Show #2586: Saturday 23rd March 2024 - Manic Street Preachers (Nicky Wire) / Amanda Whiting / Samana
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, 23rd March 2024: Amanda Whiting interview / The Long Song - Samana 'The Knife' / Behind The Track - Manic Street Preachers 'Solitude Sometimes Is' + more
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001xkkw
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Rock 'n' roll pop music - in all of its multitude of forms - has a tendency to celebrate urban environments, in neon-reflected oily puddle sonics echoing from claustrophobic streets, venues and bedsits. Wales's urban centres are few and far between. Much of our music comes from open elemental spaces; villages, hillsides, mountains, places overlooking the sea or our grey green expanses.
Which sounds idyllic, but isn't always. I grew up in a village, which was great for the first 13 years of my life but then became suffocating, a source of frustration, a doldrum for ambition and a quiet battleground on the frontier of Welsh culture and livelihood... my family - most of the families I knew and lived among - were English immigrants, moving into a rural idyll to improve the quality of their lives but with little or no regard for the effect that that ultimately had on the affordability of housing, the dilution of Welsh culture.
This is a very sensitive subject, of course, and there isn't space here for me to acknowledge the nuances either way. Suffice to say that when I extol the naturalistic resources we have on our doorstep as a wellspring of inspiration for rural Welsh artists as I will below, I'm aware that those resources are limited, threatened and need to be treated with respect by whoever seeks to channel them.
Samana's music has a rare, spiritual affinity with the landscape in which it was formed (Pembrokeshire). Franklin and Rebecca Rose are clearly sensitive to the energies that surround them. They might paint their music with familiar instrumentation (the opening electric guitar arpeggios could be Radiohead or Mazzy Star) but Rebecca's voice and the raw atmospherics that sweep back and forth in the skies above 'The Knife', aren't just riffs: they're somatic brushstrokes in the vein of Kyffin Williams.
When the drums break and the guitar unleashes itself, it's a cataract of release, something unfettered, unconstrained by concrete, tarmac, stainless steel and societal constriction.
Artists have been coming to Wales for centuries seeking inspiration and awe. Samana have captured and freed the reasons why in The Long Song this week. 'The Knife' is brave, true and beautiful.
My special guest this week is internationally-renowned harpist Amanda Whiting. She's another example of someone who found their true calling during the long, challenging months of lockdown. Previous to those dark and anxious days, Amanda had focused on interpreting other people's music through her dextrous fingertips and soulful musicianship. But during lockdown Amanda started to write her own music with purpose.
Her fifth album - 'The Liminality of Her' (First Word Records) - is a joyful, uplifting experience. The intuitive musicianship expressed between Amanda and her band and collaborators, inspires hope and joy in the creative potential of human beings. God knows it's good to be reminded of our power to create the beautiful at a time when the world is riven by cruelty.
If you were to look for 'The Liminality of Her' in an old school record shop, it'd be in the shadowy recesses of the 'Jazz' section. Jazz has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years - sort of capped by Ezra Collective's Mercury Music Prize win. When the rest of the musical world appears to be dominated by un-evolving loops; chord sequences as familiar as slices of white bread; and deja vu of deja vu of deja vu being an entirely natural response to many of the hundreds of thousands of recordings that wash up on streaming services every week, grains of sand demanding attention, Amanda's music is rich, human, unpredictable and wondrous to listen to.
I'd say the same of any of the music I'm privileged and honoured to celebrate - no grains of sand here, just pearls - but I'm saying it particularly of this album.
There are hints of hip hop, drum n bass, folk all in this compelling brew. And Amanda talks beautifully about the album's conception. And about the time she met Bono.
Elsewhere Nicky Wire from Manic Street Preachers gives us a fascinating insight into the song 'Solitude Sometimes Is' in this week's Behind The Track. I'm working on a much longer piece about the Manics to coincide, but it isn't quite finished yet. It's such a moving song and - just as with the two artists I've focused on above - it is 'beautiful' without resorting to surface and beautification.
Please do send new music excellence to me via the BBC Introducing Uploader or as a download link to my BBC email address. You'll work it out. It has a dot between my first name and my last name.
Keep on trucking x
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Worldcub - 'Back to the Beginning'
Llanrug
http://worldcub.bandcamp.com
Obey Cobra - 'Ten of Wands'
South Wales
Public Order - 'HELLO'
Merthyr Tydfil / Porthcawl
http://facebook.com/PublicOrderUK
Y Dail - 'My Baby's In The FBI'
Pontypridd
http://ydail.bandcamp.com
Novo Amor - 'Same Day, Same Face'
Y Fan, Llanidloes
http://facebook.com/novoamorsongs
Nookee - 'Devil's Dining Room'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/NookeeBand
Lesser Kind - 'VINTAGE ft Razkid'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/lesser.kind
Morgan Elwy - 'Dim Rhyfel'
Denbigh
http://www.morganelwy.com
Katielou - 'Boys'
Newport
http://www.dirtycarrotrecords.co.uk/artists/katielou
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog - 'Magl'
Llyn Peninsula
http://crhb.bandcamp.com
Guffy - 'frozen strawberry fanta'
Ton Pentre
http://instagram.com/guffy.666
Vivaria - 'Sick'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/VivariaBand
Em Koko - 'Take Me As I Am'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555557547871
Ceitidh Mac - 'Jump In (Rubber Oh Remix)'
Pembrokeshire
http://ceitidhmac.com
Only Fools and Corpses - 'Prince Plays at Funeral'
Swansea
http://facebook.com/onlyfoolsandcorpsescru
DJosh Hutch - 'Make You (Mine)'
Tredegar
http://instagram.com/dj.joshh
HARD DRIVE DEEP DIVE #004… DAVEY NEWINGTON ‘Shoe Box’
Davey Newington - 'Shoe Box (demo)'
Cardiff
THE LONG SONG #036… SAMANA ‘The Knife’
Samana - 'The Knife'
Talybont On Usk
http://samanaroad.com
Ify Iwobi - 'Cycles ft. Mooncakes'
Swansea
http://ifyiwobimusic.co.uk
Dactyl Terra - 'Sugar'
Cardiff
http://dactylterra.com
EYE - 'In Your Night'
Cardiff / Wrexham
http://eye-uk.bandcamp.com
Nicky Wire - 'You Wear Your Broken Heart'
Blackwood
http://nickywire.bandcamp.com
BEHIND THE TRACK #006... MANIC STREET PREACHERS ‘Solitude Sometimes Is’
Manic Street Preachers - 'Solitude Sometimes Is'
Blackwood
http://manicstreetpreachers.com
Georgia Ruth - 'Driving Dreams'
Aberystwyth
http://georgiaruth.co.uk
Rob Ruha & Ka Hao - '35'
Te Tairawhiti, New Zealand
http://robruha.nz
INTERVIEW WITH… AMANDA WHITING
Amanda Whiting - 'Liminal'
Cardiff
Amanda Whiting - 'Waiting To Go'
Cardiff
Amanda Whiting - 'Rite of Passage'
Cardiff
Strange Company - 'Dream Cult'
Neath / Swansea
http://linktr.ee/strangeco
Teri N - 'Wonderful World'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/TeriNmusician
Jon Langford & the Bright Shiners - 'Discarded'
Newport
GARETH POTTER SELECTS…
Heather Jones - 'Tua'r Gorllewin'
Cardiff
Don Leisure - 'Bounce & Crackle'
Cardiff
Don Leisure - 'The Good Life'
Cardiff
Meg Ella - 'Goodbye'
Llangrannog
http://megella.net
Dylan John Sparkes - 'The Unseen'
Briton Ferry / Swansea
http://linktr.ee/DylanJohnSparkes
SHOW STATS
393 diff songs/ 445 Total. 304 Artists in 12 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:37, Unique artists per:25) Welsh:99% Cymraeg:10% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:42%, Direct:17%, Bought:17%, Plugger:20%, 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