Mar 17: Every Valley - Public Service Broadcasting

Every Valley is an album by Public Service Broadcasting who I have mentioned elsewhere on the blog. I shall also return to this at a later date.

It tells the story of the growth and decline of the coal mining industry (in South Wales in particular) and is an excellent piece of work.

Like all their music it blends electronic music and some cracking guitar work and drumming with electronics.

It was recorded in Wales and the band actually moved into a village hall in Wales and built a recording studio.

Here's a making of documentary which shows some of the ways that the sense of place of the village where they were based influenced the work.

And a track by track...

This way of working is something that Public Service Broadcasting have done for some albums. For their Berlin album, J Willgoose moved to Berlin.

This connection with place is one of the reasons I like the band so much.

This review discusses the album and its creation.

During this expedition through its massive archives, Public Service Broadcasting delved into material outlining the acme and descent of coal mining in the Welsh countryside but J. Willgoose Esq. didn’t stop there. Noting the extensive list of informative records and expert individuals tapped for research insight (The National Coal Board films at The BFI, independent documentary, “The Welsh Miner,” and audio tape from the South Wales Miners’ Library at Swansea University) and even interviews fostered by J. Willgoose Esq. himself and recorded on the album (as is the case for the secretary and caretaker of the local branch of the National Union of Mineworkers), the labour intense footwork required for the conceptual foundation of Every Valley makes the record feel more like a doctorate research paper that happens to have original music behind it, than vice versa.