The crannies of Wales keep on leaking out radioactively good sound, sometimes with little care for who hears it. Noel Gardner hears it, and then he puts it in this best new Welsh music column, with the last month or so yielding the following 10 releases.
CREMULATION deal in decapitation-happy death metal primitivism
Cardiff has been pretty good for death metal shows so far this year, and if there isn’t currently a vast reserve of suitable local bands to play those shows, Cremulation have been given the chance to prove themselves. I’ve dug ‘em the couple of times I’ve seen ‘em, at any rate, and now they have a debut album, Amalgamated Abomination (Iron Fortress), which blunders forth with meaty fists and club feet. If you associate death metal with lightning-fast fretwork and carpal tunnel drum tekkers, Cremulation’s lo-tempo bludgeoning approach might take a bit of getting used to, but a fixation on gore, grimnity and guttural vocals make the trio’s chosen genre clear. The skit intro to closing song Three Heads In The Freezer can also be enjoyed by all the family.
The third post-reunion DERRERO album is another languid treat
After nearly two decades dormant, Derrero, an indie/psych three-piece variously based in north and south Wales, returned to the fray in 2020 with an album, Time Lapse, and have since delivered two more, with Breezing Up (Prin) the latest. These nine songs are most often languidly paced and given to a little country-rock yearning and shoegaze shimmer: drummer Andy Fung’s other extent band, No Thee No Ess, are territorially closer to this sound than the scrawly solo improvisation of guitarist Ash Cooke, though Derrero’s experimental tastes still come through on the chugging Krautrock-influenced title track. Creepy Crawlies concludes the album in an admirably incongruous style, layers of detuned guitar and keyboard burble reminding me of the Residents in an odd way.
FFENEST add their name to the Welsh language guitar-pop canon
Gwynedd band Ffenest have a decent ‘members of’ pedigree for fans of Welsh language indie amongst you, with Sen Segur, Omaloma and Cate Le Bon’s backing band touted as relevant names. Baled is Ffenest’s second single and splices acoustic guitar, piano, pedal steel, twinkly synth and a (Welsh language) vocal treated to warm-roomed reverb, adding up to four and a half minutes of Laurel Canyon-styled AOR folk-rock. It’s not wholly unlike the Ynys album I reviewed in last month’s new Welsh music column, though more wistful and less bombastic, which suits me fine.
The dual synth worship of MAES Y CIRCLES is a late-summer tonic
It’s good as hell to have a new release by Maes Y Circles float into my orbit for a new Welsh music roundup! In fact it’s the Cardiff electronic duo’s first for five years, and their debut under this name, a 2019 12” coming out under their old one Massa Circles. This self-titled album is released on cassette by the Goto label, run by Bristolian synthpop curio Finlay Shakespeare, which amounts to a fine meeting of sensibilities if you ask me. Maes Y Circles, though, are still on their arpeggio-riffing instrumental analogue synth tip, almost bombastic at times but stylish with it. You wouldn’t best categorise it as dance music, in that melody takes distinct precedence over rhythm, but there are myriad tones and progressions to make your body move.
New instrumental trio MAUNTEN drop a captivating debut tape
To date, Maunten have chalked up two live performances – only the later of those in their current guitar/drums/violin combination – and self-released a cassette, recorded in guitarist Zak Thomas’ Cardiff tattoo shop. Thomas has also been developing his solo project-turned-band Muriel of late, and this newer instrumental venture is partway comparable as string-driven melancholy goes, but on the evidence of this one-part, 17-minute introduction allows for freer expression and quieter passages. Completed by drummer Luke Robinson, who plays with a jazzy flourish here, and violinist Holly Carpenter (whose job is designing high-end sunglasses), Maunten bear comparison to enduring Australians Dirty Three, with a greater Celtic folk lilt than supplied by Warren Ellis’ playing style in that band. Really taken with this.
SWHC mob THE NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH rep their ends on debut demo
South Wales hardcore is properly BACK – has been for two or three years now I’d say – with a strong emphasis on hooligan-with-a-heart antics, y’know encouragement from the stage (if there is one) to get a bit rowdy in the mosh so long as it all comes out in the wash. Right? The Neighbourhood Watch are from Newport, are closely linked to the city’s DIY venue The Cab, have been active since the start of 2024 and have recently released their three-song (or four if you count the ‘intro’ track) demo. It’s got broad local accents – that’s good; there are still plenty of UK hardcore bands doing the faux-American vocal thing – and a sense of humour without being zany, while musically there’s a hint of metal in that late-80s NYHC way.
Jazz meets post-rock on the drifting, pretty new SLOWLY ROLLING CAMERA album
Rated UK jazz label Edition Records allows itself another release by Slowly Rolling Camera, its house band of sorts: piano/keyboard player Dave Stapleton is Edition’s founder and CEO. The group, like the label, originated in Cardiff, with drummer Elliot Bennett and producer Deri Roberts still alongside Stapleton, and SRC are completed by musicians including saxophonist Josh Arcoleo and Finnish trumpeter Verneri Pohjola. Silver Shadow, their sixth album, is economical – eight tracks in around 30 minutes – yet its arrangements spread their limbs louchely, high-plains drifting horn sections trading space with light-dappled Rhodes. Despite SRC members’ jazz bona fides, this isn’t for genre purists, with prog and post-rock leanings apparent more often than not.
Ysbryd’s latest alias SPELLBLADE is another gimme for dungeon synth fans
It’s time for this month’s new Welsh music bizarro dungeon synth injection and this time, as on previous occasions, it’s the mid-Walian fellow who calls himself Ysbryd as a primary alias and for this project is Spellblade. Glintblade Sorcery (Nocturnal Curse) is a five-track EP coming in a little under 20 minutes and available on cassette – “only 12 copies made!” – but you can decline opting into this game of exclusivity brinksmanship and stream Spellblade’s atmospheric meanderings, like a boss. A folky keyboard melody, not unlike Scarborough Fair actually, powers the title track, while Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel is comprised of fuzz-edged, midrange-y drones and Carian Manor Moongazing Grounds (good titles these) feels both medieval and spawned by a future civilisation.
Young Marble Giants’ STUART MOXHAM compiles an album of rare material
As one-third of Young Marble Giants, a shortlived but influential postpunk band from the late-70s/early-80s, Stuart Moxham created some of the most distinctive music ever to come from Cardiff. Conversely, he’s spoken of his wish to take YMG’s sound to places it would be more appreciated, and now – in his late sixties – lives in Dorset. Fabstract (Tiny Global Productions), a compilation of unreleased Moxham solo recordings, reputedly has plenty of YMG-era content, so I have an excuse to cover it here. Songs like Shark Attacks and Suburban Monochrome will be lapped up by fans of Moxham’s best known band (he also recorded as The Gist shortly after YMG disbanded), while elsewhere his predilections for loungey pop and jazz are evident.
VEINS FULL OF STATIC makes immersive ambient music with a heavy concept
A House Wrapped In Sleep, Jamie Philpin-Jones’ latest album as Veins Full Of Static, is a CD release via the Machine label, which started life in Cardiff before moving away; Philpin-Jones himself did the opposite. The IDM and dub techno influences of his older work have not been excised altogether, but play second fiddle to a cloudy electronic ambience which suits AHWIS’ stated concept of post-death brain activity (as scientists understand it). Replete with sustained, echoed-out synth chords, layers of production fuzz and/or unspecified field recordings, the namecheck for American ambient producer Loscil in the promo bumph gets a ‘called it’ from me, and Berlin-based Kenyan KMRU came to mind as a sonic compadre too – a compliment for sure.
words NOEL GARDNER
