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Welsh Music Wednesday

Shwmae pawb, mae dydd Mawrth yn dod a fel clockwork dwi'n dychwelydd i ddangos band super cool i chi. For this week's Welsh Music Wednesday, I'd like to introduce you to the super cool rock band HMS Morris!

From Carmarthenshire they're a four piece rock band who have been going for over 10 years now! They released their first singles in late 2014, and over the years, their sound has evolved from being indie rock with a touch of expansive prog/psychedelia, into more of the realm of true art rock. Vocalist Heledd Watkins comes from a theatrical background, and the band have always included a touch of that in their music: check out Morbid Mind from their 2018 second album, Inspirational Talks.

HMS Morris incorporate the experimental into everything they do: from the minute they turn up on stage or you see them in a music video, they're challenging themselves to express themselves creatively and differently: you may see them in bright colours, in silky, amorphous robes straight out of the drama department's supplies cupboard, sometimes even in matching shiny, futuristic silver jackets, as they did at SXSW in Austin, Texas when they played the showcase in 2018.

HMS Morris are a bilingual band, and their latest album from 2023, Dollar Lizard Money Zombie is a must-listen. The band say most of the songs were written about human connection, and the album was nominated for the 2024 Welsh Music Prize, where HMS Morris performed as well. The album is in part post punk, there are some delightful cheeky pop choruses on there (‘Balls To The Wall’), some heavier rock instrumentations and chugged guitars (‘Bach + Dwl’), some swaggering rock n roll. Worth checking out.

And to get a taste of the live vibe, here's a live session they performed.

Find them on Bandcamp, I'm linking the album below.

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Breaking my hiatus to bring everyone’s attention to the fact that Cornwall is now attempting to be officially recognised as a nation within the United Kingdom.

Kernow has its own language, culture, history and identity. The language was forcibly removed by the English until the last monolingual speaker died in 1777–her name was Dolly Pentreath. It has existed as a kingdom before England had ever existed. Historically, Cornwall has been a place exploited for minerals and resources and labour. Currently, it still is. There are now ghost towns where once thriving fishing villages stood (Mousehole, Pentreath’s home, was one of these). Cornwall is now a playground for second home owners who drive up house and rent prices and drive out permanent residents and workers. Local businesses go out of business and struggle to stay afloat when the influx of tourists come who only purchase from supermarkets, putting nothing into the local economy. There is a long, long and often very gruesome and bloody history behind this—leaders of rebellions executed all the way into 1715.

If you are in the UK, and sign the petition to get this to a debate in Parliament.

Can you spare 60 seconds to sign

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Vocabulary

Tipyn bach o eirfa! I knew that 'talentog' was a word for talented, but I heard someone use the word 'dawnus' to mean the same today, so I'm writing it down so I remember it. While I'm at it, I'll add in some more vocabulary

dawnus -> talented talentog -> talented (adj.)

gwresog -> warm (not meaning heat)

llawenydd -> joy (n.) llawn [o] -> full/ filled with...

Dwi'n teimlo'n lwcus i gwrdd â phobl ddawnus a gwresog, llawn hwyl, llawn llawenydd. I feel lucky to meet talented and warm people, full of fun and joy.

Mae hi'n perfformiwr dalentog iawn, a mae hi'n gweithio yn galed. She is a very talented performer, and she works hard.

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Pour one out for #dysgu cymraeg.

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Shwmae pawb! I'm back with another Welsh music Wedneday, just an excuse to tell you all about musicians I like from Wales, and good god there are a lot of them.

This week, I've got the Cardiff funk-jazz-hip hop collective Afro Cluster! They released their debut album The Reach in 2021, and say it is an album about life and community.

“As with most honest music, this is an album about life. More than taking a village to raise someone, we become not just the sum of our experiences, but the outcomes of our reactions to them. In our expanding and shrinking world, the speed and number of interactions with people is increasing exponentially.” They go on to talk about how we can learn from every interaction, pleasant or not.

They've been making music for over a decade now, and released their latest single ‘On The Up’ in 2023.

I'm taking us back to an early EP from 2016 called ‘We Don Land’, but as a live performance at Glastonbury that year!

Support them independently by buying their music on Bandcamp if you like/are able to!

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Helô pawb, 'chi'n iawn? Hanging in there? I've got some great music to help tide you over if not. Back with another Welsh music Wednesday, and this week it's all about the harmonies: I'm featuring Ynys!

Dylan Hughes is a keyboardist, guitarist, musician and songwriter from Aberystwyth, and has previously been in bands like the psychedelic indie rockers Race Horses, going as far back as 2009. (They were kinda folky too, they had a harpist!) After the band split, Dylan was living in Cardiff for a spell and wasn't really outwardly involved with music for the decade, but there were ideas accumulating in his mind, little melodies and such. He never thought he would release them, until friends (and former Race Horses) started encouraging him to put it down on record.

That's where Dylan's (good) problem began: he never wrote these songs with the intention of a band playing them, and so to record them, he needed a band. Friends stepped in, and a few former band members pitched in, and so Ynys was born. Dylan began realising in hindsight that a lot of his lyrics seemed to be about adjusting to the city in Cardiff, longing for Aberystwyth his hometown and the seaside.

Ynys' debut album Ynys (2021) is a psychedelic, delightful indie rock record, in turns brooding and delightfully poppy, with lush strings, melodies and harmonies, drawing from some of Dylan's own favourite albums and artists (the song Caneuon specifically refers to listening to the song Gegin Nos, from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci 1994 album Tatay). Here's album opener Môr Du (Black Sea), performed on Lŵp.

The follow up album, recorded during lockdown when Dylan was home in Aberystwyth, is one of the catchiest indie pop albums of last year. Dosbarth Nos (Night Class) is a must-listen album.

Ces i gyfle i gyfweld Dylan cyn yr albwn yn rhyddau'r llynedd. Guy hyfryd I've gotta say! A cherddor ardderchog. Anyway, if you like their music, check out their Bandcamp and support them independently. Dylan's particular about making sure their lyric booklets and Bandcamp have their lyrics and an artistically satisfactory English translation, as transliteration hardly ever really conveys exactly what the original lyrics do. So a good recommendation for my fellow dyswyr too.

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Shwmae pawb, mae hi wedi bod munud! Dwi'n dod nôl i gyflwyn band da arall i chi gyd, all things back to usual now :) I had queued up like 3 months' worth of Welsh music Wednesdays in May and forgot to fill the queue back up. So here I am again!

This week, I've got you a North Wales alternative rock band from Caernarfon called Kim Hon, who released their first single Twti Ffrwti back in 2019. But members of the band have been around the music scenes in Caernarfon for much longer. Singer Iwan Fôn started a band in 2015 called Y Reu, who were incredibly versatile as musicians: their songs drew on everything from glitzy hard rock with riffs to more psychedelic and lush sounds, and even some dance influences. I might do a separate WMW on them, but until then I'd love to bundle them in here as a bonus band for you to check out if you want more than the 1 band a week you bargained for. (Besides, I missed a few weeks, so let me make it up to you!)

You might also remember Lloyd Steele (from the second-ever week of WMW), who was/is the guitarist in Y Reu. You might also remember singer Iwan from the song he collaborated with Alffa on, the raw, raucous, intense punk scorcher about men's mental health, Babi Mam.

While Kim Hon's music is more psychedelic and indie, there are punk traces in their rebellion, as you can hear on one of their breakout 2023 songs 'Mr. English', railing against holiday homes bought up by English residents in Welsh towns fuelling a housing crisis and pricing out the residents. It doesn't have a music video, but I can link a performance they did for a gig series called Gigs Tŷ Nain (Gigs at Grandma's House).

They released their self-titled debut album in 2024 and have been releasing a few great new singles this year, that have seen them being interviewed on primetime BBC Radio 6 Music shows. The latest single, 'Tangnefedd' ('Peace') is a slice of delightful summertime indie, replete with psychedelic guitars.

The band have said about their new direction on what will presumably eventually be their second album, “The message at the heart of this song is simple. Life can be tough, cruel at times but those hard moments shape you. If they don’t succeed at breaking you, they eventually will build you. Bit by bit. Nothing truly good ever comes easy.

“Sometimes life drags you through the mud, but if you keep going, if you push through the pain with perseverance you’ll come out stronger. Because in the search for peace and calm (Tangnefedd) you often have to suffer first, to survive, and to grow.”

“This single and our last single ‘Ar Chw Fi Si’ have been explorations into the world of self-production, with the ambition of honing our craft ready for the process of making our second album in-house, which we hope to begin recording in the coming months.”

They're also at the Eisteddfodd this week on 9 August, for any folks headed that way!

I'll also link a song by Y Reu for those that want to dive into the back catalogue.

Wela chi gyd wythnos nesa!

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I've been updating the Welsh Music Wednesdays queue again, I kind of put up 3 months' worth and fell off the rails. I've got one for this week coming up. If you want to sneak ahead, here's the full playlist sorted by the week, and I've added a few more on to it.

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New Music Friday

Gwenno – Utopia

Cornish-Welsh musician Gwenno has almost singlehandedly been reviving and modernising the canon of Cornish-language music with her synth pop, post punk work on solo albums Y Dydd Olaf (The Last Day in Welsh) (2015), Le Kov (The Place of Memory in Cornish) (2018) and 2022’s Mercury Prize-nominated Tresor (Treasure, Cornish), the last being the first and so far only Cornish language album to be nominated for the prestigious British music award. But when the pioneering Cardiff-based musician began her career as a teenager, it wasn’t as a musician at all: she was an Irish dancer in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance production, which took her out to Las Vegas for two years as a seventeen-year-old. Then followed a stint in the wildly popular 00s girl group The Pipettes.

All these experiences, particularly her stint in Vegas, where her group of dancers would frequent a nightclub called Utopia and where Gwenno got into techno music for the first time, form the basis for Gwenno’s fourth solo studio album Utopia. Her first English language venture in her solo discography, this is an album telling a 25-year story of Gwenno’s journey to today: North America, Irish dancing, the London music industry, returning to Wales, Cornish music, motherhood and more. It’s driven by more traditional instruments: pianos, harps and guitars shine on tracks like the latest single and title track ‘Utopia’, although her trademark synths are ever-present, for an album of ballads and beautiful pop songs like ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’.

More releases from that week (cut up into smaller posts bc everyone complains about scrolling long posts)

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Shwmae pawb, gobeithio mae'r wythnos wedi mynd yn iawn i chi gyd? Dwi wedi dod â cherddoriaeth o artist cŵl arall i chi heddiw, so strap in!

Aleighcia Scott is a reggae musician and singer from Cardiff. She's written music in English and Welsh, releasing her first EP Forever In Love in 2018, and following it up with her debut album Windrush Baby in 2023, which went to #1 in the iTunes Reggae chart. (It's still a thing! iTunes downloads are where you buy the digital single, they still count for the charts, though of course the prominent method of listening now is streaming. They are categorised by country and genre, and in the UK are still compiled and recognised by the Official Charts Company, who make the weekly charts for different categories across music sales, streams and downloads in the UK.)

Aleighcia Scott's first Welsh release was in 2020, covering Dafydd Iwan's iconic protest folk song Yma O Hyd (when subsequently went on to become adopted by the Wales FA and has been sung at many Wales football matches). This version also topped the iTunes charts when it came out, but since then Aleighcia, who is also a coach on the Welsh version of 'The Voice, Y Llais, furthered her Welsh-learning journey with the help of fellow coach Yws Gwynydd (also a musician you should check out, who I will probably feature on a future Wednesday).

She released her first original song in Welsh, ‘Dod o'r Galon’ (‘Coming from the Heart’) in April, and it became the first Welsh language song to top the iTunes Reggae charts— a big moment for both Welsh music, and reggae!

You can buy her EP and album on her Bandcamp page below.

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sorry if i'm gonna be quiet for a while. my country recently introduced laws that make it so that in order to use social media to the fullest (not being able to view ns/fw content and in a few cases, not even having access to dms), i HAVE to give the sites my id/face scan.

it goes into effect july 25th. it'll probably effect here too, since this place allows mature content (tho not full on ns/fw)

i'm very distressed about it bc i might end up not even being able to talk to my internet friends. i don't really have any irl ones

if i have to disappear on most socials by then, you know why.

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Respond positively to this pro-trans schools policy for Wales

From my local WhatsApp group:

The Welsh Government are doing a consultation on its pro-trans schools policy. UK Gender Critical activists are upset and are trying to brigade it to push it in an anti-trans direction. Please fill out the consultation to try to reinforce the pro-trans stance. https://www.gov.wales/rights-respect-equality-anti-bullying-guidance

The deadline is 31 July 2025.

NB: Please only respond if you live in Wales! If you don't but want to help, please boost this and share it on other social networks. Thank you. ✨

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spent the evening listening to this audio drama of stories from the Mabinogi:

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Helo pawb, this week I want to introduce to you one of the coolest rock duos I've met, the Welsh hard rock band Alffa!

Alffa are a guitar-and-drums duo from Llanrug in North Wales. They've been playing together since their school days in 2015, Dion Jones as their singer and guitarist, and Sion Land on the drums. These boys get LOUD and are a really impressive live duo (which I can say because I had the pleasure of seeing them in a dim-lit pub at a showcase festival last year, far away from Wales, where the crowd was hooked to their every word as they played songs in a language most of the audience did not speak, but could not ignore their electrifying energy).

Alffa became the first musical artist to have a song in the Welsh language that crossed 1 million streams on Spotify back in 2018, when their single Gwenwyn (Poison) got picked up by the curators of a large rock playlist on Spotify. Many called it just another indication of how healthy the Welsh-language music scene was at the time, and it has showed no signs of slowing down— certainly, neither have Alffa.

They released their debut album, Rhyddid o'r Cysgodion Gwenwynig (Freedom from the Poisonous Shadows) the following year in 2019, and it has one of my favourite Alffa songs on it, ‘Babi Mam’, a song about men's mental health, that they released with guest vocals by Iwan Fôn, singer from the band Kim Hon (a future feature on the Welsh music Wednesday series for sure). There is a glorious taped performance of it from 2019's Maes B when Alffa played the Eisteddfod and Iwan joined them on vocals.

I don't have a Bandcamp page to link you for them unfortunately, but if you're into physicals, they are on Recordiau Côsh, and in lieu of a stream I will just embed a second track, this from their lovely second album that came out last year called O'r Lludw (From the Ashes), with just the duo of Dion and Sion, called ‘Breathe Free’. A bit of an intense rock-disco track! (Personally, ‘Darnau Mân’ is one of my favourite songs on the album, so listen to that too).

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Welsh Music Wednesday

Helo pawb, mae'n dydd Mawrth, so mae recs cerddoriaeth i chi gyda fi. I have a been recommending a cool Welsh artist that I've been enjoying for the last few weeks, and today I've got the Welsh band Chroma for you.

CHROMA as they stylise their name, are a Welsh alt rock trio from Pontypridd. They've been going since about 2015-16, and over the years as their songwriting has evolved, they have become a heavier, more flourished rock band, finally releasing their debut album Ask For Angela in 2023 on Alcopop! Records (for my money, one of the coolest indie labels in the UK for the bands on their roster. They're based in London, so not specifically a Welsh label or anything, I just think they have some cool artists if you're into alternative music).

The album title refers to a campaign started in the UK where a person could go up to a bartender or shopkeep and 'ask for Angela' as a codeword that did not feel safe. It was also started in a number of grocery stores in Toronto, Canada in 2024.

The album, a culmination of about 7 years of work, touched upon themes of feminism, pro-trans and queer songs, women supporting each other, on life as a young adult, dealing with mental health issues, relationships and much more. There's a song on it, ‘Bombs Away’, that Katie Hall said was just her tribute to My Chemical Romance in wanting to make a breakup song where you could just let go.

It's a fantastic album, it was rightly shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize last year where CHROMA briefly performed, and they were chosen by Foo Fighters to open for them at Old Trafford in Manchester (and had a shock receiving that phone call— I was chatting to a similar young and impressive band that got the sudden call from the Foos in Montreal, and they thought they were being scammed at first!)

Anyway. CHROMA did a live session for Lŵp a couple of years ago at Focus Wales that's really worth a watch, I want to single out a song but they're all so good (okay fine ‘Tair Ferch Doeth’). The whole session is 15 minutes, and worth every minute.

But if there's one just song you hear from the album, I recommend ‘Woman To Woman’, the song about feminist infighting and backing other women, this is from a studio session CHROMA did. It's so powerful, and it's insane that they don't have a guitarist. They're just vocals, bass and drums. And Katie Hall's vocals on this version are really good.

Their debut album is on Bandcamp on Alcopop's page, so if you'd like to buy the album, check them out here:

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Nothing can prepare you for welsh plurals

Apple? Afal. Apples? Afalau. Two Apples? Dau Afal. Many apples? Llawer o afalau.

Ah okay so you add '-au' to the end unless there's a number since obviously 'two' is plural so you don't need to mark it. But 'many'? Nah you have to mark it then... that's learnable.

A school? Ysgol. Schools? Ysgolion.

Ah... okay sometimes the plural ending it '-ion' not '-au'.

A cat? Cath. Cats? Cathod.

Ah so '-od' is also an ending...

A star? Seren. Stars? Sêr.

A carrot? Moronen. Carrots? Moron

Ah so sometimes the plural is shorter and removes an '-en'... (typically with nouns that are more commonly said in plural)

A dog? Ci. Dogs? Cŵn.

A leek? Cenhinen. Leeks: Cennin

What the hell are we doing now guys?

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American dictionaries are pronouncing Cymraeg how?? Linguistics friends help me with this, but isn't i with a line above basically the 'ee' sound in 'feet'? I've heard people say 'come-ra-ig' or 'come-raag' but never what this (New Oxford American English) would suggest, which I think is 'come-reeg'