#ill upload a full lineup later this week | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nofuturezine-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Where are they now? Figures that shaped the Welsh scene.

In this new series of weekly uploads, Manon Williams, founder of The Jaunty Spiv Blog takes a look at prominent Welsh figures, to find out Where are they now?

Rhys Ifans

Image by Rhys Ifans

Becoming a household name through cult film, Twin Town. Actor and Musician, Rhys Ifans originally from Haverdfordwest has enjoyed a career spanning 20 years. Since the days of playing Swansea’s worst criminal, Jeremy Lewis. Rhys Ifans has continued expanding his acting career, starring in movies; Notting Hill, Danny Deckchair, Enduring Love and The Boat That Rocked, a film created around the history of pirate radio station, Radio Caroline.

Rhys Ifans is also an accomplished musician, once a member of The Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Whilst also finding time to relinquish his acting career for a starring role in the music video for Oasis’s, “The Importance Of Being Idle”.

In more recent years, Rhys Ifans has founded “The Shelter Cymru”, a charity looking to help reduce the percentage of homelessness across Wales. You can read his 7 ways to reduce homelessness here - https://sheltercymru.org.uk/7-ways/

Tom Jones

Image by Tom Jones

Since his days of pop star fame, Tom Jones has hardly been quiet. Having claimed the title of “Wales’s Wealthiest Musician” with an estimated fortune of £155 million. Tom Jones has since turned his sights to a variety of new ventures including, being one of the chair spinner and judges on “hit” reality TV show, The Voice.

With recent tabloids sharing in his wealth, Jones sold his LA pad for an eyewatering $11.28 million for his home, adding to his already excessive fortune. At the prime age of 77, Tom Jones still tours, and is currently on his Summer Tour, completing a run of 10 shows across June, July and August. Despite his busy schedule, Tom has still had time to enrich his orchestral side, making his Proms debut later this year at: The Sound of Soul: Stax Records on 1st September at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

Datblygu

Image by Datblygu

Formed in 1982 and quickly signed to legendary Punk label, Ankst. Pat, Dave and Wyn were pioneers of experimental music in Wales. Having released their seminal album Eggs (1988) which, led to Datblygu being overseen by Welsh radio outlets. Who ignored any sign of the band. But, Datblygu were rallied by DJ presenter, John Peel, even being invited to partake in their own Datblygu John Peel Session, the first of five sessions. Throughout the 80′s and 90′s, Datblygu arguably became the most prominent band in Wales. But, with Davies leaving in the 90′s, Pat and Dave continued on as a duo. Almost, merging into a Welsh Cosey and Chris. With the duo releasing a final single, “Amnesia/Alcohol” in 1995.

Moving forward 13 unlucky years, Pat and Dave reemerged with a 7″ single, “Can Y Mynach Modern”. A significant release, penned as a full stop to the cycyle of the band, rather than a continuation. A year later, Dave featured in a S4C documentary titled, “O Flaen Dy Lygaid”, a feature length piece about the true horrors of mental illness.

3 years passed before there would be any sign of a reconciliation. In 2012, Datblygu released Darluniau'r Ogof Unfed Ganrif ar Hugain, an EP, with a mini album “By Now” released two years later.

But, this is 2017 and we recently caught up with Dave and Pat, who were both at a “FEMME” gig, held in local venue, The Parrot, Carmarthen. Pat who was a part of the line-up provided an eclectic DJ set of classic music, whilst Dave showed his support to the bands throughout the night. Also, this year Dave Datblygu became a musician turned author, releasing a series of poems compiled into the, “Search for English in The House of Tolerance”. An interesting read that delves into debauchery and epitomises the phrase, “Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll.

Dirty Sanchez

Image by Dirty Sanchez

Wales’s answer to Jackass. Dirty Sanchez provided on screen entertainment by repeatedly hammering nails into their hand, or running through a gauntlet of electric tasers. They took stunts to a new level, filming challenges that would turn the stomach of this nation. Forming in 2003, Dirty Sanchez had a lifespan of 5 years, coming to a triumphant end in 2008.

Challenging the laws of censorship, their onslaughts lasted 4 series, Front End and Rear End, Jobs for the Boyos, European Invasion and Behind the Seven Sins. Following a succession of TV programmes, a range of spin off shows were launched, including The Dirty Sanchez movie, narrated by legendary Welsh drug smuggler, Howard Marks.

Having since put these days behind them. These 3 Welsh mates and one warped southener have pursued a series of careers.

Pritchard - Has recently become a world record holder, having completed a 23 day period half Iron Mans - consisting of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. Whilst doing so, raised over £100,000 for charity. Alongside his achievements, he’s also turned his hand to barbering and tattooing, “SWYD” Tattoo and Barbershop. A reference to his infamous saying whilst appearing in Dirty Sanchez, “Sleep When You’re Dead”.

Dainton - Like Pritchard, Dainton has since founded business venture, 420 Skatestore, located in his hometown of Cwmbran and is owner of Kill City Skateboards.

Pancho - Pancho has been fairly quiet since his TV performance came to a close. He has barely any internet presence, besides this informative tweet, posted in 2012.

Having trawled the internet, trying to conjure up any news about this once erratic stuntman, we failed to find anything. Other than rumours of Pancho setting up his own Taco store, and T-shirt line titled, “El Poco Loco”

Joyce - The “one warped southener” on the other hand, has arguably had the most success post Sanchez. Now, running an online collective “Joyce Division” of aerial, light and production artists. The collective have produced work on behalf of VANS, Ferrari and various athletic wear companies.

His 2017 showreel that yields an impressive lineup of companies - https://vimeo.com/199161765

Ffa Coffi Pawb

Image by Ffa Coffi Pawb

[Ffac Off i Pawb]

Finally, Ffa Coffi Pawb a Welsh Indie band, signed to Ankst in 1986. The band, comprised of Gruff Rhys, Dafydd Ieuan, Rhodri Puw and Dewi Emlyn. Who all later went on, to find even bigger success in bands, Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Having only released 3 albums throughout their career, in recent times it’s hardly been difficult to follow the growing success of each individual member of Ffa Coffi Pawb.

Gruff Rhys - Frontman of Super Furry Animals, Welsh Psychedelic band that rose to prominence via the input of Alan McGee, who signed the band to Creation Records in 1995. With Gruff Rhys at the helm of The Super Furries, there was little room to move. But, having disbanded from the band in 2007, Gruff Rhys has had a successful solo career, with his album, “Hotel Shampoo” winning a Welsh Music Prize.

Dafydd Ieuan - Fellow member of The Super Furry Animals, Dafydd Ieuan owns Strangetown Records, a joint label set up with his brother, Cian Ciaran, also a member of The Super Furries. His band, The Peth also released an album titled, “The Golden Mile” in 2008, with Rhys Ifans coincidentally providing vocals for the LP.

Rhodri Puw - Very little is known about the last two members of Ffa Coffi Pawb, Rhodri Puw did manage to find major success, again with a band, titled Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci though, so it’s not all bad.

Dewi Emlyn - The only information found about the elusive Dewi Emlyn is that he went onto become tour manager for the Gorky’s.

Next week: Anrhefn, Charlotte Church, The Alarm, Y Fflaps, Howard Marks

#thejauntyspiv #blog #blogging #blogs #music #acting #bbc #rhysifans #ffacoffipawb #manon

1 note · View note

thegroovethief · 8 years ago

Photo

#TGTfeature 004: Doctor Jeep [Trouble & Bass, Tumble Audio, ENCHUFADA: New York City, USA] Following last month’s Afrofunk excursion with Denver band ATOMGA, #TGTfeature 004 returns to low-end theory with the man to call if the bass isn’t ill enough: Doctor Jeep! This and forthcoming #TGTfeature articles will highlight dedicated musical talents by featuring their recent work as well as an in-depth interview. Undeterred by tempo and style, Doctor Jeep is well-regarded from techno to dubstep to dnb. Speaking via phone prior to his return to the Denver stage on March 2nd, the good doctor discusses the challenges of being a multi-genre specialist, his own crucial musical experiences, how he gets his bass so massive, and much more. Special note: Make sure to tune in late-night this Sunday evening Feb 26 at midnight MST for my next live “Pomegranate Sounds” radio show on KGNU Community Radio (Boulder/Denver). A Doctor Jeep feature will be on just after 1am (on Monday), with an exclusive chance to win tickets! A bit about Doctor Jeep: - a leading voice in the New York City bass scene, DOCTOR JEEP is known for rocking a range of bpms - has stacks of remixes under his own name as well as his DJ Bark Lee alias; his latest production release, the half-time dnb DISSOCIATE EP, came out mid-2016 on Aufect Recordings - HEADLINING this Thursday, March 2, at The Black Box with Snubluck and Kompra, presented by Sub.mission

TGT: You’re an artist who works within multiple styles and tempos, yet there’s always a clear focus on the low-end. How did you first get into bass music, and why has it become such an important part of your life? DJ: Basically, I went to a record store near my college when I was a freshman, and I bought a CD with an interesting looking cover, even though I had never heard of the artists or label. It ended up being Caspa and Rusko’s Fabriclive mix. That just opened my eyes to dubstep in general, and from there I just went through my usual process of how I found new music nowadays, which is just Googling every artist and/or label that was mentioned in the track list, and just kind of going in a wormhole from there… that was nine or ten years ago at this point. Weirdly enough, it took a while to get back into dubstep properly. Somehow after listening to that Fabriclive mix, I got really into Hessle Audio and Hemlock, and the kind of more techno-y stuff for the rest of my college experience. A few years later, I started going to a party in New York called Reconstrvct - basically its initial iteration was an all-UK dubstep party. They were bringing in these crazy lineups…like six or seven DJs from the UK and then one or two other residents. And it was just super insane because you would never see these producers in the US, ever, outside of that one party since it was fairly underground people for the most part. I think one of the defining moments that solidified my love for bass music was their two-year anniversary that had Kahn & Neek, their side project Gorgon Sound, Vivek, Youngsta, and Amit, all on the Tsunami Bass soundsystem which is probably one of, if not the best soundsystems in New York. I guess as for why that kind of music is important to me: it’s an escape from real life and the stuff I like makes me feel like I’m going back to my ancestral tribal roots. Sometimes when I’m in the dance, it gives me this feeling like we’re in the Stone Age dancing around a fire with like a shaman guiding us… it’s really cool to think about it in that way, knowing that people around me are also on the same wave length and it’s a meditative, trance-like experience. You’re feeling this energy in your chest and it’s so different than listening to music at a house party or in your headphones or something. Not to be too hippy-dippy about it, but bass is healing, and it allows you to mentally recharge and let go after a long week – I just love going to parties and dancing and, you know, getting into it… if I’m paying $15 to see some DJ, I’m gonna dance, I’m not just gonna stand there and cross my arms and nod my head! [laughs] Finding this community in New York was really important to me, because for all my life prior to that I felt like an outsider who just liked weird music. It’s really great to go out somewhere and spend a few hours with your friends every weekend doing what makes you the happiest.

TGT: So what challenges do you face as an artist whose work isn’t defined by a single genre? DJ: I make so many different kinds of music that I think it’s important to have certain distinctions as to what’s Jeep stuff versus other small side projects, because… I feel like if I’m making techno as Doctor Jeep, and I’m making drum ‘n’ bass as Doctor Jeep, people don’t really know how to book me, or where to book me, and that’s a huge issue. Because if I was, you know, [Berghain resident and legendary techno DJ] Marcel Dettmann or something, and I primarily played one or two fairly similar types of music, people would know what to expect when I came to play a party. At any gig, I have the ability to play rap or dancehall or UK garage or jungle or whatever, but some crowds know me for my older 130bpm productions, some crowds come for the newer drum ‘n’ bass side of me, and it’s like a divided crowd where I can’t appease everyone, and it’s definitely more difficult than if I was able to go into it with a clear game plan every time. It’s all situational. After I play a party once, I generally know the vibe. These days I’m super into a lot of electro and ’90s hardcore, but I know that’s not what fits the vibe at Sub.mission for example, so I’ll focus more on the dubstep and halftime side of things. I guess that is the benefit of playing a lot of different kinds of music, I can hone it in if I know what the crowd tends to like. At the end of the day if I’m getting paid to fly somewhere and play music for two hours, my job is to make the crowd happy, regardless if I just got a bunch of sick tracks from a totally different style the weekend beforehand [laughs]. That being said, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what works on any given night. I think that there are some situations in which a change of vibe within the set is welcomed, and this kind of ties back to that Reconstrvct two-year anniversary. At some point in Youngsta’s set he went from a deeper dubstep section to a more hype halftime dnb part, and that was one of the first times I ever saw someone play a hybrid set like that and do it super well. And it made me think, damn, these two tempos are separated by 30bpm – which is a pretty big jump – but are stylistically quite similar in sound design and the sound palette, and people really fuck with both. I mean, it was just another one of those times where I was like ‘wow, you can really go all over the place, and still keep the crowd with you,’ so that was really inspiring for me, and definitely a very formative experience where I was like alright, that’s how you connect the dots from very different tempos. You find stuff that has similar textures or atmospheres or whatever, and you kind of go from those tracks. You’re not just slamming in a totally different track or doing a backspin and then just throwing in something from left field. That will kill a crowd, but you just gotta think of it kind of intellectually: where’s this set going? Basically, long story short, I think it’s tough as an artist who likes to make different kinds of stuff to get booked as much as if I only specialized in one genre. On the other hand though, I do think it’s important to experiment as much as possible and try new things. I mean, every time I’ve tried consciously to make a different style than I normally do, I learn a new production technique just by fucking around with the software or using a sample in a different way. I do think it’s important to experiment, but at the same time you have to have a consistent sound. I feel like over the years I’ve found the quote-unquote ‘Doctor Jeep sound,’ and it’s not necessarily a genre thing, but it’s more so just a general vibe or the samples I use or the way I use certain vocal samples or whatever… I’ll give a quick example: I really like weird, disembodied vocal chants or little cut-ups of a vocal that aren’t full words. There’s that, and I also really like running full vocal phrases through a vocoder and having them sound like a robot. Just things that kind of remind you of the human voice but aren’t exactly that, because it’s important I think to have a human element in the music too.

TGT: You’ve dropped some heavyweight remixes within the past few years, notably including a recent “Topper Top” rework (under your DJ Bark Lee alias), a mix of Benga & Coki’s “Night,” and a personal favorite of mine, “Back to Africa” by Tour De Force. What’s your approach when remixing to truly make tracks your own, and any tips for producers on how to get the bass banging properly? DJ: It’s funny you mention that [“Back To Africa”], because actually I think that’s the track that’s statistically done the poorest of any track I’ve ever uploaded, in terms of number of listens or comments, so it’s kind of heartwarming knowing at least one person liked it [laughs]. One thing that really bums me out is when an artist remixes something else and doesn’t use the main elements of the track. They might use like a tiny vocal before the drop, and then suddenly it shifts into a different song with no samples from the original… for me, it’s really important that if I’m doing a remix, it has to, at the very least, remind you of the track or even better, be obviously identifiable as being a flip on this song. I guess my approach to it all is to have the remix be different enough where I’m putting my stamp on it, but still paying tribute to the original artist. I’ve had remixes done for me (that ultimately never were released) where I’ve been like ‘uh.... [chuckles] so where’s the parts of my track – this isn’t really a remix, it’s just your track that has my name on it.’ It’s just so weird you know? Getting back to the second half of your question - I know people that have a million VSTs and 10 types of EQs, and I’m sitting here only using the Ableton plugins because my philosophy is just mastering what you’ve got. In terms of instruments, I only use the VST MASSIVE, that’s what I build my sounds out of primarily except for occasionally manipulating samples. It’s the first one I learned, and I feel very comfortable with it at this point, and for me to learn a totally different software instrument would just be frustrating. I just know how to get the sounds I want with MASSIVE, and I now associate the Jeep sound with the basses I make with it, so I just go with that for now. So my tip is: get good at one or two things and stick with it. Your creativity can lead you to make sounds that you didn’t think were possible with that specific instrument.

TGT: You’ve spoken before about the role tribal percussion plays in your production, while the just-released freebie “Adianta” brings in a similar vibe via a choice vocal. What’s your view on sampling? DJ: In general I think sampling is super important for music, especially if you look at any of the major developments in terms of the way dance music has evolved. I think back to one of my favorite genres – early ‘90s rave music – and they’re throwing so many different elements in the pot: breakbeats from old funk or hiphop records, synthesizers, vocals from sci-fi movies, or straight up just sampling other people’s tracks unashamedly [laughs]. That was the most exciting period of music for a short period of time because they had so many different influences and elements. Even nowadays, a lot of the stuff I like is just re-contextualized old music. With that track you mentioned, “Adianta,” - basically I heard this ‘70s bossa nova tune on a Brazilian compilation I got (my family is from there so I listened to that kind of music all the time growing up), and I really wanted to do a side project that was all remixes of Brazilian tracks. I had four tracks lined up for it, but three of them were just not as good as I really wanted, so I decided to give away the one decent track. The main sample is an eight-bar loop from the original, Trio Mocoto’s “Nao Adianta”. A funny thing happened, where basically I put this track out, and a promoter who booked me once shared my track with this someone she knows and she said ‘hey, check out this kid’s music, I think you might like it, you guys should connect for a coffee or something.’ In a very weird coincidence, it turned out that the guy she sent it to runs a label that the band I sampled was signed to. We actually ended up meeting up and talking shop about a potential new project, so I’ll probably create another alias in the next year or two that’s dedicated to that and that’s very focused on sampling Brazilian music and reinterpreting it in a modern context. I think my parents would be quite proud [laughs]. I mean, honestly, my take on that is don’t be dumb and sample something that’s on Sony or some major label that is gonna go after you. Don’t take an obvious, long sample from something really well known. The strategy is just do it in such a manner that it may pay homage to the original track but it’s not a total rip-off. I would be insane to take more than a few seconds of a Drake vocal and put it into a song and try and sell it – I think if you’re giving it away for free that’s one thing, if you’re trying to make money off it that’s where you’re going to come into some issues. TGT: Not necessarily connected, but which artists’ musical influence do you view as crucial to the Dr. Jeep sound? DJ: For me, it’s not so much specific artists as much as it is experiences. When I was in college I had a six-month long internship in London. And on the third day I was there, I went to Fabric, and it was a Hessle Audio night. This one moment I remember really specifically was Ben UFO (or Blawan, I can’t remember) playing Head High’s remix of Joy Orbison’s “Ellipsis”. It’s just a really cool, groovy tune – it’s a breakbeat techno track that’s not 4x4, it has an odd rhythmic pattern to it, and just very drum-oriented, but hearing that was just like ‘damn, this kind of shit sounds awesome in a proper club sound system.’ I think that really influenced the way I like to program drums these days. It’s all about rhythm. In the same night actually, Jackmaster did a set from 5-6am, and he played a Burial “Archangel” – and that was really bizarre because I never thought I’d hear that track in a club. It was just so crazy hearing such a raw powerful song in a nightclub full of people that are on all kinds of mind altering substances and seeing how much it really affected them. I think that was one of the moments where I was like ‘alright, I want my music to – even if it’s not this emotional – have this visceral impact’ … I don’t think my music is at that point yet, but that’s the kind of goal… if I can get one person to say ‘this is an insanely good track,’ then I think I’ve done my job. I heard Kode9 do a mix for FACT magazine, that’s pretty much all mid 90’s jungle, and that was definitely a point where I was like ‘I really enjoy this kind of music.’ You know, uptempo, breakbeat music. That mix got me going down the drum ‘n’ bass wormhole, which I now very much enjoy. You can tell he actually grew up in the era when that music was being made, and it’s really cool to see an artist’s influences, even if it’s not what they’re primarily known for nowadays.

STAY LOCKED IN WITH DOCTOR JEEP: Facebook Soundcloud Twitter Instagram Event: Thursday, March 2 Image Credit: Rachel Amico

0 notes