Creoso! Welcome back to our Welsh music round-up column. Every month we take a look at some new releases by emerging artists hailing from the land of song, as well as cast an eye over recent events and happenings from within the country’s music scene. Slightly different approach this month; we’re still going to look at a bunch of great new releases, but first we’re gonna run through a significant event that took place in Cardiff throughout October.
Though it technically began right at the end of September, last month saw the majority of Cardiff Music City take place. The festival’s roots go back to 2017, when a number of venues in the city centre faced problems due to the proposed building of nearby flats and the adjacent noise complaints they would bring. Common sense prevailed, thanks in large part to weeks of mass protests putting pressure on the council, who withdrew the planning application and drafted up a report that, amongst other recommendations, suggested the “establishment of a Music Board for the city to represent and champion Cardiff as the UK’s first Music City.”
The pandemic halted things, but we finally have Cardiff Music City. The three week festival wraps together the already-established Sŵn; Cardiff’s three-day new music showcase, along with Llais; the Wales Millennium Centre’s eclectic ‘festival of voice’, along with other several major city gigs, such as The Fugees and Kneecap. It also involved an array of other shows and workshops, ranging from bills of young South Walian bands to art installations to workshops and talks, including Huw Stephens on stage with author Neil Collins, discussing the latter’s book about the Cool Cymru era.
The author was invited to the wonderful Left Of The Dial in Rotterdam so couldn’t attend Sŵn (check out our excellent review of it here though) but was still able to catch a bunch of great Cardiff Music City shows and events. Early in the festival was the Welsh Music Prize, taking place in the suitably grand environs of the Wales Millenium Centre. This author was a judge on the panel this year and was really taken by the warmth and unity of the awards ceremony, which featured performances by a smorgasbord of the nation’s finest current acts, including Chroma, Wrkhouse, HMS Morris and the worthy winner himself; Lemfreck.
Llais played host to a smartly-paired bill of Squid and Georgie Greep, playing the grand, seated hall of the Wales Millennium Centre’s Donald Gordon Theatre. Both were great; Greep and his band improvised length jams atop tracks from his wild new acid rock solo album, Squid and their deconstructed stage set up (percussion everywhere, singing drummer front and centre) proved once again that they’re one of the most unique and interesting bands in the country right now.
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A great event hosted by the Forté Project and Horizons Cymru also deserves a mention. The two funding bodies do vital work in nurturing young Welsh musical talents (seriously, their alumni comprise practically half of the Welsh music scene) and their showcase at former church venue The Gate, featuring headliner Minas, along with CATTY, Mali Hâf and myriad other Welsh rising talents, felt like one of the most vital and inspiring events of the whole Cardiff Music City month.
The prominence of this multi-faced event has been a huge positive for Cardiff. A city’s music scene needs to feel supported by the local council and associated bodies, which this event goes some way to proving, as do more practical efforts such as the council’s appointment of a designated Music Officer. Things are still far from perfect; in grim irony, right at the start of the event, arts venue Caernedd was ejected from its new home with less than a week’s notice by their landlords. Shoutout to locations like No Fit State Circus and Still Hands tattoo parlour for helping them relocate a host of events.
Things like this, along with the closure of important small venues like Undertone and Buffalo, bring us back down to earth, whilst also reminding us that Cardiff’s music and arts scene is a close-knit and community-conscious one. The precarity of recent times seems to have been broadly (but not wholly) abated, and Cardiff Music City feels like both a celebration of this and a direction pointed towards a hopefully brighter future.
Other events of note also took place throughout October. The two-day Swansea Fringe played host to a bunch of great Welsh bands, taking place at a range of the city’s venues, including the recently Music Venue Trust-saved Bunkhouse. Swansea also saw the launch of a new grassroots organisation named Brand Damage, Full Dome Festival took place at Cardiff’s fascinating venue CLTVR Lab, St. Davids’ Boia Festival featured a great lineup including Bodega and Pictish Trail, and, on Halloween, Irish festival Other Voices began their 2024 Cardigan event.
It’s been another busy month here in Wales and we haven’t even got to the new releases. It’s an especially eclectic bunch this month, ranging from quintessential Welsh indie psych to imposing modern metal. Dive in and enjoy!
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Baby Schillaci – ‘The Soundtrack’
There’s a ton of awesome and abrasive rock bands coming out of Swansea right now, go check out Monet, Only Fools & Corpses, Kikker and basically all the bands on this compilation. Baby Schillaci are another one of the Western city’s dirty gems. Their debut full-length ‘The Soundtrack’ oozes anarchic energy; ten songs that chaotically come together as a thrilling post-hardcore/indie punk blend. Highlights include closer ‘Blunt Force Trauma’; a brilliantly paced tension-builder and the sleazy industrial grind of ‘Disintegrating Small Talk’. A record from which you can practically feel the band’s ideas trying to burst from its boundaries.
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The Eggmen Whoooooo! – ‘Fuzzy Eggs, Please’
So in this column I’ve often talked about Wales and the number of psych-inflected quirky indie bands that the country has produced. The Super Furry Animals’ shadow is a long one and the latest band to appear out from under it are Cardiff’s The Eggmen Whooooo! The irresistibly silly six-piece have just put out their debut record; ten tracks of psych/surf/garage rock whose absurdist tone is summed up by the album’s title. The most striking track is easily the chill but poignant epic ‘The Old Man Kmows Best’, which helps make ‘Fuzzy Eggs, Please’ stand out from the whimsical Welsh psych pack.
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Loveletter – ‘A Place That Doesn’t Exist’
Heading back West to Swansea but into a different musical dimension is the debut EP from deathcore mob Loveletter. A staggeringly heavy collection of ultra-modern metal, there hasn’t been a Welsh band going this hard since Continents, whose melodic metalcore already feels of a different era to Loveletter’s gnarliness. This is zeitgeist-riding extreme metal; five songs utilising seven string guitars, digital bleeps, bleak atmospherics and a production style that could shatter concrete. An expert exercise in brutality from a band already making a name for themselves in UK heavy circles.
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CATTY – ‘Healing Out of Spite’
Now based in London but born and raised in rural Wales, CATTY is a pop star in the making. Her seven track mini album ‘Healing Out of Spite’ is an energetic and infectious pop/rock/electronica blend, one whose modern maximalism eschews hyperpop experimentation in favour of accessible straightforwardness. Recalling pop luminaries ranging from Avril Lavigne’s earnest confessions to Cyndi Lauper’s brash energy to Stevie Nicks‘ (who CATTY opened for at Hyde Park) fierce presence, tracks like ‘I Gotta Be Cool’ and its monster of a chorus give you the sense that CATTY could go stratospheric very soon.
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The Dogs – ‘Total Dog Shit’
This month’s column is starting to look like a study in contrasts. Bringing things back down to earth and further down into the gutter is ‘Total Dog Shit’ by The Dogs. A raw South Walian punk trio, The Dogs feature a drum machine, an ex-member of The Chisel and snarling, chaotic frontman. Their debut full-length’s title gives the illusion they’re trying as little as possible, but one look at the artwork by in-demand artist Karim Newble and a listen to the tight, almost-egg punk (they’ll hate that tag) fun of tracks like ‘Shut Up’ and the ruse starts to slip. The Dogs know just what they’re doing, and they’re doing it very well indeed.
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skylrk. – ‘ti’n gweld yn glir¿’
It’s been a pretty raucous roundup thus far but we’re ending with something considerably more chill. North Walian enigma skylrk. is better known as a rapper, evidenced by this Welsh-language drill banger. However, his latest release ‘ti’n gweld yn glir¿’ (which roughly translates as ‘You See Clearly’) is a much more restrained affair; all empty spaces, noodly guitars and snatches of hushed vocals. It’s ember-like, the smouldering remains of a long-expired inferno. An unusual but fascinating collection, ‘ti’n gweld yn glir¿’ leaves you wondering what left turn skylrk. will take next.
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Words: Tom Morgan
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