Taken from the album ‘Christmas Joy In Full Measure’, out now on Hand Of Glory Records. Available worldwide digitally and on CD from all great record shops
https://itunes.apple.com/album/christ…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Joy…

http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/prod…

Film/edit: Ben @ http://www.smokenopony.biz
Makeup/Hair Natalie Sharp http://www.nataliesharp.co.uk/

 

Smoke No Pony’s latest video is currently sitting pretty at number one in the iTunes video charts. Congratulations to Essex Young Farmers and Woodbury Studios!

 

Limited Edition (250) Signed and Numbered Print with Download Code for Record Store Day 2014!

The third single to be taken from Ralfe Band’s latest album Son Be Wise, Cold Chicago Morning is a vaudeville ghost tour of derelict railways and fog-bound coastal paths. With restless piano and spiralling strings leading us to the collapse of a ballroom, the song showcases Oly Ralfe’s rare gift for weaving musical fables.

Oly Ralfe: “I recorded this song in Wales during a big freeze. My mind wandered to the USA and Chicago, a city I’ve never been to, so I thought I’d take myself there by writing a song, and it’s cheaper than flying. Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi) produced the track and played drums. I love his  stomping drums played with brushes. Other highlights are the devilish pizzicato viola part played by John Greswell and lap steel guitar by Ben Nicholls”  

Cold Chicago Morning is backed with an exclusive track – a Field Music remix of album favourite Oh My Father. Field Music’s cracked lens re-interpretation strips and sifts its bones through their own singular aesthetic. Listened together, these two songs, thematically linked by broken mirrors and uncertain destinations, blend like a Victorian stereogram into a two-act broadside of wistful, ageless melancholy.

Says Oly Ralfe, “This is the first remix we’ve had made. We’re big fans of Field Music and were excited when they wanted to remix Oh My Father. This track has got a whole new drum beat and itfunks away in a jerky fashion. I also love the way this remix picks out melodies that are buried in the original mix and brings them into the foreground in a new way, making it a complete re-imagining.”

 With the release of their third studio album Son Be Wise, Ralfe Band enjoyed a busy 2013 that saw them touring the UK and Europe with I Am Kloot, the UK with Young Knives, and included radio sessions for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music, Loose Ends for BBC Radio 4 and John Kennedy at XFM. The festival season brought them to Wilderness and the main stage at End Of The Road. Son Be Wise follows Ralfe Band’s acclaimed soundtrack and album to the feature film Bunny and the Bull(Warp Films).

A dream come true. We were lucky enough to be in Studio 1 at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London today working alongside partners Woodbury Recording Studio and Audio Network. Filming for charity single ‘Put That Hoe Down’ by Essex Young Farmers.

 

Having been a huge fan since first hearing ‘Youth and Young Manhood’ by Young Knives many years back, we were over the moon to be asked to put this official video for 2014 single White Sands together. Enjoy!

 

Our latest music video for Mary Epworth has had an honourable mention of the official Mercury Music Awards website. See below.

 

 

 

Article from the Quietus…

Mary Epworth, ace singer-songwriter and hare fanatic, has released a new one-off single, ‘September’, today, out on Hand Of Glory Records, and we’ve got a first look at the video – have a watch above.

It’s her first new material since last year’s Dream Life album, and sees Epworth turning in a driving, sub-two-minute rejoinder to the woes of the titular month – who can’t empathise with the line, “September is the end, and going back to school/ But I won’t make them find me”? – hung around martial glam drums and wavering Morricone harmonicas, weaving through some familiar nature-gazing – “Under a leaf, where I’ll hide my face for sweet relief” – in the lyrics.

Says Epworth of the track: “This song in an earlier form nearly ended up on Dream Life, but once we decided it hadn’t made the cut, I realised it could be turned into a bit of a glitterbeat stomper. I’ve been in a bit of a glam rock frame of mind, and wanted to make something that people could move to. Producer Will and I went as far as dancing while we recorded the drum take, to make sure the beat was just right for a night out at the local working men’s club.

“Lyrically it’s about my childhood dread of going back to school, or adult dread of facing boring reality. ‘Drown the job and drink the dream’ could probably be my personal motto, and I never need much encouragement to head into the woods to chase bugs.”

She also touches on the follow-up to her debut: “I think of this standalone 45 as a palate cleanser after Dream Life. This comes from that time, but I’m doing something new with it, and now look forward to thrashing about writing and recording my difficult second album.”

 

We traveled to Istanbul to represent the UK for West London based charity, NICOLA as part of a European Union funded week of discussion talking about the effects of an ageing population. This is a short film about the trip.