Wud Records: February 2026 top ten published at SoundCloud

The February 2026 Chart

The top ten tracks for February 2026 from Wud Records have been published in a new compilation at SoundCloud.

We shall elaborate further below with regard to each platform where our music is represented.

Bandcamp Is Still the Best Platform for Artists

If you are not yet a member of Bandcamp, we strongly suggest you sign up, whether you are an indie label, a musician or a fan of music, or all three. Do it now! It’s free to join. Just click here. :)

For any independent artist or label wanting to sell music or merch, there is no better place on the web to do so. If you don’t believe us, check out any search engine to see what other artists have to say about what the best site is for independent artists and labels. Bandcamp are simply Numero Uno. Finito!

When you subscribe to a music streaming platform, you don’t actually *own* any of the music. You’re just renting a bit of bandwidth on their distribution service, and most of the rent revenue you are paying for it goes to big corporations rather than the artists you love. It’s a terrible business model, both for artists and fans alike.

Consider also this. There is always a danger that streaming services might remove music or artists from their platform (e.g. the recent dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok), or the platform may even cease to exist altogether. Remember VitaminIC, MySpace, FriendsReunited?

To avoid having the soundtracks to your life erased, we strongly recommend buying physical media and downloads so you can listen to your favourite songs whenever you wish. You know it makes sense!

Whilst several music platforms offer music downloads, they all charge a lot more and take a much bigger percentage of that higher price then Bandcamp does.

This means that you pay more, the band receives a lot less, and a big greedy corporation takes a big old chunk of the money you paid to support the artist all for itself, just because it can. It’s a lose-lose situation, unless you happen to be a big greedy corporation who can rip people off however the fancy takes them.

Buying music from Bandcamp will cost you less and support the artist more. About 80% to 85% of what you spend at Bandcamp goes directly to the artist or their label, and is paid daily.

So it’s always a good idea to download from Bandcamp whenever possible, as they are the best site for supporting artists. For us, one download of a €9 album is worth about 4500 snotify streams.

You can even pay more than the asking price for music on Bandcamp if you wish to add a little extra support for the artist. Again, this goes to the artists themselves, not some greedy anonymous megacorporation who only care for money, not the music you love.

There is also a rather fabulous Community feature at Bandcamp, and you can join ours by clicking here.

SoundCloud

Just as we were enjoying the best month we ever had on SoundCloud, our account was unexpectedly deleted by mistake. The account was subsequently restored, but was still badly damaged. It took until mid-October for it to be properly repaired.

In the meantime, there was not a single word from SoundCloud themselves regarding what they were doing to repair our account. This was the catalyst for a number of the changes that are happening.

We still do not fully trust the information we get from SoundCloud and its slowly improving Insights system. However, there has been enough improvement in data quality in the last couple of months for it to be useful again.

Shitify

We removed all of our music from the mean green snot machine a few months ago. We highly recommend you do the same, if you have any there. We also highly recommend that you cancel your subscription, and move your playlists (and so on) to a more ethical streaming service. Every other streaming platform is more ethical than snotify.

We don’t say this lightly. Nor do we say so from a position of ignorance. There are many very good reasons to remove all your music from spotify and to cancel your sub. Do it now!

For more information, please refer to this article: https://www.wudrecords.co.uk/miscellaneous/boycott-spotify/

Tidal, Coda, YouTube, Amazon, Deezer, Apple Music, iTunes, etc.

We use data from our distributors Globex, Soundrop and CD Baby for information regarding streams on platforms such as Coda, Tidal, YouTube, Deezer and so on when reckoning the monthly charts.

Data from the streaming services filters through to us via our distributors, and we are not very trusting of it. At best we can get a general feel of what has been going on across all of the streaming services this way. Because the data arrives several days, or even weeks, late, we only use it to extrapolate general trends. Although, to be fair, it was reasonably good this last month.

HearThis, Audius, Audiomack

We have started organising our music at HearThis since the recent debacle with SoundCloud. Their stats have improved a lot recently and are now somewhat easier to collate. February 2026 was the best month we have had there overall.

February 2026 was also a very good month for us at HearThis, although we only have a few artists with music uploaded there.

More on this when we discuss the actual artists that charted this month, in the text below.

The aforementioned debacle with SoundCloud was the catalyst for ourselves taking the decision to also begin adding our music to both Audius and Audiomack. Both platforms came highly recommended, although their stats, like at HearThis, are also not especially informative.

Thanks For All Your Help!

Massive thanks go out to everybody who helped to support all of us during February 2026 by listening to, commenting on and reposting our bands’ tracks on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and elsewhere.

All the wonderful fans of our bands who supported us with downloads from Bandcamp are especially appreciated. Just one download of an album was worth a couple of months of snotify streams before we left that platform entirely. By buying a download, you genuinely help us keep the fires burning, and collectively we thank you for that most graciously. May you be blessed by the gods of rock n roll! :)

We would also like to say a special thank you to all the splendid people on X (formerly Twitter) and BlueSky who have been enjoying and reposting our tracks to their followers. All the support and positive feedback has been incredibly heartwarming for us all. It makes our endeavours here feel worthwhile.

Thank you very much to everyone who bought items from our merch store. Anyone who shares a photo of themselves with their Wud item on social media will receive an extra goody from ourselves once we have seen it and shared the photo on to our community as well.

If you buy something cool from the Flicker merch store, or the Dark Company merch store, we shall also send you an extra goody if you show us a photo of yourself (or friend, or environment) on social media with the item you purchased.

Last and by no means least, we would like to say thank you very much to all of the splendid people who have been buying us coffees at BuyMeACoffee. It’s very kind of you to help us out. All of these things absolutely contribute to ourselves being able to keep going, and spend more time making beautiful music for you to enjoy. It is truly appreciated very much indeed.

How Did We Calculate The February 2026 Chart?

The algorithm we use gives greater weight to downloads, then comments and reposts and likes (active engagement), then plays (passive engagement). Different platforms perform differently and are given different weightings based on standard deviation calculations.

We use general tendencies and trends that have occured over the last calender month, as well as specifics where they are available. The data has been amalgamated together from all of the different platforms to make the new Top Ten. Archive tracks and bonus tracks are ignored, as is anything from people who clearly didn’t listen to the music.

If somebody actually pays to download something, they must have liked it! Our artists and ourselves are always very grateful to our supporters in this respect. It genuinely helps keep the fires burning and the wheels turning.

When somebody reposts a track, that gives it the opportunity to be heard by a potential new fan. This is always a tremendous help for creative souls. It enables that track to be discovered and enjoyed by the community of the person doing the sharing, which can generate new fans.

A ‘like’ is nice, but reposts actually helps the artist reach a bigger audience. You create the chance for that to happen. Recommending a song costs you nothing at all and can be a massive help for an independent artist. Why not do it now? :)

Only you, the listener, can influence our next chart. So if there is a song you particularly like, keep playing it! Leave a comment, repost it, share it to your social media feeds! Download it from our Bandcamp! Add it to a playlist! It absolutely can make a difference.

Who’s In The February 2026 Top Ten?

The latest top ten features five different acts, if you reckon Dark Company and & co to be separate artists.

There are two songs from Dark Company, one from the Band of Georges, four – remarkably! – from Wud, two from BSoD + D², and one from & co. There are five new entries, three re-entries, and two are climbers.

Dark Company

Congratulations to Dark Company for topping our second chart of 2026, and for having one other entry in the top ten.

A brand new entry straight in at number one is the latest release from the SNAFU CD of Dark Company‘s forthcoming triple-CD album A for Acronym. This song is called Head Rush. Pete wrote the lyric in 2011.

Head Rush is an uptempo slab of the finest quality space rock. The infectious groove in Abm is a real toe-tapper and head-nodder. It sounds like a mix of Hawkwind, Ultravox and The Fall, and thunders along merrily, also mentioning Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Literary references in songs are always good.

Head Rush features a few DSK synths. Many DSK synths are free VST adddons and all of them are wonderful. You can pick some up for your own studio by visiting DSK’s website here: https://www.dskmusic.com/

Climbing from number ten to number four is an old classic from Dark Company. Before last month, it last charted in December 2019. This fantastic song is the Eastenders remix of Crash, and can be found on the band’s inaugural album, Signmaker.

The original version of Crash was first performed by Alien Heat, although there are no remaining recordings of their version in existance as far as we can tell.

Crash was composed in January and February of 1990. It was Alien Heat‘s opening song at their somewhat ill-fated performance at the Dayspace Festival in Totnes in 1990. Pete wrote the lyric earlier that year and describes the relationship many people had with their televisions, particularly those addicted to soap operas.

All of the voice samples came from a single omnibus episode of Eastenders, which was broadcast in December 1991. Many of the cast from that time have a spoken line inserted between Pete’s lyrics. They were added via the Alesis Quadraverb, which had a maximum sample length of 1.5 seconds.

Band of Georges

A few months ago, we absolutely could not have anticipated the level of dominance over the charts the Band of Georges has had recently. Why? We were not even expecting to release any of these songs a year ago!

The Wud Records website was launched in 2008, replacing the old Wud site which simply disappeared soon afterwards. Ever since before the Wud Records website went live, various people tried to persuade George to allow his old Tascam 244 portastudio demos to be released. He always refused, point blank. There was no arguing with him. It was just: “No.” And that was that.

And then, suddenly, he seems to have had a change of heart. He allowed a few of us to listen to his demos, which we thought were surprisingly good. Certainly a lot better than we had anticipated, given everything he had said about awful they were. Whatever it was that happened, we are delighted that it did. Because now, we have been allowed to release all of the volumes of his early songs in their demo form.

We have done very little work to these recordings. They were just lifted from their master cassettes and digitised in our studios, and normalised to 0dB. That was it. Everything sounds just as it was. The cassettes, nearly 40 years old, have stood the test of time very well.

There are no pages for the Band of Georges at Explicit Music at this time, although some may appear following further negotiations. Each released song from the Band of Georges has a comment or a memory from George on its album’s page here at the Wud Records website. Some of that information, along with other facts regarding each song, appears at its page on SoundCloud. There is likely to be different extra information given on the two separate pages, as the words come from the keyboards of two separate writers. We recommend you check out both.

Rising one place from number three is to number two Wish You Were Here. This is nothing like the famous Pink Floyd song of the same name. It is a delicate, vulnerable, intimate song with a shimmering flange from the Electric Mistress on the guitar.

Wish You Were Here comes from Volume III Side B of the Band of Georges cassettes. Laughing Sun attempted to include this song in their repertoire, but it never happened in the end. There are many rather splendidly esoteric chords throughout.

Wud

What an extraordinary month it has been for Wud over at HearThis. Wud have no less than four new entries on our chart this month, all of which were removed from SoundCloud and added to HearThis a few months ago, as decribed in this news post. All four of the songs are from a collection of live recordings of the band from the summer of 1985. As a result of the streaming, we have had to add the four songs back to SoundCloud so they can appear in the playlist for the February 2026 chart!

A brand new entry at number three is What’s Going On. This is a simple and gentle song that Ken always sang so beautifully. It was actually the very first song on the cassettes that made up this collection of songs, and was recorded with just Ken and George whilst waiting for the others to turn up.

The second new entry for Wud is at number six. This is the rambunctious rocktastic 1984, which was something of a signature song for the band. This is actually a very fine version, with Graham’s bucket-bashing adding a unique and glorious thunder to proceedings. The guitar is very good and Ken was on fine form. Marc’s bass added a solidity and strength to the song and it went very well.

Wud‘s third new entry is at number seven. This song is called New Socks and Underwear and is one that Ken wrote when he was about to move to Devon. It describes his thoughts and hopes for the journey and what lay in the future beyond. The title comes from some gifts Ken received from his mother, to help him along the way.

The fourth new entry from Wud from their WudSongs (Live Summer 1985) is Take It Or Leave It. This is another of their more delicate and gentle songs, with a certain folky or country feel to it. It was quite new at that time. Ken always managed to capture the feel of the vocal for this beautifully.

BSoD + D²

It’s been another very good month for The Bastard Sons of Dennis, with two of their songs re-entering the chart. The October 2025 release by The Bastard Sons of Dennis with Dave Danielli, Cruelty to Blues has already gone very well.

Then Came the Last Days of May is a re-entry at number five for BSoD + D². Blue Öyster Cult perform this song in the key of E minor, and our tremendous trio have transposed it to A minor for their cover version.

Then Came the Last Days of May tells the tragic story of three young men who were killed in a drug deal that went wrong. It is a very wistful and beautiful song, and The Bastard Sons of Dennis with Dave Danielli base their version more on the live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees version than the original studio version on Blue Öyster Cult’s 1972 eponymous album.

The next re-entry for The Bastard Sons of Dennis with Dave Danielli is at number eight. It is a cover of Blue Öyster Cult‘s Wings Wetted Down, from the 1973 Tyranny and Mutation album.

Wings Wetted Down is a masterfully crafted piece of songwriting, with its clever key changes and all its vocal and instrumental melodic hooks. It is considered a deep cut among BÖC fans. The version performed by The Bastard Sons of Dennis is largely true to the original, with the addition of a riff section that Derek solos over.

& co

The last time that Final Nightmare by & co charted was back in October 2017. It was therefore a big surprise to see its numbers at the end of the month! It is a re-entry at number nine.

The trick with the & co remixes of Dark Company songs is to listen to the original first, then try to spot within the remix the parts that were used. Send us an email if you think you know the answer and we will let you know how you performed!

Final Nightmare is a remix of the Dark Company song Terminal Road. Final Nightmare was that song’s original title. It was renamed when the artwork for the Rage in Heaven album was being prepared. The lyrics for the original version of the song are truly magnificent and the song itself is one of the most popular from the Rage in Heaven album.

* None of our other acts made it onto the February 2026 chart. *

Listening Options

If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in February 2026, as played, liked, commented upon and reposted by listeners, please click here.

If you prefer to listen right here at the Wud Records website, you will find that it is the new default music player. You will find it on all non band-specific pages at the site, including our Links collection and homepage.

The February 2026 chart has its very own dedicated page among the charts pages of this website. You can listen to the new compilation on its page by clicking here.

Each of the previous charts also has its own page in the charts section of this website. If you would like to see all our old charts, or for any previous month you are especially interested in, all of them can be accessed easily by clicking here.