Show #2604: Saturday 27th July 2024 - Stuart Moxham / Aleighcia Scott / Ffion Campbell-Davies / Reem selects... Benny Flowz
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales, 27th July 2024: interview with Stuart Moxham about 'Fabstract' / Behind The Track: Aleighcia Scott 'In My Shoes'; The Long Song: Ffion Campbell-Davies 'Khalon'
You can hear this week’s celebration of new Welsh music now here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0021g26
This week's programme details are below.
I mostly like for the programme to focus on music. For a long time we were a guest-free zone, just me playing one recording after another, launching them into the ether, hoping they'd hit home, somewhere, anywhere. And there's a lot to be said for that approach, I think.
But we like stories too, don't we? And a good story around a piece of music can really help us fall deep for its charms... whether it's our own context when we hear the music - an experience that it soundtracks - or the artist's story, wrapped up in a recording / expression of their imaginative soul.
Our Behind The Track feature is an explicit way to celebrate the stories behind the songs that have enriched music over the decades. Sometimes the story is a memory of inspiration; an experience that eventually manifested itself sonically. Sometimes it's a story of place. Sometimes it's a story of defiance or anger. There can be joy, there can be heartbreak, there can be nothing but mucking about with best friends. Sometimes it's a story of a piece of technology sparking a new direction; sometimes it's a compositional trick passed on by friends or YouTube videos. Often it's a story of the infinity of inspiration that exists between enforced limitations. Just 4-tracks, you say? More than enough. No one who can help me realise my vision - no drummer, bass player, bassoonist available? Then I'll do it myself.
These mightn't be fireside stories for everyone, the kind of tales that will end up as folklore passed down through the generations (although *some* of them most definitely are... John Lennon leaving his guitar against the amp during the recording of 'I Feel Fine', conjuring a squall of feedback and the first time this 'mistake' was used on a popular recording; Robert Fripp and Tony Visconti creating those genius keening layers of guitar on Bowie's 'Heroes' not so much by accident but by Zen design; De La Soul's carnival of childlike curiosity kaleidoscopically realised through a hundred records and their Casio RZ-1 drum machine and sampler on '3 Feet High and Rising'.)
On last week's programme, Young Marble Giants' founder Stuart Moxham shared the stories behind 'N.I.T.A', a song written and recorded in 1979 in Adamsdown, Cardiff. 'N.I.T.A' was a key recording on YMG's truly seminal album 'Colossal Youth'.
Stuart detailed how the song was written on a Galanti electric organ and demoed on an old ex-BBC tape recorder in as DIY a fashion as you could imagine. The studio-realised version of 'Colossal Youth' wasn't all that different from the home recorded demos. Its sparse melancholic beauty, a gloaming whisper underneath the angularities and volume of new wave and post punk, set the album apart. Whilst still something of a best kept secret amongst music-lovers, 'Colossal Youth' was the best selling indie album of 1980 and went on to inspire artists from Kurt Cobain (YMG were one of his two favourite bands, by some accounts), the xx, Cate Le Bon, Stereolab, Radiohead, Broadcast, Super Furry Animals et al.
It's a truly seminal album and it's still being discovered and inspiring new music-makers now.
But it was only one album, one short chapter of Stuart Moxham's creative life.
Stuart is my special guest on this week's programme, talking about his new album 'Fabstract'. 'Fabstract' is a collection of recordings that stretch - more or less - the length of Stuart's career, compiled and sequenced by his friend John Henderson (who runs Tiny Global Productions). TGP is a label that specialises in releasing music by visionary artists operating out of the leftfield. That's to say artists like Jon Langford, Martin Bramah, Vic Godard and Stuart Moxham who make great alternative pop music that isn't elitist or exclusionary - emperor's new clothes masquerading as avant garde - but that still explores beyond the boundaries of the mainstream.
So 'Fabstract' collects together 40+ years of recordings but manages to do so without sounding like a miscellany. Often the songs contained within are Stuart's favourite incarnations of songs from his catalogue, now released here for the first time.
It's Stuart's sense of wonder, curiosity and his striving for excellence - allied with John's excellent curation - that gives this album its narrative and continuity. I find it an inspirational listen. It's already having an effect on my music-making. And Stuart is very generous in sharing a multitude of stories behind the tracks from the album in our interview: stories of place, inspiration, technology and experience.
Please do listen. He's a fascinating man and 'Fabstract' is a fascinating album, rooted in Stuart's storied past but reaching well beyond those days to rewarding, new, unassuming glories.
Elsewhere in this week's show, Aleighcia Scott goes Behind The Track of her ska-influenced showstopper, 'In My Shoes'. Aleighcia is a bona fide reggae sensation. She has a deep love for the music of her ancestral home and a profound understand of the story of her people. Aleighcia's songs very much celebrate community, as much as anything else.
The fact that a Welsh artist has made a standout reggae album ('Windrush Baby'), featuring some of the very finest Jamaican reggae musicians and producers, might bypass those of us in Wales who tend to focus more on the geographical petri dish right in front of us than on music that's moving feet and hearts elsewhere in the world. Aleighcia's debut album is truly international and truly excellent.
Like Stuart, her story is inspirational, and written through her music and this brilliant song and recording.
Our Long Song this week - the ongoing tribute to legendary music broadcaster Janice Long, constituting the recording each week that I'd most like to be able to play to Janice - is Ffion Campbell-Davies' elevating and mind-blowing 'Khalon'. It's unusual, international, original and difficult to pigeonhole. If you need a genre pointer, 'Khalon' exists somewhere between electronic and folk music...
It reminds me of Bjork at her most free-flowing and curious.
An outstanding debut on the UNTRO label.
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
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales Sat, 20th July 2024: BBC Sounds link / playlist / Stats
You can hear this week’s celebration of new Welsh music now here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0021g26
CONTENTS
1: BBC SOUNDS LINK (subscribe / download / listen to the programme at your convenience).
2: THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
3: SHOW STATS
1: BBC SOUNDS LINK (subscribe / download / listen to at your convenience)
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/m0021g26
And if you have a chance, you can check out other recent editions of the programme:
20.07.24 Johanna Warren interview; Stuart Moxham from Young Marble Giants goes Behind The Track with 'N.I.T.A'; The Long Song comes courtesy of Szwé; Hard Drive Deep Dive from Solutions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00217bk
13.07.24 Jack Jones from Trampolene goes Behind The Track with 'Beautiful Pain'; The Long Song comes courtesy of Midasuno; Reem Muhammed selects Figo: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00212fz
06.07.24 Georgia Ruth shares the fossil record for 'Cool Head'; Sion Sebon from Yr Anhrefn foes Behind The Track with 'Rhedeg i Paris'; The Long Song comes courtesy of Rona Mac & Dan Bettridge: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020v0l
29.06.24 Johanna Warren announcement & exclusive; Tony Bourge from Budgie goes Behind The Track with 'Parents'; The Long Song goes to Yellow Belly: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020md0
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
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
Kelly Lee Owens - 'Love You Got'
Bagillt
Overmono - 'Gem Lingo (ovr now) ft. Ruthven'
Monmouthshire
http://overmono.bandcamp.com
Ynys - 'Dosbarth Nos'
Aberystwyth
The Bug Club - 'Lonsdale Slipons'
Caldicot
Bau Cat - 'Brothers and Sisters'
Rhuddlan
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079657726785
Spit Hood - 'Black Draught'
Cardiff / Caerphilly / Newport / Swansea
http://instagram.com/spit_hood
Skinnage - 'Mountains'
Cardiff
Cyn Cwsg - 'Hapusach'
Y Gogledd
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555752064160
Half Happy - 'Well Done Honey'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/wearehalfhappy
Johanna Warren - 'A Bird in the Crocodile's Mouth'
Hay On Wye, Powys
http://johannawarren.bandcamp.com
Two Til Twelve - 'Summer Song'
Swansea
http://linktr.ee/twotiltwelve
Kenzie Vois - 'Lose You'
Llandudno
http://www.kenzievois.com/
Macy - 'Shut Ya Mouth'
Abertillery
http://linktr.ee/MacyMusic
REEM MUHAMMED SELECTS...
Benny Flowz - 'Sunshine'
Barry
Gwcci - 'Elfen ft. FRMAND'
Cardiff / Bangor
http://instagram.com/xgwccix
Porij - 'Stranger ft. Elkka'
Manchester / Cardiff remixer
http://www.porij.co.uk
Excellent Birds - 'Why Did I Wait'
Carmarthen / Llandeilo
http://anniegardiner.co.uk
Heather Jones - 'Nos Ddu'
Cardiff
http://sainwales.com/products/maer-olwyn-yn-troi
THE LONG SONG
Ffion Campbell-Davies - 'Khalon'
Cardiff
N.V.S - 'Never Let Them Take You Alive'
Neath / Resolven
http://facebook.com/OfficiallyNVS/
Death Cult Electric - 'Wishy Washy'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/deathcultelectric
Yammerer - 'SSDD'
North Wales / Chester
Ogun - 'can we bring it back?'
Newport
http://facebook.com/andrew.ogun.9
BEHIND THE TRACK #022
Aleighcia Scott - 'In My Shoes'
Cardiff
http://aleighciascott.com/
HARD DRIVE DEEP DIVE
Stagga - 'Tubby's Intervention'
Cardiff
http://gofundme.com/f/staggauk-studio-fund-for-his-boys-and-nina
Slowly Rolling Camera - 'Desert Sun'
Cardiff
http://editionrecords.com/releases/slowly-rolling-camera-silver-shadow/
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog - 'Trosol [albwm]'
Llyn Peninsula
http://crhb.bandcamp.com
Georgia Ruth - 'Dim'
Aberystwyth
http://georgiaruth.co.uk
STUART MOXHAM INTERVIEW
Stuart Moxham - 'Two Minute Warning'
Cardiff
'Night By Night (alternate version 3)'
'Immaculate Mistake'
'My Mouth Is Bored'
'Crow, Crow'
'Last Summer (Ilkeston version)'
Tesni Hughes - 'Trefn'
Llangefni
http://linktr.ee/tesnihughes
The Debutantes - 'Turn The Funk Up'
Cardiff
http://facebook.com/TheDebutantesofficial/about
Caitlin Lavagna - 'Pretty Alright (Behnaz Akhgar BBC Radio Wales Session July 2024)'
Porth, Rhondda
http://instagram.com/caitlinlavagna
Nathan Misra - 'Joe'
Barry
http://www.nathanmisra.com/
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SHOW STATS
1016 diff songs/ 1135 Total. 643 Artists in 30 shows since 1st, Jan '24 (~Songs per:38, Unique artists per:21) Welsh:98% Cymraeg:12% (feat. lyrics in Welsh); Source: Uploader:39%, Direct:17%, Bought:18%, Plugger:22%, Commission:4%
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