A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Datblygu - Carpiog [Peel Session] (11 October 1992)

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First broadcast as part of Datblygu’s first Peel Session on 13 May 1987, Carpiog or Ragged to give it its English translation is, according to the sleevenotes on the Ankst compilation of their first three Peel Sessions... an anti-graft song about the futility of digging holes and filling them in again. Retrospectively dedicated by the singer to all the fascist scum bosses he has encountered in the Wales Tourist Board and Welsh education system.

Being a non-Welsh speaker, I’ll have to take their word for that, but what made me fall in love with the track was the way they use what sounds like closely miked and capoed guitars to sound as though they are recording from inside a giant bell, though that could equally be down to the skills of Maida Vale stalwarts such as Dale Griffin.  Whoever takes credit, it produces a most interesting background to the song, causing it to sound both ominous and awesome in equal measure.
After playing Carpiog, Peel went into a slightly slightly impassioned speech about his horror over the fact that Datblygu seemed to be turning into a rock group and his hopes that this would not be a permanent state of affairs.  He may have been thinking of tracks like No Law, No Property from their Peel Session of 12/6/92 which veered closely to pub-rock singalong in its chorus, as well as the feeling that several of the tracks were stretched past their logical ending as the band got drunk and an air of self indulgence permeated most of the proceedings. They were a million miles away from the sharply, concise sounds of Carpiog.

Video courtesy of Datblygu Topic