ASH COOKE

Bangor-based Ash Cooke, most often but not exclusively a solo musician releases music via his own Bandcamp page (again, other micro-labels sometimes help him out too) with decent regularity. He’s a guitarist first and foremost, with an approach to improvisation that seems to have plenty of thought behind its process. On latest EP Wenren, however, Cooke drops the guitar in favour of the tumbi, the original one-string banjo hailing from India’s Punjab region. Four untitled instrumental pieces, three of approximate pop song length and one of 11 and a half minutes, result: sparse and minimalist, as the tumbi’s specs would suggest, with a sorrowful tone in the tuning. Hypnotic and very likeable to these ears, it’s intended as an accompaniment to a self-penned booklet about improvisation, Ascension To Detail.

CARA LUDLOW

A different take on folk music by Cara Ludlow, a west Wales musician living in Cardiff, but not one lacking ambition on the strength of Hyperion, her debut EP. Released by Tŷ Cerdd, the label of the Wales Millennium Centre-based studio, she is backed here by the Mavron Quartet who lend a stringed elegance to proceedings without removing the folk heart. Moreover, Ludlow claims primary lyrical inspiration from Keats’ epic poem The Fall Of Hyperion: A Dream, although with references to waking up in Paris apartments, it’s evidently been adapted to have contemporary and corporeal relevance. These three songs from Ludlow are polished and accessible in a similar way to, say, Laura Marling’s earlier releases.

THE DEAD GRUBERS

Blues-rock quartet from, variously, Cardiff, Newport and Tenby – Anthony James, the Cardiff resident whose solo incarnation Canton Synths I’ve covered in here before, says he found two members playing a pub gig in the Pembrokeshire town – release a two-track single, Fight Or Flight / Snake Valley. It’s pretty solid tambourine-thumping electrified choogle in both instances, with vocalist Arleen Westmacott having a timeless rock’n’soul wail on her and the fellows behind her carrying on in the style of early-70s hairies like Chicken Shack or Stray.

THE DEATH OF MONEY

This heavy experimental rock band from south Wales are not far off two decades as a going concern, remarkably, although they’ve had various tweaks to their setup over time as bands tend to. At present they’re a core duo on record, with their first new music for around five years previewing an album due in the future sometime. Error After Era lasts precisely 10 minutes and showcases what The Death Of Money do best, while also inching their practice forward: downtuned, lo-tempo riffs that ought to appeal to metal and shoegaze fans alike, repetition that avoids monotony, lots of cool post-production textures and guest vocals from Welsh avant-pop artist Bethan Lloyd.

HELLTH

This appears to be a one-man band, and a studio-only concern so far for that reason – although I suspect that the one man, name of Adam Barkley, would find it tricky sourcing musicians who could replicate this industrial-plated tech-death metal extremity. Especially in or around Monmouth, where he lives. The five-song Hell is Barkley’s third EP as Hellth, and his blend of super-processed deathcore riffs, digital drums and surprisingly emo-leaning lyrics are topped off by the closing title track – presented as a bonus, but with horror-ambient synths and tinkly piano breakdowns coming to the fore, definitely the most interesting potential future direction for this project.

NO FALSE LEMMAS

Jazz duo from Swansea who have named themselves after a mildly obscure philosophical principle (something I definitely knew already and didn’t just happen to find when I Googled the band name) and have titled the eight tracks on debut album Transition after different ways one can live their life. Some numbers have spoken word narrations and/or electronica embellishments, which at times (Truth) can feel a bit like listening to some kind of Open University online lecture. The acoustically-centred moments on here, however, where slow-rolling piano and pastel-shaded trumpet combine, are NFL members James Bowstead and Chris Hall’s strongest suit.

SPLONIE

Dance The Night Away, the lead track of two released a few weeks ago via Skream’s label Of Unsound Mind, was a chance discovery that turned my head with its sweet female vocal and buoyant italo disco synth. Turns out its producer, Splonie aka Andy Williams, is from the Powys village of Kerry. What’s more, he’s already followed that single up with another four-track EP on another popular circuit DJ’s label, namely Patrick Topping’s Trick. Don’t Wanna Lose combines 80s electro, bleep techno and more modern-styled Ibiza tech-house chug, and it’s all perfectly serviceable, although DTNA is his most impressive turn to date for sure.

VERLETZEN

The debut mini-album by Verletzen, a black metal band from Neath, has been online since the autumn but can now be had on tape too thanks to Nuclear Family, from the same town and more often found in the hardcore trenches. Discounting solo projects, I reckon Evil Will Triumph might be my favourite Welsh BM offering since Ghast were at it: raw, frothing and making it plain that these geezers know how to play this stuff, but not too well. They save their best brace for the end, the title track and Hatred in that order: punky abandon, splattery double-kick drums and tremolo guitar to soundtrack flying like a raven above the squalid populace and evacuating the birdy bomb bay. Or imagining doing that. Anyway, really cool.

THE VOICES

This south Wales trio, feted among the briny depths of the shoegaze community (I don’t know if there really is a ‘community’ of such people, and essentially just mean ‘them as really likes that sort of music’), are calling the self-released We Just Want To Be Ourselves their “penultimate album”. Worth noting, perhaps, that The Voices had already spent several years dormant before getting back together five years ago – are they playing for keeps this time? Hey, let them decide their own fate! These days, they’re janglier and more melody-driven than their 00s-era, fuzz-blanketed recordings: more Ride’s brand of shoegaze than My Bloody Valentine’s, you might say. The garage-psych strutter Take My Hand is a swish compromise between those two modes, though, and my album highlight.

words NOEL GARDNER