BUBBLEWRAP 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY | LIVE REVIEW
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sat 14 Dec
For anyone still feeling bewildered and numb following the election results, tonight is a timely restorative – welcome proof that not only do unequivocally Good Things exist, but that they can also endure. Over the last decade Bubblewrap Collective have faced and overcome numerous challenges (most recently, having to relocate their HQ due to the redevelopment of the Boneyard), brought us a Welsh Music Prize-winning album (The Gentle Good’s Ruins/Adfeilion, in 2017) and helped to propel two of Cardiff’s brightest bands, Boy Azooga and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, to greater prominence. Who could begrudge the label a 10th anniversary bash with a bill that shows off the strength and depth of their current crop of artists?
That Bubblewrap’s roster encompasses everything from the sublime to the ridiculous is neatly exemplified by the fact that Sock are superseded on Clwb’s stage by My Name Is Ian. The former are all slow-burn charm, languid yet motorik grooves and rippling guitar effects that wash over the bass and drums and lap gently on the ear; the latter, by complete contrast, are a blitz of silliness, purveyors of scattershot power-pop songs about gentoo penguins and forlorn attempts to get sexier. You Are Amazing, dedicated to label boss Rich Chitty, is guaranteed to have the best couplet of the night whatever the company: “You are the Rose to my Fred West / You are the booze to my George Best.”
Next it’s dark techno trio Cotton Wolf [below], evidently intent on blowing eardrums as well as minds with material from new LP Ofni. So booming and resonant is the bassquake that my hair feels electrified and empty pint pots vibrate across tabletops like lemmings drawn to their doom. HMS Morris’ [above] set of oddball synthpop is less confrontational, though scarcely less enjoyable, with Mother the pick of the bunch. Sam Roberts – the answer to the question “What would W G Grace look like dressed as a Christmas elf?” – makes the best exit of the evening, ceremonially piggybacked off the stage, through the audience and into the bar area by bandmate Heledd Watkins.
And then, after that electronic interlude, it’s back to analogue thrills courtesy of Quodega, who cook up their customary storm in near-darkness. Familiarity is still far from breeding contempt – they arguably steal the show, after all – but the set could perhaps benefit from a little freshening up.
Headlining honours go to Right Hand Left Hand [top], whose third album Zone Rouge is their first release on Bubblewrap. Rhodri Viney and Andrew Plain avoid the well-trodden guitar/bass-and-drums-duo path, switching instruments mid-track and using sampling and looping effects to manipulate and remix their post-rock songs live so that they sound so much more than the sum of their parts. It falls to them to pay final tribute to Chitty for making it all possible, deflecting applause in his direction.
words BEN WOOLHEAD photos JANINE NAJERA / JOSEPH SINGH [HMS Morris]
