Folk-ska-punks THE PENNY BLACK REMEDY have the first of a pair of new compilations out this week.
With the Coronavirus lockdown effectively curtailing the band's touring and recording plans for 2020, the band's nucleus of Keith M Thomson and Marijana Hajdarhodžić have taken the opportunity to assemble the anthologies of previously unreleased recordings.
"Keith writes a lot of material in between albums," explains Hajdarhodžić. "So after three studio releases (and a fourth in the pipeline), we thought it would be a good time to collate some of our favourite songs from these ‘stray recordings’ and release them over two compilation albums."
Released digitally, Owing To Certain Complications… Vol. 1 features a selection of acoustic recordings amassed over the past seven years since the release of the band's second album Inhale...Exhale, OK, Now You Can Panic! and subsequent to their most recent full-length Maintaining Dignity In Awkward Situations, released in 2017.
"These songs weren’t originally intended to be released together," adds Thomson. "But we’re delighted with how cohesive (and lyrically, how oddly prescient) the album has turned out to be."
The pair recently shot a typically good-natured new video for the track 'Before I Go' in rehearsal in Dubrovnik with local musicians Antonije Doranja, Ivo Kukuljica Kucac and Igor Surjan.
The second anthology - "a significantly less acoustic affair" - will follow in 2021.
Due for release on 16 October on the band's mono del mundo label via Cadiz, Owing To Certain Complications… Vol. 1 is available to pre-order here.