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Category: Music
Cardiff New Wave band 'Small Miracles' have announced their surging new 'Mercury' single will be released on the 19th May Via Dirty Carrot Records.
Small Miracles a re a dynamic quintet from Cardiff, Wales. Inspired by the early New Wave movement, they infuse elements of Punk, Blues and Grunge into their genre-bending sound. Their music has a distinctly queer, underground feel, finely balancing heavy grooves and breakdowns with catchy hooks and choruses.
The band describe 'Mercury'.....
This track is a critique of toxic masculinity and a condemnation of domestic violence. It follows the story of a footy-loving macho man and the damage he inflicts on his family, addressing their socio-economic context. It critiques the damming living conditions imposed by the British state, and the cycle of violence that this creates.
Welcome to the underground world of Small Miracles, a dynamic New Wave quintet from Cardiff. Drawing inspiration from the early New Wave movement of the late 70s, Small Miracles infuse elements of Punk, Glam and Grunge into their genre-bending sound. Their music has a distinctly retro feel, finely balancing heavy grooves and breakdowns with catchy hooks and choruses to relay their bold, queer message.
Small Miracles comprise of Finn Pelling (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jim Webster (keys, organ), Steve Kenward (lead guitar), James Sarson (bass) and Lucas Eldridge (drums). Their eclectic array of influences include New Wave staples Blondie, Talking Heads and The Cure, as well as Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age and Idles in their heavier moments. Small Miracles' lastest single 'Mercury' will be released on the 19th of May via Dirty Carrot Records.
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‘Thank You’ is the latest release from the Cardiff-based band, My Name is Ian . The track is set to be released on May 12th and is a tribute to the people who have supported them over the years, drug smuggling, Stephen Mulhern and falling in love.
‘Thank You’, is the first track from the band’s upcoming 8th studio album: ‘ GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS’ . The record will be full of the trademark blend of catchy pop melodies, witty lyrics, and infectious energy. Songs about hating your life, loving your life, Norwegian families, coconut crabs, 90s television shows, feeling like a loser, not trusting the government and Peppa pig. There is something for everyone.
Creatures of Cardiff, My Name Is Ian have already built a back catalogue that would have taken The Stone Roses millennia to mirror. Since 2010 their output of has dealt with break-ups, breakdowns, mysterious lion paintings and characters from the Tom Hanks movie Big. This restless productivity has seen genres including but not restricted to lo-fi, bedroom punk, garage rock, prog and anti-folk, all filtered through the pop-oriented cranium of frontman Reginald Foxwell.
Impressively prolific and prolifically impressive, bittersweet but unbroken, My Name Is Ian require your immediate attention.
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Cardiff Queers 'TELGATE' release brand new official music video for blistering new single 'Gammon' . A glam rock-guitar driven thunderbolt that's a good old fashioned fuck off in the face of all things right-wing. An exhilarant musical statement towards the current state of the British nation.
With crashing drums and atmospheric 70's fuzz-wah guitar; 'Gammon' hypnotises with a triumphant return to form for a band that are destined for a huge future. ' Gammon' is exactly what the rest of us are thinking, and a sincere anthem for change.
With a duty to start riots in 6’’ platforms, expect fierce androgyny and in-your-face performances along with music which is unapologetically queer, loud, and honest from Aggro-Glam band, TELGATE. Their major musical influences include early psychedelia, glam rock, post punk, and riot grrrl. Paint your lips red and prepare to fall in lust with the queerest side of rock and roll.
TELGATE stand out with their dramatic performances, androgynous looks, incendiary rock and roll sound and outspoken message. They are known for taking live shows that one step further, really drawing in the attention of the crowd with their theatrics and intimately engaging with the audience. The more bizarre the better, they take pride in their shows being an experience to remember.
Through using their platforms to speak up on trans liberation, collaborating with the likes of local drag acts, LGBT musicians and artists at their shows - TELGATE have also contributed towards pioneering a scene of queer grassroots music in South Wales.
The band released their singles ‘Cherrytight’ in 2019 and ‘Love Zone’ in 2021 which were met with an array of airplay, inciting Adam Walton of BBC Wales to describe lead singer Casper's voice as one that is “soon to become iconic”.
In 2022 TELGATE independently organised a UK mini-tour, played Focus Wales festival, headlined London kink nights along with sold-out headlines in England and Wales which drew in eccentric and
energetic crowds.
Within this same year, TELGATE released a charity album (New Moons XVI) with the music federation in collaboration with fellow badass LGBT bands and women in rock such as Nova Twins, Amyl and The Sniffers and KT Tunstall for Reclaim These Streets which received acclaim from NME, Kerrang, Louder and more.
Following a busy year of gigging, TELGATE returned to the studio in Summer 2022 to record their next single “Gammon” - a gritty musical protest to the political climate of the UK set to be released April 1st 2023.
TELGATE kicked off 2023 with a sellout headline upstairs in Clwb Ifor Bach, followed by a sold out show at Rough Trade East (London) which was recorded for the BBC, who have awarded TELGATE with the 2023 BBC Horizons launchpad fund to record new music this year. To celebrate their new music video release on April 20th, they will be headlining The Globe (Cardiff), and will also be headlining the Saturday night of All Roads Festival (Glastonbury) in April. In May they will be performing at Focus Wales Festival (Wrexham) followed by a May U.K. tour with Canadian art-punk duo, Grimelda who released a collaborative single with TELGATE called “Freedom” in February 2023.
FFO: Pavlov’s Dog, The Distillers, Concrete Blonde, L7, Hole, Joan Jett, Pearl Jam, The Stooges, Deep Purple, Jane’s Addiction.
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Cardiff-based singer-songwriter Ivan Moultannounces the release of his new single'Written On The Wall’, taken from hisupcoming album 'Songs From SevernGrove'. The single is set to be released onMay 5th.Following on from his last single, ‘Out OfTime’, Moult’s latest offering showcases hisunique blend of indie-folk, soulful vocals andpoignant lyrics that delve into themes of love,loss and hope.
Speaking about the single, Moult said: "Lyrically a song about having a conversation with a new partner about their previous lovelife/partners. Acknowledging their experience. Questioning whether or not you want to or need to know their romantic past. Trying to reassure them things w
be different. Observing it’s apparent in other ways without needing to be discussed.” ‘Songs From Severn Grove’, which is due out on May 26th, showcases Ivan's voice front and centre, with layered harmonies and a soundscape of delay-soaked electric guitars, drums, and bass.
The music draws from influences such as J.J. Cale, Nina Simone, and Tim Buckley, creating a fusion of 1960s/70s folk and blues with a contemporary sound. Ivan's unique and original style remains recognisably present throughout the album.
Pre-order the album on Vinyl and CD here: bit.ly/IvanMoult-SF7G
Pre-save the album: orcd.co/IvanMoult-SF7G
“Absolutely wonderful. Just gorgeous.”- Janice Long, BBC Radio Wales
“Effortless acoustic songwriting...”- Clash Magazine
“...beautiful guitar playing matched with touching vocals”- For Folk’s Sake
“... beautiful orchestration and affecting subject matter”- Americana UK
“...the bar is still being raised”- Buzz Magazine
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Tom Emlyn announces his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 15’ released on the 5th of May.
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/tomemlyn/
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After the success of her single ‘i ti’, a song that announced a new beginning and a new creative chapter for Gillie we are excited to unveil its follow up the mesmerising yet quietly brooding ‘Llawn’.
With this new single, Gillie who also produces and records her own music wanted to “Sonically explore something that felt both rhythmically uncertain, and free, with builds and small releases of tension throughout”
Thematically Gillie explains the background to the song: “‘Llawn’ centres around the feeling of your life changing due to external factors/other people’s control over decisions, and finding a safe place for yourself within this. The idea that someone has power over you whilst you’re in a vulnerable state is interesting to me, and when I was writing this song, I had an image of someone force feeding me these ‘changes’, hence the opening lyrics. It’s also about finding freedom in uncertainty and practicing resilience, trying to find warmth in the present and embrace ambiguity.”
Blending gold-flecked guitar loops into an ambient haze on top of relentless driving rhythms, Gillie harnesses the anxieties, stress and struggles of modern life, weaving them into something unapologetic and inherently intimate.
CYMRAEG
bwyta'r geiriau, cymera amser i deimlo eto, mor braf i fod ar goll
Verse 1
i dderbyn dy werth
i weld
cymryd nôl y parch sy'n hongian yn yr awyr
hoffwn i newid Eich meddwl cul
Verse 2
trin yn ofalus
absennol o le
felly amser symyd nôl i fan cyfarwydd
troi dy wyneb melys
dyma lle dwi'n teimlo’n hapus wedi dysgu bod yn ofalus
a cymryd nol
bwyta'r geiriau nawr, cymerwch amser / i dreulio, mor braf i fod ar goll
Verse 3
mae’r cyfan ‘di newid, dwi’n teimlo’n rydd mae cynhesrwydd ar fy nghroen eto, o hyd
a mae’n llenwi’r olygfa a teithio trwy
Bridge
dwi’n torri lan
does ddim gem i chwarae 'ma dim on byw, y gorau
a cofia ddweud ...dal i ddod
dim on byw, dy orau
bwyta'r geiriau, cymera amser i deimlo eto, mor braf i fod ar goll x 2
ENGLISH
Eat the words, take some time to feel again So nice to be lost
To receive your value, to see
Take back the respect that hangs in the air
I’d like to change your narrow mind
Treat carefully
Absent from place
So time to move back to a familiar place
turn your sweet face
this is where I feel happy have learned to be careful and take back
eat the words now, take time to digest, so nice to be lost
everything has changed, I feel free there is warmth on my skin again, still
and it fills the scene and travel through
I’m breaking up
there’s no game to play here nothing but living, the best
and remember to say ...keep coming
Only living, your best
eat the words, take time to feel again, so nice to be lost x 2
Thanks for reading / listening
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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.
Thanks for reading / listening
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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/
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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
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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.
Featuring Rob Smith of Wonderbrass and Wylderness bandmate, Harri Rees (Vanished in Transition) and Karl Griffiths of Morning Arcade (Half of My Life), Vanished in Transition showcases Ritual Cloak’s continued love of collaboration.
Recorded at home and their own studio in Cardiff, Vanished in Transition’s theme plays with the fascination of disappearing, although the duo have no such plans of vanishing any time soon.
'Vanished In Transition' Tracklisting
1. Gweledigaeth
2. Left Behind
3. Vanished In Transition
4. Ornamental
5. Half Of My Left
6. Reprise
Gweledigaeth
Gweledigaeth was the last song to be written and completed for the EP. The song just came to Dan and was written and recorded in one take, with the name aptly meaning ‘vision’ in Welsh. Vangelis’s music is something that has definitely seeped into our musical identity and steered us towards embracing otherworldly synth-scapes like this song. It felt right for Gweledigaeth to start the record and set the scene.
Left Behind
Left Behind wouldn’t exist without the influence of George Harrison and the Brianjonestown Massacre. The song revolves around a sitar-like guitar line that we knew we wanted to have constantly looping to create a meditative drone. The lyrics are a collage of different lines and ideas that when brought together create a story of a long-forgotten ‘saviour’ that’s coming back but nobody needs them anymore.
Vanished in Transition
When we started writing Vanished in Transition we didn’t expect it to end up where it did. We weren’t totally prepared for how Rob Smith of Wonderbrass and Harri Rees of Wylderness would transform the direction and feel of the song towards a Pharoah Sanders style jazz odyssey. It really is the centre-piece of the EP. The song is about the romanticism of disappearing and what the reality is for those left behind.
Ornamental
Originally intended to be on Divine Invasions, work on Ornamental began back in early 2019. Dan doesn’t consider himself an accomplished pianist but was pushing himself to write more stretching pieces on piano. Despite the song being somewhat finished, it didn’t make the cut for the final tracklist of the album as we felt it was missing something. We gave the track some space whilst we worked on other material, until Dan read The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. There was a chapter that contained the poem, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by American poet Sara Teasdale from 1918. The words described perfectly to us a world, absent of people, where relics of a vanished civilisation remain like ornaments. It felt like fate.
Half of My Life
Half of My Life is a reflection on the melancholia of getting older. It started off as a gentle solo piano piece but we could hear the potential to lift the song emotionally. Using crunching footsteps to create rhythm and playing guitars with violin bows really brings the song to life. Karl Griffiths of Morning Arcade’s guitar created an air of positivity to the song. We had some big storms last year that Dan recorded and when we put them to the music, it was like it was meant to be there.
Ritual Cloak is Daniel Barnett, formerly of Samoans & drummer/producer Andrew Sanders.
Both coming from predominantly rock backgrounds, the duo set out to explore new musical territory in the form of piano-led ambient soundscapes & minimal techno beats drawn from a mutual love of sci-fi, all resulting in their well-received self-titled debut in 2019.
In 2020 Ritual Cloak signed to Bubblewrap Collective Records, releasing the single, I Lawr Ymhlith Y Tywyllwch, that revisited and rebuilt the glacial sonic wizardry of their debut brick-by-brick, glitch-by-glitch.
2021 was Ritual Cloak's most ambitious year yet, releasing two full-length albums, Divine Invasions & A Human Being Is The Best Disguise, a reworking of the debut album, with new lyrics & vocals by writer & comedian Autumn Juvenile, followed by a cover of R.E.M.'s Orange Crush and the meditative collaboration Witaj w Domu with Polish photographer, Michal Iwanowski.
Ritual Cloak returned in the autumn of 2022 with the dramatically intimate single Shell, giving a taste of what’s to come their brand new EP ‘Vanished in Transition’. Out 14th April, through Bubblewrap Records.
Buy the limited edition LP, here: bit.ly/RitualCloakEP
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