the Wales, part 5, and more.

After a gap, some more Welsh stuff.  Gulp are musicians from a few different bands, but they stood out to me mostly because the drummer is from the defunct group Race Horses.  There's also a member of the Super Furry Animals involved, which reminded me of this guy, who I posted about back here.  I went to his record label's SoundCloud after remembering him (practically his whole album is up there) but decided I wasn't too impressed.  It's not that I don't like his music, it's just that it sounds just like 'Mother' era John Lennon, and I can never get behind anything that's too obviously indebted to an influence.

Anyway, back to Gulp.  They've got a single out called 'Play' and I rather like it:



On the Welsh tip, I came across this clip today from the film 'Human Traffic', which was about clubbing in Cardiff (something I got to do... almost... once).  Watching this got me nostalgic about record shop culture, and dance music record shops in particular.  A time, not too long ago, where all that was available was what your local shop carried, and you had to think hard before dropping some real money on a real object. Having the right tunes actually mattered!



Ok, heard this on the radio and thought it was pretty smooth.  It's from the forthcoming Elvis Costello and the Roots collaboration, and basically sounds like what I'd want that collaboration to sound like!  Although on second listen it's reminding me a bit of trip-hop...



On a side-note, why do so many promo pics of men involve them adjusting their ties or suit buttons or cuff-links??  It's bloody annoying, and this whole dressing-up thing is getting really old.  I've already made a partial return to jeans and t-shirts; I predict a more relaxed style of dress making a comeback very soon.

Last up, someone I'd never heard of til last week, Frank Turner.  Apparently quite big in the UK, and also apparently has some right-wing/libertarian views, but this isn't a political blog.  I heard this song on the radio and the motif of it stood out to me as something I'm very wary of too -- essentially time going by really quickly, speeding up, and years just passing by whereas days and weeks used to feel like forever before.

the Wales, part 4

Finally getting round to writing about the band that first inspired my "the Wales" posts, but it's taken me so long to get round to it that the band has broken up in the meantime!  That band was Racehorses, who I first heard on 6 Music.  I was immediately captured by their sound -- a very clean indie sound that sounded like it could be from 1986 except it was just too clean.  I got fooled the first few times I heard them on the radio, thinking it was a band from the past, only to be told it was Racehorses.   I'm going to post the two songs I heard on the radio somewhere below.  Sadly, they really have broken up, as of a few weeks ago, boo hoo.

The two songs I heard are both tunes I really like, 'Mates' and 'Sisters'.  Both have a sad quality that appeals to me, hidden beneath the pop, and the latter reminds me a bit of Pulp.  I think that has less to do with the sound of the song and more to do with the content and the use of the word 'sister'.  If you've heard 'Babies' you may understand what I'm talking about.





Another Welsh artist I heard recently is Sweet Baboo.  Not much info on the lad from me, you can check out the link if you'd like to know more, but I heard him singing 'Cate's Song' on the radio and enjoyed it so here you go.  Could only find this link to it, which is to a British Council session (had no idea they do those), but the first song is the one I'm talking about, which makes things easier.