WELSH


RELEASES


a solo project, a trio or a sizeable multi-instrumental collective. It was coined by the Cardiff-based Drew Noel after a cross-America trav- elling holiday that bookish types are wont to take; he wrote nearly all the music and lyrics on debut Blue Amber album Rockland’s Workshop, with the aid of two core co-musicians and another dozen or so guests. Musically, we’re talking jazzy post-rock of the ‘inter- esting textures’ rather than ‘big riffs’ type – the gathered players can kick up impres- sive duststorms, as on Old Breed, Pt.II, but are often minor-key and delicate, with Noel’s beat poetry-influ- enced delivery a common feature. These New Puritans, Arab Strap and some early Anticon Records releases feel like useful touchstones.


Depending on how you slice it, Blue Amber is


either


– transatlantic, no less, with Cardiff MC Charlie J graced by production from a Columbus, OH beatmaker named KwanLi. The lan- guid, melodic vintage soul flips that make up the six tracks on A Moment’s No- tice may well be a familiar style to you, with Dilla and early Kanye cited as influ- ences, but it’s done impecca- bly stylishly, and Charlie is a more than suitable match: romantic without being syr- upy, relatable without being trite and augmented on the final two tracks by fellow south Wales hip-hop scenest- ers Ogun and Mezcal.


Talbot


both, and seem to be related to or peers of Brian Karrot, whose band The Karrots date from the late 80s and who I reviewed a single by with similar impressed puzzle- ment a while back. Hoskins The


Introducing Bobby Bluff is probably stretching the definition of a ‘Welsh re- lease’ past its limit but what are you going to do, write to your MP? Bobby Bluff is a band of three, none of them named Bobby Bluff: our connection, if you will, is Jon Tregenna, a Welsh playwright/writer/muso resi- dent in Laugharne where this album was partly recorded. The


Matt Armstrong and Jude Montague, have done some interesting stuff together and separately; Armstrong affects what I assume is the character of Bobby through his London wideboy vo- cal and lurid underbel- ly-of-the-city lyrics. Musi- cally this is oddly tricky to pin down: there are dustings of electric folk and jazz, and I catch Ian Dury and Auteurs vibes at times, but it’s all pleasingly vivid and theatri- cal in the good sense.


other two members,


Now for some Welsh hip- hop with outside assistance


36


I wonder how many Welsh-speaking Australians there are on the planet: the number, at least, is greater than zero thanks to Ffredi Blino, who moved from there to here, specifical- ly Llanidloes, and records songs with bilingual lyrics. His latest release, in fact, is a twofer with the same, trans- lated title (Ffyrdd Tarmac A Ffenses / Tarmac Roads And Fences) but wholly different music. Ffyrdd… is the rockier turn, with a finely crunchy recurrent bass riff and a SFA-meets-Pavement feel with added glam and garage presence. Tarmac… is more of a gently psyche- delic country lope: again I hear Pavement in the twangy guitar, Lambchop too in the tempo.


Another beatcrafter’s show- case, this time fully assem- bled in Cardiff – with the presumed exception of All Praises Due, a feature for the clarinet of Chicago’s es- teemed spiritual jazzer Angel Bat Dawid – Aly Jamal aka Don Leisure has rustled up a proper banquet for anyone who likes psychedelic patch- work hip-hop bricolage, or even just the idea of it. Shaboo Strikes Back, an LP on First Word, features 25 tracks most often under two minutes long, and a deep re- serve of caramel-rich string samples, breakbeats, dia- logue snippets (everything from 70s movies to 90s radio ads) and the general feeling of being taken on a journey through terrain you don’t recognise. As well as Dawid, there are guest appearances from Gruff Rhys, Boy Azo- oga’s Davey Newington and, it says here, Don’s small daughter Naima. Aw.


It’s a new album release on Machine., surely Cardiff’s number one electronic mu- sic label that is in fact based in New Zealand, and a new name into the breach in First Third. Christian Gates, the face behind the name, is by no means a newjack – in fact I recall enjoying a live techno set by him in a hotel basement nearly 15 years ago – but Salvage, which comprises a single 40-min- ute track, is his first release in some time and feels like a creative rebirth of sorts. Part- ly created with Max patches and algorithmic formulae, much of Salvage is fiercely arrhythmic computer music along the lines of Autechre or Dopplereffekt at their least compromising. Then there are sections that ap- proach dub techno or electro, the final lap pitching muggy ambient synths against rash- raw acid looping.


have a running theme or con- cept, hitched to eight songs of lo-fi psych-rock burble. Of the acts that come even tenuously to mind as I listen – the Mothers Of Invention, Ween, The Olivia Tremor Control, Kevin Ayers – some strike me as more plausible influences than others, but again I am excitingly rudder- less out here.


Halbum appears to


or


Pontardawe,


or


ONES TO WATCH:


Panic Shack


Meg Fretwell, guitarist for one of Wales’ most talked-about new bands – irrepressible indie-punk quintet Panic Shack – spoke to Buzz’s Emma Way in the window between the release of their debut 12” EP Baby Shack and their early-May headline gig in Cardiff.


I heard you first thought about starting Panic Shack at Green Man one year.


More blanketing ambient soothe from the Welsh capi- tal, this time by a fellow who has been making synth-orig- inated beatlessness for


Meditations Vol. 1 by


Goodparley has no words but a detailed backstory. Oli Richards began recording under this name a couple of years ago as a sort of ambi- ent/synth sideline from his more established band, post- punkish Cardiffians Silent Forum; Goodparley slowly became his main focus, what with its home-taped nature suiting lockdown nicely. Richards wanted to get back into playing guitar, and also become better at getting up in the morning – the five instrumental tracks on this CDR, released by the Worm- hole World label, combine both


they’re recordings made right after waking up. That drowsy vibe is palpable, in a good way, with these sheets of abstract guitar drift. I especially like the bend to- wards desert-blues twang on the final Meditation Twelve.


these things, in that


good decade now and is also one of the main people who oversees DIY artspace Shift. Ergo, a big hand for Jon Ruddick! Companions is described, in full, as “ex- ploration of space populated by moving bodies” – it’s not further explained how this relates to the music, which favours solemn, drawn-out drone parts bedecked with a layer of fuzz, although the closing Borders & Cus- toms includes the sounds of what I assume is an airport, making things a little more concrete. These are affecting tones if you’re into ambient artists like Stars Of The Lid or KMRU.


a


I think it was 2018 – we all knew each other but weren’t super close at this point. It was amazing watching other bands and thinking, “I could have a go at that!” Previously, we’d been going to gigs in Cardiff, watching indie- rock’n’roll boy bands – and we were tired of it. We thought we could bring a lot more to the table.


How long have you been playing the songs that feature on Baby Shack? Jiu Jits You was the first song we ever wrote, in 2018. We only started telling people were in a band in summer 2019 – our first gig was that autumn. We started recording in March 2020, just before COVID, with Tom Rees – we’ve been sitting on the official recordings for two years. It’s been a little difficult to fully move on from those songs, so now they’re released our main focus is finishing and recording new ones.


How’s that going so far? Good! But to add all those finishing touches to new songs we’re going to need a week off. With the last songs, we stayed in a cottage for a week and wrote and finished them all.


Back to Cardiff guys who you’d be smart to hit up for a beat, well Leon ‘Second- son’ West has certainly been one of those in his time – in the early 00s his instrumen- tals pretty much kept south Wales rappers’


motor running. His latest offering, Any Other Place, was recorded in Cathays Park’s Temple Of Peace and is entirely performed on an instrument, the halldoro- phone, which hadn’t even been invented when West was recording with Fleapit and the like. It is, for the most part, extremely quiet and


I don’t think I can describe what Hoskin Phenome- non’s deal is with any de- gree of authority, and will probably get some details wrong, but here goes any- way. They come from Port


evolving incrementally with assistance from the temple’s acoustics: headphones rec- ommended as standard, and maybe try cleansing your mind of all thoughts too. I’m sure you hogs will find that rather simple!


sedate, string drones collective


It’s so nice to be able to see people like you up there. When I was at school I didn’t see many girl bands, especially not guitarists and drummers. For me, Meg White from The White Stripes was probably the first woman I’d seen in a rock band. Hopefully that’s changing now and that’s our overall aim, other than having a laugh with our mates. What I’ve really enjoyed, while we’ve been touring with Buzzard, is having 14-year-old girls come up and speak to me at the end, or message us on Instagram afterwards, and be like, “this is my first gig. I came with my dad.” If I could go back to myself at that age, I’d be proud to show that to them.


Panic Shack play Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff on Sat 7 May. Tickets: £8. Info clwb.net Baby Shack is out now on Brace Yourself.


panicshack.bandcamp.com EMMA WAY


Scan to read, watch or listen to the full interview


Ren Faulkner


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