Some of the weirdness and atonality has been delegated to other instrumentalists, but it's still there! It does have a more straight-folk vibe but that's a conscious aesthetic decision and I think it works beautifully - this record really brings out RD's amazing sense of melody and progression. Plus the arrangements are flat-out wonderful.
If forced at gunpoint to choose I'd probably still go with Nothing Important but they're both phenomenal IMO, he is the best songwriter going
― imago, Monday, 31 July 2017 08:32 (six years ago) link
I admired rather than enjoyed Nothing Important but Peasant has really struck a chord with me - that it's more melodic probably does help a lot. Definitely a highlight of 2017.
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 31 July 2017 08:59 (six years ago) link
"Soldier" is a fucking great song.
― flappy bird, Monday, 31 July 2017 18:04 (six years ago) link
Don't know much about this subgenre (British avant-folk?) but to me Dawson sounds like a less roots-anchored Robin Williamson – if we go by his later, ECM material. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this, especially the dirge-like 'Hob'.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 15:23 (six years ago) link
There's nothing like it.
I like to roll out the North Sea Radio Orchestra comparisons, but that's mostly because that's the only other UK alt-folk-adjacent contemporary music I love this much. It's more chamber music than Dawson, who's in turn much more experimental. Peasant represents some kind of melodic rapprochement between the two though, perhaps
― imago, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link
Was about to say the guitar playing reminds me a bit of some Incredible String Band tracks, something like "White Bird" perhaps.― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 June 2017 18:05 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 June 2017 18:05 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
... which is a Mike Heron track actually, though he's definitely more Robin Williamson. Not that I've heard enough of his material though, tbh.
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:36 (six years ago) link
HEN OGLEDD
http://thequietus.com/articles/25272-hen-ogledd-problem-child-richard-dawson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O9BXeFm_yg
A spokesperson for the band says: "Each hailing from historically different tribal regions of the Old North, the musicians on Mogic challenge the idea that the ancient world was rife with magic, while the new is infiltrated by cold logic. The tracks on Mogic create new phantasmal blends of images and ideas that draw upon the mystical and technological. Mogic is a discombobulating pop prayer exploring artificial intelligence, witches, nanotechnology, pre-medieval history, robots, romance, computer games and waterfalls.
― imago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 11:27 (five years ago) link
"I live on a mountainThe only tall sculpture on this planetThe view is appalling"
Excellent song, excellent video.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 11:33 (five years ago) link
this was certainly unexpected but it's very cool
― ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 11:41 (five years ago) link
saw him live at a festival this year, was indeed something to behold, guy is brilliant
― niels, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 12:04 (five years ago) link
for everyone who wished peasant sounded more like the super furry animals
― ogmor, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 12:10 (five years ago) link
lmao this rules
― devvvine, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 12:56 (five years ago) link
Bass reminds me of The Cure in parts. Unexpected, this. I like
― Duke, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 19:59 (five years ago) link
If you're going to make lazy comparisons to other Welsh pop acts, make them to people who are actually excited to hear this album
‘I live on a mountain, the only tall sculpture on this planet. The view is appalling..’ YES @HOgledd https://t.co/yLCzA3rJi4— G W E N N O (@gwennosaunders) September 11, 2018
― imago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 20:57 (five years ago) link
actually, speaking of Welsh postpunk, the song it reminded me of most was this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KquxHMQD1Z0
― imago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 21:28 (five years ago) link
GWENNO KIND OF QUOTED WHAT I QUOTED FIRST I AM MORE IN LOVE THAN I ALREADY WAS <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 21:45 (five years ago) link
Gwenno reads ILm, I am sure of it now. And that is alright.
Finally got around to Nothing Important. I think I like his sinister minimalist moods more than his whimsy, but then again 'Hob' was the highlight of Peasant for me.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 06:59 (five years ago) link
hen ogledd album good-not-mindblowing, worth a listen though
― imago, Friday, 16 November 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
am now decided that weaver is the best track on peasant, so much range but moves through all these different moments with eerie smoothness, carried along by that slightly nervous, unsettled energy
― ogmor, Thursday, 18 April 2019 10:37 (five years ago) link
I'm partial to 'Hob', for predictably temperamental reasons. I also happen to prefer the relative nihilism of Nothing Important, also for predictably temperamental reasons.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 18 April 2019 10:44 (five years ago) link
I too prefer the best album of the decade to the third or fourth best album of the decade
Weaver was always one of the best tracks, as was Hob, as were all the others. I can barely talk about it
― imago, Thursday, 18 April 2019 11:03 (five years ago) link
springtime is dawson time
― ogmor, Thursday, 18 April 2019 11:07 (five years ago) link
i still have vivid memories of my first listen to Ogre, walking through a Surrey village en route to a lesson, on an extremely idyllic spring afternoon
― imago, Thursday, 18 April 2019 11:08 (five years ago) link
New track "Jogging", from forthcoming album 2020 (due October):https://youtu.be/UGiQ_-Ktpvc
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:17 (four years ago) link
!!
he's gone...rock!
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:26 (four years ago) link
Droll lyrics, as usual, but I'm underwhelmed by the song proper. Nothing Important was the peak imho.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:28 (four years ago) link
It was the peak of albums by anybody this decade, so
I mean I still like this and am intrigued by the album
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:33 (four years ago) link
did he get muse to do the arrangement? not really feeling this
― ufo, Thursday, 1 August 2019 14:34 (four years ago) link
muse?!
yeah this is great
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 15:08 (four years ago) link
I must say, I prefer him when he's stripped down and dirty. Peasant felt too dense and painterly for me to be able to get into.
― frame casual (dog latin), Thursday, 1 August 2019 15:24 (four years ago) link
This is okay though.
― frame casual (dog latin), Thursday, 1 August 2019 15:43 (four years ago) link
actually this is really good with the video
― frame casual (dog latin), Thursday, 1 August 2019 15:51 (four years ago) link
about the third listen before I was fully this song's humble servant
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 15:57 (four years ago) link
have to admit the bathos of the last verse/chorus got me a bit choked up. I like this song. always helps to have the words to read along with I feel
― frame casual (dog latin), Thursday, 1 August 2019 16:10 (four years ago) link
love it
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Thursday, 1 August 2019 16:13 (four years ago) link
You are all mad. Peasant was his peak. This next album might better it.
― Duke, Thursday, 1 August 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link
It will be something, that's for sure.
There's a limited-edition David Squires comic with the LP! Might have to get that...
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 19:23 (four years ago) link
I like the way it's somehow both specific and universal, and I also like the contrast between the surging rock chorus arrangement and the almost humdrumness of the words being sung over them. Plus, I'm just coming to the end of reading Jonathan Coe's Middle England, and - the direct lyrical parallel aside - the themes of both dovetail well. It articulates something which feels more contemporary and less past-referencing than other stuff I've heard of his, and Rock suits him better here than on the Hen Ogledd project, which didn't really do it for me.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 1 August 2019 20:49 (four years ago) link
agreed and nicely put
― imago, Thursday, 1 August 2019 21:14 (four years ago) link
WOW
― tangenttangent, Thursday, 1 August 2019 22:08 (four years ago) link
i think the song itself is fine but the rock arrangement is just so plodding and doesn't really work with his voice
― ufo, Thursday, 1 August 2019 22:51 (four years ago) link
okay this on at least the best song I've heard oooh.. in the last day of not week. Nice one Dawso
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 2 August 2019 00:30 (four years ago) link
is. I'm drunk
if. fml
dl otm :)
Great song, and re: mike t-diva, it's the specific that makes it universal. Loving this.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 2 August 2019 07:42 (four years ago) link
I tried to listen to Peasant again and couldn't get into it. Maybe I need to read some of the lyrics, but it feels more like the work of a full and different band: a lot more traditional and folky? I'm starting to think Jogging is my favourite thing by him that I've heard
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 2 August 2019 09:08 (four years ago) link
anyone else getting Super Furry Animals vibes off this too?
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 2 August 2019 09:09 (four years ago) link
yeah the vocoders made me think of them, that's all though
― imago, Friday, 2 August 2019 09:32 (four years ago) link
I always got a SFA vibe off him, so I can imagine this does.
Yep, good sentence that, sticking to it.
― Mark G, Friday, 2 August 2019 09:34 (four years ago) link