wales
Premiere: Bandicoot exclusively reveals demonic hyperactive video for the effervescent and effortlessly cool track ‘FUZZY’
There is a wild untrammeled madness to the new single ‘Fuzzy’ by Welsh band Bandicoot that is utterly mesmerising and incandescent. There are no brakes on this particular vehicle – a doo-wop singing style infused with a gritty attitude, reverb-soaked vocals and an arched eyebrow or two: stylistic, cool and unhinged. It’s just brilliant. The …
TRACK: Tacsidermi – ‘Gwlr’: a glide of blurry Welsh psych
GWENLLIAN ANTHONY, bassist, keys wizard and more with Carmarthen’s award-winning indie outfit Adwaith has, on and off, over the past few years, been jamming and writing with Matthew Kilgariff, who’s been touring member of Gwenllian’s home band, a little creative side gig; but as 2020 stuck out its viral tongue and thumbed its nose at …
TRACK: HMS Morris – ‘Myfyrwyr Rhyngwladol’: intelligent artpop asks we all look outwards
HMS MORRIS are a rather fine art-rock collective operating out of the Welsh capital; the project of former Emmy the Great bassist Heledd Watkins, they’ve since developed a whole ethos, aesthetic, sweetly harmonious life of their own. Following the release of two pre-covid era singles, “Babanod” and “Poetry”, they’ve dusted off the rime of lockdown and …
Soundtrack of our Lives: Pixy Jones of El Goodo
YOU MAY not have taken a dive into an El Goodo album; that, I’m afraid, may be a flaw entirely laid at your own door. OK, they don’t work to a Tin Pan Alley rhythm – there’s only been three albums since their eponymous debut for Super Furries’ Placid Casual imprint in 2005, the most …
ALBUM REVIEW: Keys – ‘Home Schooling’: lo-fi Welsh powerpop gems
COMING at you out of the Welsh capital Cardiff, Keys are a quintet who, we can glean from their photograph, love a pair of shades. A listen to their new digital-only release Home Schooling, which is out on August 21st, will also show that behind those tinted lenses there are ten eyes with an absolute …
TRACK: Kelly Lee Owens feat John Cale – ‘Corner Of My Sky’: Welsh wizardry combined in genre-blurring techno
TAKE one absolute legend of experimental pop music, Carmarthenshire-born John Cale, who needs no introduction in these pages, a career of absolute wonder and collaboration under his belt, never content to rest on his admittedly fine laurels; then add his creative perceptivity to that of Flintshire’s Kelly Lee Owens who, like no one else with …
SEE: El Goodo’s ‘The Grey Tower’ psychs like The Seeds
QUIETLY working to their own, slower calendar in the Vale of Neath since the 20th flipped to the 21st, Wales’s El Goodo offer up pebbles of psych-folk-country goodness for anyone who steps through their door. We should trust their hospitality. Take that name. Yes, of course it namechecks Big Star. How can we not be …
TRACK: Cian Ciaran feat She Drew The Gun – ‘Keep the Darkness Out’
HERE’S a cocktail recipe for a fine and refreshing musical draught. Take Louisa Roach, better known for her political-mod pop alter-ego She Drew The Gun, which she retired on the back of a final tour last year. Now mix her voice well through megaphone effects, and trickle in the squelchy electronic nous of a Super …
Track: Kidsmoke – The Bluest You
With a spectral guitar intro and the yearning vocals, Kidsmoke’s new single ‘The Bluest You’ is a dreamy smooth pleasure of the highest degree. There is a celestial shimmer to the song – it shines and sparkles while simultaneously creating an air of pastoral melancholia. An air that clearly reflects its lyrical themes, of which …
Track: Yr Eira – Middle of Nowhere
Yr Eira have just released a delightful, thoughtful and dreamy single in the form of ‘Middle of Nowhere’ off their forthcoming album ‘Map Meddwl’ out on 15 May 2020 through I KA CHING. Beneath the hazy shimmering feel is a message where freedom from romantic entanglements is interweaved with a subtext of Welsh independence. Do …