Peski Records

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Peski Records
Founded2003 (2003)
FounderGarmon Gruffydd, Rhys Edwards
Defunct2016 (2016)
StatusInactive
Country of origin Wales, UK

Peski Records was an independent record label and music publisher based in Cardiff, Wales. The label has released records by influential Welsh artists including Cate Le Bon, Gwenno, R. Seiliog and Y Pencadlys.

A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and be both promoted and heard on music streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists, who assist performers in gaining positive media coverage, and arrange for their merchandise to be available via stores and other media outlets.

In the music industry, a music publisher is responsible for ensuring the songwriters and composers receive payment when their compositions are used commercially. Through an agreement called a publishing contract, a songwriter or composer "assigns" the copyright of their composition to a publishing company. In return, the company licenses compositions, helps monitor where compositions are used, collects royalties and distributes them to the composers. They also secure commissions for music and promote existing compositions to recording artists, film and television.

Cardiff Capital and largest city of Wales

Cardiff is the capital of Wales and its largest city. The eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom, it is Wales's chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural institutions and Welsh media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. At the 2011 census, the unitary authority area population was estimated to be 346,090, and the wider urban area 479,000. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographic's alternative tourist destinations.

Contents

History

The name Peski derives from the Welsh word 'pesgi', which is normally used to describe farm animals and means 'to fatten'. [1] The name was coined in 2002 when founders Garmon Gruffydd, Rhys Edwards and a childhood friend was strolling on the grounds of St David's Cathedral in the county of Pembrokeshire. Once inside the cathedral, the trio signed the guestbook and Peski Records was born.

St Davids Cathedral Church in Pembrokeshire, Wales

St Davids Cathedral is situated in St Davids in the county of Pembrokeshire, on the most westerly point of Wales.

Pembrokeshire County in Wales

Pembrokeshire is a county in the southwest of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the sea everywhere else.

Peski's first release was Jakokoyak's debut album, Am Cyfan Dy Pethau Prydferth (2003), which had a distinctive lo-fi experimental electronic music sound with leanings towards psychedelic folk, sometimes classified as folktronica. The album title, Am Cyfan Dy Pethau Prydferth was taken from a badly translated poster on the walls of the Cardiff Union. [2] After quickly selling out of all copies of the album in the UK, it was re-released in Japan in 2004 and was warmly received in Japanese magazines such as Vogue Nippon. After a string of subsequent releases, Jakokoyak supported fellow-countrymen Super Furry Animals on their short tour of Japan and the success enabled Peski to invest in other artists.

Jakokoyak is a Welsh musician who produces lo-fi experimental electronic music, with leanings towards psychedelic folk, sometimes classified as folktronica. Edwards also co-runs the label Peski Records. He is married to musician Gwenno Saunders and lives in Cardiff.

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means, and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.

Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline and DMT to experience visual and auditory hallucinations, synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs.

Over the next few years, the label went on to release records from David Mysterious (real name Cai Strachan), Evils and The Joy Formidable's Rhydian Dafydd (Stitches), before signing Aberystwyth's psychedelic indie pop band Radio Luxembourg in 2007, who had expressed a wish to release 2 EPs before moving on to a London-based record label. After fulfilling their agreement, Radio Luxembourg went on to sign with Fantastic Plastic Records and changed their name in 2009 due to possible legal problems with the radio station of the same name. [3]

The Joy Formidable British rock band

The Joy Formidable is a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 2007 in Mold, Flintshire, and currently based in London, England. The band consists of Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd and Matthew James Thomas.

Race Horses were a Welsh band based in Cardiff, Wales and originally from Aberystwyth. Formed in 2005 as Radio Luxembourg, they changed their name in 2009 due to possible legal problems with the radio station of the same name. Initially the majority of their music was in Welsh, but their final album Furniture was entirely in English.

Fantastic Plastic Records is an independent record label based in London and Brighton.

Cate Le Bon's first official release came out on Peski in 2008 in the form of a Welsh language EP, Edrych yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg ("Looking in the Eyes of a Borrowed Horse", similar to the English expression "to look a gift horse in the mouth"). [4] The record features vocal contribution from Euros Childs and Andy Votel, who also designed the vinyl artwork. [5]

Cate Le Bon Welsh singer-songwriter

Cate Le Bon is a Welsh musician and producer. She sings in both English and Welsh. She has released five solo albums, three EPs and a number of singles. Le Bon has toured with artists such as St. Vincent, Perfume Genius and John Grant.

Euros Childs Welsh musician

Euros Childs is a Welsh musician and songwriter, perhaps best known as the frontman for the band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and—as of January 2019—the keyboardist for Teenage Fanclub. His sister, violinist Megan Childs, was also a member of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and their father Lynn played on some Gorky's recordings, most notably on Barafundle. Childs was born in Freshwater East, Pembrokeshire, and was educated at the Welsh-medium school Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin in Carmarthenshire.

Andrew "Andy Votel" Shallcross is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records.

In 2012, Peski began working with R. Seiliog and released his debut EP, "Shuffles". [6] R. Seiliog went on to sign a deal with Turnstile Music.

During this period, the label began hosting a series of popular 'Peski Nacht' events on the top floor of Cardiff's Jacobs Antiques building. It was an opportunity to showcase the growing collective of artists on the label as well as bringing influential international artists to perform with them in Cardiff, [7] such as R. Stevie Moore, who is often considered the founding father of DIY Home-Recording, Lo-Fi and Indie Pop. [8]

In 2013, a series of EPs by Gwenno were released which led to her debut album, "Y Dydd Olaf", in October 2014. This would become the last album released on the label. The album quickly sold out and after a U.K. tour support with Gruff Rhys, Gwenno signed a record deal with Heavenly Recordings. [9] Peski continued to work with Gwenno acting as her management[ citation needed ].

In March 2016, after a period of inactivity, it was announced that the label is dissolving. [10]

CAM (Cam o'r Tywyllwch)

"Cam o'r Tywyllwch" (Welsh for "A Step from the Darkness") is a specialist weekly radio programme curated by Peski exploring experimental and avant-garde music from Wales and further afield. The first programme was broadcast on 14 February 2013 and became the first Welsh-language show on Radio Cardiff. [11] An eight part series of "Cam O'r Tywyllwch" was produced for London's art radio station Resonance FM in January 2014 with the aim of promoting unheard experimental music from Wales to a wider audience. [12] The show is currently on hiatus.

The show's name is a musical homage to the first alternative Welsh language music compilation released on Anrhefn Records in 1985. The theme tune is also a musical reference to one of the earliest example of electronic music in the Welsh language - "Tros Y Gareg" by John Baker, which was recorded in 1970 at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. [13]

In 2015 CAM also hosted a festival, held at Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre, which presented a programme of discussions, sound installations, a cinema and an evening line-up of live music. Welsh post-punk pioneers Datblygu performed live at the festival for the first time in 20 years, [14] with other highlights including a performance of "Fish Music" - an idea conceived by the author and musician Sam Richards where fish swimming in a tank becomes musical notations by means of a five line musical stave being placed across the glass and string players being instructed to choose a fish and follow its course behind the stave.

Artists

See also

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References

  1. ↑ http://translation.babylon.com/english/Pesgi/
  2. ↑ Peski Records Archived 26 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Race Horses (band)
  4. ↑ "Peski - About Cate Le Bon". Peski Records. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  8. ↑ http://www.rsteviemoore.com/cd/meet2.html
  9. ↑ http://www.nme.com/news/the-pipettes/85280
  10. ↑ Carl Morris (24 March 2016). "End of Peski Records - Diwedd Recordiau Peski: dyddiau olaf, dyddiau cynnar". Y Twll (in Welsh).
  11. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  12. ↑ http://resonancefm.com/archives/17334%5B%5D
  13. ↑ http://www.planetskaro.org.uk/forums/threads/2982-The-BBC-Radiophonic-Workshop-Thread
  14. ↑ http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/datblygu-cam-festival-cardiff-8878942
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