Show #2575: Saturday 6th January 2024 - Bright Light Bright Light / Foxxglove
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, Sat 6th January 2024: Bright Light Bright Light - Something Old, Something New... / Foxxglove - The Long Song / The Cabinet of Curiosities...
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Listen here via BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v29f
This week's programme celebrates a particularly exciting start to the Welsh musical year. Usually January is all spindrift and hope, in terms of trying to weld together 3 hour new music programmes. However this week's programme is a vibrant and thrilling counter argument to what is usually a pretty moribund month.
If it sets a precedent for the rest of 2024, we're in for a very good year indeed.
My special guest this week is Bright Light Bright Light. I've been playing Rod Thomas' music since he was recording under his own name out of his bedroom in Neath in the early years of this millennium.
Rod always had a preternatural gift for hooky melodies, and understood - more quickly than most - the opportunities that 'new' technology and social media opened up for self-releasing artists.
He taught himself to be a producer, writer and instrumentalist par excellence and his story - of reaching out and working with such legends and luminaries as Elton John and Ana Matronic from The Scissor Sisters - is a truly inspirational one.
Rod's new single is a dancefloor-friendly burst of lovelorn electropop, Giorgio Moroder producing ABBA.
Rod comes aboard to share with us his musical Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue... we don't actually get married on air. He's way out of my league!
Elsewhere there are stellar recordings from SIXTEEN new artists I've never played before on air. And more compelling evidence that a whole new generation of bands - especially - are coming through, pissed off, riff-laden and determined to shatter the new sterility.
We also have our first Long Song of 2024, a brilliantly produced and conceived evolution of direction from Ferndale's Foxxglove.
And I throw open the doors of the Cabinet of Curiosities later in the show... a selection of progressive recordings from Welsh artists whose absolute intention is to warp your minds and confound expectations.
Please listen / share / be inspired by the music, and not by the waffle or the ego of the presenter.
Music can be submitted either via the BBC Introducing Uploader or as a download link to my BBC email address.
If you're considering doing that for the first time, I'm very excited to hear you with the following important proviso: that you've listened to the show and truly believe you're ready to be in such thrilling creative company.
There's no rush.
It's only January, after all.
2: THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Blackgold - 'Old School Sound'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/BLACKGOLDHG
Phoebe Platt - 'Animated Anarchy'
Pembroke Dock
Monet - 'Albasore'
Swansea|
http://linktr.ee/monetbanduk
Spwci - 'No Escape'
Llanbydder
http://facebook.com/SPWCI
Euros Childs - 'Tigers Never Smile'
Pembrokeshire
http://euroschilds.co.uk
Bitw - 'The Hive'
Caernarfon
http://soundcloud.com/bitwbitwbitw
Enabling Behaviour - 'Stressor'
Cardiff
http://linktr.ee/enablingbehaviour
Attercopus - 'Lv-246'
Swansea
Elkka - 'DJ Friendly (Chloe Robinson & DJ ADHD Remix) Radio Edit'
Cardiff
The Long Song #025
Foxxglove - 'The Chaos'
Ferndale
http://facebook.com/Foxxgloveuk
Maroki - 'Still Burning ft. Maeve Brennan'
Cardigan
http://instagram.com/letsgomaroki/
Sonia Ahmed - 'Mango'
Newport
http://instagram.com/soniaahmedmusic
The Cliffords - 'Sleeping With Ghosts'
Cork / Swansea
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553884242792
Small Miracles - 'Sign of the Times'
Cardiff
http://linktr.ee/smallmiracles247
Luke RV - 'Hole-In-One'
Neath
http://instagram.com/lukervv
Edit The Tide - 'Ambience'
Bridgend
http://stampedepress.co.uk/epk/edit-the-tide-epk
Melda Lois - 'Bonne Nuit Ma Chérie'
Llanuwchllyn / Cardiff
http://facebook.com/meldaloisg
Aisha Kigs - 'Don't Wanna Be Friends'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/aisha.kigs
Bright Light Bright Light - 'You Want My…'
Neath
Bright Light Bright Light... Something Old, Something New... #001
France Joli - 'Gonna Get Over You'
Montreal, Canada
Gjon's Tears - 'Pure'
Switzerland
http://gjonstearsofficial.com
MNEK - 'Paradise'
London, England
http://facebook.com/MNEKOfficial
The Pierces - 'I Put Your Records On'
Birmingham, Alabama, United States
http://facebook.com/thepiercesmusic
Spencer Segelov & Great Paintings - 'Don't You Know'
Cardiff
http://spencersegelovgreatpaintings.bandcamp.com
Glass Heart - 'Letting Go'
Cardiff
http://glass-heart.co.uk
The Honest Poet - 'Toxic City'
Chepstow
http://facebook.com/TheHonestPoet8/
Vorny - 'NY40s'
Presteigne
http://soundcloud.com/vornydnb
Mati Simcox - 'Shimmering'
Bethesda
http://instagram.com/mati_simcox_official
The Cabinet of Curiosities #001
Rainyday Rainbow - 'Venomous Vines'
Swansea
Ash Cooke - 'Glimmer Of Modernism'
Bangor
Patrick Jones - 'the swim ft. Ethan Jones'
Tredegar / Blackwood
http://patrick-jones.info
James P M Phillips - 'Fishing for Cats'
Bangor
Pyrogaric - 'Fly on the Wall'
Newport
http://facebook.com/pyrogaric
Z Machine - 'Big Old Hen'
Swansea
http://zmachine.bandcamp.com/
Pope Jean Paul Van Damme - 'Echoes Of An Abandoned Future'
Cardiff
Airflo - 'Swansong'
Carmarthenshire / Cardiff / Newport
http://facebook.com/airfloband
The Whipperginnies - 'Lady in Grey'
Flintshire / Denbighshire
http://instagram.com/thewhipperginnies
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3: SHOW STATS
38 diff songs/ 38 Total. 38 Artists in 1 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:38, Unique artists per:38) Welsh:89% Cymraeg:3% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:55%, Direct:16%, Bought:16%, Plugger:11%, Commission:3%
Comprehensive Session / Interview List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w-rIPj0l0QhUcbEm08PUPLUWh-416mwlteG_8wpNWtQ/edit?usp=sharing
Subscribe to my Substack: https://adamwalton.substack.com
Diolch o galon,
Adam Walton