Wud Records: December 2021 top ten tracks published at SoundCloud

The top ten SoundCloud tracks for December 2021 from Wud Records have been published in a new playlist.

Tracks are arranged from one to ten according to their popularity. The algorithm we use gives greatest weight to reposts, then likes and comments (active engagement) over plays.

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!

Songs published at Bandcamp and other platforms are omitted from the SoundCloud statistics because they would require separate treatment.

Archive tracks and bonus tracks are also ignored, as are likes and comments from people who clearly didn’t listen to the music.

Only you, the listener, can influence our December 2021 playlist. So if there is a track you particularly like, keep playing it! Leave a comment, repost it and share it to your social media feeds!

Massive thanks go out to everybody who helped to support all of us during December 2021 by listening to, commenting on and reposting our bands’ tracks on SoundCloud, as well as other platforms.

All the wonderful fans of our bands who supported us with downloads from Bandcamp are especially appreciated because they genuinely help us keep the fires burning. 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 Twitter 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 seem worthwhile.

Congratulations to Dark Company! Straight back in with a bang this month on our chart is Crash, from Dark Company‘s first album, Signmaker.

Crash is a high octane esoteric mix of hard rock and jazz funk. It has been likened to AC/DC, ZZ Top and The Who amongst others. It was originally an Alien Heat song, and Alien Heat used it to open their live show. Sadly, no recording of the Alien Heat version still exists, as far as we know.

There is also a different work-in-progress version of Crash on Dark Company‘s forthcoming Alien Heat album and a wonderful remix featuring lots of voice samples from an omnibus edition of EastEnders, broadcast on BBC television in late 1991.

There are six songs in total by Dark Company, who enjoyed a highly dominant month for Wud Records on SoundCloud during December 2021.

Down two places this month from the top of our chart last month is Slave of Days. Like all its bedfellows on Dark Company‘s Mind Dance album, Slave of Days is work-in-progress. It’s a simple and joyful slab of punk rock, or hard rock maybe, with a fun shout-along chorus hook line.

Also down two places, to this month’s number four position, is Horizontal Hold, a very wonderful song that is still work-in-progress. This version is from Dark Company‘s forthcoming fourth album, Can of Worms. It features the thought- and smile-provoking lyrics of Speedy Pete Greatorex and was reworked on the subsequent Mind Dance album with guitars as Broken Tubes.

Damaged, from the Dark Company album Benign Inquisition, is down two positions on the newest chart at number six. Damaged is a truly beautiful song with a wonderful melody and some of Pete’s finest whimsical and storytelling lyrics. Pete rarely did whimsical. Do have a listen, it’s a real gem.

Like the rest of the Benign Inquisition album, Damaged is still very much work-in-progress. It has recently had something of an upgrade with the addition of some wonderful cello from the marvelous Alison Reynolds. Alison has been helping us out with some cello lines recently in between her own projects, which we highly recommend you listen to as well.

To visit Alison’s website, please click here.

Returning to Wud Records charts at number eight in December 2021 is Venturi, another song from the work-in-progress Mind Dance album. We’ve always loved the lyrics for Venturi. It still needs a fair bit of work to finish it off and we hope to do so sometime soon.

Slipping down to number nine this month is Dark Company’s awesome alternative / hard / psychedelic rock and funk song Dancing In The Dark. The version you can hear is still work-in-progress.

Pete wrote the lyrics in 1989 and the song was originally performed by Alien Heat. Dancing In The Dark describes his memories of going nightclubbing in the West End of London after being revved up by his good friend Billy.

Pete was not actually terribly keen on the song and would always refer to it as “Farting in the Park”.

Back in the days of Alien Heat, Dancing In The Dark included Graham’s drum solo. This was when everyone in the band would roll a cigarette (or something a little more flavoursome) while he performed it, hopefully having the deed done and the object lit in time to carry on with the song at the drum solo’s conclusion.

Flicker had a good month on the new chart, occupying three of the positions. All three of the Flicker tracks are from their wonderful 2002 album At Least 1000 Words.

Yoyoing back up to number two this month from number nine last month for Flicker is Oily Road Hideaway, a delightful latin jazz dance. Oily Road Hideaway is the only track from Flicker‘s first album with programmed drums. It also has twin bass guitars playing in unison, with Dave on his Fender and George on the Plank.

Welcome to the Family moves down the new chart from three to seven. This is another latin-jazz-rock-fusion instrumental. It builds from its acoustic guitar beginings to a heady climax of guitar feedback and noise. There is a lovely bass solo from Dave, who also plays the keyboard parts most admirably.

Back into the top ten, at number ten, comes Farsight by Flicker. This one has been just below the top ten for the past few months and it is no great surprise to see its return. Farsight is a wonderful piece of music, progressive rock or indie jazz perhaps in style, highly melodic and decorated with samples from Captain Kirk’s USS Enterprise, Jonathan Agnew and Maharaj Ji, among others. Farsight was originally an Ug Brothers creation that came about very late in that band’s existance, and didn’t make it to a live show before they folded in 1995.

Flicker‘s second album, HappySad, is under construction and you can listen to it as it stands right now by clicking here. Several more tracks are likely to be released in the coming weeks and months, so please keep an eye and an ear on our News service and Twitter.

The remaining song on the December 2021 chart comes from Alchemeon. The Freaks (Shall Inherit The Earth) was a chart topper earlier in 2021 and rises from number eight to five.

None of our other acts made it onto the chart this month.

If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in December 2021, 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.

Recently we have added a few more of the previous charts as pages to their section of this website. We are still nearly three years behind in this work, but at least a little catching up has been done. If you’d like to see all our old charts, they can be accessed easily by clicking here. More pages will be added soon, when there is time.