Friday 7 October 2011

Ryan Hardy-Heavy Mandolin


wombnet 10

Recently, Ryan sent me his new album "A Cup Of Tea". His music continues to amaze me. You can hear some of his new work at his website. Here's a teaser Oh My Stars. I suggested it might be a good thing to publish his album from last year, "Heavy Mandolin" as a new wombnet release. He agreed. These tunes were previously available on itunes, in fact, Reinforced Concrete Monsters reached number 28 in Dandelion Radio's Festive 50. Now the album is free, and distributed through wombnet and the FMA.

Download zip
Download flac (167mb)

01.Takes Ye Away MP3 FLAC
02.I Saw Santa (2009edit) MP3 FLAC
03.Chase MP3 FLAC
04.Reinforced Concrete Monsters MP3FLAC
05.Bicycle MP3 FLAC
06.2012 MP3 FLAC
07.Grave Robber MP3FLAC
08.Hide Away In The Darkness MP3 FLAC

Heavy Mandolin at the FMA
at ARCHIVE.ORG
at SOUNDSHIVA

I think Ryan is a good example of the intensely hybrid nature of today's sounds. (Of course, music has always been a mix of roots, and it's only really a matter of degree.) I can hear Howard Devoto, Noel Coward, Ivor Cutler, John Shuttleworth, Robert Wyatt, Tim Blake, Syd Barrett, Lesley Sarony, Steve Howe, Captain Sensible, Neil Innes, John Otway...

Reinforced Concrete Monsters is a punk classic. Surely the old man at the beeb would have loved it. Ryan's music is gloriously crazy. I'm proud to support art that is fundamentally joyous and celebratory of life.


I asked a few people what they thought about Heavy Mandolin. This is what they said:

Charlie Lewis of WFMU Radio said "I'm so glad he picked up that mandolin. I really admire someone who can be so uninhibited and unabashedly loony and honest and so creative all at once. Usually only children can manage that, but without the skills".

Rob Da Bank of BBC Radio1 said "Ah, now here's something fresh and a bit weird. Never quite sure where this one's gonna end up but some fantastic songs and ideas here."

Neil Jenkins of Dandelion Radio said "what Pseudo Nippon would sound like if he was from Birmingham and was brought up eating bacon butties".

Marcel Hermans of Transformed Dreams label said "dyslactic glomreck for the whole family".

Coseyhead of wombnet said "Howard Devoto on happy pills"

Listen With Sarah of nfa said "F*****g ace! I want to listen to it on a trampoline".


Bouncy bouncy.