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redsoapbox · 4 years ago

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MY TOP FIFTEEN TRACKS BY WELSH ACTS IN THE PAST DECADE.

Pictured - Davey Newington. Davey features in the list twice - as Boy Azooga and as a member of the gone but not forgotten Houdini Dax.

In my introduction to Pop Hack, my debut collection of reviews/interviews, I make the claim that ‘some of the best records I have heard in my lifetime come from the unsigned and unsung acts that I stumbled upon covering the Welsh music scene’. I repeated that claim the other day while being interviewed by Bill Cummings for his Cymru Am Bop podcast (see link below), so I thought it was about time I put some flesh on the bones. In no particular order, then, are fifteen tracks from some of the best singer/ songwriters and bands in Wales.

1. Dan Bettridge - Third Eye Blind (2015)

Released as a single in 2015, and wisely included in Dan’s exceptional debut album Asking For Trouble three years later. “Third Eye Blind” is a stirring soul workout, hugely influenced by Van Morrison’s classic track “Real, Real Gone”, and a surefire set closer by anybody’s standards.

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2. Pretty Vicious - Cave Song (2014)

The mighty tune that famously sent the major record labels into a lather and into a headlong race to Merthyr in pursuit of the teenage rockers. I caught the band at the EVI (Ebbw Vale Institute), a few months after they had signed on the dotted line, and filed one of the earliest national reviews of the band for Wales Arts Review. I spent most of the review decrying their major label status; ‘Pretty Vicious has signed with Virgin, it’s the first uncool thing they’ve done’ I moaned. I ended the review on a note of caution - ‘Pretty Vicious would be wise not to rush into the recording studio just yet. You never get a second chance at a debut album’. My scepticism about the multinational’s motives was on the money - the band was unceremoniously dropped by Branson and Co in 2017 without even releasing an album!

https://soundcloud.com/prettyviciousuk/cave-song

3. Houdini Dax - Found Love In The Dole Office. (2015)

I was a huge fan of Cardiff’s sadly defunct power-pop trio, whose two albums, You Belong To Dax Darling (2011) and, particularly, Naughty Nation (2015), are packed with bangers/earworms/crackers - take your pick. I was bemused by their complete lack of success, but nevertheless surprised when they morphed overnight into Monico Blonde. Drummer Davey Newington went on to bigger, if not necessarily better things, with Boy Azooga of course. “Found Love In The Dole Office” is a typical Dax track, matching a punchy melody with a clever lyric.

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4. Jodie Marie - Everyone Makes Mistakes (2015)

Taken from one of my all time favourite albums, Trouble in Mind (2015), “Everyone Makes Mistakes” is one of four or five outstanding ballads that form the centrepiece of this truly fine record. This is a heartbreaking song that leaves the listener reeling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNBraJss7-4&feature=youtu.be&autoplay=1

5. oblong - Light Sleeper (2019)

I tossed a coin with this track. Llanelli’s bilingual post-punk combo has released two scorching albums, Brilliant...Gwd (2017) and Hollalluog (2019), which are brimming over with terrific tunes. Any one of them will set the pulses racing.

https://oblong1.bandcamp.com/

6. Danielle Lewis - West Coast Sun (2016)

When we beat this virus and lockdown truly ends, this is the record that I’m going to emerge from my hideaway playing. A joyous tune that deserves the sun on its back and for people to be of good cheer when they listen to it. Danielle’s current single “Flowers” is another beautiful composition.

https://daniellelewis.bandcamp.com/track/west-coast-sun

7. Aled Rheon - Wrap up Warm (2016)

It’s never the done thing to quote oneself, but as this feature is partly to publicise my book Pop Hack I’m going to take a diabolical liberty! In my review of the song I write ‘It’s a beautifully judged lyric with a performance to match, as Rheon’s fine-grained vocal manages to make James Taylor sound like Jello Biaffra’. Not bad, even if I say so myself!

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8. Armstrong - Gratitude (2019)

Although this song dates back a good number of years, it was included in the deluxe release of Armstrong’s majestic album Under Blue Skies (2019). As with oblong, above, I was spoiled for choice and very nearly chose the exquisite “My Resistance”, then again I very nearly opted for the heartaching “Perhaps It’s Time To Say Goodbye”. “Gratitude”, though, has a life-affirming quality that somehow transcends the times in which we live.

https://bigtakeover.com/recordings/ArmstrongUnderBlueSkiesTheBeautifulMusic

9. Climbing Trees - Aliosi (2013)

Does this song really contain ‘the most romantic couplet in the history of pop’, as I somewhat fancifully speculated in my review of Hebron, the Pontypridd combo’s debut album? Perhaps not, but that’s what a great pop song can do to you. I happily plead guilty to getting carried away by ‘Sunlight streams into my eyes, It always brings me to / I didn’t mean to wake you darling, but I can’t keep my eyes off you’. If that doesn’t set your heart racing, what will?

https://ilikeclimbingtrees.bandcamp.com/track/aloisi

10. Silent Forum - Limbo (2017)

Silent Forum had a great 2019, with their debut album Everything Solved At Once earning them rave reviews across the board. It’s a wonderful album and it would have been easy to choose its centrepiece, the stupendous “How I Faked The Moon Landing”. I opted, however, for “Limbo” an old favourite of mine and a song that stood out for me the very first time I saw the band play in 2015. This is Indie-noir incarnate!

https://silentforum.bandcamp.com/track/limbo-2

11. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard - Love Forever (2019).

Can there be any doubt that Tom Rees and his band are heading for the big time? The man writes killer tunes and has the chutzpah to carry them off. Rees is a real political animal, but he tends to separate that out from his music. On “Love Forever”, an ‘all you need is love’ protest song, he puts a hippy-dippy toe in choppy political waters for the first time.

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12. Boy Azooga - Loner Boogie (2018)

After missing the boat with Houdini Dax and Monico Blonde, Davey Newington’s ship finally came in with his solo project Boy Azooga, leading to support slots with the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. This tune is as fun ‘n’ funky as pop music gets.

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13. Burning Ferns - Bullet Train

Newport’s Burning Ferns are often compared to stellar names like Big Star, Teenage Fan Club and The Byrds, so if you admire classic songwriting, chiming guitars and three-part harmonies then their two fine albums on Country Mile See Saw Seen (2013) and Public Mono (2017) are must-have records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM6m3GTm7DE

14. Georgia Fearn - Catch Me When You Can (2018)

An edgy and imaginative songwriter, Georgia Fearn was just 17 when she released her debut album, the dark delight that was Perfect on Paper. Equally influenced by TV, cinema and literature’s tales of the macabre, Perfect on Paper is something of a black comedy, one that you might want to listen to crouched into the foetal position whilst hiding behind the sofa!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgVmBKAbn6c

15. Head Noise - Microwave (2018)

It defies explanation that Mitch Tennant left the mini-masterpiece “Microwave” off last year’s 14-track debut album Uber Fantastique. A fun pop artefact in the vein of Landscape’s “Einstein A Go-Go”, every home should have one - “Microwave” the song, I mean, not an actual microwave. Although I’m given to understand by the cooks in the household that a microwave is a product that comes in handy, personally I never venture into the kitchen, so I can’t properly comment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wXV_7fr7k8

The five next best

Travelator - Anonymous Iconoclasts, That Night at the Table - Beth Goudie, Just Rock ‘n’ Roll - I Fight Lions, Obsolete - Matthew Fredricks (not yet released), High -Clwb Fuzz.

http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2020/05/11/podcast-cymru-am-bop-episode-three-featuring-kevin-mcgrath/

All of the above acts are featured in my book Pop Hack

http://bit.ly/PopHack

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pardontheglueman · 7 years ago

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Swn Festival

A last minute invite, from the gracious Jayne Rowlands, to attend the BBC Horizons/ Sŵn festival press launch at Clwb Ifor Bach on Saturday meant that I had to desperately bone up on all those artists about to descend on Cardiff over the weekend in order to devise a precise route map for crisscrossing the capital and catching as many of the leading acts as I possibly could. I asterisked the list down to 28 must-see artists and, armed with a downloadable itinerary for each of the festival’s nine venues, set about creating a strategic campaign that would leave Churchill’s detailed invasion plans for the Normandy landings look half-baked by comparison.

First stop was the press bash, which was good fun; there was a chance to mingle with rising stars like Dan Bettridge and Aled Rheon, to grab a complimentary cupcake and even to polish off a glass or two of Prosecco into the bargain. Bethan Elfyn, noticing I was propped up on my crutches, kindly offered to fetch me another glass of wine, before she dashed on to the stage to introduce the first of the day’s formidable Horizon/Gorwelion acts

Any regular readers of kevonhissoapbox will know that Dan Bettridge is mentioned frequently in dispatches, so his set was almost guaranteed to be a festival highlight. Dan kicked off with the unbearably poignant “Letters Home”, a song which shares common ground with Willy Vlautin’s spoken piece “Postcard Written with a Broken Hand”, even down to its use of an unreliable narrator. It’s a song, like so many in his repertoire, that never fails to send a shiver down the spine. Other highlights in a fine performance included his momentous single “Third Eye Blind”, reproduced magically here by his tight-knit band, and a couple of tracks from the 2014 “Darker Days” E.P, “Drive” and “Rosie Darling”. The only disappointment, in an otherwise top-notch set, was the omission of “Darker Days” itself. There may well be 120 acts lined up for this year’s festival, but this is the guy they all have to beat!

*A strange footnote to Dan’s performance – midway through his set he claimed to have just eaten a cupcake with his face on it. Rock N ‘Roll stars are renowned for their excesses, of course, but I don’t remember reading this particular anecdote in Keith Richard’s notorious autobiography Life. Either BBC Wales is really pushing the boat out or Dan’s showing the first signs of a little-known complaint, hallucinatory narcissism!

It’s a tough ask to follow in the footsteps of Dan Bettridge these days, but Hannah Grace proved herself to be equal to the task. Grace is a singer’s singer, able to switch from demure diva one moment to a jazzed-up Janis Joplin the next. This was a punchy, no holds barred, performance with “Black and White” and “Walk Away”, (its stoned-out scat singing finale nearly took the roof off the place), providing some of the day’s most memorable moments. The festival was off to a sensational start.

* photographic evidence of a Hannah Grace themed cupcake has subsequently come to light, so I’m pleased to confirm that Dan Bettridge has, indeed , outdone the legendary Keith Richards in the category of culinary debauchery!

Bilingual singer-songwriter Aled Rheon is another act who kevonhissoapbox has steadfastly championed this year. His captivating ballad “September” has, quite simply, been one of THE tracks of 2015 so far, and it’s no surprise, therefore, that he opens his set with it today. What is surprising, though, is the appearance of five other people on stage to perform it with him! Aled Rheon and the Gorgeous Charge, making their live debut, included the Climbing Trees pair - Matthew Frederick (keyboards) and James Bennetts (drums) as well as Tender Prey bassist Mark Foley. There’s a poignant moment, too, towards the end of a fine set, when Aled dedicates his wistful ballad “Wrap up Warm” to his newborn son.

A brief chat with Matthew Frederick, as he was finishing his guest spot, gleaned the unwelcome news that the Climbing Trees’ gig at 10 Feet Tall had been brought forward to 6.30, leading to a direct clash with the much-lauded Hooton Tennis Club. ‘See you later’, I casually remarked, although, even then I sensed the seed of betrayal beginning to bloom in my heart, after all HTC had been tipped up by the NME, no less, as one of the four must-seebands of the festival. And, anyway, I had already bought my ticket for the Trees’ forthcoming hometown Christmas gig, so, what could it hurt, I reasoned, if just this once I stood the Trees up? My conscience was clear, sort of!

So it was that as the St John the Baptist church bells struck 6.30 I was to be found in the front row of a packed out Jack Rocks stage in Clwb Ifor Bachready to watch the second coming of comedy Indie–Rock (HTC is nothing if not a humorous cross between Supergrass and Space with a sprinkling of Neil Hannon, or indeed fellow Sŵn artist Simon Love (more of whom later), thrown in for good measure. Like a flash, though, the enormity of my actions struck home; sure the more glamorous HTC looked and sounded enticing, but, by the end of the band’s third song I was starting to feel like some sort of squalid adulterer, about to consummate the ultimate act of betrayal. It was Fatal Attraction all over again! Visions of the buoyantly bearded Frederick dutifully soundchecking, still blissfully unaware of my illicit rendezvous, began to dance before my eyes, pangs of guilt come out of nowhere and did a dozen quick laps around my breaking heart. Suddenly I was forcing my way tearfully through the crowd and out into the night air in a desperate attempt to salvage my long-term relationship with Climbing Trees.

I arrived at 10 Feet Tall breathless and panic-stricken and managed to bump straight into, of all people, Matthew Frederick himself, busily working his way back to the stage through a tightly packed crowd, ‘How much have I missed?’ I managed to innocently croak ‘Nothing, it’s running late’. Thank goodness, as the Trees turned in a terrific set, mixing classics from their outstanding debut Hebron (“Aloisi” and “Under the Lindens”) with three spellbinding new tracks that augur well for the band’s upcoming sophomore record.

The set opened with the first of those new songs “Caesar”, a raging fire and brimstone instrumental, impressive enough to overcome the unresolved sound problems that had delayed the gig in the first place, and the forthcoming single “Graves”. Before introducing the band’s ‘token’ pop song “ Lost”, a number which really sees the band pump up the volume, Frederick amiably joked that a recent review in the Carmarthen Journal had described the band as ‘successfully climbing the pop ladder’. The Journal is, if anything, underplaying the band’s appeal. For me, the Trees are a truly magical group of musicians, perched nine-tenths of the way to the top of pop’s metaphorical beanstalk and on the verge of making a fairytale dream of world domination come true (well, I have been drinking all day on an empty stomach, complimentary cup-cake aside!)

Between these excellent sets, I managed to catch Canadian garage rocker Michael Rault at the Undertone basement. In all honesty, this was an under-whelming gig that only really came to life with the blunderbuss wig-out that closed the set; that really was something to behold, though, so perhaps I’m doing him something of a disservice and he seemed to go down well enough with the small congregation of punters in attendance.

Next up, in the same un-atmospheric venue, was 16 yr old wunderkind Declan McKenna, winner of this year’s Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Award. His internet smash “Brazil” is an electro-poppy critique of worldwide football corruption and was certainly the stand-out song in an engaging set. He’s an extremely likable and unpretentious performer; kitted out in a Winnie-the-Pooh type t-shirt, he makes no attempt to disguise his tender age, cheerfully admitting, in fact, that his mother is in the crowd tonight monitoring his use of bad language.

I was back in the Undertone basement, following my flirtation with HTC, at 7.30, to see London’s Honey Moon deliver a superlative batch of songs that recalled the very early days of The Servants (think “She’s Always Hiding”) and renowned U.S janglers Real Estate. Before kicking off their set, the band’s front-man Jack Slater-Chandler made a hand on heart declaration that they were ‘gonna play some love songs for the people of Cardiff’. Amen, to that!

They proved to be as good as their word, easing their way through a half-dozen sun-dappled songs, the best of which were the dreamy “Tripping (On the Thought of You) and “Waiting” - both of which were taken from their eponymously titled debut E.P which I will certainly be checking out a.s.a.p.

That was day one over, brought to a brilliantly luminous conclusion by the kind of band Sŵn is so good at unearthing; my plans to leg it across to Abacus to catch the much-hyped Protomartyr abandoned, at the last minute, due to a dietary imbalance – plenty of drink, no food!

I had recovered my equilibrium by Sunday afternoon, however, just in time to catch a quality set by Simon Love at the Buffalo Bar. Love’s acerbic approach may not appeal to everyone, but he definitely has the pop chops to take some of the sting out of his waspish worldview. His latest single “The New Adam and Eve” is a prime example, a jocular, jangly pop song laced with murderous intent. It’s a fascinating gig that culminates in a bizarre duet, between Simon and his Dad, of the Traveling Wilburys’ classic “Handle with Care”.

From there it was straight past a packed out Peaness gig downstairs at the Clwb Ifor Bach and upstairs to the Jack Rocks Stage for Beach Fatigue (formerly Heavy Petting Zoo) and another chance encounter with Dan Bettridge who’d hot-footed it straight from the Tender Prey gig in the Buffalo Bar. Another large gathering was royally entertained by Amy Zachariah and co’s blistering psych-surf set, which actually threatened to loosen my teeth on a couple of their higher octane numbers. Opening song “Isabelle” was a frenetic slab of garage rock, which, majestically, seemed to go on forever. I, for one, would have been happy if the group had played that track over and over again in a sort of garage rock version of Groundhog Day. Of course, I would have then have been denying myself the pleasure of hearing new single “Drunken Grrrls” and the equally excellent “Cut Throat”. In singer Zachariah Beach Fatigue definitely have a front-person with real stage presence, whether she’s tightening the microphone lead around her neck, stealing her guitarist’s glasses, or jumping off the stage to boogie with the crowd!

Across the street, at the Moon Club, local boys The Cradles were playing their clever, Kinksian pop, to a smallish crowd. I managed to catch the second half of the gig, meaning that I’d missed out on hearing the superb “Denmark Street”. “Stamp Man”, another of their kitchen-sink character studies, is well crafted enough, though, to suggest that this is a young band set to make their mark in 2016.

My final stop for the weekend is at the Four Bars. I arrive just in time to catch the end of an extremely well received set from Cristobal and the Sea and bag a sofa seat in readiness for Bristol’s Rebecca Clements. I had intended, right until the very last minute, to watch Elle Mary and the Bad Men, simply because anybody putting the poetry of Pablo Neruda to music deserves an audience, so I was really hoping that Clements’ performance would vindicate my choice. Unfortunately, her introspective set didn’t quite come to life. “Coma Boy” was easily the best of her own compositions, while her faithful cover of The Cure’s classic “Boys Don’t Cry” was the obvious highpoint of a somewhat listless gig. The last band to take to the Four Bars’stage was Beach Baby, fresh from a support slot on the Hooton Tennis Club tour. Their short, sharp, six-song set showed rich promise. Whilst summer single “No Mind No Money” is furiously catchy, it’s more than matched by current release “Limousine”, a shimmering slice of surf-rock, and final number “Powderbaby” a gleaming track which quickly escalated into a savage, guitar-thrashing, semi-deranged finale. It was the single most exhilarating moment of my Sŵn festival weekend!

So, Sŵn is over for another year. Of the 28 artists I’d hoped to check out, I managed to see a grand total of fourteen! Missing Protomartyr still rankles, and I regret that Lazy Day and The Big Moon escaped me too. There were still plenty of highlights, though. The Horizons showcase brought together a clutch of brilliant Welsh artists and the festival’s curators certainly did a fine job in casting their net far and wide, attracting genuine contenders in the shape of Hooton Tennis Club alongside proven big hitters like Everything Everything. Sŵn, certainly warms the soul, it’s a feel-good festival that has the capacity to re-invigorate and re-enthuse anyone with a genuine passion for new music.

In a surreal coda to the evening, Mrs kevonhissoapbox and I had arranged to give Matthew Frederick a lift home at the festival’s close. Unfortunately, M.F. was having some difficulty in navigating the long and winding road from Womanby Street to St Mary Street! Six texts later there was still no sign of the Trees’ gregarious pianist. We eventually tracked him down at the entrance to the Millennium Stadium. Just goes to show what Sŵn and a Lucozade too many can do to you!

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