Pyg: Scratchings by Pyg added to the Archives

Scratchings by Pyg, an old recording from Devon’s finest exponents of caustic folk, has been added to the Wud Records Archives. Scratchings is a live EP from 1998. It consists of four songs and was recorded on a farm in rural Devonshire.

Scratchings is a reasonably accurate snapshot of how the band were sounding in the spring of 1998. Their subsequent studio recordings, Tracks (1999) and Gruntings (2001) were far more refined than the raw raucous joyful noise Pyg created on this live recording.

In Scratchings, the band are sounding tight, rehearsed and slick, with Martin’s vocal being particularly good. Malcolm’s guitar growls away merrily in the background. The rhythm section is strong and solid. Martin and Malcolm were the songwriting powerhouse behind Pyg that made their material so wonderful.

Steve, Pyg‘s fiddle virtuoso, left the band a couple of months after the recording and we believe he returned to his native Scottish highlands. The photo used for the cover of the EP was taken after he had already left, so he is not present. Instead, a plastic pig and a pig mask were used.

We hope you enjoy this old recording of Scratchings by Pyg. The guitar at the start of Amerikay was distorted in a rather nasty way. We cleaned it up from how it was on the cassette. Hopefully you will be able to listen beyond the intro into the rest of the song, which was a real favourite among Pyg fans.

We recently inserted a lot of old Pyg recordings into the studio machinery with a view to releasing some of the best bits. We shall let fans of Pyg know about these future releases via our News service and on Twitter.

If you would like to listen to Scratchings by Pyg on the Wud Records website, please click here.

If you prefer to listen to Scratchings by Pyg on SoundCloud, please click here instead.