DISCOMBOBULATED, in German: confused, is a wonderfully onomatopoeic adjective. It also fits the spirit of Hen Ogledd. In streaming times when you throw out your hook as quickly as possible, the quartet – named after the Welsh name for the old English north – which includes Richard Dawson, first gets into their self-made fantasy knight’s armor and swings the laser sword. A child’s voice tells the story, analog synthesizers flute, a drum kit and a saxophone spin freely, the wind rustles, Welsh a cappella singing and spoken word in Finnish can be heard.
And in the eight-minute single “Scales Will Fall,” Dawn Bothwell raps angrily against “corporate greed” and “war lords” before trumpet and noise guitar duel wildly. The piece still works because it is held together by an anthemic folk melody that you immediately want to sing along to loudly.
That’s the magic of Hen Ogledd: between free jazz improvisation, psychedelic playfulness and folkloric reduction, there are enough catchy tunes to make up for other excessive and under-challenged things. And although acoustically they have fallen out of space and time, lyrically the Brits have one foot in the here and now. On the foot: possibly a pointed shoe.
This review appears in Musikexpress 3/2026.
