Blogs
Formed in Cardiff, Sock make guitar-driven alternative rock, taking inspiration from psychedelic music. Known for their creative melodic arrangements and blending of genres, the band describe their music as “a rather progressive affair”.
Following on from the bands debut album ‘Fresh Bits’, in 2018, their much anticipated self-titled follow up is out this April. The album features Jacob on Rhythm Guitar & Vocals, Billy on Lead Guitar, Sam on Bass & Keys, and Simon on Drums & Percussion.
Produced by the band, the album was recorded during the pandemic and sees the music move into a heavier and more refined sound.
Accidentally High is the third track released from their self-titled second album, which is out on the 28th April through Bubblewrap Collective.
Tom Emlyn announces his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 15’ released on the 5th of May.
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-18
Swansea-born songwriter Tom Emlyn vividly depicts why he is one of the most prolific and inventive songwriters emerging songwriters in Wales, with his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 15’ released on the 5th of May. Recorded in 2018 and mastered by Charlie Francis ( R.E.M., Pixies ). A treasure trove of recordings dating back to 2016, 2017, and 2018, these songs offer a window into the sheer scope of Emlyn 's songwriting talent, his captivating songs uniquely exploring the particularity and peculiarity of human experience.
Featuring his gorgeous recent singles ‘ Broken Mirror ’ - a heartfelt and poetic ballad of lost love, watch the video here , and ‘ Like a Cigarette ’ inspired by his days busking outside a cafe in Frankfurt acting as a living and breathing earworm that charts his travels around Europe and Germany in 2017. Plus forthcoming third single ‘It doesn’t bother me’ . Compared to Bob Dylan or Elliott Smith , Tom Emlyn ’s sound, while rooted in garage rock, is tinged with psychedelia, folk, jazz, and blues overtones - including a recent adoption of the harmonica as a lead instrument.
Tom explains “ Abandoned work is a normal part of the music-making process, but I felt these songs deserved a second chance. I also wanted to release it as a (small) protest against certain smoke-and-mirrors aspects of the music industry. People will tell you to wait and wait, hold back all of your material for the "right time". I can't do that anymore; for me, a song is only new when it's just been written, although it can be remade in live performance. I find it quite agonising to sit on this material for so many years. I'll be thirty in 2023. That's why I want to get this sizeable backlog of unheard material out there, so I can move on to new things, and that's why this is the third album I've released in a year.”
“There were many people involved in these tracks - different engineers, studios, producers, and musicians in Swansea and Cardiff. I think the album has a unified feel despite being a bunch of stuff that was recorded in various studios and spaces, before being rescued from the cutting-room floor. It's a bit of a lighter, ironic affair, full of magic realism and surreal images of the natural world, half-acoustic and half-electric, with an eclectic, eccentric, sprawling feel. Scraped from the bottom of a very deep barrel - but somehow holding together .”
Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales, and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk-influenced melodies explore what it means to belong to a place - the bitterness, the love and the humour. “The truth is, all of my music is one long song - constantly flowing from inner worlds and mysterious, unknown places.” He reveals “ Songwriting is like a diary for me, and it's time to share Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1. with you. It might be a slightly imperfect document, but I think it's all the better for it.”
In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of "undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy" . It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom 's second album ‘I've Seen You In Town’ followed hot on the heels of the first - a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’ on Bandcamp this February. He is currently promoting these records with intimately explosive solo and band performances across Wales and beyond, with a string of releases planned for 2023.
Tour Dates
22nd April - The Moon, Cardiff
4th-6th May - Focus Wales, Wrexham
12th May - Dyddiau Du, Cardiff (solo to promote new album)
20th May - Second 45 record shop Llanelli (solo to promote new album)
27th May - in it together festival Margam
16th June - Cwrw, Camarthen
17th June - Cwrw (solo record shop in-store to promote new album)
17th June - Elysium, Swansea (to promote new album)
12th August - Brecon Jazz/Fringe festival
6th October - Hippos, Swansea
https://tomemlyn.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/tom_emlyn
https://www.instagram.com/
Junior Bill, the ‘21st Century Joe Strummer’, spins a tale of post-Brexit isolation in dub-pop anthem ‘TEETH’
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-18
After the roaring success of Junior Bill’s first 2023 single ‘Boys From Jungle’ - praised, played and playlisted worldwide - then the mournfully and politically-loaded follow-up ‘Flag of St George’ comes the third Junior Bill single of the year. ‘ Teeth ’ is a melancholic reggae number about a lonely, isolated society where sugar passes for joy and life stays stagnant around a tiny cul-de-sac in post-Brexit Britain.
Junior Bill is the project of Cardiff songwriter Robert Nichols - acclaimed as ‘ a 21st Century Joe Strummer ’ by BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson earlier this year. The group have found support both locally in their home country of Wales as well as internationally on radio and press in Australia, Spain, Brazil and Canada. Turning debut album ‘Youth Club!’ into a series of singles released over the course of the year, has shown a broad range of reggae, psych, indie and blues that has a core element of storytelling about pressing and urgent politicised life.
The songs of Junior Bill reach into the lives of others in an unusually empathic way, whilst still remaining extremely “singable” . Gigwise said "it's a political maturity set against a childlike honesty that makes Junior Bill so intriguing. " ‘Teeth’ tells the story of an elderly woman who can’t stop eating sweets, living a lonely life in a Truman Show-style world where people “live and work and die” all in one isolated neighbourhood. It’s all somewhat reminiscent of Britain’s increasingly claustrophobic societal atmosphere. This toy-town is recreated in the song’s video, a naive stop-motion animation made by Junior Bill and his friends. The track deals with themes of isolation, the loneliness of ageing, our increasing inability as a nation to care for the vulnerable, as well as the song’s main hook singing of the both immediate and deeper long-term need for the country’s national healthcare.
In the live music scene Junior Bill have made a lasting impression, opening for Supergrass during their reunion shows after a supporting tour with drummer Danny Goffey, then last year making their debut at Glastonbury Festival. The band returned to their hometown of Cardiff in January to a packed out show, and have a series of dates to come throughout the UK (below) whilst releasing more singles and then the debut album ‘Youth Club!’ before the end of the year.
Pre-save ‘Teeth’ now at https://ffm.to/juniorbillteeth.OPR
LIVE DATES
29th April - All Roads Festival, The King Arthur, Glastonbury - solo
4th May - The Canteen, Bristol - band
5th May - Fork & Tune, Cwmcarn - band
26th May - How The Light Gets In Festival, Hay on Wye - solo
28th May - Devauden Festival - solo
3rd June - Golden Lion, Bristol - band
LYRICS
She's been getting holes in her teeth
Bet she wish she took 'em to the NHS
You can hardly hear when she speaks
And she's been talking less
Living in the house on the hill
With the yellow corridors and cups of tea
Little, white, pound-shaped pills
And cold company
Mrs Winterburn cuts your hair
And Mr Federico takes you out to town
Six chocolate eclairs
Seven up to wash it down
Neither of them need to hear you cuss
Even if they don't understand
Typical of you to make a fuss
When people give a helping hand
But how does she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
Independently
Sitting up in my bedsit
I can see the children go running by
Every day they grow a little bit
As their independence dies
You won't let me visit you still
Let me take you to the dental surgery
I look up at the house on the hill
And every day it looks at me
But how did she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
Independently
But tell her to brush her teeth
'Charles and the Welsh Revolt' - New Book Documents Explosive Start of King Charles III’s Royal Career
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-18
The 24 th of April sees the release of a new book Charles and the Welsh Revolt: The Explosive Start to King Charles III’s Royal Career by Arwel Vittle. Charles' Investiture in 1969 marked a turning point in Welsh history. Feelings ran high about the installation of an English Prince of Wales, and there was almost open warfare between the police and young Welsh protesters. Demos and protests, dramatic stunts from the quasi-paramilitary Free Wales Army, hunger strikes, rifts in the Welsh Establishment, secret police, agents provocateurs and a well-organised bombing campaign - this book asks what caused this extreme reaction, whether it was worth it, and whether if could all happen again.
Author Vittle, who runs a translation company, said it was "interesting" to hear the first hand accounts of the activists and extremists at the heart of the protest movement.
“It was a tense time not only with the bombing campaign, but also Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s non-violent protests and large rallies and Plaid Cymru getting its first electoral successes. I wanted to look at what caused this extreme reaction around Charles’ Investiture, whether it was worth it, and whether it could all happen again.”
The father-of-three and author of popular histories said: "I thought it would be interesting to look at Charles' formative years in public life as Prince, which started with a bang as it were, because of the political atmosphere in Wales, which at the time was pretty febrile.
"With Charles becoming King and his coronation yet to take place, I wanted to write a popular history book which was a good read as well as informing.
"Speaking to many participants, it was good to hear first hand, what it was like to be part of that period - things that aren't documented in many other history books.
"Many hadn't spoken out about their experiences before - particularly around the secret police and surveillance - some people compared Gwynedd at the time to being like a police state like East Germany and (the then) Czechoslovakia - it was interesting to lift the lid on that."
Charles and the Welsh Revolt by Arwel Vittle is published by Y Lolfa, priced at £9.99, and is available in good bookshops.
Ritual Cloak brand new EP 'Vanished In Transition' is out today via Bubblewrap Collective
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-15
Ritual Cloak take a more introspective and meditative direction with new EP, Vanished in Transition, venturing into new musical territories that draw influence from ambient, jazz, doom metal and George Harrison’s indian explorations. Leaning into down-tempo rhythms, drums have been exchanged for heart-beats, as if this EP is the duo breathing deep in readiness to face the next chapter.
'Vanished In Transition' Tracklisting
1. Gweledigaeth
2. Left Behind
3. Vanished In Transition
4. Ornamental
5. Half Of My Left
6. Reprise
Sock announce new self-titled album and share new 'Change Your Mind' single via Bubblewrap Collective
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-12
Formed in Cardiff, Sock make guitar-driven alternative rock, taking inspiration from psychedelic music. Known for their creative melodic arrangements and blending of genres, the band describe their music as “a rather progressive affair”.
Following on from the bands debut album ‘Fresh Bits’, in 2018, their much anticipated self- titled follow up is out this April. The album features Jacob on Rhythm Guitar & Vocals, Billy on Lead Guitar, Sam on Bass & Keys, and Simon on Drums & Percussion.
Produced by the band, the album was recorded during the pandemic and sees the music move into a heavier and more refined sound.
Change Your Mind is the second track released from their self-titled second album, which is out on the 28th April through Bubblewrap Collective.
Bethan Lloyd Debut Album 'Metamorphosis' is out now via SoulPunx Records Berlin
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-07
Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose trance inducing vocals expand over an ocean of rave inspired production, harmonic layering and otherworldly ecstasy. Her sonic exploration has taken her from training as a classical singer, immersing herself in Berlin’s experimental music scene, to learning with shamans, masters and the ancient teachings of the natural world. In her latest album, Metamorphosis, Bethan, producing alongside Pre-Human bandmate and master of noise Isaac Ray, takes her intense explorations of the spirit and emotional realms and blends them into something playful and danceable, a gritty experimental pop.
Zakia Sewell, NTS Radio
Aaronson release new post-rock single 'The Great Swells That Carry Us Will Pull Us Under'
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-07
Aaronson today release their brand new single 'The Great Swells That Carry Us Will Pull Us Under' via Dirty Carrot Records.
Taken from forthcoming Album of the same name released 14th July, Aaronson's 'The Great Swells That Carry Us Will Pull Us Under' album is a sonic marvel filled with beautifully arranged ambient post-rock that will season the senses.
Aaronson are a post rock band from South Wales, whose towering layers of melody and epic crescendos have seen them share a stage with Nordic Giants, Coldbones, A-Tota-So and False Hope For The Savage, finish runners up at The Big Gig Wales 2020, be nominated for a Cardiff Music Award and release their cinematic EP You Are Not A Stranger Here.
For fans of: Explosions In The Sky, MONO, Mogwai
“Their seismic sound could fill an aircraft hangar”, “Hands That Harvest is a spellbinding instrumental”
– Welsh Music Podcast
“Beautifully emotive post rock”, “Atmospheric post rock at its finest”
– Cardiff Events
“Songs that incorporate plenty of slow burn and build up, resulting in gorgeous crescendos”
– The Razor’s Edge
“If this doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will”
– Minty’s Gig Guide
Tom Emlyn releases new single 'Broken Mirror' a ballad of lost love on #BandcampFriday
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-04-07
Tom Emlyn releases his new single 'Broken Mirror' on Bandcamp Friday the 7th of April. The follow-up to 'Like a Cigarette' it's the second of three singles leading up to the album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ released on the 5th of May 2023.
Mastered by Charlie Francis ( R.E.M., Pixies ) 'Broken Mirror' is a semi-fictional ballad of lost love set against the backdrop of the Welsh landscape with a heavy dose of irony and imagism.
"And beauty is a curse/ But ugliness is worse/And loneliness is always" Sighs Emlyn bittersweetly on this wistful poetic song rich with detail, as spindly guitars, waltzing fiddles and harps, orbit around his tender vocals. Beguiling and anthemic, introspective yet universal 'Broken Mirror' speaks to the human experience of lost love.
Emlyn says: " This was a song I wrote after I came back from traveling in about 2015. It was a bit of a prototype for some of my other songs like Empire or Under the Weather, which try to use the Welsh landscape as a metaphor for a breakup. It's not really as biographical as it sounds, there's a lot of fiction in there too. It also deals with the choices you make in life and realising that there are many ways to look at a situation. It's quite conversational and imagistic."
"The instruments were recorded live as one performance in the big hall at the BBC studios, Swansea, which I've used quite a few times and has one of the best natural reverb sounds I've ever heard. The vocal was added later on. Jamie Nemeth plays the fiddle - he's a great folk player who has guested with many bands around Swansea and has a talent for improvising. Cadi plays the harp. Cadi is an anarchist harpist from Swansea that I happened to meet when I was traveling in Belgium, strangely enough. We busked a few traditional Welsh folk tunes in Europe, kept in touch and I asked them to come and play some harp on this recording a while after."
Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales, and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk-influenced melodies to explore what it means to belong to a place - the bitterness, the love, and the humour. Compared to songwriters like Bob Dylan and Elliott Smith, Tom Emlyn's captivating songs explore the particularity and peculiarity of human experience uniquely. His sound, while rooted in garage rock, is tinged with psychedelia, folk, jazz, and blues overtones - including a recent adoption of the harmonica as a lead instrument.
In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of "undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy". It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom's second album ‘I've Seen You In Town’ followed hot on the heels of the first - a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’ on Bandcamp this February. He is currently promoting these records with intimately explosive solo and band performances across Wales and beyond, with a string of releases planned for 2023.
The follow up to 'Like a Cigarette', Tom Emlyn’s new single ‘Broken Mirror’ is released on the 7th of April - the second of three singles leading up to the album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ released on the 5th of May 2023.
https://linktr.ee/tomemlyn
https://tomemlyn.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/tom_emlyn
https://www.instagram.com/tomemlyn/
Tom Emlyn returns with ‘Like a Cigarette’ on the 24th of March, the first of a trio of new singles building up to the release of an archive album Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol.1 on the 5th of May 2023.
Swansea born songwriter Tom Emlyn vividly depicts why he is one of the most prolific and inventive songwriters emerging songwriters in Wales, with his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1 ’ recorded at BBC studios in 2018 and mastered by Charlie Francis ( R.E.M., Pixies ). The album is a peek inside his treasure trove of recordings dating back to 2017 and 2018, with songs showing the sheer scope of his songwriting talent.
Built upon a cyclical strum and raw vocals recorded live in one performance, Emlyn’s new single ‘ Like a Cigarette ’ released on the 24th of March, poetically sketches out the scene as he spends his days busking outside a café in Frankfurt, shot through with the corrosive power of imagery, and acts as a living and breathing earworm that charts his travels around Europe and Germany in 2017.
Tom Emlyn says: “I ran out of money on something like the second day of the trip, so didn't have the opportunity to be lazy and had to rely on busking for survival, which turned out to be amazing practice and one of the best things I've done. I was watching people smoking and drinking and wondering why people smoke. I started thinking about advertising and the seductive power of images. Images which are far removed from the rhythm of everyday life and the monologues of our interior minds eyes. Images which are ultimately disposable, carcinogenic and affect the way we treat other people.”
Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk influenced melodies explore what it means to belong to a place - the bitterness, the love, and the humour. Compared to songwriters like Bob Dylan and Elliot Smith , Tom Emlyn's captivating songs explore the particularity and peculiarity of human experience in a unique way. His sound, while rooted in garage rock, is tinged with psychedelia, folk, jazz, and blues overtones - including a recent adoption of the harmonica as a lead instrument.
In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of "undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy" . It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom's second album ‘ I've Seen You In Town’ followed hot on the heels of the first - a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’ on bandcamp this February. He is currently promoting these records with intimately explosive solo and band performances across Wales and beyond, with a string of releases planned for 2023.
Tom Emlyn’s new single ‘Like a Cigarette’ is released on the 24th of March - the first of three singles released through March and April leading up to the album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ released on the 5th of May 2023.