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At the tail-end of a truly challenging year, Lancastrian heavy rock outfit Wytch Hazel release an alternate, minor key arrangement of Robert Burns classic poem “Auld Lang Syne” on their Bandcamp page, with all proceeds going to West End Impact http://www.westendimpact.org.uk/, a local charity organisation who, aside from allowing the band to rehearse in their premises, provide homeless outreach, food bank coordination and help for vulnerable people to navigate the (designed to be) challenging UK benefits system and who have been tireless in their work during the COVID19 pandemic.

“It feels inappropriate to be thinking about celebrating the turn of year, and singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ in the usual way, in light of the pandemic and the uncertainty we all feel when thinking about 2021” says Wytch in Chief Colin Hendra; “I wanted to create something which mourned the year as opposed to something which celebrated it, so I took a different approach with the melody and the whole thing took on a life of its own”. Keen to avoid what he termed the “supermarket advert” approach to covering well-known songs in a sad-sounding stripped down form; Hendra enlisted long-term Wytch Hazel collaborator and multi-instrumentalist, Ed Turner (producer of the bands 2016 debut ‘Prelude’ and most recent offering ‘III: Pentecost”) to help with the production process and the result combines ‘Songs from the Wood’ style vocal layering with “‘Wishbone IV’ guitar harmonies, hyper fuzz bass and Fender Rhodes flourishes to stunning effect.

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