A5 - Anglesey

The A5 was/is the road that leads from Holyhead to London, it was much vaunted by long distance truck drivers, who would bore you of their trials and tribulations of life on the road (I endured a lot of this while hitch hiking the country and beyond). I guess when all you see is hundreds of miles of tarmac hour after hour there's little else to talk about. So when the brand, spanking all singing all dancing A55 opened across Anglesey in 2001, the once eminent A5 in that part of the world was relegated to local traffic and learner drivers. No longer did you have to go through dreary villages and over cattle grids, opening and shutting gates and swearing at nonchalant farmers in order to get to Holyhead, now you could ton-up across Ynys Mon with the cops in tow.

A5 was an Anglesey based project, featuring DJ and producer Johnny R, of the label R-Bennig. A5 were a Welsh language hip-hop and dance loose collective/catch-all project which were created/produced from 1988 to 1992. Musical collages featuring a snapshot of youth culture recorded for the main in little studios around North Wales and beyond and in Johnny “R”s own back-room “Heath Robinson” set up Gwalchmai. It was tape decks, analogue keyboards, samplers from Argos and record decks mastered on 4 track cassette decks.

R-Bennig and A5’s first release (and arguably their best), first featured on Musique Plastique & Henry Jones’ groundbreaking ‘Mapio’r Dyfodol’ mix spanning the idiosyncratic sounds of Cymru. Aptly named, the track speaks of the ‘Hiraeth’ that only Welsh people can truly understand, a word not best suited for translation.

Johnny R pronounced himself dead a few years ago. You never know, as he's the ultimate wind-up merchant. If it's true, well that's a shame. If it's not, well, some would say that too is a shame.

Celebrity Shopping

While browsing in the Shit You Don’t Need section at the local supermarket (in Bangor, North Wales), it’s not uncommon to catch sight of a local celebrity or two going about their shopping business.

Take Lolfa Binc’s lunatic frontman Rhys Trimble; recently spotted down the Avant Garden aisle in Lidl, or The Cult’s Billy Duffy doing a spot of retail therapy further down the coast at Sainsburys in Rhyl.
I also bumped into Hopewell Ink and The Cane Toads’ Dave Hopewell. He was clutching a bottle of brandy and a new set of underpants - later to be seen drunkenly staggering through the streets of Bangor in said underpants muttering nonsensicals about Sylvia Plath.

Last night, while fighting with the locals at the Reduced Items section, I saw Paul and Andrea of Melys shaking their heads in my direction, obviously disappointed with me for wrestling a granny to the floor over a sandwich with today’s sell-by date on it. 

Melys have just completed a slew of gigs stretching from Bethesda across as far as Reading and as far south as Carmarthen. They were in need of nourishment from all the travelling, and to also build up strength for the release of their next single, Sgleinio. The uplifting indie anthem arrives on Friday March 28th ahead of their new album ‘Second Wind’ on April 12th.

Pre-Save / Hear it here - https://orcd.co/sgleinio

Once they’ve nibbled themselves back to full strength, you’ll find Melys back on the road.
09.05 – Focus Wales, Wrecsam / Wrexham

15.05 – Liquid Rooms, Caeredin / Edinburgh

17.05 – 02, Rhydychen / Oxford

23.05 – 02, Birmingham

24.05 – Gŵyl In It Together Festival

25.05 – MK11, Milton Keynes

Kier Starmer the gig promoter

 Woke up confused, my dream did it; Kier Starmer was disappointed with me because I hadn't followed up on the lead he gave me for my band Spam Javelin to play in Hoffenheim. I feigned that I had called the number, but I could tell he knew this wasn't the case.

With the rain mainly falling on the plain, Sunday turned out to be a pyjama day - I like these days - I couldn't do them everyday as the great outdoor forever lures me outward. The kid is online murdering aliens with his mates and I'm sifting through this week's contributions as I prepare my Louder Than War radio show.
An hour's show could easily be chucked together on the hoof, but I enjoy gathering music, listening to new stuff, researching bands - it's what makes me tick. When there was an actual studio to broadcast from there was usually a live band, eager to nervously play on air to the masses - some would travel from afar to appear on a Monday night in North Wales! I think Blanchard travelled the furthest, hailing from Lancaster (the crazy fools! - great session though!). These post-Covid days, the show is done from the comfort of my living room (usually in those said PJs!), and I'll sometimes feature a new album, depends how the mood takes me - There's no rules.

With the playlist in place, I set aside about ten minutes of free space as bands will often send me stuff during the course of Monday once they see the show advertised, and sometimes the track is too good to leave til next week. I then design a flyer for that particular show, yes, I could use the same one, but where's the fun in that? Once done I'll share it on the socials.
All this takes a couple of hours, and normally it'll be all done by around 8am on a Sunday morning!

With the Rain Gods unrelenting I took the opportunity to read the latest issue of Cubesville fanzine #27 with some cool interviews and humour driven views - I took it upon myself to go with Ritual Error's desert island disc choices (basically Cubesville asked them what three albums each of them would take), so I revved up the Spotify (yeah get over it) and skipped over Minutemen and Saccharine Trust to go for the excellent Hoover album 'The Lurid Traversal Of Route' followed by Fugazi's 'In On The Kill Taker' and Unwound's 'New Plastic Ideas.'

I then tore up my new water bill from Dwr Cymru who've increased the theft by £20 a month, and also realised I'm getting pickpocketed an extra £11 by the council. Bastards the lot of them...

ALBUM REVIEW – ARME / Rhys Trimble / Wolframite – Un Dictionnaire De Déesses

Defiling convention and spunking in the face of the world as we know it,  AntiRock Missile Ensemble (ARME) / Rhys Trimble / Wolframite toured France last year and ‘Un Dictionnaire De Déesses’ is the result of a three day recording session at Les Ateliers de Bitche, Nantes in November 2022. On hearing this you’ll be forgiven for assuming this session was in fact a bring-your-own-ket orgy at a leaking nuclear power facility, and you’d be on the money (shot).

Rhys Trimble is also responsible for pyromanic-punksters Lolfa Binc and audience culling Anxiolytics, both never to be forgotten experiences in their own right. And tonight Matthew he is ranting, grunting, shuffling and screaming through ‘Un Dictionnaire De Déesses,’ performing nine pieces of not-normal anti-jazz. The fact that opening track / song / thing, Llidiart Cinio is silent for the first three minutes, sets the tone.

I do love this kind of shit and the madness of it all – Sirène tries to get going amid feedback and eerie slowed down voices, before Trimble drags himself from the mire, reciting something incomprehensible (language unknown). Whereas the temptation to smash in with loud guitars and drums would have been too much for me, this uncomfortably dies teasingly away and into Ictus, which dies even more.

Epone staggers to the fore. The musicians all want to attack, but who goes first? Someone is in pain, it could be bassist Julien Ottavi, gruffly wailing as the crescendo consumes all around. Closing track Emma O is full of the chaos that makes a barfight in Kinmel Bay seem like a church fete.

Those guilty of being accessories to this crime against music are Benjamin Bourdel, Jean Grimault, Julien Ottavi, Francesco Petetta, Jenny Pickett, Philippe Simon, Anthony Taillard, Rhys Trimble and Gabriel Vogel.
May God have mercy upon your souls.

Red Or Dead - Anarchy Is Liberty

Talk about bad timing (or perhaps bad tidings), Red Or Dead (and myself as link2wales records) put this album out just as the whole world decided to impose martial law on a flu ravaged population. 

It was my 22nd release on link2wales, (a kind of record label that upped the ante every now and then when the mood takes me). Never for profit, I let bands use the link2wales platform so long as they paid for the pressing and I got a few copies to cover my own costs. Most pressings were in batches of 100 and (for gigging bands) they usually sold out pretty quick.

Link2wales Records are proud to announce the release of the second album from Penmachno’s Red Or Dead.
Anarchy Is Liberty is available on CD in a card wallet and features 9 socially active punk-folk songs that you can shake an angry stick at. It follows on from 2018’s well received debut album Trotsky Waltz.

The Ginger Quiff wrote this about the album:

The new album, Anarchy is Liberty, from North Wales’ acoustic punks Red or Dead is a timely comment on the current state of the planet. It proves you don’t have to scream and shout and thrash on loud electric guitars to make a point as 21st Century anarcho punks.

I believe I made this comparison before, but the band fills the ground somewhere between Wigan folk punks The Tansads and the now legendary Levellers, with a host of ideals and influences shared with original anarcho punks, Crass and taking influence from the music of Joe Strummer and The Clash.

Zombieland

Take the first track for example, Zombieland, with Rob’s vocal delivery paying tribute to The Clash’ Magnificent Seven complete. The track is all about the masses walking around with eyes and minds closed and accepting everything we are spoon fed by the media and government. We close our eyes in Zombieland, do what we’re told in Zombieland… A little closer to home in the current climate.

The theme of standing up and being counted continues throughout the album with Take the Streets a call to arms for the “woke” amongst the population (why have we started shortening words that are already short?). The album takes its title from this song and highlights some of the divine harmonies between Rob and Gala.

Gala takes the lead on In the End to great effect accompanied by some sweet acoustic guitar runs and riffing. Greed takes on a more sinister tone with ominous bass and sombre acoustic guitar introducing the lyrical subject matter which I’m sure you can guess at based on the song title.  There is also some sublime acoustic Spanish guitar riffing later in the track.

Fall Down

Talking of Spanish, Calles Del Delor (Streets of Pain) packs a powerful anti-drugs and corruption message. Sweetly strummed mandolin adds an extra texture to one of the album’s highlights, Fall Down. Its harmonious layered chorus documenting the greed influenced dragging down of protagonist in the song. This maudlin track gives way to the driving incessant driving beat of Limited Vision

The penultimate track is their previous single released around the time of the last Royal Wedding. Inspired by the news stories of homeless people being moved on from the streets, lest the world should see that there are homeless people on the streets of the UK. It attacks the Royal Family and its lack of relevance. A mere publicity machine to bring in the tourists.

A Storm is Coming is the last, the most delicate and the most beautiful, almost prescient song on the album. The repeated refrain rises in volume and pitch and adds a choir at the end. The power of the song finally revealed in all its glory. A storm is coming now, it comes for us all …

This album has been on constant rotation. It gets better every time I listen. The harmonies and melodies are exquisite. The songs demonstrate the capacity and impact of cleverly created lyrics proving you don’t have to play loud guitars to show your anger and passion to get a point across.