By their own admission, as “middle-class Londoners”, Public Service Broadcasting aren’t obvious candidates to musically chronicle the rise and destruction of the Welsh coalmining industry. However, they have put a shift in: relocating to Ebbw Vale, conducting painstaking research and recording former miners’ testimonies to set to music along with select historical narratives. Richard Burton powerfully describes “the arrogant strut of the lords of the coalface” and a 1970s television advert cheerily urges viewers: “Come on, be a miner! There’s money and security!” There is no mention of the Aberfan disaster, Margaret Thatcher or Arthur Scargill, meaning that the political context is implied and the focus remains on the job and the communities. The Beaufort male choir are in fine voice on Take Me Home. Elsewhere, vocals from Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield and Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell glide over quivering strings, brass and Mogwai-like guitars, as the music beautifully captures a sense of awesome industrial power and a crushing sense of loss.
