- David Wrench (singer)
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David Wrench Origin Wales Genres Pop/Folk/Experimental Occupations Singer/Producer/Engineer Years active 1989– Labels Ankst/Stoem/Invada Notable instruments Piano/Melotron/Synthesizer/Vibraphone David Wrench is a singer, musician and studio producer/ sound engineer from Anglesey, Wales. His music has ranged from camp synth pop to Doom inspired Folk.
He first came to public attention while still at school in 1989 with his first group Nid Madagascar, who recorded "the first Welsh language acid house record" Lledrith Lliw as a 12" single in 1990.
Reappearing some years later as a solo artist he was signed first to Ankst Records of Cardiff and later to Manchester-based Storm Music. Wrench has made three albums, Blow Winds Blow, The Atomic World of Tomorrow, and Spades & Hoes & Plows, as well as a number of singles and EPs. He was also a member of the 33 piece "cosmic supergroup" The Serpents, with whom he also released a single and an album.
His first full-length solo album, Blow Winds Blow includes Wrench acting as a multi-instrumentalist.
His 2004 single "Superorny" was backed by "Fuck You And Your War On Terror", which was recorded live for Sheffield's radio2XS.
The Atomic World of Tomorrow and its supporting singles are best described as camp synth pop, with a resemblance to artists such as the Pet Shop Boys and Scissor Sisters.
In 2010 he released the album Spades & Hoes & Plows on Invada records. The album comprises 3 re-workings of old revolutionary folk songs and one original instrumental piece based on the Rebecca Riots. The album was produced by Julian Cope and received widespread critical acclaim. Writing in the Sunday Times, Stewart Lee described it thus: "In the face of young people's new enthusiasm for trad-lite, the Welsh weirdo David Wrench threatens to reunpopularise folk music, foregrounding puritanical politics over unpalatable instrumentation at funereal tempos. Fans of Lisbee Stainton are unlikely to enjoy Wrench's punishing, 24 minute rendition of The Blackleg Miner despite the invigorating and apocalyptically primitive Mellotron interludes supplied by Julian Cope's Black Sheep band. These weary recitations of traditional protest songs require patience, but by Helyntion Beca, a wordless closing workout inspired by 19th-century black-face transvestites attacking Carmarthenshire toll gates, the LP achieves a tortuous transcendence."
When not working on his own music, Wrench is a studio Record Producer and Engineer. His credits as Producer include albums for Alessi's Ark, Race Horses, Zun Zun Egui, Kathryn Williams, Y Niwl, Gwyneth Glyn, and Euros Childs. As an Engineer he has worked on albums by Bat For Lashes, Everything Everything, Guillemotts, Beth Orton, James Yorkston, Nancy Elizabeth and Fanfarlo. As a mixer, he mixed the award winning "Swim" album by Caribou, as well as previous album "Andorra". He has recently mixed albums by Is Tropical, and Rich Aucoin. He was awarded the BBC C2 Producer of the Year award in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Wrench recently appeared (3 May 2009) in session on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone alongside Julian Cope and his flock of Black Sheep
Contents
Discography
Albums
- 1997: Blow Winds Blow (vinyl LP/audio CD)
- 1999: You Have Just been Poisened by The Serpents (audio CD with The Serpents)
- 2005: The Atomic World of Tomorrow (audio CD)
- 2010: Spades & Hoes & Plows (audio CD)
Singles and EPs
- 1990: "Lledrith Lliw" (12" vinyl EP with Nid Madagascar)
- 1997: "Black Roses" (7" vinyl)
- 1997: "The Ballad of the Christmas Tree and the Silver Birch" (7" vinyl)
- 1998: "No Mask, No Cloak, Dim Gobaith" (7" vinyl with The Serpents)
- 1998: "Sings the Songs of the Shangri Las" (7" vinyl EP)
- 2004: "Superhorny" / "Fuck You And Your War On Terror" (12" vinyl & CD EP)
- 2004: "World War IV" (CD EP)
External links
- Head Heritage-Spades & Hoes & Plows Mini-site for Spades & Hoes & Plows album
- BBC "mini site" for David Wrench
- Storm Music, the label Wrench was signed to
- [1] List of David Wrench's technical credits at Discogs.
Categories:- Living people
- British electronic musicians
- Welsh multi-instrumentalists
- People with albinism
- Welsh male singers
- Welsh pop singers
- Synthpop musicians
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