Y Niwl Newydd

A new EP from Llanrwst's Y Niwl!
Talk of Tarantino movies and Dick Dale, yadda yadda, is becoming old hat. Their mix of psych and surf is easy to swallow but impeccably enjoyable.
There isn't a lot here that will be new to anyone who has seen Y Niwl over that past half a year or more. That doesn't really matter, Dauddegdau, in particular, is lovely.

Below the Soundcloud bit is an excerpt from something I wrote after Swn Festival in October 2011. Their show at a rammed, sweaty Dempsey's -- despite (or perhaps because of) a power cut -- was one of greatest gigs I have ever been to. I'm not over exaggerating. Y Niwl are a gift that keeps giving and giving.

THIS year’s highlight came by the way of a power cut. Late on the Saturday night of Cardiff’s Swn Festival around 300 people packed into Dempsey’s Pub awaiting Y Niwl's third show of the weekend. They were greeted with a power surge.

Darkness was fleeting but it left in its wake an unresponsive soundsystem. Monitors were turned to face the crowd in a DIY solution and delivered an impossibly primal assault of surf music.
They were loud and fun with an increased feeling of urgency. One that shook you at the bottom of your chest before it spilled out into the whole body in a phenomenon I can now only describe as mass impromptu solo jitterbugging. Well, as much as that’s possible. Memories might be clouded by sheer awesomeness.
The performance encapsulated a more than impressive year for the Llanrwst band. It began with Sunday Times album of the week before it took on a world tour with Gruff Rhys. Watching them in Manchester in October, it is worth noting that my girlfriend, who is steadfastly disinterested in anything that is not The Cramps or Iggy Pop, was bowled over.
Hats off to Y Niwl, the only band I have ever seen manage to do that.

Mowbird, Sex Hands and Furrow

This article appeared in the Daily Post on June 8.
Furrow are playing Manchester's Castle Hotel on June 19 with Sex Hands and Mowbird. Furrow sound pretty cool, but both Sex Hands and Mowbird are double great. Really great. So go.

Here's what Facebook has to say about it: http://www.facebook.com/events/225805247537910/

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SOME things follow a simple formula. If you put X in, you get Y out.

If you put together a simple, scuzzy bassline, off kilter drums, yelping vocals and cover it all in some lo-fi haze you have something resembling a K Records B side. Pair that with a pair of torn jeans and a plaid shirt and you'll be on to a winner.
Of course, the results of that previous equation most often throw up aimless hipster meanderings. It is not simple, Furrow just make it seem so.
The term lo-fi is questionable. Using production values to define a genre is often far too simple an excuse to lather messily constructed melodies in even messier production and pass it off as edgy.
The ingredients Furrow use are not groundbreaking. There are shades of Ikara Colt while Rural Town makes like the Fall – a bratty kick of angry pop. Throughout, the drums are straight shed recordings of Unknown Pleasures.
You probably could have guessed they practise and record in a caravan in a field.
To some it will be free and loose alt rock, to others it will be an unlistenable mush. Whichever camp you fall into will most probably dictate whether or not you feel the duo's mix of bass, pedals, sampler, loops and drums is brilliant or awful. If your heart is constantly yearning for an unearthly squall of teeth shattering guitar or a yelp of tuneless vocal, dive into Furrow. They're pretty awesome.
Furrow are playing with two of North Wales' other finest purveyors of raw, abrasive garage noise, Sex Hands and Mowbird, at The Castle Hotel in Manchester on June 19.
Listen at furrow.bandcamp.com.