Show #2578: Saturday 27th January 2024 - Cerys Hafana / Skunkadelic / Eurosonic
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, Sat 27th January 2024: Cerys Hafana talks The Bitter E.P / The Royston Club and Melin Melyn live from Eurosonic 2024 / Skunkadelic - The Long Song…
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vqq8
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Cerys Hafana is a folkloric musical explorer from Machynlleth. Her second album, ‘Edyf’ (2022), is imbued with a love and intuitive understanding of how long-reaching tendrils of poetry and melody from centuries ago can reach into the present, intertwining with the modern human condition and contemporary approaches to arranging, performing and recording these songs.
Cerys comes aboard this week’s show to talk about her new EP, ‘The Bitter’, a collection of English and Scottish folk songs that she recorded during the strange, unsettling year of lockdowns.
The songs were originally recorded for the Old Tunes Fresh Takes podcast, in Cerys’ bedroom with her trusty triple harp and a scratch array of other instrumentation that was to hand… including a toy piano, a cello and wind chimes.
Cerys Hafana is as fascinating a guest as always. I first heard her music on Rhys Mwyn’s excellent Radio Cymru show and I suspect that, as much as anything, Rhys was attracted to Cerys’ radical approach to folk music. There is great love, curiosity and understanding in Cerys’ interpretations, but also a revitalising rejection of convention. It might - as Half Man Half Biscuit put it so succinctly - irk the purists, but her 21st century approach also brings a compelling new perspective to her source materials.
The new E.P is very very highly recommended and I can’t wait to hear what she records next. Cerys is busy with live work as we creep towards the spring. Full details on her website: https://ceryshafana.com
The Long Song this week - an ongoing tribute to broadcasting legend Janice Long - comes courtesy of Cardiff’s Skunkadelic. Tumi’s poetic skills and rich, faultless delivery are evidence of an artist operating right at the top of his game. It’s different from his work as frontman with Afro Cluster by virtue of line-up and musical backing. Producer Abstract Soundz conjures a tapestry of glitching warm jazzy synths, breakbeats and sleigh bells that is perfectly suited to Tumi’s rhymes, rich in the truth of life, reminiscent of Michael Franti’s work post-Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.
One of Tumi’s children makes the cutest radio debut of 2024 during his piece, underlining some of the subject matter of this brilliant track, ‘Pressure’.
We also have live recordings from Eurosonic, Europe’s influential music industry conference and festival held in Groningen, The Netherlands last week. The great and the good of the European music industry gather in the Netherlands to network with each other and find exciting new artists to support and shout about. To this end, BBC Wales’ Horizons / Gorwelion project - in tandem with Focus Wales - staged and recorded a showcase for two of Wales finest live outfits: The Royston Club and Melin Melyn. I have three tracks from those sets, bristling with assurance and charisma. Dead dead good.
Elsewhere I have a broad spectrum of music from across Wales and the sonic spectrum, including 9 artists I had never played before and a couple of songs from Gruff Rhys’ new album ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’, which is as beautifully realised as you would hope it to be. Yet another artistic triumph of playfulness, idiosyncratic but resonant couplets, and melodies as memorable and elevating as anything in his superlative canon.
Please send excellent new music via the BBC Introducing Uploader or as a download link to my BBC email address (you’ll work it out, promise).
Thanks for your eyes, your ears, and all the synapsey bits in between.
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Silent Forum - 'Yes Man'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/SilentForum
Generation Feral - 'newborn adult [2024]'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/genferalmusic
The Royston Club - 'I'm A Liar (live at Eurosonic 2024 for BBC Horizons)'
Wrexham
http://facebook.com/theroystonclub
Parcs - 'Something Sweet'
Newport
http://parcs.bandcamp.com
Half Happy - 'Runaway Girl (Ooze Remix)'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/wearehalfhappy
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard - 'National Rust'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/buzzardbuzzardbuzzard/
Megan Wyn - 'Are You Bored Yet?'
Anglesey
http://facebook.com/meganwynmusic
Otto Aday - '-STOP-'
Ferndale
http://www.ottoaday.com
Gruff Rhys - 'They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper'
Bethesda / Cardiff
http://gruffrhys.com
THE LONG SONG #028
Skunkadelic - 'Pressure ft. Abstract Soundz'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/skunkadelicuk
Rio 18 - 'Cachetón (Elijah Minnelli Dub)'
Benllech / Cardiff
Cartr - 'Fire (Light Up Di Place)'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/cartr.music
Ski Lift - 'Double Yellow'
Tref-y-clawdd, Powys
http://facebook.com/helloskilift
Cam Holmes - 'Aftertaste'
Newport
http://instagram.com/camholmess
DJ Nervous - 'One, Two'
Cardiff
http://soundcloud.com/officialdjnervous
CRINC - 'CRACHACH'
Bangor
http://crinccymru.uk
Soundwire - 'Shake The Fever'
Swansea
Rebecca Hurn - 'Turbulence'
Porthcawl
http://rebeccahurn.com
The Royston Club - 'Mariana (live at Eurosonic 2024 for BBC Horizons)'
Wrexham
http://facebook.com/theroystonclub
Meg Uppington - 'Message Received'
Cardiff
Helena May - 'Lifetime Supply'
Carmarthenshire
http://facebook.com/helenamaymusic
Jimbo - 'Strangetown'
Cardiff
http://welshjimbo.co.uk
INTERVIEW WITH CERYS HAFANA
Cerys Hafana - 'The Bitter Withy'
Machynlleth
Cerys Hafana - 'Lyke Wake Dirge'
Machynlleth
Cerys Hafana - 'Willy o' Winsbury'
Machynlleth
Melin Melyn - 'Hold The Line / Mwydryn (live at Eurosonic 2024 for BBC Horizons)'
Cardiff / Denbigh
http://melinmelyn.bandcamp.com
Adwaith - 'Lipstick Coch'
Carmarthen
http://facebook.com/adwaithmusic
Bedface - 'Waiting'
Aberdare
http://facebook.com/bedfaceofficial
Elkka - 'Passionfruit w/ John Caroll Kirby'
Cardiff
2Silent - 'Perfect Fake Paradise ft. Jessie Powell'
Swansea Vocalist / Switzerland
http://instagram.com/twosilent
Chroma - 'Girls Talk [2024]'
Pontypridd
http://chroma.band
Tom Collins - 'Barricades'
Bagillt
http://instagram.com/tlcollinsmusic
Sister Envy - 'Mourning Sickness'
Ynys Môn
http://linktr.ee/sisterenvyband
Gruff Rhys - 'Bad Friend'
Bethesda / Cardiff
http://gruffrhys.com
T-Cloud - 'Cause of Me'
Tredegar
http://linktr.ee/tcloudmusixc
Dylan John Sparkes - 'The Event Horizon'
Briton Ferry / Swansea
http://linktr.ee/DylanJohnSparkes
SHOW STATS
136 diff songs/ 149 Total. 122 Artists in 4 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:37, Unique artists per:31) Welsh:97% Cymraeg:10% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:42%, Direct:17%, Bought:15%, Plugger:20%, Commission:5%
Comprehensive Session / Interview List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w-rIPj0l0QhUcbEm08PUPLUWh-416mwlteG_8wpNWtQ/edit?usp=sharing
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Adam Walton