music live PETE ROCK
The Queens Hall, Narberth Fri 16 Dec
That’s right: for reasons currently beyond our understanding, the Welsh leg of the legendary, genre-defining hip-hop artist and producer Pete Rock’s UK visit will take place in the small Pembrokeshire town of Narberth – right on the market street, just round the corner from the rugby club.
Rising to prominence during the height of hip-hop’s early-90s ‘golden age’ as part of Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Rock has enjoyed a groundbreaking, fantastically decorated career, helping to to popularise
heavy style adopted by pioneers such as De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Pos of De La Soul even
the funky, sample-
collab album with Rock when this writer interviewed him earlier this year; probably the most we’d have expected to hear about this project from the elusive and infamously idiosyncratic artist himself – unless
alluded to an upcoming
you can corner him in the local chippy after the gig for a chat.
In the decades since his collaboration with CL Smooth, Rock has helped to shape the direction of hip-hop as one of the genre’s most prolific and critically- acclaimed producers, with his r’n’b-influenced, hypnotic, and very danceable style earning him many favourable, but entirely justified comparisons with the late, great J Dilla.
Picking up a ticket for this curious, and likely intimate, little gig should be an absolute must for any local lover of music, and particularly those drawn to the art of making it. There’ll probably be more than a few out-of-towners descending onto Narberth for this one.
Tickets: £26. Info:
thequeenshall.org.uk JASON MACHLAB
ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART
Acapela, Cardiff Thurs 19 Jan
Known for his exceptional solo
soulful, unadorned singing, Alvin Youngblood Hart is bringing his three-piece Muscle
blues guitar playing and
to Cardiff’s Acapela. Where his fingerstyle, open-tuning solo work is reminiscent of Keb Mo, this outfit are more akin to ZZ Top.
Hart
body guitars for Flying Vs and Stratocasters here, but the set is as varied as you’d expect from a student of all sorts of American roots music. Blues and traditional tunes sit nicely alongside country rockers and lighter material that gives Hart a chance to show his humorous side as well as harmonise with his bassist.
may trade his hollow
In support is the fantastic James Oliver, of south Wales. Recently returned from his own tour of the USA, Oliver is a flashier, looser and more exhilarating player that Hart will do well to follow. But after decades on the road and jamming with everyone from Gary Moore to Bo Diddley, the headliner doubtless knows how to close out a show.
Tickets: £20. Info:
acapela.co.uk JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
34 Theory
DELTA SLEEP Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff Fri 16 Dec
The crossover of irregular time signatures and elevating melodies is something Brighton rock four-piece Delta Sleep have been harnessing for a duodenary. Their most recent feat 2021’s Spring Island, brings together the band’s collective efforts from previous releases: clean cut yet erratic guitar work, progressive structures and thoughtful vocal layering. Delta Sleep’s ability to factor in both pop sensibilities and complex aspects of math-rock has seen them gain critical acclaim and a larger audience.
This is a band whose live performances embody an eye twinkle with the addition of a light shoegaze overcoat which gives Spring Island an extra celestial quality. After years of dedicated touring, recent unavoidable downtime has allowed Delta Sleep the chance to craft not only this but also record a live album, Soft Sounds.
As well as performing their back catalogue of math/indie tracks, the band will be performing alongside tour support The Physics House Band, also Brighton natives.
Tickets: £15. Info:
clwb.net EMMA WAY
KAYHAN KALHOR &
ERDAL ERZINAN Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff Thurs 19 Jan
Don’t miss the rare opportunity to see, and feel, the exquisite talents of Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzinan when they visit Cardiff in January. Kalhor, a prodigy on the kamancheh – an ancient bowed instrument – began work in the Iranian National Radio & Television Orchestra aged 13, later travelling the country with the Shayda Ensemble and learning regional styles. Going on to study Western classical music, he started a series of collaborations with musicians from other countries.
Erzincan was deeply immersed in the folk and minstrel traditions of his native central Turkey when he became a pupil of the Arif Sag Music School – studying the baglama, a long-necked oriental lute particular to Anatolia. Sag, the foremost baglama player of generations, later worked with Erzincan beside the Cologne Philharmonic, before his longstanding relationship with Kalhor bloomed. Wild mountains and endless steppes are conjured; technical prowess, intuitive phrasing and a sublime emotional depth are the duo’s dynamic tools.
Tickets: £9-£18. Info:
rwcmd.ac.uk JULIA DELI
MADE OF TEETH / PIZZATRAMP
Le Public Space, Newport Sat 10 Dec
Bit of an on old-skool punk rock night, this, not necessarily in terms of musical style (although partly that) but in its raison d’etre, benefitting local workers striking for an acceptable wage. Specifically, your tenner will go to Royal Mail employees at the Caldicot delivery office, who have been picketing since late summer over a proposed 2% pay rise: a miserly increase when set against the expected cost of living in 2023, let alone the salaries of RM top brass.
As for the lineup on the night, Cardiff three-piece Made Of Teeth headline. Witnessed live or on their 2022 album Sociopathogen, their love of stoner and doom metal is delivered with hardcore/ thrash briskness, a la Corrosion Of Conformity or early High On Fire. Just below them are Pizzatramp, skatepunk goofballs with a UK- wide following but solid political nous amidst the jokes. And further down the undercard, two anarcho punk-leaning valleys combos – System Of Slaves and System Reset – are joined by the Sewer Cats from Manchester.
Admission: £10. Info:
lepublicspace.co.uk NOEL GARDNER
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