Name: Terfysgiaith 1982-2022
Brand: Datblygu

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

ANKST160

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Hardback Book Style with 48 Page Booklet with Essay, Interviews and Lyrics and Photos. 

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-02-24

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Shellshock

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

Artist

Datblygu

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Ankst Musik

Datblygu (Welsh pronunciation: datˈbləɡi) are an experimental Welsh rock group formed in 1982. They played a significant role in the new wave of Welsh rock during the early '80s. Led by vocalist David R. Edwards and instrumentalist T. Wyn Davies, they released their first vinyl EP in 1987, gaining recognition from John Peel and Geraint Jarman's Fideo 9 show on S4C.
With lyrics predominantly in Welsh, Edwards expressed his disillusionment with life in Wales under Margaret Thatcher's government. The band released albums such as "Wyau" (1988) and "Pyst" (1990) before undergoing lineup changes and collaborations with other artists.
In recent years, Datblygu reunited for various projects including the EP "Darluniau'r Ogof Unfed Ganrif ar Hugain" (2012), mini-album "Erbyn Hyn" (2014), and album "Porwr Trallod" (2015). Additionally, David Edwards published a book of poems titled "Search In English For The House Of Tolerance" accompanied by an audio CD featuring music by Ashley Cooke.

This is a 3CD definitive Datblygu compilation release celebrating the band's 40 year history which also works as a personal tribute to the life and work of the late David R. Edwards.   2 of the disks are best of 40yrs of music - third disk is all exclusives - exclusives disk is physical only - not being streamed.     

Datblygu are generally accepted to be the most influential Welsh language group of the last forty years. A clear inspiration on the Cool Cymru generation (Super Furries, Gorky's, Catatonia), John Peel Radio Show favourites, and the poetic and musical soul of late 20th century Welsh underground rock culture.   

Terfysgiaith 1982-2022 is a compilation of the music made by David R.Edwards and Pat Morgan as Datblygu that spans those forty eventful years. Starting with David's first bed- room recordings in Aberteifi in 1982 right up to the final tracks recorded by Pat and David together for the last time in a bare living room in council run sheltered accommodation in Carmarthen in 2021. Compiled from lists of favourite Datblygu tracks chosen by David and Pat in anticipation of their upcoming 40th anniversary activities as a band in 2022. Part of a process that would have been an opportunity for the band to be publicly recognised for the important influence their work and artistry has had over the decades.

Sadly this didn’t happen as originally planned. In June of 2021 David R.Edwards, Datblygu’s lead singer and songwriter, a hugely loved and respected figure in Wales, suddenly passed away.   Terfysgiaith 1982-2022 contains 60 tracks spread over three disks.  

Two of these are complimentary chronological ‘best-of’ disks.  David always joked that Welsh culture was one that made you learn how to say the same thing twice! Datblygu, on the other hand only ever said it once, it was enough and only ever in the Welsh language. The third disk is ‘Santes Dwynwen o’r Elsey’ an album of rarities, live, demo and session tracks made available exclusively with this release.   

You can drop the needle anywhere over Datblygu’s catalogue and at once be face to face with David R.Edwards. His rebellious, honest and compassionate voice raging against the norm. You realise that here is someone with something to say, always communicating a truth, as Pat has said before ‘a man on a mission.’ How David says these things, his lyrical poetry is always astonishingly direct, beautifully poetic, challenging, daring, shocking sometimes, musically innovative and often very funny. You never doubt that David and Pat are always being true to themselves – this is very important. There is never any sense of Datblygu trying to please others, or going through the motions. They demanded that the wider world paid attention and listened to them.   

That wider world initially was the insular Welsh language scene, and it is impossible to overstate the effect Datblygu’s existence has had on reversing the backward-looking pop culture that existed when they formed in the early 1980s.  Datblygu’s journey has been long and at times very difficult and painful but full of extraordinary highlights – classic albums like Wyau (1988), Pyst(1990) and Libertino(1993), those wonderful John Peel Radio Sessions, live appearances that were always electric, unpredictable and unforgettable, and just dozens of extraordinary songs like Y Teimlad, Can i Gymry, Ugain i Un and Cyn Symud i Ddim.   

How inspiring is it to realise that a band formed in school back in 1982 with the express intention, as they clearly said at the time, of directly challenging the brain-washing music blindly tolerated by those around them were also on the best Welsh albums shortlists everywhere in 2021 for the extraordinary vision that is Cwm Gwagle, an album recorded by them on the eve of the first Covid lockdown.   

Between these two points they have created a catalogue of music as rich and extra- ordinary as any band anywhere ever has.   

The confrontational nature of David’s song writing and performance style saw him becoming seen as some sort of moral conscience for the new generation growing up in Wales in the 1980s and 1990s and his poetic brilliance saw him being revered as a visionary artist and hailed as the alternative national poet and Wales’s premier iconoclast.   Datblygu’s music is undoubtedly inspiring. This compilation is ample testament to their power. They’ve written simple classic songs about the mystery of love, rave tracks so full of poetic imagery that it would make Rimbaud blush, recorded experimental works as deep with meaning as any page out of Joyce’s Ulysseus as well as plenty of genius three-minute pop and rock tracks that have demolished more sacred cows and estab- lishment lies than a room full of angry tweeters ever could.   They’ve done and been so many things and also only ever one thing – Datblygu. When asked to self-define – they called themselves ‘non-conforming non-conformists’ who asked for their music to be catalogued under the category 'Non-Hick'.