Show #2581: Saturday 17th February 2024 - Silent Forum / Deyah / Mark Hill Reynolds
Show #2581: Saturday 17th February 2024 - Silent Forum / Deyah / Mark Hill Reynolds
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, 17th Feb 2024: Silent Forum interview / The Long Song - Deyah / Tribute to Mark Hill Reynolds...
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wdqp
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Silent Forum are an enclave of underground, morphed super new wave, nu pop nouse, flashing with ideas and stroboscopic melodies you'll hear imprinted on the back of your earlids, well after first listen.
They're that place in town that people gravitate towards due to word of mouth, not flashy budgets or high street hawking campaigns. You follow the whispers and find yourself amongst like-minded people, smiling crazily as the DJ plays one track after another, straight from the soundtrack of your life.
They're in a lineage of sophisticates who are restless unless they're balancing the equations of the perfect pop song in new and interesting ways: LCD Soundsystem, Propaganda, Talking Heads, The Associates, Talk Talk in pop mode, Tame Impala operating at the wrong right higher voltage, Scritti Politti... these artists are - maybe - all there in Silent Forum's DNA, but nothing's obvious in the way the strands are teased out and woven back together.
Their new album 'Domestic Majestic' fair oscillates with the joys of possibility. It wants to amuse you, to spin you round the dancefloor, to bury itself deep in your psyche.
It's a magnificent sounding album. When the choruses start spiralling in Treat Yourself, you'll find yourself levitating above the moribund and the mundane.
And there's heart to temper the bombast and reach. You won't be able to listen to 'Petrol Station Flowers' or 'Better With You' without feeling the tug of the love of your life. Unless your heart's tarred and cynical. In which case, the overdriven angularities of 'U OK' - wired Wire - should exorcise the bad feels for its too-brief duration.
Richard Wiggins from the band is my special guest talking about some of the above, and disappointing mazes.
The album is released this coming Friday (23rd February) on Libertino Records.
The Long Song this week comes from Deyah. Since her Welsh Music Prize win for 2020's album 'Care City', Newport's Deyah has followed - resolutely - her own path and inspiration. It's hard for artists to reinvent themselves after early success and recognition, and takes real strength of character and soul to leave shores that brought vindication for more dangerous and challenging waters.
Deyah's album of last year - 'Black Glamour' - was even better, but darker than its predecessor... a true symbiosis of Deyah's fragmented soul poetry and glitchy minimal electronica. Minus the lyrics, it would have been a significant statement of contemporary digital music; minus the music, it would have been a significant statement of contemporary humanity in spoken word form. There are so few albums you can say this of: Deyah operates at the highest level in both fields.
And so to her new single. Whereas we'd heard tantalising snatches of Deyah's singing voice over the previous albums, I'm not sure they could have prepared us for this full revelation of her singing ability: echoing the very great Erykah Badu.
Where Deyah goes next is anyone's guess. It'll be thrilling to find out.
Elsewhere in the programme I pay too short a tribute to a man who was one of the great catalysts in Wrexham's renaissance as a musical hub over the last three decades. Mark Hill Reynolds was a promoter who took a chance on the young blood of the (then) town and its surrounding areas, at a time when significant talent was coming through, but also when Wrexham was at something of a low point economically.
He set nights up at pubs and clubs in the town, and then was one of the main bookers at Central Station during that venue's heyday... bringing significant international touring artists to Wrexham to inspire and entertain. All of the mainstays of my playlists from northeast Wales, and Wrexham in particular, benefited from his encouragement and positivity: The Benjamins, Camera, Mowbird, Seazoo, Burly, The Loving Cup, Gwildor, Polly Mackey (Art School Girlfriend), Heal The Last Stand, Kidsmoke, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard... and many more besides.
His is a profound loss. Without the artists Mark supported, and the opportunities I had to see them early doors, my programme would have been significantly poorer, as would Welsh music as a whole.
My love and condolences to his family and friends.
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
Elkka - 'Make Me'
Cardiff
http://elkka.bandcamp.com
Dactyl Terra - 'Cheeseburger'
Cardiff
http://dactylterra.com
Junior Bill - 'David'
Cardiff
Timbali - 'To Be Free ft. Anthony B'
Pembrokeshire
http://facebook.com/timbalisound
Ogun - 'G Lean'
Newport
http://facebook.com/andrew.ogun.9
Gemma Rose - 'Borrowed Love ft. Maykors'
Bridgend
http://linktr.ee/gemmarosemusic
The Cliffords - 'If The Shoe Fits'
Cork / Swansea
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553884242792
Rona Mac - 'Links Like Fists'
Pembrokeshire
http://facebook.com/RonaMacMusic
THE LONG SONG...
Deyah - 'Socials'
Newport
http://instagram.com/iamdeyah
Gallops - 'Jeff Leopard'
Wrexham
http://gallops.bandcamp.com
TRIBUTE TO MARK HILL REYNOLDS
K-Klass - 'Rhythm Is A Mystery'
Wrexham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Klass
Mowbird - 'Dana'
Wrexham
http://mowbird.bandcamp.com
Swathes - 'Catbells'
Shotton / Wrexham
Lizzi£ Squad - 'Wannabe Rappers ft. North H'
Wrexham
http://instagram.com/korruptedmusic
Death In Colour - 'Death's Reverie'
Pontypridd / Cardiff
http://instagram.com/officialdeathincolour
Bryde - 'Change Your Mind'
Milford Haven / London
http://orcd.co/changeyourminds
DJ Jaffa - 'Love Can't Be True'
Cardiff
http://linktr.ee/DJJaffa
Minas - 'Cutting Off'
St Davids / Caerphilly
http://facebook.com/MinasSound
Hemes - 'Fire'
Rhondda Cynon Taff
http://facebook.com/hemesmusic
Hilang Child - 'Hey Man'
Wrexham
http://hilangchild.bandcamp.com
Worldcub - 'Back to the Beginning'
Llanrug
http://worldcub.bandcamp.com
Pickle Head - 'Conversation'
Cardiff
http://pickle00head.bandcamp.com
Pentire - 'Don't Let Your Love (Let You Down)'
Cardiff / Ross-On-Wye
Man Up A Tree - 'Lights Lazers Strobe ft. Natty D'
Llanddarog
http://instagram.com/manupatreednb
Bodhi - 'Orison'
Cardiff
http://hotflush.bandcamp.com
IVY - 'Overrated ft. Coop'
Cardiff / Belgium
http://instagram.com/rohan.art
Mared - 'Pe Bawn I'n Rhydd'
Denbighshire
http://facebook.com/MaredMusicOfficial
Rufus Mufasa - 'Caerdydd City Boy'
Ammanford / Pontypridd
https://www.rufusmufasa.com
INTERVIEW WITH RICH from SILENT FORUM
Silent Forum - 'Here’s the Email'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/SilentForum
Silent Forum - 'Better With You'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/SilentForum
Silent Forum - 'Cat Pose'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/SilentForum
Silent Forum - 'Petrol Station Flowers'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/SilentForum
Dont Make This Weird - 'Change'
Cardiff / Pontypridd
http://dontmakethisweird.net/
Lawrence J-P - 'Supermarket Houseplant (Gap Year Girl)'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/lawrencejp12
Olive Grinter - 'I'm Gunna Choose'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/olive_grinter
Skylark. - 'adfywio.'
Dyffryn Nantlle
http://facebook.com/sir.skylrk.the.second
Dylan Cooling - 'Let Me Down'
Briton Ferry
Daniel Mark Williams - 'Slept'
Ynysybwl
SHOW STATS
229 diff songs/ 258 Total. 194 Artists in 7 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:37, Unique artists per:28) Welsh:98% Cymraeg:11% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:46%, Direct:16%, Bought:14%, Plugger:21%, 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
Adam Walton