#caermarthen

Dod nôl am wythnos newydd! Shwmae folks, glad you've been liking the Welsh music Wednesday recommendations so far, I've got one of Wales and especially Welsh language music's brightest stars as a spotlit artist for today!

Adwaith are an indie rock trio from Caermarthen in South Wales, made of three school friends Gwenllian Anthony, Hollie Singer (who is, aptly, one of the two singers in the band) and Heledd Owen.

They started out as more of a punk band, writing songs with a feminist punk rock angle, talking about their lives as girls in town (Lipstick Coch is a great song to check out from the time). They wrote as they spoke, a deliberate choice to be more conversational and not feel afraid to make mistakes in their Welsh, as language learners and feel more confident. And Adwaith have every reason to be confident: they are one of the most exciting bands to come out of Wales, and lately they have only been going from strength to strength.

Winning the Welsh Music Prize for their debut album, 2018's Melyn, Adwaith began expanding their sound into more indie and post punk on their second album Bato Mato, inspired by a trip taken by the band to get to a show, on the Trans Siberian Express train. They won the Welsh Music Prize again for that album, and to date that makes them the only artist ever to have won the prize twice!

It also took them beyond the usual boundaries of minority language music: Adwaith played the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, and were even picked up for a session by the iconic radio station KEXP when they were at the ESNS showcase festival in the Netherlands in 2022.

They've released their third album this February called Solas, and once again Adwaith have taken a bold step. Solas is an all-Welsh language double album, and the band continues to grow sonically: they lean into darker synths, write about life and the world around them, find pockets of joy in the darkness, and just generally have written an album that should be lauded.

Anyway, Adwaith are extremely cool. Here's Solas on Bandcamp, if you like them, go buy their album and support them independently if you can. (Alternately if you're just in the area, they are on Libertino Records.)

I've linked the first song ‘Planed’ (‘Planet’), because it's quite Depeche Mode to my ears.

Helô pawb, 'chi'n iawn? Hanging in there? I've got some great music to help tide you over if not. Back with another Welsh music Wednesday, and this week it's all about the harmonies: I'm featuring Ynys!

Dylan Hughes is a keyboardist, guitarist, musician and songwriter from Aberystwyth, and has previously been in bands like the psychedelic indie rockers Race Horses, going as far back as 2009. (They were kinda folky too, they had a harpist!) After the band split, Dylan was living in Cardiff for a spell and wasn't really outwardly involved with music for the decade, but there were ideas accumulating in his mind, little melodies and such. He never thought he would release them, until friends (and former Race Horses) started encouraging him to put it down on record.

That's where Dylan's (good) problem began: he never wrote these songs with the intention of a band playing them, and so to record them, he needed a band. Friends stepped in, and a few former band members pitched in, and so Ynys was born. Dylan began realising in hindsight that a lot of his lyrics seemed to be about adjusting to the city in Cardiff, longing for Aberystwyth his hometown and the seaside.

Ynys' debut album Ynys (2021) is a psychedelic, delightful indie rock record, in turns brooding and delightfully poppy, with lush strings, melodies and harmonies, drawing from some of Dylan's own favourite albums and artists (the song Caneuon specifically refers to listening to the song Gegin Nos, from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci 1994 album Tatay). Here's album opener Môr Du (Black Sea), performed on Lŵp.

The follow up album, recorded during lockdown when Dylan was home in Aberystwyth, is one of the catchiest indie pop albums of last year. Dosbarth Nos (Night Class) is a must-listen album.

Ces i gyfle i gyfweld Dylan cyn yr albwn yn rhyddau'r llynedd. Guy hyfryd I've gotta say! A cherddor ardderchog. Anyway, if you like their music, check out their Bandcamp and support them independently. Dylan's particular about making sure their lyric booklets and Bandcamp have their lyrics and an artistically satisfactory English translation, as transliteration hardly ever really conveys exactly what the original lyrics do. So a good recommendation for my fellow dyswyr too.