#afal

(Charadesigns below)

The style is a little rough and unrefined, but here's two of the pages that I think are particularly cool :

It's been a long time since I did a proper Dr. Grym fanart and it reminded me of how much I love this charadesign ✨️

He's a pain in the ass to write tho

Adam Walton - Afal 

Adam Walton, a person who i usually send about a million PR email’s to a week, sent me an email for a change. It contained information and links to his forthcoming ‘Afal’ album which is released tomorrow Friday 29th April.

From the off, i have to say that I was immediately drawn-in by the compositions and musicianship after only hearing sporadic bits of Adam’s music over the years. Afal is a sincere and quite personal array of songs that really are very endearing and certainly well written, and i felt i’d been let-in and introduced to a very different and magical world within Mr Walton. 

I can here many influences and certain nods to Teenage Fanclub’s Mellow Doubt, but the thing that sticks out most is how happy and lucky Adam should feel with ‘Afal’, its a beautiful record and wonderful world to be able to visit. I’ve bought my ticket to ‘Afal’, and it’s definitely one way! x

“The songs are deliciously quirky and evocative - so refreshing. If I had my own radio show, I'd definitely play this lovely album by Adam Walton - I love it!” - Mary Hopkin

“Fantastic, and finger-pickingly good!” - Music Blog Wales

His name is Adam Walton. He’s from Mold in north Wales.

His new album ‘Afal’ is released on this Friday 29th April 2022.

It’s folkish, melodic (I hope) and a little bit trippy, dictated by the songs having been mostly written and recorded after late shifts at work. I wanted to preserve as much humanity and natural grain in the recordings as possible… eschewing autotune, multiple takes and any urge for perfection.

I love slightly off kilter chord sequences and melodies that weave and glow. If the melodies weave and glow for you, I’ll be a happy-ish man.

Musically-speaking? I don’t know… there are scraps of Emitt Rhodes, Beck, De La Soul, Elliott Smith, Love, Teenage Fanclub, Modern Life Is Rubbish-era Blur, Richard Holland’s compilation tapes… The Zombies, Pink Floyd and The Boo Radleys.

It’s about being older and not hating it; not eschewing responsibility, but giving your imagination and flights of fancy daily mouth-to-mouth and defibrillation.

It’s trying to elicit the same sense of wonder that Operation Jonah, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Wacky Amoebatrons, Many Happy Returns, The Lotus Caves, And Your Bird Can Sing, Strange Perceptions, Runequest, The Losers Club, and rainy, deserted winter afternoons in Portmeirion elicited in me.

To my mind, the instrumental sketches interspersed throughout the album are just as important as the songs, but then the songs aren’t all that important, anyway, so it’s a moot point.

I do hope you like ‘Afal’, I won’t pretend otherwise. I hope it casts a spell over you.

Thank you for listening / diolch am wrando.

The album is available via all the usual streaming / download outlets from Friday 29th April 2022, and also as a limited edition black vinyl LP (300 copies) from bandcamp.

https://theimmediate.bandcamp.com/album/afal

All songs ©2022 written by Adam Walton (Copyright Control)

Recorded by a combination of me and Russ Hayes, between my house and Orange Sound Studios in Penmaenmawr.

Artwork by the very wonderful Beverley Dale

http://beverleydale.com

Live Dates 27.04.22 Bwyd Da, Bangor (Ukraine Fundraiser)

10.06.22 The Lexington, London (with Helen Love)

18.06.22 Le Pub, Newport (with Martin Carr and Richard J. Parfitt)

24.06.22 Elysium, Swansea

09.07.22 B-Fest, Caerwys

23.08.22 Loud & Local Festival, Alexander’s, Chester