-folk roots, they cocooned themselves in a home studio with
broken analogue synthesizers, antique drum machines and battery-powered amplifiers. The band’s naivety and guile produced some curiously engaging music, with frontman Darren Hayman’s precise, economic, poetic dissections of quotidian romance draped over awkward, fuzzy beats: something like Cat Stevens covering Warm Leatherette.
Dead Media caused confusion at the time and ultimately lead to the band’s break up. However, songs like ‘Junk’, ‘The Nights Are Long’ and ‘When The Angels Play Their Drum Machines’ are among Hayman’s most adult and affecting essays and stand out among the finest of Hefner’s achievements.
This two-disk reissue tells the full story of Hefner’s valedictory folly, with a hefty 20 extra tracks including the complete ‘Hefner Brain’ EP, B-sides, live tracks, unreleased songs and an exclusive, unreleased remix by electronic music pioneer Daniel Miller (composer of the aforementioned ‘Warm Leatherette’).
Review from http://soundsxp.com/
Article written by Paul M – Jun 12, 2011

Buy Dead Media on 2CD
We also have limited stock of the original Dead Media CD release
Or buy the download from Bandcamp
Dead Media – Singles
Half A Life
Originally released 21st January 2001
Released as a split single with Murry The Hump’s ‘The House That Used To Be A Ship’, the home-recorded ‘Half A Life’ is one of only two Hefner songs to feature Jack Hayter as a lead vocalist, and marks a turn towards the more electronic style which would define Dead Media.
Alan Bean – 2CD/7-inch
Originally released 27th August 2001
A song about the fourth man to walk on the moon (‘the Ringo Starr of astronauts’, as Darren puts it), ‘Alan Bean’ was released on 2CDs with the b-sides ‘Horror Show’ (intended ‘to sound a bit like Missy Elliot’s “Supa Dupa Fly”’, claims Darren), ‘A Better Man’, ‘Just Take Care’, and ‘Charlie Girl’ (with a drum loop ‘sampled from someone so incredibly famous I couldn’t possibly mention’). The 7-inch includes two remixes by Rothko and Munit.
Buy Alan Bean CD-1
Buy Alan Bean CD-2
Buy Alan Bean on 7-inch
Trouble Kid
Originally released 22nd October 2001
‘Trouble Kid’ was released on 7-inch and promo-only CD, and featured two remixes of the single as b-sides: Darren’s own Battersea remix, and Appliance’s Maproom remix.
Buy Trouble Kid on 7-inch
Dead Media – Related records
The Hefner Brain
Originally released 25th February 2002 on Too Pure.
Representing the last official Hefner release, The Hefner Brain was a 5-track EP released on CD and 10” vinyl. Tracks include the Mothership mix of ‘When The Angels Play Their Drum Machines’ (which Darren considers better than the album version), the ‘last great Hefner songs’ ‘Dark Hearted Discos’ and ‘The Baggage Reclaim Song’ (the latter of which marks the last time all four band members played on the same track), and ‘Can’t Help Losing You’.