GOD IS IN THE TV’S FOCUS WALES 2023 SHOWCASE ARTISTS – LUNAR BIRD, TOM EMLYN.
We are so pleased to announce our artists for this year’s Focus Wales showcase festival in Wrexham this May are Welsh artists Lunar Bird and Tom Emlyn.
Tom over the past year released debut solo album ‘News From Nowhere’ and acoustic follow up ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’. A master storyteller with wit and depth, the Swansea-born Cardiff based songwriter has enjoyed airplay and support from Radio Wales, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Horizons, R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine, Welsh Connections and more. The past month saw him share the ‘Scrounger’ EP. You can read our recent interview with him here.
‘Creatures’ is the gorgeous new single taken from Lunar Bird’s new album out in April. Fluttering in the arms of lucid synth lines and a stately percussion, the opening bars nod the head at the recently passed Julee Cruise‘s Twin Peaks theme ‘Falling’. Before unfurling through sinewy keyboards that sound like organs, swirling dreamy backdrops and Roberta’s enveloping big hearted vocals, that bare more than a passing resemblance to Kate Bush, invested with the feeling of being on the outside looking in, his is a wonderful self empowered hymn for the outcast. We look forward to the release of their second LP this Spring with anticipation.
They say: “Have you ever felt late in life? Like there must be something wrong with you as what seem to work for other people just doesn’t work for you and you feel like you’re left behind and judged for what you are. Well, we have. It surely takes courage and patience, but it’s a blessing for yourself and a gift for others when you accept who you really are. Creatures is our personal anthem of the outcast. “They’ll say we’re late / But they just don’t know / How long it takes a dust cloud / To become a star”
Formed in Italy in 2017 by singer-synth player Rob Musillami and bass player-visual artist Eliseo Di Malto, the art pop collective moved to Cardiff and released the EP ‘Daydreamer’ in 2018. Announced by several singles, Lunar Bird’s eponymous debut album (2021).
audiobooks, the London duo of Welsh super producer David Wrench and Evangeline Ling, returned with the announcement of a forthcoming new EP titled Gulliver. Out April 12 via Heavenly Recordings, it includes the previously released single ‘Tryna Tryna Take Control’, as well as a new track, ‘Burnt Pictures’, featuring OneDa. A charming cultural collision, this track marries impish Euro-electro pop with a slanted Talking Heads-like beats, Evangeline’s inventive, surreal and witty flights of lyrical imagination, this time they are joined by MC OneDa whose freestyle adds a refreshing perspective. It’s another aural riot from audiobooks who constantly delight and challenge with every release.
“’Burnt Pictures’ is unlike anything we’ve written before,” audiobooks said in a statement. “When we toured for Astro Tough we took along the brilliant Oneda to open for some of the shows. We were playing ‘Burnt Pictures’ as part of the set to try and explore different structures, and we invited up Oneda to freestyle with us, and it was exactly what the track was missing.”
Wrench added: “Inspiration for the track came from 60’s Czech New Wave Cinema classic ‘Daises’ which I put on silently on a screen in the studio while Evangeline improvised lyrics to it.”
2023 might be quite young, but Cardiff outfit Half Happy are proving themselves to be one of my favourite new bands. Their new single ‘Runaway Girl’ shows another side to their songwriting. Yes the swooning, longing and jangling guitars are there again, but the lyrical brevity. vocal switch ups and wistful chorus are another step up in their songwriting, and that’s saying something since we loved their first two tracks. A wonderful ode to escaping painful situations, the fluttery harmonies, sepia lined guitars and insistent drums, give way to Rose’s wonderful sighing vocals, guitars coo and baselines bounce like fluttering heartbeats as she tries to find tiny moments of joy in the midst of sad situations, her spoken word switch reminds me of Wolf Alice as she tries to break bad habits they say its “a song about a party, not a party song. When you know you’ve pushed it, blame it on a past life, then do it again anyway.” Self reflective, bittersweet and bloody glorious, Half Happy have captured my heart.
Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose roots are deep, on ‘No Umbilical’ she offers a mantra entwined with swooping choral lines and cut up electro pop tapestries that body pop. It has pleasing elements of early Bjork as she clambers across European terrains to connect with a deeper force. Her sonic exploration has taken her from training as a classical singer, immersing herself in Berlin’s experimental music scene, to learning with magicians, masters and the ancient teachings of the natural world. In her latest single, No Umbilical, Bethan is producing alongside ‘Jet Pack Dog’ bandmate and master of noise Isaac Ray. Positively transcendental.
Bethan’s lyrics delve into “the philosophy of animism and her classical vocal training shines through in the choral layering that brings the piece to a close. Accompanied by a video shot on a now vintage handheld camera, on the outskirts of Berlin, in a decaying building where nature tries to regain a hold, No Umbilical, both aurally and visually, places itself in a liminal space between past and present, consumerism and ancestry.”
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Sweet Baboo released a new album ‘The Wreckage’ in January and spoke to us all about it here. He is currently mid-tour, catch him while you can this March:
Wed 1 Mar – Manchester, Deaf Institute
Thu 2 Mar – Halifax, The Grayston Unity
Fri 3 Mar – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
Sat 4 Mar – Aldershot, West End Centre
Fri 10 Mar – Totnes, New Lion Brewery
Sat 11 Mar – Falmouth, Cornish Bank
Sun 12 Mar – Stroud, Prince Albert
Thu 16 Mar – Aberystwyth, Bank Vault
Fri 17 Mar – Rhayader, The Lost Arc
Sat 18 Mar – Cardiff, Chapter
Wed 22 Mar – Leicester, The Firebug
Fri 24 Mar – Birmingham, Sunflower Lounge
Sat 25 Mar – Nottingham, JT Soars, Nottingham
Juice Menace recently shared the playful, drama-packed new video for her scorching dance -grime mash-up ‘Pink Notes’. With club ready production, the fun single explores a pop dance sound that reflects Juice’s eclectic taste and restless approach to making music. Her intricate, knowing and frenetic bars offer escape and confidence from one of South Wales most exciting emerging MCs.
She says:‘Pink Notes’ is a fun, upbeat track I wrote more or less about hustle culture, the excitement, adrenaline, ups & downs that comes with chasing success.”
‘Pink Notes’ is the directorial debut of Thelma Sibusisiwe and her newly established production company ‘Home Is Where Da Art Is’.
