Speedvark

What does it sound like?:

This is Speedvark’s third release in thirty-nine years. Ben and Pedro normally sing songs about homely mundanity, such as drinking tea, quietly existing in middle England. Music is more of a hobby, a bonding experience for the two of them, something to keep them out of mischief. You can imagine them writing songs around a kitchen table, guitars on their knees, a rudimentary keyboard within reach. They are fully aware of their limitations and approach performing, producing and marketing with good cheer and self-deprecation. Their first two albums troubled no charts and shifted few units. Some of their friends and family like them, which was the main thing. Presumably, they have alternative ways of making a living.

For this release, available for streaming and download, Ben Raudnitz recruits his offspring, Mig and Nath to play. Pedro Flatt is on drums. It is a sixty-eight minute piece inspired by Albert Lord Tennyson’s poem The Lotos Eaters, an epic tale about getting stoned out of your mind. It takes them a good seven and a half minutes of messing about with chords to find the riff. After all, they originally wrote it thirty-two years ago. The 1993 prototype is part of the package. Once they get going, the drums and bass are solid. Speedvark claim it is improvised when they mean we made it up as we went along. If you twist your ears, it is a bit reminiscent of Miles Davis’s band passing the time, swapping instruments, waiting for the main players to turn up and record Jack Johnson. Except nowhere near as good. It is best experienced while doing something else, like hoovering the house or mowing the lawn. It is not provocative in a deliberately bad way but it is a challenge to listen to this not-unpleasant music for so long.

Speedvark held a press conference. No-one turned up but they made this announcement:

“At over an hour in length, we’re asking a lot from the listener with this raw unproduced recording. In fact we are not expecting any listeners at all, apart from Pedro’s friend Ethan who said he’d give it a go as he’s into the Grateful Dead and likes hour-long meandering jams.”

What does it all *mean*?

Speedvark are a timely reminder to the world that making music is meant to be fun and joyful and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

Goes well with…

Stamina, an open mind and a sense of humour.

Release Date:

22nd August 2025

Might suit people who like…

Acts so far from than the by-ways of popular music, they are lost in the undergrowth. Don’t worry, they are nothing like The Grateful Dead.

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