Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Wales has been a bed rock, a thriving hub of music for so long that at times it could be forgiven for resting on its mighty and well deserved laurels. These include groups performing with political ideals such The Alarm and the Manic Street Preachers, to much loved stars such as Sir Tom Jones and Dame Shirley Bassey and even those who should have been so much bigger, including the tremendous talent that resides at the heart of Jump – John Dexter Jones.
What Wales has not produced much of, the odd dribble in comparison to the tidal wave from its neighbour, is that of the hybrid of straight out Rock and the Progressive overtone. Thankfully that state of affairs changes with the new self titled album by the Dead Shed Jokers.
Dynamic with a sense of the ability to tell a lengthy tale, some perhaps protective, some motivating and full of wondrous strength, others asking the question of what people think of Welsh music. It always seems to hark back to the sound of the choral filtering through the valleys or the anger of those who feel, perhaps with absolute justification, that they have been forgotten, disposed of as easily as the industries that were allowed to die, and not with the sense of the poetic wonder available.
Whilst The Alarm and the Manic Street Preachers are arguably the finest bands to come out of Wales in the last 30 years and the truth they reveal, the sense of the longer epic has perhaps been evaded but in Dead Shed Jokers tracks such as the opener Dafydd Song, A Cautionary Tale, Love Is Diseased and the excellent Memoirs of Mr Bryant, the song is given a different kind of life, a separate way of opening up the country’s abiding story telling history and ability. It is like reading Dylan Thomas all your life and then finding out he did a side line in writing adventure stories set in the bare-like crevices of deepest Peru.
Quite distinct in their delivery, Dead Shed Jokers are of unique stock, interesting, enjoyable and one to make the next generation of bands from the country aspire to be like.
Dead Shed Jokers is released on the 13th April.
Ian D. Hall