HEN OGLEDD - Discombobulated

Following Rhodri Davies's decision to turn the incongruity of Hen Ogledd's early steps into something more organic, the band's initial experimental folk-psych leanings have broadened into a fully-fledged art-pop formula, born of the interaction between the four musicians who are now the beating heart of this disorienting British outfit.

With "Discombobulated", Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington wade headlong into contemporary sociopolitical dynamics, drawing on the cyclical nature of life and its interplay with nature and the sacred. In this surreal bridge between reality and imagination, the band has enlisted artists from wildly different cultural and musical backgrounds (from Janne Westerlund of Circle to Matana Roberts), further muddying the waters while still giving every element its due prominence.

The expansive nature of "Discombobulated" - expressive rather than emotional - is evident from the album's very first notes: the chamber-folk-prog epic "Scales Will Fall" is built on a powerful psych fanfare that veers toward jazz without giving up a philosophical spirituality that, in a few emblematic lines, urges new generations to become aware of their role in the cycle of life.

Electronic dissonance and funky grooves provide the backdrop to the invective against the political class in the rollicking "Dead In A Post-Truth World" (which wouldn't be out of place on a Peter Gabriel record), before dissolving into the faint, ethereal "Clara", a fanciful, unexpected interlude that momentarily eases the tension.

In this rich art-pop excursion, Hen Ogledd build their original musical digressions around a recurring nod to Eastern music, vocals that borrow phrasing from hip hop, children's voices tasked with stirring the listener's sociopolitical conscience, and an expressive urgency that tracks like "End Of The Rhythm" heighten with powerful ethno-disco grooves.

But it's in the nearly twenty minutes of "Clear Pools" that the band reaches its ultimate catharsis, with a furious blend of progressive, Canterbury, noise-rock, spoken-word, new age, jazz, folk, psychedelia, chamber-folk and pop.

Not an easy record, but an intense one, unlike anything else you'll hear this year, "Discombobulated" probably won't provide background music for your everyday life, nor make it any more pleasant or light. But if there's still hope for music that pushes beyond the boundaries of mere product, it's wrapped up in this latest project from Hen Ogledd - the alternatives, of course, are plentiful: yet another vinyl reissue of your favourite record, or the hyped-up next big thing that will be forgotten within two months.

The choice is yours.

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27/02/2026