Cold Clockwork Doll (lost production material of cancelled Babylon Zoo album; 2005)

Babylon Zoo's main member, Jas Mann.

Status: Lost

Cold Clockwork Doll is the confirmed working title of Babylon Zoo's third album. It was supposed to be released in 2005, according to Jas Mann. Mann was the band's main and possibly only official member during the majority of the band's existence and he revealed more about the album and the plans he had for it during Q&A sessions and a few announcements on the Babylon Zoo fan forum, which is now archived.^[1]

During one of these Q&A's or announcements, Mann alledgedly invited fans to send over random words, which he, as form of a challenge, was supposed to all include on the album.

Babylon Zoo's main claim to fame was the single "Spaceman," which got used in the 1990s for a Levi's ad and because of it got hugely popular, even entering the UK Singles Top 40 at number 1 and staying there for 5 weeks.^[2] The song was mainly (in)famous for having a heavily sped up intro and outro, leaving a real debate whether the original version, which didn't have this, was better. Other releases by the band kept charting lower and lower, with other singles from their first album not being remembered much either. Because of this and the fact they never had a second top 40 single anywhere but the UK, Babylon Zoo are seen as one hit wonders.

Availability

A lack of updates has lead fans to assume the album eventually had gotten cancelled or failed to find a distributor label. Mann reportedly had a label of his own, Hub Records, which got mentioned on the fan forum. Only one official release ever appeared through it though, a 3 track album/EP, by an act called Mariachi Static, which featured Jas Mann too. These tracks are still available for free streaming and downloading on the Babylon Zoo website.^[3]

Hub Records was at one point reported to have gone bankrupt, without an official statement on this situation being able to be found though. In addition, no songs have surfaced since then, causing fans to give up all hope on a new record getting released. Mann has since then focused on other projects, which include a film (called The Whisperers) which never got released and possible never got fully into production and some other movie related projects, sometimes under the name of Jasbinder Singh.

Another mystery surrounding Babylon Zoo songs which could possibly overlap with the Cold Clockwork Doll album originates from some (promo) copies of the CD single "All The Money's Gone," the first and only official single from the band's second album King Kong Groover. Some copies of this single came with a note which mentioned that Jas Mann at the time had alledgedly cut off the world for nearly half a year and wrote between 50 and 60 new songs. On King Kong Groover, 10 songs appear, one of which being a cover. The "All The Money's Gone" single had no original b-sides (the song "Chrome Invader" which appears on a few issues of the single also is present on the second album) and there's pretty much nothing else known about these other songs, except that they are supposedly written between the release of the band's first and second album.

The only new material released by the band after the King Kong Groover album got released in February 1999, is that an online promo single was given free for streaming and download in the year 2000 on the band's website, released in a similar fashion to the Mariachi Static songs. The page for the song, called "Love Lies Bleeding," marks it as not being assigned to any album and just being an internet release.^[4]

Gallery

The single cover for Babylon Zoo's hit "Spaceman."
The back of the "All The Money's Gone" single, with a promotional use only sticker and the note which seems to confirm the existence of a lot of songs never released.