News

Cunning and Tricks is a new track by Pok that was just uploaded to his forthcoming Anthology album. It is the sixth track to be added, and rather like buses, there were none for three years then suddenly two at once. A number of other songs destined for the Anthology album are making good progress, so we hope to add more during Pok‘s next visit in June. We will, of course, bring you all the relevant information in our News service.

Cunning and Tricks is a Dylanesque lyrical masterpiece, composed when Pok was still a very young man. It features the considerable talents of our recently departed comrade ‘Speedy’ Pete Greatorex on harmonica, and Sven does a great job hammering away on the drums as always. He also bashes an anvil for a bit of variety, which you can hear in the far left and right of the sonic spectrum.

Pok plays bass as well as acoustic and electric guitars in the song, and gives voice to The Potty General and the contraption that is his own invention. Somehow this makes the musically challenging and absurd middle section seem more sensible, bizarrely.

Lyrically this song is awesome. The ‘Seven White Knights’ verse is one of our favourite lyrics in all of the Wud Records catalogue. The acoustic guitar has real balls and is played with great sensitivity to the lyrics.

You can download or listen to Cunning and Tricks at our Bandcamp store by clicking here.

To download the entire Anthology album as it stands at present, click here.

To listen at the Wud Records website, click here instead.

Cordelia Dreams is a new track by Pok that has been released to his forthcoming Anthology album. Finally!

The spirit of wud has triumphed against all the odds, despite the deaths, births, inherited financial nightmares, major equestrian and canine issues, too much non-music-related work, family commitments, illnesses, interference from foreign governments, equipment failures and technical difficulties, changes in personnel and the usual trolling, negativity and naysayers we are used to. It has been over three years since we have been able to release any new material so finally having a new track to shout about is a tremendous joy for the team. Hooray!

Cordelia Dreams is an instrumental piece that was composed by Pok on acoustic guitar during 1982. It uses ‘Drower tuning’, or drop-D as most people would know it, and is a beautiful and mystical piece that whisks us away on a whimsical journey through cascades of melodic watery meanderings. Sven adds the percussives – not sure how as this writer still can’t work out what beat is the first of the main theme of the piece, but that’s why he’s a drummer and I write stuff – and Maxx adds definition and assuredness with his firmly solid throbbing. The overall result is not unlike Jade Warrior or early Pink Floyd.

Pok recorded the acoustic guitar in a single continuous take using an £11 Encore guitar from Ebay (including postage). It was loaned to our studios by the mighty Dan from Musicisum, so many thanks for that. We can assure you that neither Maxx nor Sven completed their parts on the first take! The watery noises came from SoundJay.com, which is a fabulous free sound effects site.

With Pok returning to our studios again tomorrow we are hopeful of being able to add more songs to his Anthology album without another three years going by. We shall bring you further updates regarding Pok in our News service.

You can download the entire Anthology album as it stands at present from our shop at Bandcamp by clicking here.

Alternatively you can go ahead and download the track Cordelia Dreams from Bandcamp by clicking here, or just listen if you like.

To listen to Cordelia Dreams here at the Wud Records website, click here instead.

Finally – you might want to go for a wee before listening. ;-)

We have some terribly sad news. ‘Speedy’ Pete Greatorex – poet, vocalist, songsmith, raconteur, artist, thespian and frontman of Dark Company passed away on Sunday 1st May. He died at Wonford Hospital, Exeter after a long battle with a number of complicated conditions.

Pete was such a big character that it’s hard to believe he’s gone. We are all gutted, and at the same time thankful to have known such an extraordinary human being. He left behind two children, two grandchildren and an unspecified amount of cats, frogs and fish. We miss him terribly and intend to honour his memory by continung to produce Dark Company music.

Goodbye doowadu man, fly free.

Normal service will be resumed soon.

R.I.P. ‘Speedy’ Pete Greatorex, 02/08/44 – 01/05/16.

We have created a brand new album opener compilation for Dark Company, which is now the default SoundCloud playlist at all of Dark Company’s pages here at Wud Records that are not album-specific.

Our regular visitors will know all too well that our old in-house mp3 player, the (previously) wonderful Flamplayer, is now broken beyond all repair and is no longer supported by its developers. What a pity.

The search for a solution to this unfortunate situation led us to SoundCloud, with whom we have developed a splendid sonic partnership. With an ever-growing fanbase and an expanding collection of playlists at SoundCloud we sincerely hope they do not simply disappear, as has been suggested in the music press in recent times. Fingers and other protuberances crossed please.

Dark Company‘s default playlists tend to change from time to time and we shall be bringing you further such playlists in the future, as well as keeping an archive of old compilations at SoundCloud. Subscribing to our News service will mean you need never miss any such developments.

You can enjoy this album opener compilation by visiting any of Dark Company’s pages that do not have their own specific player. Their homepage here at Wud Records is a good example, and you can visit that page by clicking here.

If you would like to listen to Dark Company’s album opener compilation at SoundCloud, perhaps whilst exploring other playlists we have uploaded there, you can do so by clicking here.

Indeed by Laughing Sun has now been repaired and added to our ever-growing collection of playlists over at SoundCloud. Each track has, where possible, been edited to show lyrics and relevant information such as composers, performers and odd points of interest.

Indeed was recorded on a cassette at 31 Cowick Lane, Exeter back in September 1985. Most of the recordings feature Pok, George and Grape, although towards the end Grape left the building, leaving just Pok and George to continue. Most of the versions of these songs are the first time they had ever been heard, rehearsed or performed by the band, so are rather shabby.

Included in the Indeed collection are fragments of the song At One, the beginning of which was recorded over on the cassette. Although At One was a song that was also performed by Wud, we believe that this is an early Laughing Sun version. Laughing Sun later included the full version of At One in their set.

There are two cover versions present in the collection – Hassan-I-Sabbah by Hawkwind and Stella Blue by Grateful Dead. Information concerning cover versions published in the Indeed collection has been referenced to the sources we used when putting this digitised playlist together.

If you would like to listen to Indeed by Laughing Sun here at the Wud Records website, you can do so by clicking here.

If you would prefer to listen to it over at SoundCloud’s website, you can do so be clicking here instead.

Wud Records’ recommended Bandcamp albums have changed. If you are a fan of awesome twenty-first century progressive rock and progressive metal then you will abdolutely love the three albums we have chosen. Go ahead and click the links! They are:

Twinned With: Your Face by Throatpunch City
Stunning original virtuoso progressive rock, they put on a great live show too.

Rise of the Waterfowl by Farmhouse Odyssey
Keyboard-driven smooth melodic progressive rock from the USA, inspiring and addictive, beautifully crafted songs.

Ode to the Author by Toska
Instrumental progressive metal from three exceptionally talented young musical gurus who also play in the band Dorje.

There is so much great music to recommend at Bandcamp that we try to refresh our recommendations from time to time, although this time it has been a very long time indeed!

The three fabulous albums below are the ones making way. All of these are also wonderful recommended Bandcamp albums. Each deserves a download, or at the very least a full listen, so please go ahead and click the links. Albums removed from our recommendations go back into the pool and will reappear there sometime in the future as we still love them all.

Great Pagans EP by Great Pagans, on Anti-Ghost Moon Ray
Dreamy, evocative, whimsical, beautiful harmonies and lakes of guitar, fueled by the quiet power of the underdog. You will want them to win! Utterly enchanting post-Smiths indie pop rock grunge.

The Independent Hand by The Throats, on Sleeping Brothers Records
Lo-fi heartfelt self-deprecating musical comedy from The Throats on Sleeping Brothers Records. A collage of emotions crafted of leftfield sounds add to the wonderful guitar/voice arrangements.

Raygun EP by High/Low
Hi-energy big sound post-shoegaze indie rock from Southend, England. Guitar wall assaults your senses and great use of vocal harmonies. Hints of Foo Fighters and The Who. Came to us via Twitter.

We will try to refresh our recommended Bandcamp albums every six weeks or so. More joyful unearthed gems will be shouted about in our News service and on Twitter.

You can follow Wud Records on Twitter by clicking here.