Nyah Fearties - A Tasty Heidfu'

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Raw as hell record from the 1980s Scottish underground by Nyah Fearties, who toured Arran in kilts, who built a percussion setup from scaffolding and oil drums, who appeared on The Tube on the back of a moving lorry, and recorded this, their first album, in a cow shed in Ayrshire with just a car’s cassette deck as a monitor. 

Don’t expect this to sound soft or slick because it isn’t, and therein lies its glory. Released on vinyl 1986, and later circulated under the counter as an unofficial CD-R, it’s bounced around the Glaswegian underground for decades. The master tapes went missing but with the approval of Davy Wiseman it’s been dragged kicking and screaming back into the world as a limited LP run and digital release, and contains perhaps the most chaotic detournement of a Robbie Burns folk ballad ever laid to tape. 

Nyah Fearties are from the village of Lugton, and created a near-unique brand of anarchic modern folk in the 1980s and 1990s. “Simple Minds, Orange Juice and The Jesus And Mary Chain were from Scotland but Nyah Fearties are about Scotland” said one review. Their feral Celtic punk is influenced by industrial groups like Einsturzende Neubaten, who inspired a scaffolding and scrap metal percussion setup that became known as ‘the blatter cage’, making them unwelcome wherever they went. Fearties are a duo of brothers Davy and Stephen Wiseman, and this record also includes, “the Entire Company on anything they can lay their hands on” according to original sleevenotes. The brothers toured, appeared on TV, and later supported The Pogues on tour, and these successes allowed them to release better recordings under improved conditions. 

Originally released in 1986 and reissued now by Good Energy, a co-production between Jennifer Lucy Allan (Arc Light Editions) and Kevin McCarvel (Nyali Recordings). Good energy thanks all involved, especially Cal Wiseman and the one with the best energy: Davy Wiseman. 

To be Feart is to be scared, but you better be 
because A Tasty Heidfu’ is back and it’s coming for you.