ASIDHARA
Back in 2019, I sent Asidhara money for their debut tape which I didn’t receive, and none were manufactured as far as I can make out… but I’m not bitter, and to prove it here’s a review of Adleisiau Yr Henuriaid, an actually existing cassette by this Cardiff metallic hardcore powerhouse. Released via Nuclear Family, it’s got two songs on it, both well up there with their debut EP Killing Rites, from 2020. Conditioned To Suffer is exclusive to this tape (well, you can stream it on their Bandcamp too) and has a crossover thrash tone to its guitars and an almost Viking metal pomp at certain points. March Of The Bastard Reich also features on a compilation of UK hardcore bands released by The Coming Strife label and is faster and rawer than its counterpart, with a quality speed metal guitar solo.
THE BRASS BAMBEES
A youngish-looking five-piece from Merthyr who emailed Buzz with the suggestion that an outlet which has written positive reviews of Panic Shack might also like Modern Casanova, their debut release. I can hear where The Brass Bambees are coming from in that respect, with a primary riff that bounces on the spot indie/punkishly and a hedonistic lyrical tack. They also do that thing Panic Shack do of repeating entire verses instead of writing new ones, although Rhys Davies has some fair craft as a wordsmith on this evidence; his vocal style, like he’s standing next to a jukebox shouting into your ear, might be divisive but has my approval. Feels in the lineage of south Walian acts like 60Ft Dolls and others from a time before The Brass Bambees were born.
BURNING FERNS
A two-song single by Gwent-dwelling Americana janglers Burning Ferns, released via the Country Mile label on a lathe-cut 7”. When I first became aware of this highly rustic method of pressing music to disc, most people seemed to get it done by a bloke in New Zealand; now there’s in fact a lathe cutting pressing plant in Cardiff (not sure if they did the honours for this one). Nothing To Hide is a metronomically midpaced chime, a bit Gram Parsons and a bigger bit Teenage Fanclub but with a refreshing amount of south Wales audible in the vocals; The Town Crier cranks the ‘rock’ dial up about 15% and comes out partially resembling the Lemonheads.
DAMEK
Anybody involved in the south Wales doom metal scene in the last 10-15 years would surely be aware of the likes of Hogslayer, Zonderhoof and Thorun. Members of all those bands have joined forces in Damek, whose self-titled debut album is now upon us. Opening track Headcrusher brings everything you hoped this band would be to fruition: singer Damek unleashes his inner Tom Warrior, while the rest of the band stomp through a midtempo Obsessed-style number. This continues into DNR – veering into thrash territory in parts, proving there’s more to this beast than first expected – while Nightmares’ stellar double-kick work precedes Damek going full Celtic Frost on us. Kneel, an ode to doomers everywhere, has a vibrant, chuggy feel to it, and instrumental interlude Araun returns the tempo to head-nodding level. Harnessing all these characteristics into a monstrous finale, Death To All Mankind is the icing on the cake, or the permafrost on the iceberg. Whatever.
The band have clearly paid attention to the sonics of each track, taking us on a journey whilst battering us across the skull in the process. If 10 years ago, doom metal had strong currency in the south Wales scene, that’s sadly less the case now. Damek, though, have provided us with six reminders of what a truly visceral musical style this can be.
words CHRIS ANDREWS
DD DARILLO
Cardiff’s DD Darillo was founded by Dylan Morgan, who also forms part of Boy Azooga when it’s a band rather than a solo project, and seems to operate here in a similar way to Davey Newington in Boy Azooga. If that wasn’t confusing enough, DD Darillo’s new EP Days Of Wonder (Hush Now) is a comprehensively reworked version of a 2020 release with the same title which the band decided they weren’t satisfied with. This one, though, has both charm and depth. Its most outlier moment, a jazz exotica instrumental titled Vincent Van Guaraldi, is my personal keeper from its six songs, but with most of the others being made up of multiple sections and cycling between styles with impressive chops, DD Darillo are out to lunch at a great little prog-pop place as yet undiscovered by most.
THE FAMILY BATTENBERG
On their second single, The Family Battenberg tease and tease a little more. Feed Yer (Nganga), which follows on from the Cardiff garage/psych group’s 2022 debut ‘Fuzzy Features,’ is the equivalent of an explosive device, when awaiting its confirmed detonation: it has to happen and soon. With depth of space due to delay-drenched vocals and ambient guitar swells, the rhythmic curtain at the very centre of the song pursues forward whatever it takes. One of Feed Yer’s greatest moments includes the percussive use of vocal breath: as it fidgets with occupancy midtrack, you stay firmly gripped from the introduction of a new voice, and something often edited out without a second thought creates a hook, line and sinker moment in anticipation for a final build, and a landslide you’re waiting for that never shows its face.
words EMMA WAY
ISELDER
This is a one-man black metal project from north Wales (I think – although the one man, Gofid, is living out of the country at the time of writing either way) who sings of historical topics such as the Welsh Not, the blue books of 1847 and the Meibion Glyndŵr cottage burnings. Fair to say that black metal plus nationalism tends to equal wrong’un central, but Iselder seems sound – making a point of stating his music isn’t for racists – and his latest album Cynefin (UKEM) is decent gear too. Generally favouring a slow-to-mid tempo approach with programmed drums not unlike early Godflesh, and a vocal style where you can make out his lyrics (imagine that!), the blackness comes through in the cold, lo-fi guitar tone, with a dreamy washed-out quality sometimes apparent.
DAS KOOLIES
The Condemned (Amplify Music) is the second 12” from a Cardiffian quartet who comprise all the members of Super Furry Animals not called Gruff Rhys, and who in their fusion of expansive dance music and psychedelic rock purport to revive the very earliest form of SFA, from some 30 years ago. These two sides of Das Koolies are best showcased on Dim Byd Mawr, second track of four, where harmony-loaded flower-power pop weaves in and out of brisk techno boasting both clean melodies and distorted synth lines: acid music from two successive eras, in other words. Neither of which are the one we’re currently in, but I suspect people are more eager for Das Koolies to make really fun records than to ‘innovate’ per se, and they do the former thing here.
THE MUDD CLUB
Following on from The Mudd Club’s appearance in the previous edition of this column, on a four-band compilation 7”, here they are again with Give Me A Thrill, their second album. It actually came out late last year as a self-released CD but is being pressed to vinyl by Raving Pop Blast!, a label from Bristol. Indeed the band sometimes list themselves as coming from Bristol, other times from Machynlleth, although sister/brother founder members Sadie and Julian moved to the UK from Kansas. Also Sadie’s Facebook page lists her as being from New Orleans. Bloody hell. Their music is sassy and effervescent garage/beat rattlers, recorded with an expert lack of finesse, which fans of Thee Headcoatees, Demolition Doll Rods and other groups of yore will likely enjoy.
ONLY FOOLS AND CORPSES
First caught this Swansea band a bit over a year ago – they’ve existed for closer to five – and their grungy noiserock grew on me in a way that makes Pissant, a debut mini-album following a tape EP and some one-off tracks, a pleasing conclusion to that building interest. The trio’s arrangements are often bassline-first on these seven songs, though singer and guitarist Cameron McIntyre can render things twistier and more discordant, with faint echoes of The Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison. Greenhouse, the release’s most straight-ahead moment, sits tight with the broader UK wave of angry-young-man postpunk for crowdsurfers that was at one point typified by Idles, now more so by – say – Benefits or Italia 90. An atypical release for OF&Cs’ label Nuclear Family, who usually release hardcore of the metallic or beatdown type (cf Asidhara at the top of this column), but Pissant rocks pretty assuredly.
words NOEL GARDNER
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