BABY BRAVE

These four songs by Baby Brave, titled Sunny Days In Dark Rooms and released on Chester’s Mai 68 label, are the Wrexham ensemble’s first since 2019. Says here they were specifically created under lockdown conditions, and more experimental for this – not sure which lockdown, but they’ve clearly been patient in bringing them to us. There are elements of postpunk in the choppy rhythms, 00s indie in Emmi Manteau’s vocals, the intersection of funk and disco in certain guitar solos and production touches… I wouldn’t really say Baby Brave sounded like Chic, Talking Heads or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on this release, yet all those bands entered my thoughts at some point.

BLAP

Some proper club tools for you club tools here with Blap’s Paradox EP, the Cardiff techno duo’s second 12” since their mid-00s beginnings (at least, it will be when the vinyl arrives in early 2023). These are hard-nosed rattlers for pitch-dark basements at 8am, with very little subtlety or moments of contemplation. Blap uphold the spirit of Jeff Mills (and British adherents like James Ruskin) in their metal-grey melodies, but crank the kickdrums up to an even greater intensity, bordering on the schranz techno subgenre beloved of continental crazies. Three originals, Paradox, Propaganda and Machines plus a remix of the latter by ALNA, who runs the (new) label this is being released on, Out Of CTRL.

CRYMYCH

Crymych are the latest name to emerge from the supposed Pembrokeshire Black Circle – a series of black metal projects from west Wales, it presents itself as a collective but could involve as few people as, well, one. This album, Endless Fucking Winter (Death Prayer) is credited to “members of” the PBC, but the truth is impossible to gauge based on listening to these wavey, lo-fi, spectral and max-creepy recordings, which at points (Columns Of The Sightless) seem all but stripped down to spacey synth, very occasional shriek-demon vox, and drums possessing that time-honoured “if that dickhead next door keeps practicing in the daytime I’m going to ring the council” audio quality. I dig it, naturally.

CRYPT ROT

Death metal trio Crypt Rot ply their trade part-remotely, with an American drummer joining the two south Walian founder members. Their second release, An Ancient Summoning, is released by three labels (Brutal Mind, Frozen Screams and Dry Cough) and its seven songs form a concept album based on the grisly tale of Ricky Kasso, teen murderer whose case was an early-80s media sensation. Even furnished with a lyric sheet, you probably wouldn’t release this unless so informed, but if you like your DM heads-down and bludgeoning – with, nevertheless, some exploratory guitar soloing and weird FX dotted therein – this is a chunky champ.

CURRENT FOXES

Current Foxes appears to be one of your ‘solo projects rocking a pluralised name’ deals. The guy behind it, Callum Eve, was previously part of a band from Wrexham called The Algal Bloom, who cited Catfish & The Bottlemen as their primary influence. Fortunately, by the time I read that I had already listened to Current Foxes’ five-song EP Circadian Rhythm, which is a really nice dreamy psychedelic rocker bearing very little resemblance to Catfish & The Bottlemen. His forays into blues-rock (Morning) skate the edge of corny but are still pretty fun; the more excursive moments, notably closing song 1967 Chevy, are for fans of Neil Young or perhaps Ty Segall. Keen to hear how this project develops!

HAP A DAMWAIN

Hap A Damwain come from Colwyn Bay and comprise Hap, who handles the music, and Damwain, who sings. Their latest release, Trafnidiaeth, is available on CDR or tape (or digital, natch) and is textbook, nay classic, Welsh-language outsider/DIY. The electronic backing is energetically screwy synthpop with a splash of guitar and a dub bent, the vocals flit between quasi-croon and almost-rap in an oddly addictive way. I don’t know who H&D are or what they want, but here they make music that sounds like a lost release on any/all of the Ankst, Ofn and Central Slate labels circa the late 80s and early 90s. That’s praise!

HOT MASS

Swansea’s Hot Mass released a good album, Nervous Tensions, in 2016 – which, allowing for how time flies and that, makes this followup Happy, Smiling And Living The Dream (Brassneck/This Charming Man/Black Numbers) rather overdue. The quartet have turned in a tidy collection here, though, and haven’t just Xeroxed their six-year-old sound either, with much of their 90s punk leanings giving way to shouty college rock stylings. Astroturf has the arch energy of Archers Of Loaf, for example, while Shine On is like the midpoint between Hot Snakes and Holy Bible-era Manics, which is a really good place to be. There’s also a song called Circadian Rhythms, clearly something weighing on Welsh musical minds this autumn.

JOHN BARNES

The Liverpool-supporting character recording as John Barnes while actually being named Sam Arnold is from Gloucestershire, spent several years making music solo and in bands while living in Cardiff, decamped to London for several more years and recently moved to Cardiff again. With this comes his first new music in some time, a track titled Mithraics released on the Machine. label. It’s a tactile, springy bit of quasi-techno, sorta ambient but not averse to the pull of the club, with pitched-up/cut-up vocals and woodblock-y percussion. Kieran Hebden might be a halfway useful comparison point but it certainly stands on its own merits; more John Barnes music coming soon.

JORG KUNING

I’m late to trippy techno architect Jorg Kuning, who lives in Welshpool and who has released over 90 minutes of music in 2022 – a tape and two 12” EPs, the latest of which (Chosta-Del-Sol, on Wisdom Teeth) was even emailed to me a few months ago. What an ingrate! More importantly, what a great release – so let’s give it some words. This is really distinctive stuff, cheerful and melodic but employing cut-ups and glitches to funky effect – Ex-Tensor reminds me of UK weirdos of yore like Si Begg or early Jamie Lidell, but using a more identifiable classic house framework. TB-SB, which concludes the set, pairs brisk, watery rhythm and cold, high-pitched synth tones on a megaweird electro flex.

LIVE, DO NOTHING

Couldn’t remember if I’d reviewed Cardiff indie-poppers Live, Do Nothing before, but on looking it up I was pleasant about Oh Dear, their 2018 EP and previous release, while semi-complaining about them not being upfront re: who was in the band. For Hiraeth & Loathing (Specialist Subject), L,DN’s debut LP, this has been rectified, and I know who plays the flute, the clarinet and the halldorophone on this fulsome and carefully assembled suite. The band still cleave to their scrappy, punky sensibilities – think bands like Martha – but fold in layers of buoyant jazz and wonky orchestral moments that could derive from the Beach Boys or the Elephant 6 bands of yore (or both). Feels like an artistic success for sure.

SHELL

Feel Nothing by Shell has been up on Bandcamp since July but has just this month been given a ‘visual release’ – that is, the band have made videos [linked below] for the two main songs on it. (There are three in total, but the first is a vocal-less intro.) The band are made up of various lifers in south Wales’ interconnected hardcore/punk/emo scene/s, and while you could maybe consider Shell’s sound to fit the ‘punk dudes approach middle age with newfound maturity and ennui’ archetype, I think this is a really impressive introduction. It’s post-hardcore of the early 90s ilk, with hulking stoner rock-adjacent riffs and big walls of shoegaze-gone-grunge guitar: the former comes through more on Fall, the latter on Nothing Left. Don’t think the band have played live yet, in which context I feel this could thrive.

STEREORIPE

Valleys-originated electronic producer Rhys Evans has been around for a long stretch now in various guises, Stereoripe the most enduring – his releases under this name, typically found at a dub/jungle/dubstep nexus, are very underrated in this listener’s view. The six-track Jammunition is the most recent, and rhythmically speaking Evans has his junglist hat on here – including on a number titled Drum & Bass (I Can’t Play That! – but the tempo and choppage of the beats is only half the story. As with the last thing I reviewed by him, 2020’s Merking From Home, there’s a surfeit of big dub basslines, as well as some almost digital reggae-esque keys on I Hear.

words NOEL GARDNER