For the uninitiated amongst you, Ant is the drummer in a really great band called Hefner (www.hefnet.com). I know the bass player in the band, John quite well and as a result got to know Ant. The second time I saw the band, I got talking to him. He told me that he had written some songs and released two 7 inches on Swedish labels. I asked him if I could hear some of his stuff.
I remember lying in bed listening to a rough tape that he had given to me. I remember thinking what a charming voice, and really getting into the lo-fi aspect of his recordings. It was all a bit of a departure for me, but I liked the stuff and decided to take a chance on it. Lucky for me I did. We made our first CD together, 'Cures For Broken Hearts' and for a while it was one of my best sellers. It's picked up some fantastic reviews and radio plays both here in the UK and Europe.
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Previous releases:
Latest extracts:
SAD TO SEE ITS MORNING
Compilation of A and B-side singles released in various countries - To be released in September 2004For those fans who have spent hours searching for that rare Ant 7inch, released somewhere in Europe, or looked for an exclusive song they heard on the radio a few years ago, your problems are over! Ant is about to release a compilation album covering his more obscure releases from 1999 up to the current day.
Since the demise of his band Hefner a few years ago, Ant has continued to forge his solo career, successfully accumulating an impressive back catalogue across a number of small independent labels in the UK and Europe. His releases have seen him appear on a selection of vinyl 7inches, compilations, CD albums and EP’s – some of which have now become collector’s items.
The new album, ‘Sad To See It’s Morning’, encapsulates the very best songs from these past releases and is being issued at last on the more user friendly and accessible CD format! This should please the appetite of the older fans, who have searched in vain for the deleted tracks and the younger generation, who no longer have the facilities to play 7inch singles! The 13 track album, ‘Sad To See It’s Morning’ also features an exclusive remix of 'I Always Hurt The One That I Love' by John Morrison of Hefner fame and a special live recording of the fans favourite 'You've Lost Your Appeal', which was a song featured on Ants best selling EP, ‘Cures For Broken Hearts’.
>> I HOPE YOU'LL ALWAYS BE THERE <<
FULL TRACKLISTING
1. Where Happiness Begins
2. Your Heart Got Bored
3. I Hope You’ll Always Be There
4. The Queue To Your Heart
5. I Always Hurt The One That I Love (The Machines Remix)
6. Breath My Name
7. The Trick
8. Easy
9. Not Sleeping The Same Way
10. That Shining Smile
11. Mountains
12. Pathway
13. You’ve Lost Your Appeal (Live)
MAGAZINE / INTERNET REVIEWS
Sad To See It’s Morning - Mojo
Previously only available on B-sides, comps and so-rare-even- Thurston Moore-doesn’t-own-a-copy, the baby-voiced Isle of Wighter (and ex-drummer with Hefner) gathers all his beautiful, acoustic (with the occasional plug-in) nuggets on one CD.
JB - Three Stars'Extraordinarily fragile songs.' - THE FLY
'Bittersweet acousto-pop.' -THE GUARDIAN
'Teary, acoustic loveliness.'
' Groovy, woodland glade melodicism.' - MELODY MAKER'His voice is sweet as icing sugar.'
' Scruffy, gorgeous notes to self.' - MOJO'A heartworn troubadour.'
' Ant’s lo-fi acoustics are heartfelt.' - NME
' Recommended listening, oh yes!' - NME.COM'A boy and his guitar.' - JOHN PEEL
'No place for the usual drummer jokes here then!' - Q
'Sings sensitive like a glass of strong water would lay him dead.' - SELECT
'One of those side projects more worthwhile than the day job.'
'A delicate little joy.' - TELETEXT'The sweet and melancholic sound of Ant.'
'Lovely, happy sad acoustic pop.'
'Sugar frosted heartbreak.'
'Sweetly moving, acoustic pop.' - TIME OUT'Charmed, ringing acoustic pop.' - UNCUT
Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
MOJO
Previously only available on B-sides, comps and so-rare-even-Thurston-Moore-doesn’t-own-a-copy, the baby voiced Isle Of Wighter (and ex-drummer with Hefner) gathers all his beautiful, acoustic (with the occasional plug in) nuggets on one CD. 3/5. JB - Oct 2004.
Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Record Collector
When drummer Anthony Harding found himself amidst the detritus of the break-up of his band Hefner, he laid down those sticks, picked up an acoustic guitar, and proceeded to scatter his own laid-back, sweet, charming, piquant pop gems around. Sad To See makes Ant¹s heartfelt ice cube melodies available, brought together for the first time from their original incarnations as limited edition 7” singles, compilation appearances and EPs. Ant’s close-mic vocals and stripped-down-to-the-skin guitar arrangements, in fact, carry inside them an everyman scruffiness that is sometimes fragile (Your Heart Got Bored), sometimes regretful (The Trick), but always tinged with hope. Not that his old band mates are left out ‹ John Morrison remixes I Always Hurt The One I Love here ‹ but generally it’s all about love, about communication and missed opportunity; and the result is an album of dizzy, delicate acoustic-pop that speaks with a soft intimacy that's extremely compelling.
3/5. Joe Shooman - October 2004Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Teletext
Since Indie-jazz irritants Hefner split, drummer Ant Harding has proved a surprisingly decent late night crooner in the vein of Richard Hawley. This rounds up assorted 7"-only singles, B-sides and other rarities and emphasises Ant's delicate beauty.Rescue these tender laments from obscurity, then investigate his regular albums. Because, while success might ruin his sumptuous melancholia, Ant is long overdue a chance of the bright lights.
7/10. John Earls - October 2004.Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Playlouder.com
A collection of singles, B-sides and rarities by one Antony Harding, Sad To See It’s Morning is wistfully simple, full of charm. ‘I’ll place a kiss upon your lips/ I won’t let it dry’ – there’s a sweetness to Harding’s lyricism that never quite plunges into the perilous pit of twee. This is a record for these shortening days, the wearing of a coat in the office, looking out over your runny nose to the mottled clouds and darkening sky days.
Luke Turner - September 2004.Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Noyz.co.uk
Former Hefner drummer Ant has pulled together an album of rarities, B-sides and singles from his brief but prolific solo career. Bittersweet leftfield pop, hung splendidly from wonderfully downbeat and lo-fi acoustics, this is a delicate and melancholic collection of torch songs that brim with the touching idiosyncrasies of the most resolutely English of songwriters. Magical stuff.
Matt Brown - October 2004.Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Is This Music? Magazine
Surprisingly good offering from Hefner drummer - Phil Collins had better watch out!
7/10. Sam Ashurst. Issue No 13 - Winter 2004.
Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
National Students Magazine and Defender Newspaper
Now does anyone remember Hefner? Yes/no (delete as appropriate). Hefner were a band. They were a British band and a good band, they were never huge but were fairly well known and they weren’t very fashionable. The ‘fashionable’ NME never really took much notice. Anyone who calls themselves a fan of indie music and has never heard ‘Hymn for the Cigarettes’ is a faker and probably dresses like one of the Strokes and needs a good slap - with a fish. Hefner made some wonderfully personal and broken-hearted indie pop songs about how screwed up relationships are (usually).Ant is Anthony Harding the drummer from Hefner. This album is a collection of singles, b-sides and compilation tracks spanning from 1999 to the present day, covering his more obscure releases. This is the sound of one man’s sugary sweet voice and his guitar, playing bitter-sweet pop - with the exception of the ‘I always hurt the one that I love’ remix, which throws in some charming electronic sounds which would make any Flaming Lips fan break out into a smile. It’s not offensive, you won’t listen to it and want to fill your aural canals with cement, but it won’t get your heart pounding. It is very good background music or something pleasant to listen to at night time when you’re all alone. It’s lo-fi acoustic music that will hold your hand, smile and wear thick and comfy jumpers with you in the winter.
James Sharpe - November 2004.Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Sounds XP Article
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. These are quite probably amongst Antony Harding’s favourite things. For those of you not familiar with him, Ant, as he prefers to be known, is quite probably the softest man in rock. Well, when I say rock I mean unfeasibly cute, soppy indie really. Once easily the best-looking member of undervalued geniuses Hefner, which in fairness is a bit like saying that Maggie Thatcher was the most evil prime minister in the 1980s, Ant has emerged from behind his drums often enough to donate a song or two to every tiny record label that asked nicely. Sadly for most of his fans these labels were all in far-flung corners of Europe (well, Spain and his adopted home of Sweden anyway). Now collected back together like an errant flock of fluffy sheep that had been lost sporadically over the past five years, these songs have been compiled and released over here. Ebay must be gutted. Within seconds it’s easy to see the difference between Ant solo material and that of his former charges. Where Hefner’s Darren Hayman’s lyrics so often revolved around dirty filthy sex, Ant’s tend to go no further on a first date than holding hands and, if lucky, a brief, magical snog at the end of the night. “I place a kiss upon your lips, and I won’t let it dry” he coos on opener Where Happiness Begins as a signpost of what’s to come. And what’s to come is utterly gorgeous and completely heartbreaking in turns, often within the same song. Easy has a gently reverberating thrum that gives way to a sad, graceful violin in the chorus as our protagonist tries to cling to the last vestiges of a doomed relationship whilst the obligatory new number, Pathway, would be the saddest of this or any year had *that* Streets song not come along. I don’t think I need tell you how pretty tunes called The Queue To Your Heart and That Shining Smile are. It’s not all achingly fragile though. I Hope You’ll Always Be There owes a huge debt to Orange Juice with its staccato jangle rendering it shockingly close to, erm, funky and I Always Hurt The One That I Love is given a Schneider TM-style synth makeover by former band mate John Morrison.Everything he releases may be trying in vain to match the perfection of his ‘Cures For Broken Hearts’ EP but thank god Ant’s still making music as welcome at this time of year as warm woollen mittens. ‘Sad To See It’s Morning’ should be one of your favourite things this autumn.
James S - Oct 12, 2004Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Pennyblackmusic.com
Ant is the now full time project of former Hefner drummer Antony Harding. While in Hefner the bulk of the songs, which were written by Darren Hayman, were about bed-sits and seedy sex. Ant’s world view is much more romantic and caring. Ant’s girlfriend, whom many of the songs are about, is lovely and Swedish.Sad To See It’s Morning is a collection of B-sides, lost out-of-print singles and compilation tracks, all delivered with the grace of a love sick Leonard Cohen. Ant’s instrument of choice is a classical guitar which he plays in an unorthodox fashion as he plays chords on it rather than strums it. Ant’s vocal is not the best in the world, but that’s much the point really. The delivery of the songs is very twee and sweet, a style I normally hate, but as Ant takes it back to Cohen’s original style, this is more than forgivable.
Anthony Strutt.Ant - Sad To See It’s Morning
Groove Magazine
Myself, I’ve never really cared for this Hefner drummer’s solo project. Despite the fact that lately Antony Harding has played quite a lot in Malmö, I’ve never been sufficiently drawn to it. I saw the Ant on a sunny Emmaboda stage some years ago and didn’t enjoy it as much, for example, as Hefner’s concert at the same festival the year before.Sad To See It’s Morning is a compilation with singles, B-sides, and songs from compilation records. I don’t know if this album gives a fair picture of Ant, but I presume it does. Despite the fact that I have given this record both empathy and sympathy time, it doesn’t want to stick, except it just runs away from me as if I was wearing a coat made of Teflon.
But Ant has a dead good attitude to music and the simple production is reminiscent of Hefner. Ant’s songs are unpretentious and I understand that there are those who exist who fall head over heels even if I don’t really fit into this category.
Sure it’s unfair to compare Ant with Hefner but Sad To See It’s Morning doesn’t reach the same heights as Hefner’s masterpieces, Breaking God’s Heart and The Fidelity Wars.
Johan Joelsson. Sept 2004 (Sweden).
