Show #2596: Saturday 1st June 2024 - Ivor Woods / Georgia Ruth and Chloe Leavers
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, 1st June 2024: The Long Song - Ivor Woods 'Knees'; Behind the Track: Georgia Ruth 'In Luna'; Hard Drive Deep Dive - 'All These Things'.
Listen again via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zsd9
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Electronic music left the restricted pinned down template of 4/4 bars in equal measures a long time ago. Don't get me wrong, there was something beautiful in the symmetrical mantras of Jeff Mills, techno Moby, Luke Slater, Underworld and many, many others who operated in 4,8 or 16 bar paradigms. After all, the regular repetition of phrases / motifs is a prerequisite of almost all music. Music that is entirely freeform confuses the soul.
There are exceptions, of course, but it is a valid generalisation.
Electronic artists in the 2020's have access to technology - DAW's, plug-ins, inspirational tools - that allow them to more easily build variations and nuance into the loops that are the foundation stones for a lot of dance music - especially - over the last 40+ years.
Contemporary versions of Ableton Live / Logic / Cubase operate much less like limited grids upon which artists have to pin their beats and samples and much more like a palette, where sounds can flow into each other, revelling in the freedom of a more organic and 'musical' approach to electronic production.
Wales is home to some of world's foremost doyens of these new open world philosophies: Kelly Lee Owens, Overmono, Elkka, Art School Girlfriend.
On the basis of their current release 'Knees', which is my Long Song this week, we can add Pontyclun's Ivor Woods (a nom de plume for Rachel Crabbe) to this roll call of excellence.
'Knees' starts with creaks and off-kilter, filtered chords, before a peripatetic jazzed up breakbeat elevates proceedings to a whole other level. Art School Girlfriend's cinematic debut album 'Is It Light Where You Are' sounds like it could be a touchstone here, and - further back - DJ Shadow's monumental 'Endtroducing' album from 1996.
But these are just possible familiar landmarks in the otherwise intoxicating new landscape of Ivor Woods' music.
Rachel's beautifully judged vocal leads us into the seductive underground heart of the recording, sort of intriguingly out of focus, just beyond easy assimilation.
They say that "it's about the joy of queer sexual experiences and enjoying things while they last". On the basis of this fascinating and atmospheric recording, it's going to last a long, long time.
Georgia Ruth is one of Wales' most universally respected music-makers. She is - perhaps - a little out of time in that her ascent (her landmark debut album, the Welsh Music Prize winner in 2013, 'Week of Pines') arrived just as the music industry was going into freefall and failing to adapt to the new territories that were being opened (and the old territories that were being closed) by the rise of streaming platforms.
Record labels - even the really good, truly independent ones - stopped taking as many 'risks' on intelligent, thoughtful and difficult to categorise new artists. Georgia is a bit folk, a bit Laurel Canyon, a bit pop (her melodies are great pop music, and I'll go red in the face in the direction of anyone who disagrees), a bit Americana... which is a sentence that makes her music sound, well, bitty, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
One of Georgia's many great intuitive skills is to - like all great artists - exist above such petty considerations as categorisation, evoking a sonic world that is very much her own from a lifetime of loving and playing music.
I just wish she was as well-known - internationally - as I believe she deserves to be, simply because her songs and recordings are outstanding and would communicate their poetry wherever they're heard.
But there's so much music. Tides upon tides of it. Quality will out but only if it has the right promotional budget behind it. It's a depressing thought, if you let it depress you.
It's very important to note that these are my frustrations, not Georgia's. She is on an excellent label - Cardiff's Bubblewrap Collective - and is continuing her evolution as a songwriter apace, while also not fucking the climate up with a private jet zigzagging between Aberystwyth and L.A., and she is able to live a (family) life that enriches her vision and her songs.
Since I first heard her, back in 2007, I imagined that Georgia could be our Carole King, bare foot on a window seat with a curious cat, in tens of millions of homes. Transpires - listening to her going Behind the Track on this week's programme with 'In Luna' from the debut album, that her intentions were more Townes Van Zandt than Carole King, anyway. Just without the desperate addictions that plagued Van Zandt's life.
Georgia has undoubtedly written and recorded better songs than 'In Luna' (which isn't to do that song a disservice: it's still luminous, hooky, cryptic and brilliant). She's one of those artists whose every new chapter becomes their most recommended. (New album 'Cool Head' will again prove this to be true, when it's released on June 21st).
Sometimes, though, a song weaves itself into our souls so tightly, that nothing is ever likely to shift it and we'd mourn its loss if was ever unthreaded. 'In Luna' is one of those songs for me, and Georgia's words about its writing and recording in this week's 'Behind The Track' are truly fascinating.
I wish she did lessons.
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
Please subscribe to the programme via the BBC Sounds app, and then the programme will automatically download so that you can listen at your convenience, wherever you like (via Smartphone / portable devices etc).
Feel free to share the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zsd9
And if you have a chance, you can check out other recent editions of the programme:
25.05.24 Janice Long Tribute Show from Focus Wales 2024: a celebration of Janice Long's legacy here in Wales with live music from Kidsmoke, Laura J. Martin, Pixy Jones and Cara Hammond, + lots of interviews: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zlc5
18.05.24 Jon Langford from The Mekons goes Behind the Track with 'Where Were You'. Dactyl Terra are the recipients of The Long Song. Tribute to Steve Albini. Hard Drive Deep Dive with Katell Keineg https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zc2l
11.05.24 Peace Transmission Module (repeat): Adam curates a meditative mix of the finest ambient, folk, trip hop, jazz, orchestral and transcendental Welsh music of 2023 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tpyw
04.05.24 Rufus Mufasa speaks to Adam about her current album Trigger Warnings. Alun from Y Niwl goes Behind The Track with 'undegpedwar'. Ynys are recipients of The Long Song: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yw8d
If you would like information about any of the featured artists, please don’t hesitate to reply.
More information about BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds
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2: THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Helen Love - 'Swansea's Got An Our Price'
Swansea
http://ilovealcopop.co.uk/collections/helen-love
Kikker - 'Trash'
Cardiff / Swansea
http://kikkeraregarbage.tumblr.com
Alffa - 'Pwythau'
Llanrug
http://facebook.com/alffaband
Elkka - 'Right Here'
Cardiff
BRRDS - 'Let's Say Yes'
Bridgend
http://brrds.bandcamp.com
Only Fools and Corpses - 'Cwffin of Flowers'
Swansea
Gwenifer Raymond - 'Deep See Diver (live)'
Cardiff
The Allergies - 'One Time ft. Dynamite MC'
Cardiff
Until The Ribbon Breaks - 'Carousel (With Homeboy Sandman)'
Penarth
http://untiltheribbonbreaks.com/
King Hannah - 'New York, Let's Do Nothing'
Tan Lan / Liverpool
http://kinghannah.com
HARD DRIVE DEEP DIVE
Chloe Leavers - 'All These Things'
Colwyn Bay
http://facebook.com/chloeleavers
Hilang Child - '5, 6, Sidekick'
Wrexham
Yws Gwynedd - 'Bae'
Penrhyndeudraeth / Bangor
http://facebook.com/ywsgwynedd
Aisha Vaughan - 'Endless Journey'
Mumbles
Monet - 'Scuff Button'
Swansea
Violet Skies - 'Burning Buildings'
Chepstow
http://facebook.com/iamvioletskies
Lila Zing - 'Ripple (radio edit)'
Llyn Peninsula
http://lilazing.com
Ify Iwobi - 'Life Of The Party ft. Mace'
Swansea
http://ifyiwobimusic.co.uk
Slowly Rolling Camera - 'Beam'
Cardiff
http://editionrecords.com/releases/slowly-rolling-camera-silver-shadow/
Moletrap - 'Nation of Sanctuary'
Rhayader
http://mltrp.com
Papa Jupe's T.C. - 'Milgi'
Cardiff
http://papajupestc.bandcamp.com/
Korrupted - 'War Ready'
Wrexham
http://instagram.com/korruptedmusic
Mascot Moth - 'Y Twll'
Llanfyllin, Powys
http://mascotmoth.bandcamp.com
Samana - 'Into The Blue'
Talybont On Usk
Georgia Ruth - 'Chemistry ft. Euros Childs'
Aberystwyth
http://georgiaruth.co.uk
BEHIND THE TRACK #014
Georgia Ruth - 'In Luna'
Aberystwyth
http://georgiaruth.co.uk
Natty Lou - 'In The Future ft. Emilie Rachel'
Cardiff
http://www.nattylou.com
Koreless - 'Seven (Jorg Kuning Bicton Barns Mix)'
Bangor
http://facebook.com/Koreless
Megan Wyn - 'Waiting For A Reason'
Anglesey
http://facebook.com/meganwynmusic
Eurekas - 'Falling From Your Grace'
Cwmbran / Newport
http://facebook.com/eurekasband
Em Koko - 'Erase'
Abergavenny / Cardiff
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555557547871
Nova Scotia - 'The Actress'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/novascotiacymru
Disorder - 'By My Side'
Mold / Yr Wyddgrug
http://instagram.com/disorder.music
Honddu - 'Worst Version of Me'
Brecon
THE LONG SONG #044
Ivor Woods - 'Knees'
Pontyclun
http://instagram.com/ivor.woods
Dan Amor - 'Square One'
Eryri
http://recordiaucaegwyn.com/
Otto Aday - 'Stay Awhile'
Ferndale
http://www.ottoaday.com
Happy Reality - 'What You Need'
Wrexham / Liverpool
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552067465824
The Poached - 'Again'
Cardiff
http://instagram.com/The.Poached
The Doublecross - 'One Way'
Cardiff
http://thedoublecross.bandcamp.com
King Hannah - 'This Wasn't Intentional (Vocal Harmonies by Sharon Van Etten)'
Tan Lan / Liverpool
http://kinghannah.com
Veins Full Of Static - 'Luminous Void'
Cardiff
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3: SHOW STATS
758 diff songs/ 838 Total. 498 Artists in 22 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:38, Unique artists per:23) Welsh:99% Cymraeg:11% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:39%, Direct:16%, Bought:18%, Plugger:21%, Commission:5%
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