In 2020 the people of Cwmbwrla came together in the face of an unprecedented health crisis to put smiles on each other’s faced and food on each other’s tables. Neighbours became friends, and together they showed Swansea at its best. We believe their stories are worth telling, and contributors including Brynhyfryd-born Mal Pope, local author David Brayley, MP Carolyn Harris and Councillor Peter Black agree.

“ Circling the Square: Cwmbwrla, Coronavirus and Community” tells the stories of individuals, families and groups whose acts of kindness and quiet courage have improved the lives of those around them, year after year. In particular, they’ve improved people’s lives this year, just when it mattered most. The book introduces readers to women and men who stocked up an emergency food resource, created art and craft packs to keep children entertained, cooked, shopped and cared for their neighbours and provided vital medical and social care no matter what the barriers or risks. It introduces readers to the best of Swansea, the best of Wales and the best of people.

“ We believe the people who’ve breathed life into these streets through wartime and peacetime and made their neighbours feel safe and valued throughout the coronavirus crisis have made their own history.”

Royalties will be reinvested in the community that inspired the book, with all revenue going to Cwmbwrla Community Events , a nonprofit group that funds entertainment and sports activity for children and adults across Cwmbwrla, Manselton, Brynhyfryd, Gendros and Landore.

“ Circling the Square: Cwmbwrla, Coronavirus and Community” is available in paperback ($7.95) and ebook ($3.99) from Amazon and also at a discounted rate from selected local retailers. Be a part of the Welsh community success story of 2020 and buy this book.

BUY IT HERE -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circling-Square-Cwmbwrla-Coronavirus-Community/dp/B08NDXBFTC

The EP is a flurry of recent work, with reflections on recent situations. 'Take Me With You' dives headfirst into the current feeling and situation. It asks for salvation in a time of threat, uncertainty, division and chaos. The chant of "lockdown, lockdown, lockdown" is an angry cry of frustration amongst a distorted diatribe against powerfully overdriven beats.  “What My Monster Looks Like” haunts with its warning “you’d be out of sight if you knew what my monster looks like” and repeats “never mind” in an all too familiar apathy. Pulsing bass and looped samples push the track forward.

'Gander’ is brutally melancholic at first, echoing and duplicating as it emerges from one theme, the monotonous loop and cycle of not being able to move forward or do something. It then transforms into a dance beat - evoking freer times - before exposing the original theme again, losing the memory for reality. An acoustic guitar evokes sweet resonance on "As It Goes" under the raw honesty of a final argument at the end of a relationship. The structure also grounds it in the Groundhog Day feeling a lot of people have been experiencing this year.

The EP winds its way through both jarring and soulful transitions as well, capturing a state of mind that bounces between chaos and serenity at whim.

Minas is the project from Cardiff producer James Minas alongside drummer Greg Davies and bassist Bob Williams. The songs tell stories of a chequered past over a mix of deep melodic soundscapes and loud, aggressive stanzas. Covering subjects from personal struggles with mental health to finding a place in the society we have. As a producer James is working to build a new sound for the South Wales scene with a number of artists and genres (such as Luke RV, Dead Method, Dan Bettridge, Razkid and more) but as an artist he presents brutal honesty going against his natural defenses to present the most open and vulnerable self for anyone who wishes to listen.

Minas grew up in the circus with parents who were heavily involved in the 1980’s Punk scene and then moved to secondary school in the Welsh Valleys, with the boredom and misbehaviour that came with it. Minas aims to create music that discusses these things and ends with an empowering feeling of hope, something we all need in right now.

Seven years on from its initial release, Cardiff-based Quiet Marauder are set to unleash a contemporary reimagining of their record-baiting, format-stretching debut album MEN. Cut back from its original guise of 111 tracks and nearly five hours, its sister EP, Tiny Men Parts, clocks in at a much more manageable nine songs (and just over 25 minutes). Released at the end of November, Tiny Men Parts is a celebration of Quiet Marauder’s live band over the last few years, stepping away from the lo-fi, bedroom aesthetic of their debut and embracing the bombastic rock conjured by the group as a whole.

Recorded in Rat Trap Studios with Tom Rees (Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard) at the helm, the remit was to channel the sweaty joviality of a dive bar gig - something even more poignant in the context of coronavirus. This feat was accomplished with aplomb on the punk-rock bassy, bangy scuzz of previous single Eggs! and is repeated throughout via tracks such as The Business Deal, Lucky Tonight and I Want A Moustache, Dammit. Naturally, these tracks and the EP as a whole, share the same thematic and lyrical concerns of its longer predecessor; a study in the darkness of toxic masculinity, lad banter and the insidiousness of gender inequality.

Tracklisting

1. The Business Deal

2. I Want A Moustache, Dammit

3. Roda And The Bunker

4. It Wasn’t Me, It Was The Moon

5. The Internal Monologue Date

6. Lucky Tonight

7. The Animals Are Spying On Me

8. Eggs!

9. I Want A Moustache, Dammit II (Dance Remix) . .
...

Released by Bubblewrap Collective, Tiny Men Parts will be preceded by digital single The Animals Are Spying On Me on 28th October, lyrically about human capability for irrational and yet somehow intractable paranoia. Following that the full EP will come on 27th November, arriving in limited edition heavyweight white ‘fried egg’ vinyl with accompanying ‘real man’ temporary tattoos. ...

This record is a celebration of the longest-serving live incarnation of Quiet Marauder, as well as a reimagining of our ridiculously long debut album, MEN. Way back when, seven years ago in 2013, a lot of that album was recorded by one man banging a frying pan on an inflatable mattress in the Cardiff suburbs. As fun as that was, fast-forwarding to 2020 and the tender touches of Tom Rees in Rat Trap Studios capturing our innate rock rawness was one thousand times more rewarding. Huge thanks to Tom and Ed Truckell for their tracking and mastering, Bubblewrap Collective for still indulging our whimsy and to the kind souls reading this who, we assume, have not stolen this or in the midst of destroying it...and of course, the Quiet Marauder players responsible for making the fundamental noises in the tiny grooves of this disc: ...

Simon M. Read: Vocals, acoustic guitar

Ian Williams: Vocals, electric guitar

Rowan Liggett: Vocals, bass guitar

John Whittles: Drums

Francesca Dimech: Vocals, trumpet, melodica

Kadesha Drija: Vocals, percussion ..

Many of these songs chart the darkness of masculinity and human behaviour - its lack of logic, its danger and the spectrum underlying that on which we all sit and should be conscious of. Beyond the dark, there's more often than not some light. Be and stay kind.

She's got Spies  has shared the new video for her track ' All Outta Tears' filmed in Moscow, Russia in 2012, watch/share it below. This lovelorn tune is lifted from her new album 'Isle of Dogs' which is out now.

She’s Got Spies’  second album  ‘Isle of Dogs’  refers to an area of London, Laura Nunez’s hometown,  as well as the state of turmoil of the island of Britain. The follow up album to her debut Welsh language album ‘Wedi’, ‘Isle of Dogs’ features songs written over the last decade. She’s Got Spies is the project of Laura Nunez and her cast of collaborators. She spends her time between Cardiff and London, she’s multilingual and can sing in Welsh, English and Russian.  

"Henry Hoffman was walking on main Street and his nose was on fire. This fact apart, he was proceeding quite normally. He smiled genially and nodded as he passed by Michael Maguire."

From the moment we read the above intro to Matthew G.Rees' 'Smoke House' we are aware that we are in for a strange journey. Readers of Matthew's debut collection 'Keyhole' will perhaps be better prepared for the bizarre and other worldly tales recounted in these pages.

In contrast to 'Keyhole', in which all the stories were set in Wales, the tales in this collection are set in America, Russia, France and a number of other locations around the globe.

In 'Smoke House' we are invited to consider the fate of Fort Tinder, an American village which has long been served by an unconventional 'medical practitioner'. The arrival of jobbing plumber Michael Maguire reveals a conflict in village life which ultimately leads to tragedy. 

'The Glass' transports us to the frozen steppes of Russia where Grigor Grigoriev has arrived to repair the stained glass windows in the church at Krasyansk Cathedral. He takes a proper pride in his work and the congregants seem to appreciate it too, but who are they and will they let him leave.

There is also 'An Exhibition' which examines the predicament of a gallery attendant who hates modern art and in particular the work of a local much lauded artist whose work is on display. She plots vandalism and sabotage but do her plans come to fruition or does the artist ultimately triumph?

A worthy successor to 'Keyhole' we have no hesitation in recommending this collection to anyone with a taste for the macabre and bizarre or indeed anyone who appreciates exquisite story telling.

Smoke House & Other Stories  is AmeriCymru's Book of the Month for November 2020. 

Matthew G. Rees on AmeriCymru

Keyhole - An Interview With Welsh Author Matthew G. Rees

Keyhole - A Stunning Debut From A Major New Talent

Simon Howells Reads 'Dreamcoat', A Short Story By Matthew G. Rees

As The Meadow Ends By Matthew G. Rees

AmeriCymru:  Hi Brian and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about your fifth novel Saturdays are Black or White ?

Brian: My pleasure. I decided it was about time to write about twins. Being one myself, it's naturally a subject that I have an interest in, but I've avoided it in previous novels. I also wanted to bring together two very different worlds: central London, where I live, and farm life in rural Wales, where I was brought up and where my two oldest brothers farmed. I also had in mind Bruce Chatwin’s novel On the Black Hill, about twin farmers in the Welsh borders who can’t live apart. It set me thinking about what would happen if it were the opposite - twins who’d become strangers.   So the novel begins when a former TV presenter, Arwyn, gets a phone message in his London flat:

‘Hullo. It’s me. I haven’t got long. Cancer. Thought you’d  like to know.’ 

 It’s a voice he hasn’t heard for thirty years, since their fiftieth birthday party. It’s his twin brother, Bren, who’d stayed on the family farm in the Black Mountains. Arwyn tries to figure out what triggered their estrangement. He goes back to Wales to find out. It’s not an easy return - not only does he have to confront his brother’s dying, but aspects of his early life which he’d long buried or forgotten.

AmeriCymru:  What can you tell our readers about the area in Wales, the Eastern Black Mountains, where the novel is set?

Brian: I know the Abergavenny area fairly well, from my days as a reporter on the South Wales Argus. I lived in Abertillery, which is in the hills the other side of the Usk valley from the Black Mountains. We often drive through them if  we’re coming from the South to Mid-Wales, and the area has always struck me as majestic and mysterious, if a little formidable. It’s the kind of place the makes you think how old the world is, and even more isolated than where I come from. As my mother would have said, ‘If those hills could talk!’

AmeriCymru:  You have said, in an interview with the South Wales Argus, that you, "....wanted to explore the complex nature of being a twin....". Care to expand on this theme?

Brian: Yes - over the years I’ve come across some remarkable stories about twins, and I did some more research for this book. It ranges from the twin girls in West Wales who were never apart and spoke in unison, to the twins in the US who were separated at birth and find astounding similarities when they’re reunited in later life: similar jobs, names of their children, pets, right down to the cigarettes they smoke or the beer they drink. This all feeds into the nature v nurture debate - are we born fully-cooked or does our upbringing define who we are? Strangest of all, was a documentary called Three Identical Strangers. It’s about triplets who were adopted by very different families in the New York area - as a social experiment, it turned out - who found each other by chance when they were older and became something of a media sensation. And then of course, there were the horrific experiments conducted by Josef Mengele in the death camps. There are many twin myths in different cultures and civilisations around the world, right down to the explanation of creation itself.

AmeriCymru:  To what extent is the novel a story, "...about how sibling rivalry can sometimes go wrong.”

Brian: That was part of the exploration of why Arwyn and Bren became strangers. They’d chosen very different paths in life but were ambitious and fairly successful in their respective fields. And while they got on well for many years, the mystery is why they stopped speaking. Was it a misunderstanding, or several, in that they both put different interpretations on certain things that had happened? With my own twin, we remember different things and we remember things differently, so it could be relatively easy to fall out over very minor issues. For the record, I get on very well with all my brothers, and while I and my twin are not really all that ‘twinny,’ we see each other often, and I’m very close to his children. In fact, we’re a very close family.

AmeriCymru:  What are you working on at the moment? Any sneak previews of your sixth novel?

Brian: I’d like to set a novel in Paris, where we have a studio flat. It’s been percolating in my mind for a while now, but the plot isn’t working out as well as I’d like yet. A friend who read my first novel, The Missing Room, suggested I should call it The Missing Plot. But I’ll keep at it, and had some new ideas a couple of days ago. I’ve also set up a literary consultancy, helpmepublish.co.uk, with a former colleague, Annabel Hughes, who lives near Abergavenny and edits my books. It’s to help aspiring novelists. Since I started publishing my books, I’ve had quite a few enquiries from friends of friends or relatives of friends about how to start - it can be quite a daunting process. So I thought I might as well try to make a little business out of it. 

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Brian: Congratulations on your new President. Many of us in the UK watched the election in as assiduously as we watch our own. AmeriCymru is a great resource for bringing Welsh culture together in a forum. Particularly in these days of the Coronavirus pandemic when socialising has its challenges, it’s a good time to start exploring some of our heritage.