David Wyn rounds up some of his top picks for this year’s nominees at the Welsh Music Prize, a huge celebration of Welsh music to help put it on the music map.
9 BACH
Winners of BBC Radio 2’s prestigious folk awards for their previous album Tincian, listening to the by-now-familiar laidback dub/folk grooves doesn’t sound like 9 Bach were under any extra pressure, even though they’re also signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. The name of their latest album, Anian, meaning a feeling of isolation and somewhere between nature, temperament and quintessence. The word has been chosen to represent 9 Bach’s latest excellent collection of Welsh music precisely because it is hard to define; full of tempestuous human nature and quintessentially Welsh and all that all in a word – much like ‘hiraeth’ – that cannot really be translated.
ALUN GAFFEY
Once part of The Race Horses, one of the most influential Welsh-based bands of the last 10 years, Alun Gaffey eponymous album has also been nominated. His confident stride into the solo set up will not be a surprise to those who saw him perform solo sets such as at the Cardiffrinj to WOMEX. It should be pointed out that here is a man who takes his lyrical content seriously and Welsh speakers are fortunate to uncover layers of hidden meaning there on what it means to be Welsh in the early 21st century.
PLU
They’re a bit soft, which is fitting as their name means feathers in Welsh. They’re Welsh folk, and all related to each other in one way or another. Tir a Golau will most likely win the best album cover prize. To be earnest, Plu are an important part of the Welsh folk revival that has been creeping up on us like a large, friendly, cuddly bear version of the Wolf in the “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” game that has been on the boil since the beginning of the decade. All the same, these North Walians will be outsiders on the night, and not just in the geographical sense. Pretty and pleasing: Plu ladies and gentlemens.
CATE LE BON
Cate Le Bon is one of the best and tastiest of the left over morsels of the Cool Cymru era, that is and those of you who remember her from serving at the Gwdihw before she went all transatlantic know that she is no overnight sensation, but she is sensational all the same. Just like her previous records, her fourth neo-psychedelic album Crab Day is a delight.
MEILYR JONES
No need to be overly flowery here, Meilyr is a talented boy. And boy, is he talented. Similarly, to his former bandmate Alun Gaffey, Meilyr has been given his head after the non-glue factory dissolving of the Race Horses, and has also found a lyrical bent he’s comfortable with. 2013 might be three years overdue, but it benefits from the extra time in the oven, and is mature like a Welsh cheese without ever being cheesy. A Morrissey for Mid Wales.
DATBLYGU
Datblygu are the best. They did a load of Peel sessions, indisputably recorded the song that is most commonly referred to as the best song in Welsh ever: Cân i Gymry – which possibly pips the pre-Cerys Catatonia Y Cyrff to that particular post on the strength that it’s a brilliant song about the Welsh language as well as being in the Welsh language. They’re most likely to be the best band on show at the Welsh Music Awards; although they’d do well to actually be on show as their inspirational band-leader David Edwards is incredibly busy being mistaken for the Welsh football international who shares the same moniker as him. In all seriousness, for the battle-hardened Datblygu fans, this is not a battle they’d be bothered about at all, and the beauty of music is that I could state quite unequivocally that Porwr Trallod (where porwr = ‘browser’ in all its senses and ‘trallod’ is distress, a trial or tribulation] is the best album of the lot and you’ll know that music is utterly subjective anyhow, which is partly what makes it so fascinating to pretend that a list of albums in different and disparate styles can be compared fairly against each other.
Welsh Music Prize 2016, Thurs 24 Nov. Tickets: £15-£30. Info: www.welshmusicprize.com
words DAVID WYN
