Album – Page 6

Bugbears

Posted on 15th July 20131st August 2020 by darren

	1.	Martin Said
	2.	Bugbears
	3.	Sir Thomas Fairfax March
	4.	Seven Months Married
	5.	Hey Then Up We Go
	6.	The Owl
	7.	The Contented
	8.	Impossibilities
	9.	Babylon Has Fallen
	10.	I Live Not Where I Love
	11.	Bold Astrolger
	12.	Old England Grown New
	13.	When The King Enjoys His Own Again

about

An album of songs from the English Civil Wars and seventeenth century to accompany The Violence.

I recently made an album called ‘The Violence’. It concerns itself with the East Anglian witch trials during the English Civil Wars. During my research I started to come across folk songs of the seventeenth century and Stuart era. Two such songs appear on that album: ‘When the King Enjoys His Own Again’ and ‘A Coffin for King Charles, A Crown for Cromwell and a Pit for the People’.   I didn’t seek to achieve forensic detail when finding these songs, but was keen to have a sense of the flavour of the music of the era. As a side project to the album, I started to record and adapt some of the songs, and now they are collected here.
Consider this an accompanying volume to The Violence, a scene setter, a spin off.

Although I did a fair amount of research, these are not meant to be definitive or historical readings of the songs. I have revised, edited and even rewritten in places.

Thanks to Malcolm Taylor and the library at Cecil Sharp House, and the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Darren Hayman, February 2013.

credits

releases 15 July 2013
The Short Parliament are
Bill Botting
Dan Mayfield
Dave Watkins
David Tattersall
Johny Lamb

Order Bugbears on CD (PRICE INCLUDES POSTAGE AND PACKING)

Gatefold litho printed brown card sleeved complete with 16 page booklet of illustrations, lyrics and Darren’s research notes.

Pre-order Bugbears on Heavyweight 12″ vinyl

(PRICE INCLUDES POSTAGE AND PACKING)

Pressed on 180gsm heavyweight black vinyl, nestled within a luxury polylined sleeve and coming complete with a full 16 page booklet of lyrics and Darren’s research into the songs, the poems and the events that inspired the music of the time. Each song comes illustrated by a different graphic artist, including Pam Berry, Robert Rotifer, James Paterson, Rose Robbins, Frances Castle, Joe Besford, Jonny Helm, Sarah Lippett, Dan Willson and more…

The Violence

Posted on 21st October 201211th August 2018 by darren

The Violence by Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament

Over the past four years, ex-Hefner man Darren Hayman has been releasing records about lidos, dogging and Russian space dogs. He has played gigs in libraries, observatories and remote Hebridean Islands.

In all that time, however, Hayman’s real focus has been on this, a 20-song, double LP chronicling the 17th century Essex Witch Trials during the English Civil Wars. The record constitutes the third part of Darren’s Essex Trilogy. The previous two albums, Pram Town and Essex Arms, dealt with the new towns and suburbs and the lawless countryside.

“I have been drawn to my birthplace because it is both familiar and alien to me,” says Hayman. “Essex is so close to London yet so remote from it in many ways. I want to be both brutal and tender about the place in my songs. It’s easy to become trapped by your own tropes. I write easily about modernity and pepper my lyrics with slang, brand names and colloquialisms. I wanted to write about something in Essex’s past that spoke of its strangeness and also forced me to write in a language suitable for another period.”

Between 1644 and 1646, approximately 300 women were executed for witchcraft in the eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. Matthew Hopkins was the self appointed Witch Finder General who travelled East Anglia and helped small communities to rid themselves of these lonely, widowed women.

The album deals with fear and isolation, the way we use our own terror in times of trouble to lash out at the weak. It’s about how societies persecute otherness and outsiders.

The album also concerns itself with the wider context of the English Civil Wars. Hayman sings about King Charles I’s doomed love for his French bride; Parliamentarian spies; Puritan ideals and the comfort of animals.

The album is epic in both concept and sound. The landscape of the Dedham Vale is bought alive by beautiful intricate woodwind scores, trembling strings and destroyed church organs.

The Violence is an outstanding creative achievement, a truly unique and unprecedented album.

“It’s about how violence frightens us and how fear just leads to greater violence,” says Hayman.

Glowing reviews for the Violence…

‘Hayman’s fragile delivery gives voice to the paranoid and persecuted of the past while drawing subtle eerie parallels with modern times. A major work.’ – Mojo – 4 stars.

‘Lustrous future folk and psych wonderment’ – NME 8/10

‘His vision goes far beyond any other current independent artist and is a true treasure’ – Q Magazine

‘All that he does is beautifully thought-out, clever and tuneful and The Violence is no different…diverse, gently melodic and skilfully wrought…lovely, literate, approachable way to approach the past.’ RocknReel 4 stars.

‘Behind this bold and unique record lurks the thinking persons indie-pop legend and unaccredited national treasue Darren Hayman.’ – Stewart Lee – The Sunday Times.

8/10 Uncut Magazine

‘These are wonderful pop songs, each a compacted treasure of melody and heart. Autumnal, witty, sad and very, very English The Violence is the high watermark of Hayman’s career and one of the finest British releases of 2012, a record that neither floats, nor drowns but soars.’ – The Quietus

‘Triumphant’ – Artrocker

Buy Violence on CD

Buy the Violence on download from bandcamp here for £8.50

Lido

Posted on 14th August 201211th August 2018 by theehaircut

Released 27th August 2012

Lido is a beautifully hand packaged CD and Vinyl record about Britain’s open air swimming pools.

The CD sleeve is hand glocko printed and the LP is on beautiful blue vinyl. Vinyl comes with download.

The very limited edition second run of Lido is now available.

After this run though we plan on Lido being unavailable for a while, physically at least.

Click here for more on the Lido project

Physical Copies of Lido on CD and Vinyl have now sold out.

Or buy on download here from Bandcamp for £7.

It’s The Taking Part That Counts – Compilation album

Posted on 15th July 201211th August 2018 by theehaircut

it’s the taking part that counts is a 26 track compilation album of indie, folk, pop, and electronica, celebrating 26 sports, to be released in April 2012… in the build-up to the release you’ll be able to hear each of the tracks on this blog – wiaiwya-itsthetakingpartthatcounts.blogspot.com

Buy the CD for £12

The Shit Piano

Posted on 9th February 20125th February 2016 by theehaircut

9th February 2012

We never do the ideas we have in pubs. In pubs we go, ‘That’s a great idea!’ in the morning we go, ‘Hmm not so great’. But what if the ideas we have in pubs are the best? I had an idea to re-record my album ‘The Ship’s Piano’ in a day on casios and call it the Shit Piano. Although on the surface it’s an idea based on a pun I was thinking about the tradition of remixes and the earlier tradition of Dub versions of albums. I tried to use the limitation of the Casios to find new and interesting readings of the songs. The album definitely isn’t ‘shit’ on purpose. I hope you like it.

Buy ‘The Shit Piano’ from Bandcamp for £3.

January Songs

Posted on 30th January 201211th August 2018 by darren

Darren’s extensive online songwriting project from January 2011 finally receives its physical debut. A deluxe gatefold package with 2 full colour inner bags. Limited 1500 copies. Every single cover is hand drawn by Darren. That’s right, every single cover is an individually unique image.

Buy January Songs on double CD

Or buy the downloads from Bandcamp (Expanded to 48 tracks and costing £13)

The Ship’s Piano

Posted on 17th October 201111th August 2018 by theehaircut

Released 17th October 2011 via FortunaPOP

In November 2009 I had this thing happen to me, where I ended up in hospital with a fractured skull. For a few months I felt constantly dizzy and was diagnosed with some deafness in one ear. Sharp loud noises bothered me greatly. I was told to rest and do nothing, but who knows how to do that?

Music always helps when I’m ill, so I started to make the simplest, quitest music to help me recuperate. I tried to make the music that I wanted to hear, which is perhaps what we should always be doing, but in this case there was a direct therapeutic need.

I avoided any jagged edges. I kept imagining the sounds I wanted as round and smooth, like well-worn pebbles.

Lyrically I also found myself eschewing conceptual and metaphoric character led songs. I started to write the simplest and most direct words in the first person, something I have avoided for a few years.

If you are a songwriter and something bad happens to you, people say, “You can write a song about it at least.” They mean well, but the big events in life have to seep out gradually with me and not in urgent, confessional bursts. The songs on this record are pleas for calm. As I get older I find I prefer small, quiet things.

All the songs were written on my ship’s piano. ‘Ship’s Piano’ is a colloquial term given to small-scale pianos that were used on boats. Mine was built in France in 1933 and folds away to resemble a sideboard. I wrote a song where I imagine its history. It’s called ‘The Ship’s Piano’.

Buy Ship’s Piano on CD

Buy Ship’s Piano on vinyl with download code

Or download from Bandcamp for £6.50 here:

The Ship’s Piano – Related records

I Taught You How To Dance

Originally released 21st November 2011 on Fortuna Pop.

‘I Taught You How To Dance’ is the sole single from The Ship’s Piano. Sweet, gentle, and with just a hint of sexual tension, it offers an ideal sampler of the warmth and complexity of Darren’s solo piano album. ‘I Taught You How To Dance’ is available on 10-inch 4-track single only, and also features three covers of other songs with ‘Dance’ in the title: ‘Dance Away’ by Roxy Music, ‘I Don’t Want To Dance’ by Eddy Grant and ‘Come Dancing’ by the Kinks.

Buy I Taught You How To Dance on 10-inch vinyl

Vostok 5

Posted on 1st September 201111th August 2018 by darren

Vostok 5 was an exhibition of art and music about people and animals in space, displayed between the 1st and 7th of September 2011 at the Outside World Gallery in Shoreditch, and organised by a collective including Darren, Duncan Barrett (Tigercats), Sarah Lippett (Fever Dream), Paul Rains (Hexicon, Allo Darlin’), and Robert Rotifer (Rotifer). A 9-track CD was released featuring exclusive space songs by all the artists, including Darren’s contributions, ‘A Breeze And A Little Piece Of Coal’ and ‘Little Arrow And Little Squirrel. The sleeve folds out into a screenprinted poster. More information on the album is available here.

Buy Vostok 5 on CD

Or buy downloads via Bandcamp for £3 with some extra tracks

<a href="http://darrenhayman.bandcamp.com/album/vostok-5">Vostok 5 by Various</a>

Madrid

Posted on 30th March 200911th August 2018 by darren

Released 30 March 2009

I met the Wave Pictures in 2006 at the Walthamstow Festival. Didn’t I? I saw Franic down Brick Lane putting Wave Pictures posters up. I thought ‘that rings a bell’.

Hang on, no, I met Dave Tattersall a year earlier than that. He came to a gig that just me and Amos did in Glasgow. I remember him telling me I was a bit rude because I was more interested in talking to John from the Yummy Fur and the 1990’s. Dave had been sending me Wave Pictures CDs for a few years before that even. I remember not linking them at first. It’s rare that any of would give something a second listen, but Dave’s charm is a forceful thing you can’t say no to the guy. I started to like him and the Wave Pictures. He sent me an email telling me how he’d split up from his girl. It was self-pitying or fanny, just honest and matter of fact. I thought it an odd thing to do, but I replied and Dave has since told me it was odd that I replied. It feels to me that the first time I met the Wave Pictures was in Walthamstow. I spoke to them a while. They had moved to London. My wife said I was showing off in front of them, trying to look like the big man. They hung around the Duke of Uke, which is where I hang too. I had a tour to do in Spain and Sweden and because they were Hefner fans I thought I could get them to be my band for cheap.

They said, yes. The tour certainly had its ups and downs. Hard drives, some sparse gigs. They made me feel old, with their energy and optimism. One night I was watching their set and I realised that they were really, really good. In Barcelona some shit happened and the WPs got screwed around, I realised whilst shouting at the promoter that I cared about the Wave Pictures and they were my friends. This show was recorded by the desk engineer on the Madrid show of that tour, a happy accident. It has its faults, that’s why its cheap.

Buy Madrid on CD (includes P and P)

Hefnet