Pyg: Tracks album repaired

The Tracks album by Pyg, Devon’s purveyors of the finest caustic folk, has been repaired. Tracks is now available for your listening pleasure here in the Archives section of Wud Records. It has also been added to our fabulous collection of albums at SoundCloud.

The 1999 Tracks album consists of seven different songs. There are two different versions of the beautiful Let’s Dance, one with Martin playing a dulcimer which he made himself (he’s a very clever chap like that) and a bare mix with no dulcimer.

This line-up of Pyg consisted of Martin Dearmun (vocals, acoustic guitar, dulcimer), Malcolm Learmonth (electric guitar, bouzouki), George Davies (bass) and Tony Price (drums). All of the songs were recorded by Martin of Transit Recordings at Fig Tree Farm near Butterleigh, deep in the heart of rural Devonshire. The set of photos with the plastic pig were all promo shots for this album.

Pyg were mostly a really good live band and their studio recorded material never really managed to entirely capture the essence of their live power. They played a loud kick-ass brand of what they termed ‘caustic folk’, quite a rocky variant of folk music, perhaps in a similar vein to The Levellers or The Waterboys but with a harder, edgier approach. The songwriting duo of Martin and Malcolm crafted wonderfully thought-provoking and hauntingly beautiful songs that stay in the memory once heard. The rhythm section of Tony and George was formidable in its virtuosity and the two of them had an awesome reputation. The synergy of these parts made a band that rocked bars, festivals and parties on many occasions and their reknown was international even though their sound was quintessentially English.

Besides the Gruntings album from 2001 which is still broken at this moment in time, we have a number of live songs by Pyg lurking on some cassettes deep in the vaults. When we manage to upload these songs, we shall inform you in our News service and on Twitter.

If you would like to listen to the Tracks album here in our Archives, please click here.

Should you prefer to listen over at SoundCloud instead, please click here.