BLUE AMBER

Blue Amber, depending on how you slice it, is either a solo project, a trio or a sizeable multi-instrumental collective. It was coined by the Cardiff-based Drew Noel after a cross-America travelling holiday that bookish types are wont to take; he wrote nearly all the music and lyrics on debut Blue Amber album Rockland’s Workshop, with the aid of two core co-musicians and another dozen or so guests. Musically, we’re talking jazzy post-rock of the ‘interesting textures’ rather than ‘big riffs’ type – the gathered players can kick up impressive duststorms, as on Old Breed, Pt.II, but are often minor-key and delicate, with Noel’s beat poetry-influenced delivery a common feature. These New Puritans, Arab Strap and some early Anticon Records releases feel like useful touchstones.

THE BRITISH SPACE GROUP

Swansea’s Ian Holloway, who I always chucklingly clarify is no relation to the Westcountry-accented football manager of the same name as if there was ever a strong chance of confusing the matter, has been releasing CDRs (mostly) of his exceedingly pared-back, almost incidental ambient drone music for nearly 20 years. The latest, The Machinery Of The Moment, is under his British Space Group pseudonym, comes via the Wyrd Britain label and is bolstered by an approving quote from Warren Ellis (the comics guy rather than the Bad Seeds member, this one being more ambiguous). Two-thirds of its running time is taken up by one track, Ghost Frequency, which despite its low-key sonics captivates with delicate dub pulses and tiny pieces of pointillist production detail. Think of it as part of a lineage with Zoviet France and Pan Sonic as well as one of the best ambient releases you might hear this year.

CARWYN ELLIS

Attributed to the Agati record label, I think though that Carwyn Ellis’ Across The Water is effectively self-released. While the Anglesey-originated psych-pop multi-instrumentalist has usually dictated the sound of his various projects, this is also his first solo album. A laudably charitable venture, with half of each purchase donated to Cardiff refugee centre Oasis, this choice circles back to the release’s lyrical content and inspiration, the wretched treatment of displaced peoples by the West. One song, Bound For Lampedusa, is a cover of Ellis’ peer The Gentle Good; elsewhere, he is content with plaintive piano instrumentals that make their point via their titles. Seventy Four, referring a 2017 tragedy which claimed that number of migrant lives, landed awkwardly with me, its chintzy pop wistfulness failing to convey the gravity of the event in question.

FIRST THIRD

It’s a new album release on Machine., surely Cardiff’s number one electronic music label that is in fact based in New Zealand, and a new name into the breach in First Third. Christian Gates, the face behind the name, is by no means a newjack – in fact, I recall enjoying a live techno set by him in a hotel basement nearly 15 years ago – but Salvage, which comprises a single 40-minute track, is his first release in some time and feels like a creative rebirth of sorts. Partly created with Max patches and algorithmic formulae, much of Salvage is fiercely arrhythmic computer music along the lines of Autechre or Dopplereffekt at their least compromising. Then there are sections that approach dub techno or electro, the final lap pitching muggy ambient synths against rash-raw acid looping.

GHOST SIGNS & VEINS FULL OF STATIC

This collaborative tape, whose four tracks run to about 45 minutes, is titled For The Reverend Jason Molina in reference to a late country-rockish American musician of that name. His music was invariably bleak and so is this, but in a rather different way: gauzy droning ambience that might have involved a guitar or similar somewhere but has certainly been greatly processed to create what we hear. Released on Decaying Spheres, a microlabel from Manchester, the two artists involved assembled this without having met: Veins Full Of Static, who lives in south Wales, I had prior familiarity with and had him down as Boards Of Canada via dub techno. Ghost Signs, from Belfast, is new to me, but here they make a great team.

MAHOGANY FIRE SURROUND

This trio, who feature Matthew Frederick and Colenso Jones from Rhondda folk-pop act Climbing Trees plus their producer Jethro Chaplin (respect to his parents for naming him after the two most important comedians of all time), appear to have released an album in 2018 which passed me by, but return here with six new songs, Caught In The Light. Mostly instrumental, with lyrics on the title track and some wordless vocalising on Silvermeer and Tunnels, it veers between the more ‘rock’ end of post-rock, the sort of live electronica which fans of the more ‘rock’ end of post-rock often like, and the grandiose bluster of someone like Arcade Fire. MFS appear pretty upfront about this project’s sidepiece status, but could probably take it somewhere if they felt inclined.

MALAN

Malan Jones is from Caernarfon but made her debut live show in Cardiff a couple of months ago, as part of the 6 Music Festival; we reviewed it and praised the “euphoric atmosphere” generated by jazzy soul numbers like her latest, Strawberry. It’s kind of early-00s r’n’b crossed with lightly electronic cocktail jazz-pop, and thanks to Jones’ vocal prowess and a shimmery piano line, I find it rather pleasant. “Reminiscent of seminal artists such as Mathilda Homer and Honey Mooncie,” says the press release, clearly aiming to offend me personally by ascribing seminal status to acts I’ve literally never heard of.

MINDSET / ROT

Total depths-of-Bandcamp outsider goofin’ here with two short EPs on Speedhammer, a new label from Aberystwyth. Speedhammer is run by one Ethan Parsons and I am fairly sure he is also the sole performer on both the Mindset and Rot demos, although the former is nominally a full band. Mindset’s Killing Spree features two songs of deranged punked-up crossover speed/thrash metal with a cardboard box drum sound and finger-in-the-socket vocals, plus an acoustic instrumental outro that’s like if The Shaggs were a neofolk band. Rot is Parsons’ dungeon synth project and, even by the standards of this often quite strange genre, The Descent is some primitive murk, with 8-bit video game melodies bound up with a sufficiency of cassette fuzz.

POPE JOHN PAUL VAN DAMME

This project, titled in the grand tradition of ‘gets funnier every time you hear it’, has been kicking around for a couple of years. Tom, the person behind PJPVD, is a participant in the Cardiff IDM/weird rave community that seemed, counterintuitively, to flourish during lockdown. (I actually reviewed an earlier release of his in 2020, though at the time he went by a different name, Lo Pan.) He’s released two albums almost simultaneously, This Is Not For You and You Can’t Deal With My Infinite Nature; I’ll concentrate on the latter, newer release, which is very ‘golden era Rephlex Records’ in its crisp, multifaceted drum programming, tweaky acid burble and moodier synth underbelly, but very well executed. The six original PJPVD tracks are supplemented with five remixes by people I’m otherwise unfamiliar with (one, Tookey, is south Walian) but who are all waiting for your ears on Bandcamp.

YSBRYDNOS

I’m a little late to this one, which came out in March, but feel the need to shout out this storming debut album of black metal from near Llanelli: Ysbrydnos is a solo project in essence, though on The Forest Howls At Dusk the soloist in question (Ysbryd) he’s aided by a drummer and flute player. Should you be sceptical of the latter parts, they work like a charm, lending this pummelling second wave-styled romp a mystical, almost medieval air. Spectral Hounds Of Annwn – most song titles reference Welsh history or geography – has an almost speed metal-type intro but reverts to a consuming, acid-washed blur in due course. The bombastic sound achieved here is combined by a largely polish-free production aesthetic, often a winning BM combo.

YXNGXR1

This fella, real name Timothy Lee, emerged in 2019 and started gaining major traction during lockdown: his singsongy Soundcloud indie-rap was always built to be disseminated via snippets on social media, even before a lack of gigs made that the only game in town. Teenage Motel, his new album, coincides with a move from Cardiff to London (“I do want to travel and live somewhere else for a little,” he said to Buzz in 2020, which, fair enough) and precedes a UK tour in June. It’s more of a properly realised long-player than past efforts, with a threaded story about a one-night stand turned long-distance relationship and music that jumbles up sleepy-eyed trap beats, faux-fi keyboard tinkles and languid guitar melodies that make for a wilfully odd fit for titles like Nike And Diamond Rings. This is, justifiably, going to make me sound like an old twat to Yxngxr1 and his zoomer fanbase, but a lot of this gets me thinking back to the turn of the millennium, when you had happy-go-lucky jangly pop with hip-hop beats by anyone from L.E.N. to Badly Drawn Boy.

words NOEL GARDNER