A brilliant crafter of jazz-tinged indie-folk and alt-rock, Cardiff’s FoxSleep (aka Jason Morgan) has released his new single “Fordone” via Recordiau Pob Lwc.
With live acoustic shows showcasing his intuitive songwriting and ear for the jazzier corners of a melody, FoxSleep’s recorded work demonstrates his aptitude for instrumentation and arrangement. Driven by a gnarled bassline evoking the Knight Rider theme and drums approaching hard rock, Fordone’s blend of acoustic clatter and fizzing electric guitars provides the foundation for vocal melodies that wind around moments of folk, alt-rock and jazz, while violins provide complementary drone, orchestral uplift and harmony.
The song’s take on the consequences of excess moves between candid and deliberately exaggerated: “It’s a song about the things I should do less of,” explains Jason, “bad habits often excused as harmless or normalised as socially acceptable – I can’t decide if I’m worrying over nothing, however, it keeps me awake sometimes.”
Continuing a semi-DIY approach with both self-recorded and remotely performed components, Fordone is the first of a trio of singles scheduled for 2023, mixed by Todd Campbell (of Stompbox Studios and Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons). The accompanying artwork by Newport’s George Goom reflects a running conceptual theme of being gradually taken apart.
Following 3 successful DIY EPs, FoxSleep’s 2022 single What It Always Comes Back To received multiple plays on BBC Wales Introducing and was described by Circuit
Sweet as an “anthemic piece of the highest quality… as intense as it is uplifting.”
FoxSleep has performed at well established venues and festivals such as Swansea’s Bunkhouse, Cardiff’s Hub Festival and Clwb Ifor Bach, and Newport’s Le Pub, recently supporting acts such as Ynys, HMS Morris, Apollo Ghosts and Taff Rapids.
Welsh/Aussie indie songster Ffredi Blino is back with a new bunch of melodies and whimsical notions. Following on from his lo-fi lockdown debut The Dishwasher Tapes, the new album features more acoustic, melodic vibes, at times straying into country folk territory but keeping the quirky indie heart beating. It’s all underpinned by the beautiful drum work of Sophie Wozencraft of Manchester’s The Deep Blue. Singles include ‘Fruitfly’ – a funky love jam for insects, recently featured by Cerys Matthews as her show opener on BBC 6 Music; ‘L’ami de Jacques Renard’ – a surreal French jazz groove with a mind-bending video to match from director Izzy Rabey; and ‘Ffyrdd Tarmac a Ffenses’, aired on BBC Radio Cymru and Radio Wales.
Unusually, the album features two completely different versions of the same song. Title track ‘Tarmac Roads and Fences’ is a moody & moving contemplation on technology and separation from nature. However, for a BBC Radio Cymru live session, Ffredi decided to reinterpret the song in Welsh, resulting in opener ‘Ffyrdd Tarmac a Ffenses’
Nu metal, goth band CELAVI from Bangor, North Wales consists of Gwion Rhys Griffiths and Sarah Wyn Griffiths. Flying the flag for Welsh Metal, CELAVI have over a million streams internationally and have been supported by Amazon Music, being added to their ‘Best New Bands’ and ‘Breakthrough Rock’ editorial playlists, while receiving support by BBC Introducing on BBC 6 Music and BBC Introducing in Wales.
Neb Arall translated into English means Nobody Else, Neb Arall is an empowering, know your self worth song with a message to be your own main character, to be you. The song is full of heavy guitar riffs, complimented by Sarah’s soft vocals, this makes a great contrast! Add the fact that the band offer bilingual tracks (Welsh and English) and you have something completely unique and special.
Upcoming Gigs
9th July – Rock The Castle, Flint 29th July – HMV Cardiff 5th August – Cader Rocks, Machynlleth 19th August – Le Pub Newport 8th September – Green Rooms, Treforest
The powerful two piece blues rock band from Llanrug in Wales return with the release of their latest single ‘Tough Love’
Formed in 2015 the pair took the time during the pandemic to craft their talent and have returned with a massive sound ready to wake everyone up! The new track is loud, proud and in your face, it demands your attention.
Alffa are the most streamed Welsh language act ever with over 3 million streams.
The band consists of Dion Jones (Guitar) and Siôn Land (Drums). The single ‘Tough Love’ is produced and mixed by Gethin Pearson and mastered by Ste Kerry.
Tom Emlyn announces his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ out now.
Swansea-born songwriter Tom Emlyn vividly depicts why he is one of the most prolific and inventive songwriters emerging in Wales, with his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’. Recorded in 2018 and mastered by Charlie Francis (R.E.M., Pixies). A treasure trove of recordings dating back to 2016, 2017, and 2018, these songs offer a window into the sheer scope of Emlyn’s songwriting talent, his captivating songs uniquely exploring the particularity and peculiarity of human experience.
Featuring his gorgeous recent singles ‘Broken Mirror’ – a heartfelt and poetic ballad of lost love and ‘Like a Cigarette’ inspired by his days busking outside a cafe in Frankfurt acting as a living and breathing earworm that charts his travels around Europe and Germany in 2017. Plus forthcoming third single ‘It doesn’t bother me’. Compared to Bob Dylan or Elliott Smith, Tom Emlyn’s sound, while rooted in garage rock, is tinged with psychedelia, folk, jazz, and blues overtones – including a recent adoption of the harmonica as a lead instrument.
Tom explains “Abandoned work is a normal part of the music-making process, but I felt these songs deserved a second chance. I also wanted to release it as a (small) protest against certain smoke-and-mirrors aspects of the music industry. People will tell you to wait and wait, hold back all of your material for the “right time”. I can’t do that anymore; for me, a song is only new when it’s just been written, although it can be remade in live performance. I find it quite agonising to sit on this material for so many years. I’ll be thirty in 2023. That’s why I want to get this sizeable backlog of unheard material out there, so I can move on to new things, and that’s why this is the third album I’ve released in a year.”
“There were many people involved in these tracks – different engineers, studios, producers, and musicians in Swansea and Cardiff. I think the album has a unified feel despite being a bunch of stuff that was recorded in various studios and spaces, before being rescued from the cutting-room floor. It’s a bit of a lighter, ironic affair, full of magic realism and surreal images of the natural world, half-acoustic and half-electric, with an eclectic, eccentric, sprawling feel. Scraped from the bottom of a very deep barrel – but somehow holding together.”
Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales, and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk-influenced melodies explore what it means to belong to a place – the bitterness, the love and the humour. “The truth is, all of my music is one long song – constantly flowing from inner worlds and mysterious, unknown places.” He reveals “Songwriting is like a diary for me, and it’s time to share Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1. with you. It might be a slightly imperfect document, but I think it’s all the better for it.”
In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of “undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy”. It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom’s second album ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ followed hot on the heels of the first – a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’ on Bandcamp this February. He is currently promoting these records with intimately explosive solo and band performances across Wales and beyond, with a string of releases planned for 2023.
Tour dates
27th May – in it together festival Margam 16th June – Cwrw, Carmarthen 17th June – Cwrw (solo record shop in-store to promote new album) 17th June – Elysium, Swansea (to promote new album) 12th August – Brecon Jazz/Fringe festival 6th October – Hippos, Swansea
This year I had the pleasure of being invited to the Focus Wales International Showcase Festival 2023 in Wrexham, to open up the festival with my band Holy Coves and to represent our label Yr Wyddfa Records and Music Scene Wales.
Focus Wales is a fantastic, well thought out music festival which utilises the whole of Wrexham to show you the town in all it’s glory. Between Focus Wales and everything that is happening with Wrexham AFC this place is really thriving and the music scene is so vibrant.
What Andy Jones and his team have created is really something special. The network available there for bands, musicians, artists, managers, promoters and anyone working in the music industry is second to none. It reminds me of the South By Southwest festival in Texas. It really is a brilliant festival.
On the Thursday we had the honour of opening up the festival at The Parish with my band Holy Coves, playing to a packed out venue which blew me away. The Parish is such an important venue, the grassroots of music and is used regularly on the tour circuit by bands and musicians all across the UK.
Our top picks in no particular order were South Wales’ Tom Emlyn, Wales’ HourGlvss, Canadas Pillow Fite, Wrexhams very own The Columbians, Brighton’s Squid and our brand new signing Sister Envy from North Wales, who played their final gig as The Pastimes and announced they have signed to Yr Wyddfa Records and have changed their name to Sister Envy.
I managed to get over to The Parish early hours of Sunday morning to watch the Declan Swans play to a packed out, bouncing venue singing along to every word. Being a Wrexham AFC fan this was a very special moment for me. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic Festival.
Scott Marsden #MusicSceneWales @MusicSceneWales musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com
Tom Emlyn releases his new single ‘It Doesn’t Bother Me’. The follow-up to ‘Broken Mirror’ and ‘Like a Cigarette’, it’s the last of three singles leading up to the album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1’ released on the 5th of May 2023.
Engineered by Randell Denning, BBC studios Swansea in 2018 ‘It Doesn’t Bother Me’ rattles with introspection, as Emlyn sketches out nightmarish visions of characters who lose themselves in the pursuit of success. Amidst a scorched strum of fuzzy guitars, battered acoustics and skippy keys and synths. It’s a raw earworm that tries to throw off the shadow of doubt.
Emlyn says: “This song is from the mind of an unreliable narrator, trying to convince himself of his own aloofness as much as he is the listener. It paints a nightmare picture of self-doubt, anxiety, dead-end jobs, bad decisions, time running out. Schizophrenic images of audible lights in the engine yard. Losing your real self in the pursuit of money, recognition, anything. The masks we wear to convince ourselves and others of our resilience.”
“Honky-tonk Bob, mentioned in the lyrics, was a real person I met who played around the open mic nights of North Wales. He used to play amateurish piano, with his foot tapping a rudimentary beat on a hi hat with some kind of stuffed animal attached to it. The last I heard of him, he’d joined the army. A lost and misguided soul. This song tries to use sarcasm and absurdity to overcome uncertainty and dread, even if that involves a certain amount of self-deception. The keyboards and bass synth on the track were all done in the moment and improvised in one take.”
Swansea-born songwriter Tom Emlyn vividly depicts why he is one of the most prolific and inventive songwriters emerging in Wales, with his new album ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 15’ released on the 5th of May. Recorded in 2018 and mastered by Charlie Francis (R.E.M., Pixies). A treasure trove of recordings dating back to 2016, 2017, and 2018, these songs offer a window into the sheer scope of Emlyn’s songwriting talent, his captivating songs uniquely exploring the particularity and peculiarity of human experience.
Featuring his gorgeous recent singles ‘Broken Mirror’ – a heartfelt and poetic ballad of lost love and ‘Like a Cigarette’ inspired by his days busking outside a cafe in Frankfurt acting as a living and breathing earworm that charts his travels around Europe and Germany in 2017. Plus forthcoming third single ‘It Doesn’t Bother Me’. Compared to Bob Dylan or Elliott Smith, Tom Emlyn’s sound, while rooted in garage rock, is tinged with psychedelia, folk, jazz, and blues overtones – including a recent adoption of the harmonica as a lead instrument.
Tom Emlyn crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales, and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk-influenced melodies explore what it means to belong to a place – the bitterness, the love and the humour.
“The truth is, all of my music is one long song – constantly flowing from inner worlds and mysterious, unknown places.” He reveals “Songwriting is like a diary for me, and it’s time to share Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol 1. with you. It might be a slightly imperfect document, but I think it’s all the better for it.”
In summer 2022, Tom released his debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’, a bittersweet love letter to his hometown of Swansea, described by Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales) as a record of “undoubted brilliance, eloquence and energy”. It has been positively received, with airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, God Is In The TV, and Joyzine, among others. Tom’s second album ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ followed hot on the heels of the first – a more mellow, acoustic affair which was also well received. He also released the ‘Scounger EP’ on Bandcamp this February. He is currently promoting these records with intimately explosive solo and band performances across Wales and beyond, with a string of releases planned for 2023.
Tour dates
4th-6th May – Focus Wales, Wrexham
12th May – Dyddiau Du, Cardiff (solo to promote new album)
20th May – Second 45 record shop Llanelli (solo to promote new album)
27th May – in it together festival Margam
16th June – Cwrw, Carmarthen
17th June – Cwrw (solo record shop in-store to promote new album)
17th June – Elysium, Swansea (to promote new album)
Her music has garnered support from BBC Introducing and received airplay on BBC Radio Wales. Notably, ‘silence + space’ was featured in the March ‘Round-Up’ of best tracks of this year so far on Klust Music’s website. Lila Zing is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Wales. Not only does she craft all of her music from start to finish, including mixing and mastering, but she also uses a tuning frequency of 432hz for all of her songs.
The song’s powerful message about the importance of finding peace and clarity amidst the chaos of the world will stay with listeners long after the song is over. The simplicity of the song will evoke feelings of reflection, contemplation and serenity, inviting the listeners to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of silence and space. Silence and space can be incredibly important for personal growth and wellness. They provide an opportunity to disconnect from external distractions and to focus internally, allowing individuals to gain a better understanding of themselves and to reflect on their thoughts and feelings.
After months of gigging all around South Wales, recording, writing and building their fanbase, The 8:48 have released their debut EP Now In A Minute.
The rock band consists of Kyle Bellamy, Dylan Hooper, Harrison Ollier and Dylan Clarke, ageing from just 14 to 18. The 8:48 has proven they mean business, releasing their first two singles last year and now they are going for the next level with this collection of new songs.
Dylan Hooper, the band’s bassist, pianist and the producer of the EP, talked about the process of creating the project.
“It’s essentially two years of work starting from the initial writing process all the way to the final mixing adjustments. But I’m proud of us for how far we’ve come and, on a personal note, I’m pretty proud of myself to have produced an EP.”
Lead guitarist Harrison Ollier, said: “I can’t wait for people to hear it, I love all of the songs so I’m excited to hear what everyone’s favourite is. I definitely have a favourite though, but you don’t get to know which song yet you’ll have to wait for it come out!”
Drummer Dylan Clarke, who recently made the last 40 contestants in the Young Drummer of the Year competition, said: “It’s taken hours and hours of recording, but I’ve really enjoyed making this EP. As much work as it took, it’s a very rewarding process to be able to hear a finished, radio ready collection of songs at the end of it.”
The EP comes off the back of the band having a very successful streak of gigging, playing in Cardiff, Swansea, all around the Vale and even Cwmaman. The most notable performance came at the start of December when the four boys performed a set in St David’s Hall as part of the annual Christmas Showcase with Cardiff County and Vale of Glamorgan Music Service.
Frontman Kyle said: “Playing in St David’s Hall was unreal. The sound of songs that I wrote in my back garden filling the venue was something else. Never in a million years did I think anyone apart from us four and a few others would hear them.”
“It felt like a fever dream to be honest, it just went so quickly. But performing in front of 2,000 people was special, it’s not something I’ll forget anytime soon!”
Now in a Minute, the debut EP from The 8:48, is out now on all streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more.
South Wales four piece The Now release another fantastic brand new single ‘Girl You Got Me’, via Trew Music, ahead of the release of their debut album later this year. The song is accompanied by the release of a new music video.
Recorded at Real World Studios and produced by Grammy Award winning Oli Jacobs, who has previously worked with Harry Styles and The 1975, Girl You Got Me tells the story “When you believe you’re set not to fall in love again after previous heartaches, that one person comes around and catches you while you’re weak and brings you back to your feet – But at the same time you’re on your knees caught up in love !”
In 2021, the band’s single, ‘Dr Jones’ managed to start their rise to success with it featuring on BBC Radio 2 – The Rock Show with Johnnie Walker and also numerous plays on Planet Rock with Wyatt featuring the track on his show “The New Rock Show”. Not long after the release of Friendly Fire, they were contacted by BBC Introducing Wales presenter “Adam Walton” to air ‘Friendly Fire’ on the station.
The first single, ‘Holy’ from the band’s debut EP in 2022 gained a huge amount of airplay around the globe. Apart from plays on BBC and numerous independent stations in the UK, it was “The Coolest Song in the World” for a week in Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Sirius XM across North America. Further singles from the EP ‘Shoot Them Down’ and ‘Rockstar’ continued the success garnering swathes of airplay.
This year has seen the first single (Devil Inside Me) from the album once again picked as “Coolest Song In The World” in Little Steven’s Underground Garage Sirius XM show as well as Track of the Week on Planet Rock !
Having just recently supported Reef and Florence Black. The Now are on a mission to leave no head left unturned and one can be sure, this is only the beginning for The Now, with their debut album and festival performances already lined up 2023.
The Now consists of: Shane Callaghan on Rhythm Guitar & Lead Vocals, Will Scott on Drums, Callum Bromage on Guitar & Vocals and Jay Evans on Bass Guitar & Vocals
Indie Revolution 