The brightest and best, they say – that’s the migrants who are most prized, in the parlance of dog-whistle politics and oily xenophobia. What does this have to do with Griff Lynch, frontman of popular Welsh language indie-pop band Yr Ods and recent entrant into the solo artist realm? Well, having formed Yr Ods several years ago in Gwynedd, north Wales, Lynch has since migrated to Cardiff, where he earns a crust with S4C and Radio Cymru – meaning that this south Wales-focused publication is entitled to write about him. His two singles to date are sweet-natured electronic pop confections, bright as buttons and quite possibly the best too, in the ‘solo release by a Welsh language indie frontman’ stakes at least.
Lynch debuted in December with Hir Oes Dy Wen, released on the I Ka Ching label and quintessential bedroom pop: gentle chords, synth parts that toy with wigging out but stop endearingly short, an air of melancholy and subject matter described by its creator as “a cocktail of deaths, breakups and boredom”. This month, he’s switching to English for followup Don’t Count On Me, which is palpably more ‘produced’ and juxtaposes Super Furries/Mercury Rev-type widescreen choruses, vaguely menacing electro-flecked rock verses and vocodered vocal parts. There’s an intriguing coldness to the lyrics (“Don’t count on me / To love you when you’re down”), and in general it could have sprung from that post-Oasis, pre-Strokes late-90s indie wilderness, no bad thing in many ways. A Griff Lynch debut album is a work in progress, we’re told, but slated for release some time in 2017.