AFTER two singles dropped on the drove road through the autumn in the shape of the swirling and funky “Naturalise Me”, and the graceful boy/girl synthpop of “Old Flames”, which we took a butcher’s at here and here, respectively, Ed Seed and his band have decided to bare their dancefloor teeth as they descend the cwm towards the hearthside of their new album, Powys 1999, which is out on Memphis Industries on November 13th.
The third and final single to be dropped in advance is the chattering, infectious, dancefloor-bound “Come With Me”, which makes more than a little common ground with later Chemical Brothers in its humming electro crackle, as you can hear below.
Lyrically speaking, the track sees Ed paint a picture of his Welsh mountain childhood: “Up here you can see for miles, up here you could tell a vision” he sings Ed, describing the abiding mystic lure of the Celtic fringes in popular consciousness.
“I grew up in a granite house 1100 feet up, two miles from the nearest town,” he recalls.
“The sounds I remember strongest are buzzards’ cries and the roar of military jets; the RAF use the Welsh hills to train fighter pilots to fly low.
“Up there you get every kind of weather full in the face and you can see so far in every direction it feels like you’re floating on top of the world. Animals are born and die in the open fields. Black storms move quickly across the horizon over distant towns.
“You could have some big, scary ideas about the world when there’s no one around to temper you.
“Wherever you come from, whatever you want, whatever you lack – the mountain seems to promise it to you”.
“Come With Me” is the album’s hook-laden opening track, and came about from a jam on the very first day of recording at Giant Wafer Studios, Llanbadarn Fynydd, about 35 miles south of where Ed grew up.
“Nicole really dug into her cello to make those sawing, roaring drones – those are the jets!,” he says.
Stats’ Powys 1999 will be released by Memphis Industries on digital, CD, trad black and pink vinyl formats by Memphis Industries on November 13th. Pre-order yours here.
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