Tagged: Gwenno

Gwenno In Boston - A Review By Aug Stone

By , 2016-05-18

Gwenno at Great Scott, Allston, MA May 16, 2016 (Photos by Eddy Leiva Photography)

Gewnno in Boston

Gwenno strolls on stage with no fanfare and presses play on a rhythmic throbbing bass line. Kick snare kick snare enter and pulse along, white noise, and a simple three-note synth melody. Gwenno knows how to let these things build and she’s slowly bringing in the elements of the title track of her Welsh Music Prize-winning album, Y Dydd Olaf.

The set-up is minimal, just her behind a makeshift table on which sit her synthesizer and effects pedals, but the sound is huge.

Next up is single ‘Patriarchaeth’, a fantastic pop number especially with its ‘oo’s at the end. The songs (barring the final number, which is sung in Cornish) are all in Welsh and Gwen introduces this one as “this song is called ‘Patriarchaeth’ which means ‘patriarchy’ which means a really shit time for everyone”.

Despite the heaviness of the themes, there’s playfulness - and humor in her talking about them - which makes for the richness of the listening experience. Gwenno smilingly announces the third song - a cover of 80s Welsh electronic music pioneer Malcolm Neon’s ‘Nefolaidd’ – “a pretty happy song in contrast to most of my own”. The title means ‘Heavenly’ and, along with Gwen being a big fan of Neon’s work, it's a nice nod to Heavenly Recordings, the label who picked up Y Dydd Olaf last year. A studio version of ‘Nefolaidd’ can be found on the bonus disc of the album along with b-sides and remixes.

There’s a noticeable stylistic contrast as soon as she begins, this is stark, 80s cold wave. Gwen’s voice has warmed up now and it’s interesting to hear her sing a melody that isn’t her own. She takes a different approach tonally, the pronunciation of the ‘o’s in ‘o-o-o-o’ section especially grab one’s ear. It all comes as an intriguing surprise, not least the end section which jumps through hyperspace into a frenetic stabbing outro.

Gwenno Saunders live in Boston

“This one was inspired by Chelsea Manning. It’s about exposing war crimes, media manipulation, happy stuff”. An ominous single synth note crescendos as ‘Calon Peiriant’ (The Heart Of The Machine) begins to form under it. It’s lovely how Gwen’s vocals sit here in the midst of the propulsive forward motion of its juggernaut rhythm and the jarring, abrasive synths floating in and out of the action.

‘Sisial Y Môr’ fittingly (as it translates to ‘The Whispering Sea’) begins as an ocean of sound. This ethereal undulating bed, evoking a twilight psychedelic shoreline, with aggressive swarms passing over and thru. I’ve seen this song performed numerous times and it always seems to appear in a different body, and sounding more audacious than on record. The sonic theme continues through the outro as huge waves wash over. And then there’s even a cool extension tacked on the end, a captivating melody underneath with its notes sounding like they’re breaking apart.

“This song is about the power of people when they get together. Change can happen, we’ve seen it happen.” And ‘Chwyldro’ (‘Revolution’) starts off a cappella over spacey effects, slow, drawn out, before the tempo kicks up and into the actual song.

Gwen seems really into it now despite “having been up for two days” (their journey began with a four-and-a-half hour bus ride from Cardiff to Gatwick Airport the previous morning, arriving in Boston the night before the gig) and the positivity of her introductory words is very much reflected in the performance of this excellent tune, one of the most badass grooves of recent years. Gwenno smiles throughout and wonderfully trills the note going into the second chorus. The song ends as it began, a cappella.

Gwen then tells us about the sci-fi novel that inspired her album of the same name, Y Dydd Olaf by Welsh nuclear scientist Owain Owain. A dystopian world where everyone is getting turned into robots, the narrator writing the book in the form of a diary and only escaping the mechanical overlords’ notice by nature of it being in Welsh, which they can’t understand.

This is by way of introducing ‘Fratolish Hiang Perpeshski’, its title being the nonsense phrase the narrator repeats to himself as he loses his mind at Y Dydd Olaf’s end. “So this is the final dance before he himself gets turned into a clone and loses his soul. It’s also inspired by major label pop music…”

Gwen stops for a second and smiles, “I mean that in a complimentary way.” And ‘Fratolish’ is Fierce. Ethereal and Fierce. A magnificent dance tune. It sounds great in this club setting. Gwen leaning over her Korg to let forth a rad arpeggiated bit in the extended break before the outro. And with a sweep it’s done.

Which brings us to last song, ‘Amser’. Which is sung in Cornish, “a Celtic language not dissimilar to Welsh” and Gwen tells how the UK government has just cut all of the minimal funding there was for the Cornish language.

A tri-linguist herself, Gwen talks passionately about how important language is to her and to everyone. And what follows is a spirited version of the tune, a meditation on Time, the song standing proud against Time’s passing and decay, which is all we can really do. And this is evident in the jubilant musical turbulence of the song’s ending where there are usually just vocals, continuing on before Gwen exits the stage to two repeated blips.

A great performance which really had a powerful effect on the crowd, who all lined up to buy merchandise and talk to Gwenno post-gig.

I overheard one gentleman saying ‘Thank you so much for playing. We get lots of shows coming through Boston but this was really unique and interesting.”

And a friend commented to me ‘That was great. I thought there would some barrier with the songs all being in Welsh, but there wasn’t at all.” Which goes to show the power of music and reinforce one of Gwenno’s central messages - that it’s about people coming together to communicate with each other and make things happen.

Gwenno Saunders live in Boston

Upcoming Shows In Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and Durham N.C.

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Buy Tickets Here

Wednesday May 18th 2016, 8:00 PM
@ Rough Trade NYC 64 North 9th St Brooklyn, NY

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Washington DC - Buy Tickets Here

Thursday May 19th 2016, 9:00 PM
@ DC9 Nightclub 1940 9th St. NW Washington, DC

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Moogfest Buy - Tickets Here

Saturday May 21st 2016, 7:00 PM
@ Moogfest 2016 First Presbyterian Church 305 E Main St Durham, NC

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Contemporary Welsh Language Pop Music - An Interview With Aug Stone

By , 2016-01-05

Aug Stone is an American musician, writer and producer from Connecticut who has recently been spending time in Wales with Gwenno and Ani Glass amongst others. His article in The Quietus - Tongue Of The Dragon: A Look at Welsh Language Outsider Pop focuses on contemporary Welsh language popular music and its challenges and opportunities. AmeriCymru spoke to Aug about the article and his recent experiences in Wales.

Aug: "I should start off by saying that I’m not Welsh. However, I have grown very fond of Wales recently. I’ve visited three times in the last year and a half and have met a lot of very talented, and very nice, people. There’s an aspect of Wales that reminds me of where I grew up in Connecticut and Boston (where I’m once again close to now). The fact that there are lots of interesting things going on, great art being made, and also just some lovely towns and countryside to spend time in, but all this gets overshadowed by the great metropolis nearby (New York City, London) looming over everything. I think this plays into people’s psyches, there’s an element of self-defeatism – ‘why even bother?’ – that gets people down and keeps them from reaching their true potential. Which is sad. I haven’t noticed this in Wales, I must say, but talking to Ani Glass about her song ‘Ffôl’, she pointed this out to me, how people complain about nothing really going on but not doing anything about it."

AmeriCymru: Hi Aug and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. You say in your recent article on The Quietus that "..... 2015 is shaping up to be a good year for sounds in the Welsh tongue." In what way?

Aug Stone: In April, Domino Recording Co. reissued Super Furry Animals’ Mwng album for its 15^th anniversary. The Super Furries had initially put it out themselves and it went to Number 11 in the UK charts and is to this day the best selling Welsh language album. And Heavenly Recordings have just released Gwenno’s Y Dydd Olaf , which has been getting a lot of great press. Which is nice to see, that people are willing to look past the language barrier to appreciate such a fine record and maybe even take the trouble to learn what the Welsh words are that Gwenno’s singing. Peski Records originally released Gwenno’s album last year and it sold out after a few months, when Gwenno was supporting Gruff Rhys on his UK ‘American Interior’ tour (If you don’t know about Gruff’s ‘American Interior’ project, I can’t recommend it enough. Album, film, and book about John Evans’ quest to find the mythical tribe of Welsh speaking Indians roaming the plains and just by way of this very much contributing to the founding of America. Seriously, the book is fascinating and a great read) So these two were re-releases of Welsh language albums by much bigger record companies, showing that this music is important and deserves a wider audience. And then there’s Ani Glass’ songs. Which have been getting played on Radio Cymru, ‘Ffôl’ was even Track of the Week last week. I co-produced these but they’re Ani’s songs so I can honestly say they’re great pop.

Gruff Rhys ‘American Interior’ trailer

AmeriCymru: What attracted you to Welsh language music?

Aug Stone: I have a lot of time for the Saunders sisters. I’ve followed Gwenno’s career since she first joined The Pipettes in 2005. I remember when I first saw The Pipettes live, turning to my friend Harvey Williams and saying ‘this is everything music should be!’ It was fun and catchy, great songs. All this was in English, as was Gwenno’s first round of solo songs. But then one day in the summer of 2013, I clicked on a post on Facebook by Dave Higdon who runs the Poptastic Confessions blog. It was about a band called The Lovely Wars, which was Ani’s post-Pipettes band. And their song ‘Young Love’ had all the right ingredients – catchy as all get out, fantastic female vocals, synths and guitars like I love. It became my favourite song of 2013. Their next single ‘Brân i Frân’ was the first time I recall hearing a Welsh language pop song that really struck me and stuck in my head. My band, The Soft Close-Ups, were lucky enough to play with The Lovely Wars twice in London in 2014. Great gigs, they were fab live.

The Lovely Wars ‘Brân i Frân’ video

After that single came out, I checked to see if Gwenno had released anything recently and I found ‘Chwyldro’ had come out a few months before and I had somehow missed it. ‘Chwyldro’ is just fantastic. One of the most badass pop songs released in recent memory. It’s got that killer swagger of a groove, moving through that spacey atmosphere, and what does it mean? ‘Revolution’.

Gwenno – Chwyldro

Last summer I was heading to Wales to visit Nik Turner from Hawkwind, who was going to show me some of the ancient stone sites around Carmarthen (his grandkids ended up visiting that day so we all went to the beach at Mwnt. Which was lovely. I played the harmonium in the little church at the bottom of the rock, and Nik told me Mwnt is one of the gateways to the Underworld in Celtic mythology). Ani suggested I check out the Eisteddfod that was going on at the same time with Gwenno playing that night. It was a very long day. I woke up at 5:15 AM to leave London by 7. I rented a car and drove for the very first time on the ‘wrong’ side of the road (quite easy after five minutes of getting the hang of it), got lost (of course), and finally made it to my Air B’n’B in Cross Hands with just enough time to drop off my bag before departing again for Llanelli. When I arrived at Maes B I was starving and walked the mile to Maes A for some lovely vegan food at No Bones Jones. Then I walked back along the water as the sun was setting. I was very, very tired and everything seemed slightly surreal, all the more so because once I got to the stage area I was easily the oldest person there by 20 years, surrounded as I was by teenagers getting drunk for the very first time.

Then Gwenno took the stage, dressed in all black, looking pure rock n roll. And the new songs along with the cosmic sounds she was conjuring up within them were just fantastic! It was one of those magical moments that pop fans like me live for.

The next night I caught her again at the Eisteddfod gigs being put on around Llanelli by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. Carl Morris was DJ’ing and, per usual, he hipped me to some very cool sounds. Most notably I remember hearing Pop Negatif Wastad that night.

AmeriCymru: Do you think that the contribution made by Welsh language bands to modern pop culture in the UK and internationally has been adequately recognised?

Aug Stone: No. Of course not. As with any language other than English – with the exception of Spanish, as it’s so widely spoken – people tend to ignore it. Well, I should say the media ignores it rather than people. Because I think, given the chance, if this stuff was getting played, then people would like it. It’s just that they’re not being exposed to it. It’s great that Gwenno’s album is getting so much press, and radio play on BBC 6 Music. It’s really unheard of for a non-English language song to be getting aired like that.

AmeriCymru: How important, in your opinion is Gwenno to the revival of interest in Welsh language bands?

Aug Stone: Gwenno is important full stop. She’s an artist in the true sense of the word, pursuing her own path and making something interesting out of it. Her album is intriguing – it’s inspired by Owain Owain’s ‘Y Dydd Olaf’, an obscure 1976 Welsh sci-fi novel. Sonically it’s awesome to listen to. And it works as a pop record. ‘Patriarcheth’, which blew me away when I first heard it live at the Eisteddfod– it was very much standing there with a huge smile on my face just going ‘WOW!’ (another ‘this is what music should be moment’. The ‘oo oo oo’s that rang out into the night echoed in my head for days afterward. I couldn’t wait to get the album) – is so catchy and deliciously pop, and what’s the chorus? ‘Patriarchy, and your soul is at stake’!

So yes, when something like this comes along, you hope that it will draw attention to other great artists working along the same lines, from the same area. And also inspire people that they can make something like this too, not only in Wales, but for any minority language culture. Break down barriers to realise great music is great music.

AmeriCymru: How important are Datblygu in the history of Welsh language pop?

Aug Stone: I can only speak about them second-hand, having not known them at the time they were first around. But every Welsh person I speak to references Datblygu very quickly once the topic of cool music comes up.

Gwenno and the Peski records chaps host a radio called Cam o’Tywyllwch playing experimental underground sounds from Wales and around the world. The name comes from the title of the first compilation of alternative Welsh music (containing two Datblygu songs) released 30 years ago by Rhys Mwyn’s Recordiau Anrhefn label. I spoke to Rhys whilst researching my piece for The Quietus and he’s great. So enthusiastic about pop music in general, and it’s always cool to speak to someone who believes pop music can change your life, which of course it can. Anyway Gwenno and Peski hosted the CAM15 festival in Cardiff this past April and by all accounts it was a big success. Datblygu played for the first time in 20 years, playing almost all new material, and Dr. Sarah Hill and Gwenno were saying how great it was to see them get the respect they deserve by the few hundred people in the audience.

Cam o’Tywyllwch

AmeriCymru: You have recently co-produced Ani Glass' (Ani Saunders from The Pipettes) new Welsh language solo songs. Care to tell us more about that experience?

Aug Stone: I’m a huge fan of Ani’s songs. She’s got a fantastic voice and huge pop sensibilities. One day last year she asked me if I knew anyone who might be interested in producing some of her new solo songs. As I’d like to get more into producing other people’s music, I said that I could have a go. She sent over a demo of ‘Ffôl’, which is a great song but also quite different from the music I’m used to working on. It’s more r’n’b. But it was cool to have the challenge. And the first thing I came up with was that dub bassline (which I love) and so Danny Gold (Boston producer I work a lot with), Sean Drinkwater (Freezepop, Lifestyle), and I did the music and sent it to Ani and thankfully she was so pleased she sent us a bunch more songs.

‘Little Things’ was quite thrilling to work on especially once we got that bassline, that’s where it all came together. There always seemed to be some point early on in each song where something would spark a reference to Depeche Mode in my mind and we wisely followed that. And there’s a few more excellent songs to come.

It was an interesting way of working because we don’t speak Welsh and we were recording in Somerville, Massachusetts with Ani being across the ocean in Cardiff. So there was a big element of just trusting our instincts that what we were doing was right for the songs. On a personal level it’s been a great experience because although Sean and I have played in bands together for over 15 years we’ve never really collaborated on anything before. So this was really nice.

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

Aug Stone: There’s a lot of great music coming out of Wales, Welsh language or not, that I highly recommend checking out. I’ve found a lot of great instrumental, mostly electronic, acts. Hippies vs Ghosts I heard recently are ace. In a different vein, R Seillog. Peski Records have put out a really good compilation that would be a good place to start - http://www.peski.co.uk/cam1/index.html

But there’s great Welsh bands singing in English too. That last Trwbador album was one of my favourite records of 2014. ‘Start Your Car’ and ‘Several Wolves’ are just incredible songs. And Cian Ciarán’s (from Super Furry Animals) new project Zefur Wolves have made a really great rock record.

Since writing that Quietus piece two songs have been stuck in my head non-stop. Killer anthems, Y Cyrff’s ‘Cymru, Lloegr A Llanrwst’ and Anhrefn’s ‘Rhedeg I Paris’. And here they are:

Cymru, Lloegr A Llanrwst