About five years ago, Greg Butler’s documentary “The Ambiguity of David Thomas Broughton” premiered. The film was quite unlike anything we’d seen before thanks to the complex personality and equally complex talent of its subject – David Thomas Broughton.
In his review of the film, Thomas Blake wrote: “Broughton hails from Otley in Yorkshire, an eccentric place in it own right (it is home to five active Morris dancing sides, which is impressive for a town of fewer than 14,000 inhabitants). He has lived in both North and South Korea, where he somehow managed to indulge his passion for ornithology. He plays loop pedal and a guitar and sings. In the last ten years, he has released upwards of half a dozen albums, as well as a couple of EPs, despite having little or no interest in the music business.
“Just your average reclusive folky type, you might think. But you’d be wrong. For one thing, he is far from reclusive. A frequent live performer, his shows can be confrontational, intimate or bizarre. And, as a new film sets out to prove, there is nothing average about Broughton’s approach to composition or performance.”
Among his many releases, one which is still frequently referenced is his 2005 one-take, no-overdub debut masterpiece “The Complete Guide To Insufficiency”, which until now, has only been released on CD.
Back in 2005 the album was recorded in a church in one take and released on Birdwar Records, a label set up specifically to release Broughton’s music. “I was working a full-time admin job at the time and so anything in terms of interest in the record was great,” he recalls. “The label and I resigned ourselves to the fact John Peel would have been our only chance of radio play but he died just before we put the record out. So we dedicated it to him instead.” It was soon licensed to hip electronic label Plug Research in the US and things spread further from there – including an 8.4 review from Pitchfork. “I had no expectations of how and whether it would be received at all,” he reflects. “I set out to approach making music as a celebration of the process of construction and the process of learning. Every struggle to play, every slip, every error, is held in the loop.”
Although looking back, Broughton suspects that maybe that’s what made it such an endearing and alluring record for some. “A major point that held people’s attention is the fact that it was recorded in a single take. My tools were limited. The looped vocals were sung into the pickup in my guitar. The fact that a naivety and humanity is audible in the record is something that draws people in.”
Song By Toad Records are to re-issue the album which has been remastered and will be released on vinyl on December 6th. You can purchase it via Bandcamp or you can buy it from the man himself one of his November tour dates listed below. Not content with a simple anniversary reissue of this landmark alternative folk record, this remastered vinyl release also comes with a digital bonus album of other artists covering tracks from the album and featuring Alison Cotton, Adrian Crowley, Thor & Friends, Matthew Bourne & Keeley Forsyth, James Yorkston, Alabaster dePlume, Todd Goldstein and Rozi Plain.
Haunting, dreamy, grating, beautiful and baffling – pick a cliché, it’s probably in there at some point. It’s a glorious, glorious album anyway, and I am really proud to be releasing it on vinyl at long last. Massive thanks to David and Birdwar (who released it originally) for helping to make this happen. Matthew of Song By Toad Records
Tour details:
17th November – Stockton, Waiting Room
18th November – Cardiff, The Moon
19th November – Manchester, Gullivers
20th November – Glasgow, The Blue Arrow
21st November – Edinburgh, Summerhall
22nd November – Lancaster, Hall Cafe
26th November – London, Bush Hall
27th November – Oxford, Florence Park Community Centre
29th November – Leeds, Hyde Park Picture House
Pre-Order The Complete Guide to Insufficiency (2019 remaster) – https://songbytoadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-complete-guide-to-insufficiency-2019-remaster
Photo Credit: Alex Fisher