News

Old Hands by Dark Company is the latest album to be repaired and added to SoundCloud. Old Hands is a collection of songs from different Dark Company eras and is perhaps Dark Company‘s most eclectic album, with songs belonging to the hard rock, ska, heavy funk, rock, house, punk, ballad and dark gothic indie genres all present.

The songs on the Old Hands album are still in the early stages of finalisation, with plenty of work in terms of production and performance needing to be done before we can finally call it done. We thought you might like to hear it in its current state, as with most of the rest of Dark Company‘s songs, so published the work-in-progress version for your enjoyment. Further notifications of updates to Old Hands will be posted in our News service.

In other Dark Company news, Pete was in Studio One on the Sunday just gone and recorded his vocal part for a new song called Head Rush. This will be a track on Dark Company’s forthcoming 12th album, as yet untitled.

A couple more sonic upgrades have been done to songs from Dark Company‘s Ghost of the Art album as well. We recently completed beta mixes of White Bird on Ivory and Mighty Diamond, leaving just three more tracks to be upgraded. The Ghost of the Art album will be uploaded to SoundCloud once the remaining tracks have been polished up a bit more.

If you would like to listen to Old Hands here at Wud Records, please click here.

If you would prefer to listen to Old Hands over at SoundCloud, please click here.

Dark Company convened for some studio action yesterday, with Pete laying down his vocal parts for Project Terminated from Dark Company’s forthcoming 12th album, as yet untitled, unpublished and unheard, except by us. We think you will love it!

We even filmed a bit of the action, with Pete recording the words “Project Terminated!” in a most Dalekish style using a purple toy megaphone encrusted with numerous red LED gems, which was all good fun. These things are possibly still available from Maplin should you fancy one yourself. They are only about £1.49 so how fabulous is that.

At some point when we have decent video editing software we shall upload this video, along with many others, to our rather dormant YouTube channel.

Due to Pete’s ever-deteriorating health, we are unable to run very long sessions and have to make the most of him when things are functioning.

Earlier today some cunning boffins with really, really big foreheads and gravy-stained white lab coats smelling faintly of mothballs made a beta mix of White Bird on Ivory from Dark Company‘s Ghost of the Art album. There are four more songs still to receive their upgrade from that particular album. Songs from Ghost of the Art will be uploaded to SoundCloud in the near future so you can hear and enjoy the progress we have made.

We shall let you know about this along with any other Dark Company developments in our News service, of course.

Today’s studio action saw another fantastic collaboration between Pok and our resident session drummer Sven. They have been working away on Pok’s song Centre of the Cyclone, which will be appearing on Pok’s Anthology album at some point in the not-so-distant future.

Although there is still a lot of work to be done to Centre of the Cyclone, the drumming at least is nearly done. It is something of an epic piece, with numerous changes of tempo and feel. It was composed way back in the mid-80s and this latest breath of life it has been receiving is truly awe-inspiring.

We will let you know of further progress where it comes to Pok and his Anthology album in our News service. Further bashings and twiddlings are planned for next Saturday.

The first ever recording of Laughing Sun, which was named Cander, has been repaired. It can now be heard again, both here at its page at Wud Records and over at SoundCloud.

Five of the six songs on Cander were recorded on 4th September 1985, with the final track, Indian Summer, being played a week later on the 11th. It was such a wonderful version with beautiful interplay between Ken’s delightful improvised scat singing and Pok’s guitar solo that we felt it needed to be included, especially as it is the piece that concludes the cassette.

The first five songs were recorded after a Wud rehearsal had finished. The songs I Know I Know You (by Mark Drower), Frog and Change had been recorded during the Wud session. Wud was clearly falling to pieces as the personality clash between Ken and George was growing ever more acrimonious. The Laughing Sun songs form the majority of the B-side of the cassette.

If you would like to listen to Cander at Laughing Sun’s pages here at Wud Records, click here.

If you would prefer to listen to Cander at SoundCloud, please click here instead.

The Mind Dance album from Dark Company has now been fixed. The songs have been uploaded to SoundCloud and we have added the repaired playlist to its proper page here at Wud Records.

These songs from 1999 are very much still under construction and will need a lot of poking and fiddling before they are done. We shall let you know of any such developments in our News service.

However, if you would like to listen to these songs as they stand at the moment, please click here.

Pok has launched his own YouTube channel called pOK Tv and added many, many videos to it already. These films stretch back more than 20 years and include recent footage as well as vintage performances by Spacegoats, Heathens All, Lost Troubadours, Tribal Voices, and of course, Pok’s famous appearance on Da Ali G Show.

This resource is a vast treasure trove of goodies that will allow the viewer to enjoy many hours of Pok‘s work spanning decades. It is a compilation of videos uploaded by third parties as well as videos that Pok and his friends have made themselves, many of which are available to be seen for the first time ever.

As lifelong fans and friends of the good Professor, we are amazed and filled with wonder and joy at some of the gems which have suddenly appeared here. We highly recommend that you subscribe to his channel, pOK Tv, at once!

To go there now, please click here.