Baby Brave and the Love Bites Newydd

Wrexham's Baby Brave and the Love Bites have got a new record out! A charming,10-legged assault of dance moves and button bright indie pop. It's being released by Drum With out Hands and it's ace.
Assault is perhaps too strong a word, any band that plays pat-a-cake during instrumental breaks would always be more inclined to gently stroke your face than punch it.
Baby Brave are Wrexham’s Emily and Jo, backed by a three-strong set of Love Bites – Sian (bass), Steve (guitar) and Mikey (drums). The group came together in July 2010 after working on other musical ventures in the past. They create a sunny blend of Francophile folk pop. Although there are a lot of attributes you could describe as twee (flute solos, a ukulele named Fiona) there is enough going on for them to transcend any label or accusation of being kitsch.
An awesome antidote to this terrible weather, right? Buy it.

Dancers ain't dead

Over the summer, the only reason I knew Dancers weren't dead was that I seemed to see (from afar) a member of the Denbigh group at near enough every festival/event I went to.
But that pointless story isn't important. What is important is that they have released a new track, Resigned (BELOW).

With anything between one and seven members at a time, the music they produce is a hazy dream pop. Full of lo fi sensibility, they have always seemed capable of something a little more grandiose, or polished.

Speaking at the end of last year frontman Dafydd Myddleton said: “I’d love to record properly. As it is, it’s a bedroom recording thing and the tracks we have on the internet are around a year old. I like the lo fi side of things and don’t want something super-polished. Just properly recorded.

“In my head I know how I want things to sound – it’d be good to get someone to help realise that.”

I can't be certain, but I think Resigned has been properly studio recorded. It sounds big, but there is something heart warming in Dancers not being able to completely shake off the bedroom pop mantle.

Trwbador got video

Ever enchanting, Trwbador have produced a video for Lluniau which you can view below. It's a whispy, almost-there piece of avant-folk. The Carmarthenshire duo represent many of the things that are so good about a lot of Welsh music right now: Fiercely independent, sounding like nothing else and, above all, ace.
Trwbador also have a full, proper record out soon. Which is incredibly exciting.

Their singer Angharad has also lent her unmistakable vocals to (One of the UK's Greatest Ever Bands) Cornershop's Christmas offering. you can, and should, listen to it here: http://thequietus.com/articles/10570-listen-cornershop-featuring-trwbador-every-year-so-different.

Not a Swn Festival Review

Shy and the Fight, Dempsey's, Sunday

A slightly shortened version of my Swn Festival review went into the Daily Post last Friday. If you picked it up and read it, thanks.. I had been intending to put a full version up here, but it has taken so long to do it's kind of missed the boat. By now, many other people/blogs/etc have run through why the weekend was so great in much finer style than I ever could.
I recommend the reflection over at thelineofbestfit.com. Simon Tyers, in particular, is a wonderful writer. He runs the amazing sweepingthenation.blogspot.co.uk.

My review is also now so long that unleashing the opus upon the public would be of benefit to nobody.
But, the feelings can be pretty much summed up in the excessive display of sentiment (which appeared in the review) below:


"I was asked – at a point now shrouded in the mists of Swn – how the Cardiff festival compared to previous years. It was a very difficult question.
For something that is for many the genuine, 100% bona fide highlight of the year, past experiences almost melt into one. One succinct lump of all the noise and musical brilliance that makes the event. All previous years, to me at least, can only be defined collectively as ‘Swn’. In a word, brilliant."

It also did this to my sister:

Swn Festival 2012. GO!

Swn Festival is almost upon us! October 18 to 21! Below is an extension of a 'bands to see' piece that ran in the Daily Post on Friday October 12.
Of course, it does not include the likes of Liars, Django Django and The Cribs -- that'd be pointless. It is also slightly North Wales bands-heavy. There are only a couple from outside that area, that doesn't really matter, though, because they are all great, without exception. They are in no particular order.

There are also a lot of bands here from Dempsey's on Sunday. That is because it's a Crackling Vinyl stage and the line up is wonderful. You could do much worse than just camping there for most of the day. But get there early, Irma Vep start at something like 3pm.

Trwbador : O’Neill’s (Trinity St), Thursday

Sparsely constructed folk and psych is all wistful and haunting. The breathy vocals of Angharad Van Rijswijk are unavoidably beautiful. The duo have an album out soon, which is pretty exciting.



Ifan Dafydd : Undertone, Friday

DJ/electronic artist from Gwynedd, incredible musician and former flatmate of James Blake. Better than James Blake. Scheduling etc. at last year's event meant that Dafydd played to the upstairs of Clwb Ifor Bach as it started to fill up. Regardless, he was great. Hopefully a slot in the wee hours will suit him.


Irma Vep : Dempsey’s, Sunday

The solo incarnation of Klaus Kinski drummer Edwin Stevens. HAHA, his tenth full length album, was released earlier this year. Stark and visceral, it is one of the best records, I at least, have heard in aeons.
The track What's That in Your Mouth is below, but you should really just go here and listen to as much as you can.


Mowbird : Dempsey’s, Sunday

Wrexham’s Mowbird are bratty and loud. They produce jittering wedges of off-kilter surf pop that slide haphazardly between bright melody and a caterwauling yelps of guitar and keys.
This will be the second time the group have played Swn. Since last year they have become more toned and glossy, trashy, like some pulp fiction magazine. Progressing all the while yet never losing their charm or immediacy. They are thoroughly ace.


Sex Hands, Dempsey’s, Sunday

Mostly from Conwy but based in Manchester, the foursome make music inspired by the hit TV series Friends. Infinitely better than that sounds, they straddle the line irresistible melody and lo fi, teeth shattering squall. Delightful.
They are cited by more than a few as Wales' Best New Band. People, me included, have a tendency to flail about wildly with superlatives and the like. It is not hard, though, to see where the few are coming from.



Sen Segur : O’Neill’s (Trinity St), Friday

Talk to anyone about Sen Segur and among the first things they will mention is how young they are. Secondly, they are likely to use the word progressive. Progressive has become something of a dirty word. But in the vein of Yes or Emerson Lake and Palmer, Sen Segur are not a prog band
The Penmachno group lead you down the road of ace reeled in psych, making stops at Brian Jonestown Massacre and Gorky’s along the way. Refreshingly, they seem particularly disinterested in labels. They are more interested in Olympic swimmers.
[I saw them live for the first time at Green Man Festival last month. They were great, really great]

Shy and the Fight, Dempsey's, Sunday

Shy and the Fight are a 12-legged band from the border country between Chester and Llangollen. Their hearts are as big as their harmonies and choruses. Which is to say huge.

Since their inception in 2009, their early demo recordings have earned them airplay on BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC East Midlands and BBC Radio Wales – and a BBC Introducing session on 6Music.

They have a record out on Popty Ping which you should buy, partly because it's orange but mainly because it's lovely.

Sweet Baboo, Undertone, Saturday

Otherwise known as Stephen Black, he plies his trade in bittersweet pop blasts. He has performed elsewhere with the likes of Cate Le Bon, H Hawkline and Euros Childs. On his own he produces sparkling melodies swinging from darkly funny to tender. Self-deprecation never goes a miss either.

Sweet Baboo's last record, A Girl Under a Tree, is a marvellous medley of tales, a distinctly human collection of lost love, relationships and the world. There is a hell of a lot to love.

Golden Fable, CHAPTER STIWDIO, Sunday

Formed out of the ashes of the Tim and Sam Band, Golden Fable are the brainchild of Tim McIver and Rebecca Palin. They mix electronics and guitars into lush folk-influenced atmosphere.

They are though, a bolder, brassier concept than the Tim and Sam band. Pop sensibility is gratefully intact but the group owe an awful lot to Palin’s soft and swooping falsetto. The single, Sugarloaf, is a shining slice of gossamer pop. Really, and quite disarmingly, lovely.

They remind me a lot of the Vaselines, mixed with The Radio Dept. and Enya. Which isn't really helpful. Because they don't sound like that at all.

Sam Airey, O'Neill's (St Mary Street), Saturday

Very early on the Saturday of Swn 2011, a crowd of fragile heads shuffled into a Radio Wales showcase and were greeted with Sam Airey‘s dark tales of love and the sea. Perhaps in some part down to mass recovery, it was an experience as bleak as it was startlingly powerful and disarming. Through his own admission, the Anglesey musician covers slightly morose territory. His music haunts, but in a good way.

Lying somewhere between James Taylor and John Martyn he is always thoroughly entertaining.

See also:
Gallops, O'Neill's (St Mary Street), Saturday

Joanna Gruesome, O'Neill's (St Mary Street), Sunday

Plyci, Gwdihw, Sunday

We Are Animal, Gwdihw, Saturday

Gulp, Solus, Thursday

Death In Vegas : Festival Number Six

Death in Vegas play Festival Number Six in Portmeirion this weekend. I spoke to Richard Fearless earlier this year. Some of his words are below. There is also a mix he did for BBC6 and a video shoved into the middle of them.

MUSIC is on a nostalgia trip. While reunions have never been uncommon, glimpse at the bands currently doing the rounds and you would struggle to guess if it was any time between 1988 and 2012.
Perhaps it’s the recession. To paraphrase the MC5’s Wayne Kramer, is there a passage in the Rock and Roll Handbook that says band aren’t allowed to eat?
The re-emergence of Death In Vegas has more eyes on the future than most.
“I guess if you were to ask any band that has reformed if they want to be going through the hits or ballads, they’d say they want to be doing new things and want to be excited by it all,” says Richard Fearless. “I didn’t want this to be something retrospective, I wanted the record to look to the future.”
Death In Vegas’ latest album Trans-Love Energies, the first in eight years, is striking in how it stands apart from old glories.
“The new material has been a nightmare to put together with the new band.”
Fearless adds that it would have been easy to play them on his own, behind a mixing desk with a bit of trickery.
“[The band] is more made up of people I have recorded with in the past. It was hard to pick them but they’re all people with similar ideas, even the crew. But they’re people who work and fit together.
“That has benefits as a live performance, definitely. Working with these people you have an instant rapport that keeps things rolling.
“I’ve had to sit and see what works well together. There is probably more older material there than I would have wanted.
“It sounds bad, but in an ideal world I’d be able to throw away all of that. As an artist, what excites me is moving forward to the next record – where the magic is.”

 

Sessions in the studio of musician, DJ and producer Andrew Weatheral were the first time Fearless has contributed vocals to his work. Past collaborations have included the likes of Iggy Pop, Hope Sandoval, Liam Gallagher and Paul Weller.
“I didn’t want there to be much in the way of collaboration – I thought it could overshadow things,” says Fearless. “I started doing some scratch vocals. The management said: ‘It sounds great, who’s singing?’
“There was a part that Jamie Hince from The Kills wanted to sing... But then he had his marriage to sort and was busy. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be ready in time so I just did it myself.
“Andrew [Weatherall] is someone I’ve known for years and someone I have a hell of a lot of respect for. There was no soundproofing at his studio so I knew his ears were the other side of the door. It was brilliant having him around. It was really encouraging that he seemed to love what he was hearing.”
One of the most infamous of Fearless’ collaborations was an ill-fated recording session with Oasis in 2004.
“We’d done no mixing but had recorded a whole album,” he recalls. “Basically we took a one week break and ended up just not mixing it or getting ‘round to it. “Not wanting to upset anyone but at that time Oasis were like this massive oil tanker, slowly steaming ahead, and the idea of changing the course – with the people behind it, management and the brothers’ relationship – wasn’t something that was really going to happen.
“We really wanted to change that course. It’s a shame that it never got made. I think it’s an album Oasis maybe should have released. I’ve heard from both since that they wish it had happened.”

To close, Fearless ponders briefly on the word that best describes Death in Vegas.
“I think the Death In Vegas sound is definitely very spacial. A lot of repetition. I think there’s a certain confidence [with the new record]. It’s brave to have space. If you listen to classical scores, they have a visual narrative and a lot of space. I’ve drawn on that."
He adds: “To label it psychedelia is weird, yeah. But it's one of those things where you get the idea. Probably 'electronic' is even worse. Titles like that have been a bit tarnished and widespread. Psychedelic now, probably just means bands that smoke a bit more pot."

Death in Vegas play the Saturday of the first ever Festival Number Six. 

Race Horses, Furniture review

Below is a review of Race Horses' thoroughly ace new record Furniture as it appeared in the Daily Post last Friday (Aug 31). The album is out on September 10. Buy it.

As is the precedent with Aberystwyth’s Race Horses it has become custom to expect sprawling masses of genre and style.
Although highly accomplished, 2010’s Goodbye Falkenburg was a bit of a gallimaufry. A mash of “everything [they] had listened to up to that point, all combined musically.”
The intervening years have evidently been spent grinding their pop edge until razor-sharp. Frontman Meilyr Jones has the Cocker-esque skill of injecting the everyday and the kitchen sink drama with glitz and glamour.
Pulp, in fact, are the most obvious of benchmarks. That is a Pulp flush with Sparks and glossy 80s pop balladry, making nods at Queen (see Nobody's Son), Spandau Ballet and Ultravox without the influences being contrived or too knowing.
Although the record stumbles early with the meandering What Am I To Do, elsewhere it is consistently well constructed and well realised. A trio of Furniture, Mates and Sisters is chrome-bright modern pop backed by ineffable art school pomp – a heady mix of audacity and depth.
True to the pop blueprint, the record closes with the ballad Old and New. It is a well-used formula and its results are often hackneyed. But, it is a formula for a reason and when pulled off so impeccably it is very difficult to argue with. Solid gold pop, no less.

Green Man Festival 2012 : Review

This review (a shortened version of it) appeared in the Daily Post on August 24. The photos I took aren't great. They were taken on a 300 year old camera phone... The much better videos were by the excellent Folly of Youth -- on their site you can also read a much more in depth and, basically, better review of Green Man Festival 2012. So you should probably just go there now.

GREEN Man Festival is in the middle of nowhere. Well, not nowhere, people live there. It is a beautiful place smack at the foot of the Sugar Loaf. A babbling brook here, a old oak tree there.
The latter of those, situated by a glistening pond, proved a wonderful Hot Toddy Rum Ting-influenced sleeping spot while fellow campers orchestrated a 500 person strong synchronised dance routine near the Walled Garden stage.
But beyond taking a long time to get to, the festival’s proximity to anything else is outstripped by the difference in atmosphere from almost any other event.

Mowb-a-hoop.

It was a feeling brought home with a bang when confronted with footage of the shirtless, sunburnt revellers at V Festival. Or the state thousands of sun worshippers left Brighton beach in over the same weekend.
Sure, there were shirtless people. When it wasn’t raining it was baking hot. But more often than not they were pushing a pram. Around 72% of the time they had a ponytail rather than a shaved head.
The mix of good people, beautiful surrounds and activities was one of the event’s finest assets. Testament to that is making it around 200 words through a review without mentioning music. Which was, frankly, incredible.

Brooding.

Celebrating its tenth year in ineffable style, Green Man 2012 let you in gently with the charming Greta Isaac. Who, at 16, was accompanied by a confidence usually reserved for the more battle-weary of singer songwriters.
Just as confident and almost equally as young, Penmachno’s Sen Segur then let us down the road of delightful reeled in psych and prog, making stops at Brian Jonestown Massacre and Gorky’s along the way.
Their last song has a bugle in it, which was great. Also, Mr Huw was playing with them -- he sat down a lot and played a maraca, like a tired Bez/Joel Gion type.

Sen Segur.

Unfortunately for Wrexham’s Mowbird, the worst rain of the weekend was reserved for their 45 minute slot. Fortunately for those who braved the conditions they were treated to a gloriously trashy set of jilted surf punk.

Mowbird.

A lightening fast rendition of labelmates Sex Hands’ Way No Way was enough to give you blisters. A nearby bar which provided shelter from the storm was as busy as any spot on the site all weekend. Ace.

Joanna Gruesome later did something of a similar ilk, but blessed with much kinder weather. The results sent a few more pining looks to the halcyon days of 1992 and was considerably more indebted to the past that Mowbird. Still, they were very young and very (very) fun, it is just difficult to imagine them putting any foot forward when both legs seem so rooted in the 90s.
To close the first night, Cate Le Bon shimmered, flattening the Nico, Velvets and Fall records that formed her and then folding them into the most wonderful noise, the ghost of Syd Barrett smiling with approval at her shoulder. Equal parts hypnotic and haunting, the Penboyr-born songstress provided the best thing – myself, at least – would see that weekend. Probably all year.
It left me frothing at the mouth. Flapping in the mud like a still-live fish that had fallen off a passing truck.

The worst photo taken of a Cate Le Bon gig ever.

Later, during Mr Scruff, dancing in the mud proved a step to far for weary legs.

An early Saturday morning provided the Colwyn Bay-raised Sweet Baboo. A full band including brass section blasted cobwebs away in joyful pop blasts. The vocals were cracked and charming drawing an impressive crowd for such and early set (11.30).

Sweet Baboo.

The multi-instrumental Yann Tiersen later unleashed a psychedelic barrage of synths and strings. Set apart from the Parisian folk of the Amilie soundtrack the audience may have been used to. It was joyfully loud and accomplished. If not brash, it was powerful and kinetic.

[For some reason the site will only allow one Youtube video per post. But you can see Cate Le Bon playing Green Man in impeccable style here]

The second night was closed by Metronomy for an appropriate festival singalong. The Bay and The Look proved more than accepatable for the willing audience. You Could Easily Have me, a pogo causing peice of wonder.
Biggest, or most packed, crowd of the weekend was reserved for Alt-J. But where ths Cambridge foursome fell ever so slightly flat Cardiff’s Iselt destroyed. Unashamedly avant-garde This Fortune and A Bear On His Own battered and brised their way through a mid-afternoon lull. The performance culminated in what was the only acceptable way with one of their number perfectly executing a Klinsmann dive through the mud at the feet of the audience.
Jonathan Richman performed as only he knows how. A crowd pleasing set including Let Her Go Into The Darkness and Old World from one of music’s real and most untranished of gems.
Often funny and unabashedly lovable he is unafraid of the most simple of sentiments. His confidence was infectious and in a way summed up a weekend in the Black Mountains. Great music, good times and hardly an idiot in sight.
I very much want to go back. Now.

Race Horses, Daily Post August 17

Below appeared in the Daily Post on August 17. Race Horses' album, Furniture, is released on September 10. It is Solid Gold Pop. They also play Festival Number Six in Portmeirion in September.

THE RACE Horses of today are different proposition to the one that released Goodbye Falkenburg in early 2010. At face value, their numbers have swelled to five and they have signed a record deal.
Beyond that – and via common opinion – the Aberystwyth band have spent the last two years fine tuning their pop sensibilities. A new album, Furniture, due next month, does little to dispel rumours.
“Goodbye Falkenburg was more a collection of songs, it felt like more of a mash. This is much more direct and there’s a lot more space to it,” explains drummer Gwion Llewelyn.
“Furniture is more rhythmic and based around melodies. Meilyr, his words are quite strong and direct so we wanted to work around that.
“These days bands seem to go with what’s happening on the scene. That’s not what we want to do. It was a group thing and we’ve not worked like that before. We sat together and experimented with a lot of stuff and lot of different sounds.
“We have loads of MiniDisc full of just terrible experiments and sounds that we made in the run up to recording.”

Singer Meilyr Jones adds: “All the new music I was hearing seemed to be hidden behind reverb, behind a veneer of cool. We wanted to make something much more stark and direct.”
According to the drummer, the addition of harpist-turned-guitarist Mali Llewelyn and percussionist Dan Bradley has added an extra dimension to the band on Furniture. The album is pin-sharp, inspired by Roxy Music, Soft Cell and Dexy’s Midnight Runners – also by the disco at the youth hostel they were staying at during recording sessions.
“It was full of Spanish tourists dancing to Michael Jackson,” says guitarist Dylan Hughes. “We were there on the dance floor trying to work out why it sounded so good, analysing Quincy Jones’s production and thinking, how did he get that hi-hat sound, or that groove?”
Llewelyn adds: “It was recorded in a weird way. At some point in the studio we were quite surprised how some stuff came together. It was a really fast process, only about one week in Elephant and Castle in London.
“The result is very energetic – we recorded it almost live so you can feel that, hopefully. With the words like they are the melody has to be strong. That’s important. It’s all about getting people to move get a Michael Jackson groove on it or something. Pop melodies that people can relate to.”
On the subject of lyrics – which cover feelings of frustration and the erosion of relationships – Meilyr Jones sourced inspiration from the likes of DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy.
He says: “It’s about people that spend a lot of time together gradually starting not to see each other... If you put a picture on your wall, over time it dissolves into the background. It’s the same when you’re living with someone; they become an object over time.”
Furniture is out September 10. Race Horses Play Festival Number Six, Portmeirion on September 14..
Here is Marged Wedi Blino for your enjoyment as well.. It's not on the new album But it is great.

Pulco. Daily Post August 3

This appeared in the Daily Post on August 3. It's about Pulco.

SINCE the dissolution of his former band at the turn of the century – darlings of the Peel session Derrero – Ash Cook has plied a trade in intimate home recordings.
Going by the name Pulco, he is known as much for his music as he is for his prolificacy – so much so that many describe Cooke’s music as a document of his day to day life.
“I say throw the window open and get the kids to play in the room at the same time.” he says. “It is the bits in the background that are important, I feel. The sound of life going on behind the music. It’s normal, the sounds of your life.”
What is usually a very personal blend of lo fi folk and psychedelia, recently, has opened its doors to collaboration.
“When I was with Derrero we did a bit of spoken word recording with Patrick Jones who is the brother of Nicky Wire from the Manics. He’s like this dark poet from the Welsh valleys. That’s when I started doing it myself... At the end of last year I had a load of poetry and that’s when I got other people involved.”
The idea gave birth to The Man of Lists. Cooke sent three poems each to nine different artists for them to treat as they saw fit. Results range from drone, slow piano and synth to near-tropical rhythm.
“It’s a collection of people I’ve met in my career and through social media. I sent them the poems that I had recorded on a Dictaphone and said: ‘You can do with them what you like’.
So it is an album of nine people and I’m the tenth – my input is really quite minimal.”
He adds: “The interesting bits were new arrangements where they’d cut my words to fit. There’s stuff there that I maybe didn’t pick up the first time or, through repetition, have given the poem a completely different meaning.”
Social media has also provided him the opportunity to connect with his audience. His case is somewhat individual, but he provides a brighter, almost hyper-local, side to the argument for giving music away for free.
“Not being in a band anymore, I gave up editorial control a long time ago, I just put it out there. That’s my style, or my niche, if you will... If you’ve got weaknesses, like if you’re not particularly good at guitar, use that as your strength. There’s no point in being something your not... When I started in the late nineties, the only real way you found out about music was through sitting in the bath, reading magazines. You didn’t have to take that many risks.
“Now it’s brilliant, it is so easy to send files to people. When I give stuff away for free you see the emails of people who’ve downloaded it. After they’ve taken some stuff, you see the same address will come back and pay for something at a later date.
“The relationship is a lot closer. There are fewer fans but they’re people who are your friends. Before, I never knew who were buying my records now I know all of them. I think that’s very healthy.
“I am lucky, though, that this is not my sole job. Not everyone is in that situation. If I can make a few bob out of it then that’s good.”
For more visit pulcomusic.com

Mowbird, Daily Post July 27

Have I ever told you how good Mowbird are? There's an interview with Ben Sawin below. It was in the Daily Post on Friday July 27.
The foursome are playing Swn Festival in October and Green Man Festival before that. There is also mooted a split seven inch single with their kindred spirits Sex Hands on the Popty Ping label -- fancy that.

Listen to them:

Read about them:

IN October of last year, Mowbird were recording a radio session at the BBC’s famous Maida Vale studios. A picture of the White Stripes gazed down on them as they prepared to play on what singer Ben Sawin describes as ‘the world’s smallest drum kit’.
It was, perhaps, a fitting scenario for a band that walks the line between brilliant and shambolic with such aplomb – and despite appearances, that is a compliment.
“Maida Vale was a great experience,” says Sawin. “It was a case of just thinking ‘how on earth did we get here when so many of our peers haven’t?’
“We weren’t thinking we had made it or anything. The picture of the White Stripes looking down on us – playing in exactly the same space we were – kind gave you a bit of perspective.”
Since their inception as a bratty and abrasive punk band, Wrexham’s Mowbird have developed through line up changes, a clutch of excellent EPs and shows at the likes of Swn and Camden Crawl. The essentials are the same, jittering wedges of off-kilter surf pop are all present and correct. They are, though, more toned and glossy, like some pulp fiction magazine. But progressing and leaving the past behind leaves Mowbird little room for sentimentality.
Sawin continues: “We have a low tolerance and get bored easily. First off, we always aim to make it interesting for us. Once songs stop meaning something we stop playing them. We don’t want to carry on in the same furrow.
“It’s hard to let go sometimes, every song has a meaning but some get stagnant. It’s like re-reading the same book. One week you might read the first chapter and it doesn’t really work. You might then pick it up a week later and it’s different.”

An interesting footnote, around the time of the BBC session, found the band playing to bemused diners in a Harvester Pub. An experience, like all the others, that Sawin says added to the band's dynamic.
“Some of us have played gigs to 10,000 people, well, just one of us [drummer Ben with his other band Camera]. Some had never played a gig before being in Mowbird. We’re all different.
“Our gig at Telford’s in Chester was definitely a highlight. Any gig where it’s been tiny and worked. The big moments are just important as the little ones.
“I feel we’re becoming a singular unit. The important thing is that we hang out outside of the band. That means a lot.”
He adds the past year caught the four piece of Sawin, Mike Smith, Sue Dempsey and Ben Trow standing off guard.
“It’s been a little, well, it’s been a huge surprise. I suppose being from Wrexham it’s ingrained in us not to expect too much. Maida Vale and Swn Festival kind of came out on nowhere. We got caught up in that but there was a little bit of disbelief that people were genuinely interested.
"It still does surprise me. We’re playing Swn again this year and before that Green Man Festival. All that’s based on a band that’s recorded in basements.”
Mowbird play Green Man Festival in Brecon on the weekend of August 17. To listen visit mowbird.bandcamp.com.

Pulco, Man of Lists

Pulco (Ash Cooke) releases his record Man of Lists on the worldwide public on July 30 -- Monday. Below you can listen to some of it and below that you can read wot I gon writ bout it in the Daily Post as long ago as May. Remember May? Those heady days.  http://pulco.bandcamp.com/

NORTH west Wales’ Pulco releases a lot of material. With such a broad array of genres it is a credit to Ash Cooke that he maintains a fairly level standard of quality.
Man Of Lists is, for the most part, spoken words over musical backdrops ranging from slow piano and synth to near-tropical rhythm then to what sounds suspiciously like an eastern European fiddle. There are a lot of collaborators across the record’s 25 tracks. Perhaps this is what contributes to the record’s slightly stretched feel.
As a collection of tracks, it is by no means a mess. But as an album, in the sense of a package, it maybe spreads itself a little thinly. It is encouraging that Pulco’s lo-fi experiments in folk and electronica never lose their charm.
The Downside of Things is a SFA techno workout that alone would be lovely. In these surrounds it jars ever so slightly. Ultimately, Ash Cooke is an artist we should all be very glad exists. The sheer amount of music he puts out turns over every stone of his creative process. It gives you a distinct and unique picture of a distinct and unique musician. He has created an open-ness that is all too vacant from music today.
If you don’t like one thing, there will always be something nearby that you will love.
Pulco: Man Of Lists (out now) folkwit.com/artists/pulco

We Are Animal newydd

There are some new We Are Animal tracks! They've been around for about 13 days.
Bombastic isn't the word. Well, it is. It is more of the gnarled, battered and bruised brooding psych rock we have come to expect from the band. Every melody and riff dragged up and down Snowdon, through the mud and muck, before eat reaches our ears.
They are playing RJ's in Bangor tomorrow night (July 27). Get down.

Irma Vep, HAHA.

About every couple of weeks/month/now and then this record comes up behind me and smacks me over the head with its sheer abrasive/heartfelt brilliance.

Irma Vep is the solo incarnation of Klaus Kinski drummer, Sex Hands guitarist, etc. Edwin Stevens and HAHA is the tenth full length album he's released under this moniker.
There is little more to say other than it is an unpolished gem of a record. Startlingly human, it's a mix of aggression, heartbreaking balladry, introversion and beauty. Life, sex, humour, sadness, pretty much everything you want a record to be. A visceral collection of songs, distant cousins of the ones on The Velvet Underground's third album.
It is a rough diamond, but beneath the abrasive texture are sentiments both simple and beautiful. There is a vulnerability and authenticity that just doesn’t exist in the saccharine and shallow money-fed behemoth of the pop chart.
It was released around March time on Turquoise Coal records. You really should purchase it here: www.turquoisecoal.com now.
Listen to more here: soundcloud.com/turquoise-coal

Irma Vep at the closing of Cob Records, Bangor

Sweet Baboo, Daily Post July 13

There was an interview with the excellent Sweet Baboo in the Daily Post on Friday (July 13). You can read it below the music if you want to. He's playing Green Man Festival in August. Listen to more here. It could have been a considerably longer article. But I have my limits. Word limits.



SWEET Baboo, formerly of Bethesda, raised in Colwyn Bay and now of Cardiff, has officially released three albums in 12 years. On face value, it falls some way short of prolific.
Otherwise known as Stephen Black, his career has not followed the trajectory of a shy and retiring bedroom musician. As well as music of his own, the past ten years have been punctuated with work alongside the likes of Cate Le Bon, Euros Childs, Slow Club, Daniel Johnston and H Hawkline.
“I started as Sweet Baboo really early but just, kind of, released CD-Rs,” he says. “Loads of the stuff I did from 18 to 21 or 22 I just did in my room and then I started playing with other bands and giving my friends music.
“It wasn’t really until I started playing with Euros Childs that I began to release music. Through him I realised it's not all glamorous and you should do things yourself.”

Nowadays, he points out he does not draw on a full 12 years of material – for reasons beyond progression.
"I tend to do new songs, you want to play the stuff you’ve never recorded.”
Black adds: “When you’ve put them on record they’re done and finished. I forget a lot of songs as well. The main reason, I suppose, is that I play so much for other people. I’ve only got enough space in my mind. Others just fall out.”
He has played with Cate Le Bon for "about eight years," something which led to being part of Euros Childs’ band. Collaborations with Sheffield’s Slow Club followed in a similar way. One of his five appearances at this year’s Green Man Festival in Brecon will be a krautrock collaboration with Le Bon and Hawkline – the first time in “about four years” the act has performed.
“The main thing I’ve learnt with other bands is that it’s not all as glamorous as you think. It is great in one way when you get to tour America – and then driving seven hours to play to 25 people isn’t too bad. But when you do that day after day.”
This year, with the look of a man still in touching distance of 20, Black reached 30. If the approach has changed over 12 years the principles have remained.
“All I ever really wanted to do was be in a band and I suppose was a lot more shy when I was younger. That was before the music industry crashed, as it were, and I thought that maybe one day I would get discovered. It – I – was quite naive.”
He continues: “It has always been kind of the same principle. I still like making, like, pop records. The main difference would be that I’m wiser on how to record things and I’ve got better gear.
“But in a weird way, when I was recording for nobody’s pleasure but my own it was a bit nicer. Now I always have to think whether someone will like it.”
A new record, the tentatively titled Ships, was completed in May after a tour with Slow Club. No release date has been set. He plays at Green Man Festival in Brecon on the weekend of August 17. To listen to Sweet Baboo visit sweetbaboo.bandcamp.com. For more information on Green Man Festival visit greenman.net.

A Twisted Banana Extravaganza

Houdini Dax

SATURDAY 14 JULY, TIVOLI, BUCKLEY
The wonderfully named Twisted Banana Promotions have hand-picked six exciting Welsh bands for your ultimate summery musical pleasure. All for £10.
In their own words: “We are literally bursting with excitement to be putting them all in front of you on one stage on the same evening.”
It would be easy to take that statement with a pinch of salt. After all, they are promoters with tickets to sell. The line up for Buckley Tivoli on July 14 is, though, tremendous.

Sixties pop viewed through a rose-tinted haze, Colorama are based around the talents of singer-songwriter Carwyn Ellis – who has in the past worked with Oasis and Edwyn Collins amongst others.

Similarly Cardiff’s Houdini Dax jitter their way through Beatles-esque harmonies and doo-wop rhythm with reckless youthful fervour.  

Ewloe’s Golden Fable are the brainchild of Tim McIver and Rebecca Palin. They mix electronics and guitars into lush atmosphere. Camera, Cal Roberts and the Ill Gotten Gains and The Loving Cup make up the excellent roster. For full details go here.

Trwbador Newydd

The, frankly, ace Trwbador have been locked away working on their debut album. Which is exciting enough.  One of them has also found the time to remix a song by Huw M, which is below.



They've also got particularly snazzy t shirts. Purchase one from their website.

Why Did She Run Far Away?

In the Daily Post today, which you should definitely buy, is a review of the first track from Memory Clinic (formerly Pretty Places).
The verse, especially, has been ragging its way through my head for the past 48 hours, which can only be a good thing, right?
they're from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. You can download it for free as well.

Focus Wales Got Video

Focus Wales 2012. The back of my head and part of my shoulder as I enjoy We Are Animal, I think.

Focus Wales will return to Wrexham on April 25, 26 and 27 next year. A set of super earlybird tickets have been released. A measly £15 for a weekend wristband if you get yours before October 1. Value.
In what is a slightly over-saturated festival market, Focus Wales is a very welcome bubble of air.
In a similar way to Cardiff's ever-wonderful Swn Festival, the event aims to provide a platform for new and interesting Welsh bands.
If you were to compare it to, say, Colwyn Bay's Access All Eirias event -- in terms of leaving a lasting impression on an area -- it is obvious how grateful we should be for Focus Wales.

Supported by Arts Council of Wales and PRS for Music Foundation, 2012's event took in over 90 bands over four days across eight stages. Race Horses and We Are Animal were particularly awesome.
In only its second year the festival was attended by over 1,500 new music fans – more than double the attendance of the previous 2011.
There is also a new video below.

Full details are here: http://www.focuswales.com

Gallops solo stuff

Here's some solo stuff by Paul from Gallops. Calafornia Jr, it's pretty primal -- as you would expect. Slightly more glossy. If you imagine the Wrexham act playing Detroit house you're pretty much there. It's great, Detroit Horse. Nice.

Deaf Club Newydd

Deaf Club, as seen through the camera of Eliot Humphreys

Look at that, Deaf Club have released a snippet from their upcoming single. It is called Moving Still and it's out on July 16 (limited vinyl and download).

If you go here you can read pretty much exactly what I just said but in snazzy red letters with a nice picture in the background. It all looks very cool and there are some some links to Twitter and Soundcloud etc.

As far as it is possible to tell, Moving Still will be brooding stuff. Sitting on the edge of epic in a similar way to 2011's slow-burning Lull. A dictionary definition grower.

It was a very likeable EP that evoked images of Beach House stabbed with Joy Division and post punk basslines.

If you want to hear more and buy stuff get yourself over to deafclub.bandcamp.com

DRKMTR, Daily Post, June 22.

The article (below) appeared in the Daily Post last week. DRKMTR play Telford’s Warehouse in Chester on July 12. You should go. For more details go right here.

DRKMTR is the brainchild of Sophie McKeand, Steve Nicholls and Andy Garside. Perhaps more of a project than a band in the traditional sense, it is an experiment in poetry, sound and art.
If that doesn’t sound intriguing, they perform live backed by a mountain of TVs – all piled up like an US 80s second hand store.
“The idea is a concept album, the poetry sets a theory for the origins of dark matter,” explains Mold poet Sophie McKeand. “We wanted it to be art based, a whole experience. With the poetry and music it is not traditional. The music is more soundscapes than anything full of dis-ambient noises.
“It is poetry noise, if you like, although some of the sounds are quite beautiful. the poems are quite earthy with regards to the message. That’s contrasted with very industrial sounds.”
Distinctly conceptual, it is easy to see how label intervention could dilute the vision or message. McKeand says it is a scenario DRKMTR have avoided.
“The idea was inspired by Peter Saville and the work he did for Factory Records... Bands like Crass as well. We’re very punk and have that ideology of doing things for the love of it.”
As she ponders the project’s direction, accusations of pretension are also something the band have avoided – yet more through apathy than much else.
“People might say it’s pretentious but a band like Islet, who are one of my favourite acts, have been accused of that. The way I see it is a band doing what they want and not compromising on their vision or sound – you need that in music and art. It’s boring otherwise.”
She says the process of accompanying poems – some of which are three years old – with music and visuals has been enlightening.
“For some I had no idea what they would sound like when put to music. Others were different. The poem Deep, which is about the ocean, has this very deep bass and vibration. It just feels like you’re lost in the ocean. But Steve [Nicholls, sound and production] has managed to do it without it being twee.
“Andy [Garside, art and visuals] has done the same. It is a little difficult to explain how that works but it stands apart from when, maybe, people do something like interpretive dance.”
Pulling together the work from DRKMTR’s, so far, brief existence, the concept and process seems to have been planned and executed meticulously. In reality, that is roughly half true.
“It has been quite organic, we released the record before we’d even played a live show,” says McKeand. “It grew after we really liked the first results and then Andy came in and we made an album. People liked that so we decided ‘let’s do it live’.“That got a good response so we thought ‘bass and drums, let’s get those’.
“It seems to be growing so we’re just going to ride this wave while we’re enjoying it... I don’t know what we’d do for a second album, though.”

Golden Fable newydd

Golden Fable lying on the ground

A pleasant end-of-the-week surprise, Golden Fable have some new material out. Sugarloaf is a shining slice of gossamer pop. Really, quite disarmingly, lovely.
Warm and lush, there is still a hint of Elizabeth Fraser in the vocals. The duo steer wisely clear of swooping and operatic, favouring ethereal and haunting. Haunting in a warm way, of course. Nice ghost.


This is ace.

Pretty Places no more

Pretty Places

Pretty Places are no more. Although low key, C86/Sarah Records/Field Mice indebted indie pop is rarely something that is going to set the world on fire, they really were a little beam of sunshine poking out of the clouds above Anglesey.
Two songs -- Miracle Girl and You See What I See -- I can't find on the internet jangled along like the coolest of summer breezes. The soundtrack to some grainy Super 8 footage, C86 tapes, pin badges, fanzines and hand-drawn posters. A simpler time, you might say.
Two thirds of the group have now formed Memory Clinic. So look out for that.

DRKMTR got records

DRKMTR

DRKMTR, who feature in today's Daily Post available in all good newsagents, released an album at the beginning of the year.
I'll put up the interview sometime soon but for the time being here is a trailer for the record which you can buy here.
It's a mix of poetry, noise and impressive visuals. They also perform in front of a load of piled up TVs.
They will be playing at Telford's Warehouse in Chester on July 12.


DRKMTR promo from theABSURD on Vimeo.

Sex Hands Newydd

Llanfairfechan by way of Dwygyfylchi by way of Conwy by way of Manchester's Sex Hands have contributed four songs to a 12" split with Pawz, Dolfinz and Waiters. It's all been put together by Song, by Toad and can be purchased here.
You can listen to Sex Hands' tracks below:

Shy and the Fight EP / Popty Ping

Shy and the Fight have a nice new shiny orange record out. It is the first release from the label Popty Ping.

One of the most striking things about the band is how little pretence there is behind them. Perhaps striking is the wrong word, but in terms of approach they seem unconcerned with subtlety or subversion tactics. Unless I’m missing something, All That We See Or Seem is boldly uncynical. Sonically, the track is brassy and wholesome and, for the most part, stays away from being a little too sugary sweet.

The B side, Breaks, is better. It works itself into the kind of euphoric outro that doesn’t warrant a raised and clenched fist. You sway, going nowhere in particular. It is delicate and quite lovely.

Listen HERE and purchase it HERE.

This is them performing the A side at Wychwood Festival a week or so ago

Shy and the Fight will also be interviewed on Bethan Elfyn's BBC Radio Wales show on Saturday. Tuune in.

Mowbird, Sex Hands, Furrow -- The Castle Hotel, Manchester June 19

Sex Hands, doing it. At the Castle Hotel.

The people behind Reeks of Effort made what I think might have been their first sojourn to Manchester. A measly £3 bought you Mowbird, Sex Hands and Furrow. Three bands that flirt effortlessly with brilliance and disaster for less than a McDonald's meal. Ridiculous value.
Sex Hands arrived at the gig off the back of a mini tour of the UK. Tales of five hour journeys left them looking understandably jaded/tired. Aberdeen, one of their stops, is deceptively far away, something like three hours beyond Edinburgh.
It was easy to forgive a set that was a little sluggish for that reason -- as well as the fact that a Sex Hands struggling to get out of second gear still outstrips many other bands performing on all cylinders.
As with each time of seeing the band, their penchant for writing songs about Friends moves itself further into the back of your mind. Gay Marriage in particular is as brilliantly warped a pop song as you are likely to hear. Ever. Their approach seems almost flippant, a complete disregard for normality but a dedication to what are essentially great pop songs. Everything is as messy as it is excellent.
Mowbird, the mighty Mowbird, have developed into a different beast to the one I saw on the day Prince William married Kate Middleton and drove off in a little red car.
They are essentially the same band, jittering wedges of off-kilter surf pop and squalls of guitar are all present and correct. They are though, more toned and glossy, like some pulp fiction magazine.
The attributes that made them so exciting then -- charm and enthusiasm from a band walking a tightrope between sublime and shambolic -- are still present but there is an added rigidity and confidence. It suits them.
I've said before that to crash and burn, it is best to soar majestically beforehand. Tread the fine line between ambition and failure, otherwise what’s the point? Not flying so close to the sun is usually taken as a warning against hubris. That’s boring. Boredom is not in the vocabulary of Mowbird.
As is often the case, they start off a little scratchy but grow throughout a set indebted to Grandaddy, Beat Happening and Guided by Voices. But. It is all well and good listing bands Mowbird sound like, they have and have always had enough individuality to carry their influences to other exciting places. Above most things, they're fun.
A closing duo of Happy Birthday Dad and Playmate were as good as I have seen the Wrexham group. The latter particularly swelled into a wonderful cacophony of noise.

Furrow, who were on first, really were something else. A wholly different prospect to the lo fi haze that blankets their recorded output. A blend of loops, bass and drums was earth-shatteringly loud and primal.
In retrospect it seems I might have been a little dismissive of what I originally took as a passably enjoyable mix of The Fall, Ikara Colt and Joy Division. Live, the Oswestry group were a kick to the bones. A huge and incredible punch to the face.
Awesome.