steadily over the years and retains a reputation as a key album in post-rock and experimental rock circles. The Blue period — mutation, disintegration and split (mid-1994) In March 1994, 3rd Stone released a posthumous Bark Psychosis compilation album called Independency. This collected together the early Bark Psychosis singles and EPs on both Cheree and 3rd Stone, and included Scum in its entirety. Now reduced to a duo of Sutton and Simnett, Bark Psychosis went on to record the Blue EP, released in May 1994, and promoted with a UK tour, also featuring Gish. The title track was comparatively more upbeat than the band's work on Hex (and was apparently therapeutic for Sutton, who was allegedly getting over the demise of a "stormy personal relationship" at the time). Blue was also very strongly influenced by dance music, sounding closer to a New Order pop single than it did to the moody post-rock of previous releases. The EP also featured a Rudi Tambala remix of the Hex track "Big Shot" and (confusingly) a newly recorded track called "Hex", featuring three-and-a-half minutes of deafening noise textures eventually dissolving into ambient keyboards and trumpet, which was also recorded in St John's Church. The EP was mixed at Metropolis Studios in West London. Blue clearly revealed that Sutton's interest was now heading towards programmed and sequenced rhythms. By this stage he was asking Simnett to replicate jungle breakbeats at speed on his kit. Bark Psychosis performed at the Britronica Festival in April 1994 in Moscow alongside Seefeel, Autechre, Ultramarine and Aphex Twin. After this concert, an increasingly sidelined Simnett left the band. (Six years later, Simnett would resurface in the instrumental post-rock band Yellow6, playing drums for their two live concerts in 2000 and subsequently moving to bass for five concerts in 2001. He would also contribute to Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson's Incredible Expanding Mindfuck project.) Although Bark Psychosis never formally split up, Simnett's departure effectively ended the band, as Sutton had by now lost interest in experimental rock and become a full-scale convert to drum and bass music. In a 2001 interview, Sutton recalled, "By the end it was just me with Mark drumming and a nice pool of different people to draw upon. The last couple of tours we did in '94 I just loved. But by that point I knew I wanted to try something else." Later in the summer,