Cardiff Psych & Noise Fest returned to Clwb Ifor Bach and The Moon last week. Here’s our rundown of the top 10 bands on the bill, including Bas Jan, Obey Cobra, Basic Dicks and more.
BAS JAN
The Moon, Fri 26 May
Returned to its standard late May bank holiday slot and beatified by three days of nice weather, the Cardiff Psych & Noise Fest starts off strongly on Friday evening thanks in large part to Bas Jan, an arch postpunk outfit based in London. Vocalist Serafina Steer exhibits dry wit both in her lyrics (“monogamy is a construct,” goes one refrain, which feels like a ruse to bait overeager men into nodding their agreement) and intra-song chat; their music is more spindly and organic than angular and abrasive, violin and synth inviting comparisons to the Raincoats and London peers Ravioli Me Away. Bassist Clémentine March returns with a solo set on the Saturday too.
OBEY COBRA
The Moon, Fri 26 May
With debut album Oblong having met with appreciation and a successor now recorded, Cardiff’s Obey Cobra lean into their locker of new material with what feels like an especially loud and intense set of psychedelic rock abstraction. They can drop big riffs but don’t resemble ‘doom’ or similar; are textured and gauzy but aren’t covered by ‘shoegaze’. Indeed, their big rushes of guitar noise and wailing vox largely evade obvious comparison.
BASIC DICKS
The Moon, Sat 27 May
Real swell two-vocalist riot grrrunge action from an Oxford ensemble who last played Cardiff in 2019, in a room about as big as the average-at-best-sized bedroom I’m currently writing this in. At teatime in the Moon they are received with glee for an affable presence, relatable feminist-slanted song topics and big alt-punk energy.
ICHI
Clwb Ifor Bach, Sat 27 May
A UK-based Japanese fella whose gambit is sort of prop comedy sound art synthpop. Jaunty backing tracks are augmented by sounds created by Ichi on modified objects including but not limited to ping-pong bats and stilts (the latter are fitted with bass strings which he plays while walking round on them). It is certainly very zany but my serious-faced resolve crumbled in about the time it took me to go from “this is music for children” to “this is music for children – and that’s fine”.
BETHAN LLOYD
Clwb Ifor Bach, Sat 27 May
An overdue first time catching this north Wales nu-trance free spirit live, shortly after the release of her Metamorphosis album. For the most part, Bethan Lloyd’s set is a reiteration of its qualities – big room electronica euphoria with melancholy vocals and other new agey bits – but it sounds on point and, more so, her vocals are really impressive in the there and then.
DEAD SEA APES
The Moon, Sat 27 May
This trio, from Manchester, also released a solid LP (Rewilding, via Cardinal Fuzz) not long before their Cardiff debut. As hairshaking psych-rock goes, neither album or show find Dead Sea Apes reinventing the wheel, but they do their thing – sludgy, vaguely Krautrocky rinseouts in the approximate lineage of Hawkwind, Loop and Acid Mothers Temple – very nicely, and seem flattered by people’s appreciation.
PSYCHIC GRAVEYARD
The Moon, Sat 27 May
On-the-hoof timetable changes caused me to miss all but the last 10 minutes of Psychic Graveyard – a troupe of seasoned American noiserockers fronted by Eric Paul, whose sordid yowl was previously heard on records by Arab On Radar and The Chinese Stars (and who now resembles Alexei Sayle). This newer band’s style doesn’t stray miles from that path, but its synthesiser-driven no wave throb doesn’t feel like a motion-going retread of old moves, certainly not while most of a room are buggin’ out to it at 11 something pm.
BLOODY HEAD
Clwb Ifor Bach, Sun 28 May
With a stage set (sic) consisting solely of a photo of recently departed cult film director Kenneth Anger, taped above drummer Henry Davies’ kit, Bloody Head let their waves of psychedelic freak-punk do the overwhelming. From Nottingham and debuting in Cardiff after a couple of previous postponements, they are intense and musically able – Davies especially is something else to witness at work – but, thanks largely to frontman Dave Bevan, always feel on the verge of chaos, in a good way.
NUHA RUBY RA
Clwb Ifor Bach, Sun 28 May
London solo entity Nuha Ruby Ra has been in Cardiff before, including at 2021’s Festival Of Voice – playing a more appropriately sized room here, her gothy electronic blues is not primed for crowdpleasing but does that anyway just by being really interesting and singular. She’s a first-rate performer, too, dipping in and out of the crowd and treating us to a few toots on a bugle towards the end. Very worth catching live!
GNOD
Clwb Ifor Bach, Sun 28 May
Mostly playing shrouded in smoke or bleached by strobes, Gnod arrive in Cardiff after a hard-touring few months and bring this weekend to a close (or the bands I have chosen to review at any rate) with a set that draws on their most recent mode of pummelling, punk-informed noise-rock. Swans and the Melvins would be comparable forces of nature, but essentially this Salford band are their own movement at this point, and it would surely take much more than a bassist swap-out (long-term member Alex Macarte replaced for now by Alex Wilson) to put a dent in that. Hails!
Cardiff Psych & Noise Fest, The Moon / Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Fri 26-Sun 28 May
words NOEL GARDNER photos PETER DARETH EVANS
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