THROUGH THE NIGHT FEB 2023
THROUGH THE NIGHT FEB 2023
Weird gigs in South Wales
Greetings from Havealaughwest; a chapel on every street, a prayer in every heart, a pint in every hand. Open Mic is on Wednesdays, I won’t be going. I am on placement here and so I can’t attend any of these shows either. Instead I’ve been on my ‘infrastructure guy’ nonsense and checking out the oil scene. There’s a long line of tankers filling up the bay, anyone so inclined could definitely get a few drone records out of the racket they make:
Happy birthday to us. In case you missed it, see the 2022 EOY Bust-Up for part 2 of my long chat with DJ Guy, some stuff I loved last year and a new single from me
GIGS
RIP Cosmic Carnage: after years of service, Rich is forsaking freaks throughout the region and calling it quits. Lots of highlights but Rainbow Grave’s 2019 visit stands out, not least Napalm Death’s Nick Bullen calling me a cunt for never having visited Coventry. Loved that.
FEB 3: MIKE OLDFIELD’S TUBULAR BELLS @ St David’s Hall, Cardiff, 19:30
50th anniversary tour with a full line-up. Because why not. Might as well enjoy the place before they get the likes of Yard Act, Slaves “Soft Play” (fka Slaves) or the crap Gallagher brother in every night
FEB 4: MANU DELAGO’S ‘ENVIRON ME’ @ The Gate, Cardiff, 19:00
Austrian percussionist, has previously collaborated with the likes of Bjork, Anoushka Shankar and Olafur Arnalds. His latest live show, ‘Environ Me’, is an expansive-looking AV set combining Delago’s practice with outdoorsy cinematics and field recordings. I’ve seen some videos and I’ll say this: it’s a must for fans of the ‘handpan’
FEB 10: PENANCE STARE, LUMP HAMMER, NUCLEAR GANDHI @ The Moon, Cardiff, 20:00
One of two Cosmic Carnage shows this month. Penance Stare are North-East duo Esme Newman and Skylar Gill; chilly rehearsal room black metal to entomb the senses, I’ve often been in The Moon and thought ‘all hope is lost’ but rarely has that been the intended message. Joining them are Newcastle compatriots Lump Hammer; a sludgy blown-out shambles, doomed to make the same mistakes over, and over, and over. Haven’t heard Nuclear Gandhi (‘psych doom from London’ it says here), Google it and instead you’ll learn all you need to know about the computer science concept of ‘integer overflow’
FEB 11: JOSH ACE, PEIRIANT, PORTALS, NATHAN LAURENCE @ Elysium Bar & Gallery, Swansea, 19:00
A chance to see wonderful TTN favourites Peiriant, an improvising Mid-Wales duo deploying guitar, violin and whatever else they can scrape together; stark, rugged, minimal, conversational, I don’t know how something manages to come off both pleasant and Pinteresque but that’s what I’m telling you. Variously-informed power pop from Josh Ace, electronica from Portals and jaunts from Swansea-based folk-singer Nathan Laurence
FEB 17: HOLY SCUM, KELAN, SHISHU, FISTACOW @ The Moon, Cardiff, 20:00
Second, possibly penultimate outing from CC? Manchester’s Holy Scum are a collaborative effort featuring members of Gnod, hip-hop duo Dalek and more. Their ‘Strange Desires’ LP is a troubling body of grinding, desolate textures and dissonant walls-of-sound, mangled by alien production. If you liked that Persher record, you’ll love this. Meanwhile Bristol’s Kelan returns; red-light district industro-primitivism, pure menace. Further support from Cardiff misery bunch Shishu and harsh electronics / righteous techno from the unfortunately dubbed Fistacow
FEB 22: EX-VOID, GARDEN CENTER @ Clwb, Cardiff, 19:00
Aggro-wilderpop from ex-Joanna Gruesome crew. You know the feeling; hung up on someone but still you’ve gotta go to work. Support from the fantastic Max Levy and co, homebrew gear, I imagine this is what R Stevie Moore sounds like but I’ve never listened to him. Not even once! Max used to drive that wee train up and down Hove Beach but gave it up so he’d have more time to make music I guess, idiot
FEB 24: CAN KICKER, NATION UNREST, THE PINCH, YA YONDER, ESTHER AND DAVID J BULL @ Inkspots, Cardiff, 19:30
Can Kicker crowbar their way into Cardiff’s most inconsistent venue for an IRL launch of their S/T LP, reviewed last christmas. TL;DR? Morose weirdo rattlers / goth-adjacent dirges from Luke, Matt, Emma and Jo. Support from Newport / Carlisle EBM party boys Nation Unrest, newly-arrived Bristol punks The Pinch (members of Gimic, Cruelty and, of course, Neurotic Fiction) and Cardiff’s Ya Yonder, whose ‘Certain Chances’ EP I enjoyed. After-tunes from the PG Gang. Bring cash for the bar
FEB 22-26: DAN JOHNSON, PHENOMENAL KISSING, ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON, AISTE BALTUYSTE, KASIA BIESLAWSKA-JOHANSSON & MORE @ Shift, Cardiff, various times
Once again I am redirecting you to the SHIFT website for the actual details but Bristol-based percussionist and performance artist Dan Johnson returns to Cardiff for what will certainly be an engaging series of workshops, live performances, collaborations and more. I’ve not seen Dan half as much as I’d have liked to but his work in EP64 was breath-taking: ecstatic, inventive, relentless
FEB 26: SLIT THROATS, SECRET(E), ECOTAGE, INSATIABLE WOUND @ Shift, Cardiff, 19:00
A postscript to ‘Feedback and Frustration’, a noise / experimental all-dayer happening in Bristol on Sat 25. Of course, you could just come to this. US-based Slit Throats is harsh noise artist Roman Leyva’s ‘good mood’ project, previously incorporating Japanese Women’s Wrestling, Godzilla Movies, Monster Trucks and welcome references to the greatest lyricist of our age. For those who observe the union, this Cardiff show is Leyva’s UK premiere! Support from Secret(e), an exciting-looking venture from Dutch noise stalwart Svartvit, centring high-tension voice-box abuse. Two new projects to round thing off: ‘ecoterror harsh noise’ from Ecotage and ‘noise for harm’ from Insatiable Wound
QUICK REVIEWS OF WEIRD WELSH STUFF
Shout out Link2Wales—the essential North Wales & Liverpool Punk Resource—for turning me on to Ankstmusik’s recent run of archive uploads, from around the time of the ‘S4C makes me want to smoke crack’ compilations. There’s a bunch of very cool stuff, including three LPs from Bangor trio Fflaps—the 1992 S/T is my favourite; barrelling, dim-wave postpunk—and EFFEITHIOL from Tŷ Gwydr, Cardiff’s early contribution to Two-Guy Theory. Best of all imo is this collection of singles from Ectogram, the band Fflaps became; sunburnt guitars and dreams of Neu! make for anxious yet mesmerizing psych, but it’s singer Ann Matthews who really elevates things with a fever-dream delivery that seems to operate both inside and out of the beat
Somatic Responses – Rhinog Fawr
Further helping of blackened glacial drift from John Healy, whose sensitive ways with modular synthesis grant visions of instruments yet to be invented; unwieldy mega-harps that ring from peak to peak, tin rocks striking underwater dulcimers, and canyon-sized oscillators that shake the rocks themselves. Music to call down the clouds to
Typeless is run by Welsh boy Aloka, and this latest release is from Yerevan, Armenia-based Dave N.A. Tightly-sprung surround sound rollers for small waxed floors. Numerous points of inflection; time-stretched breaks, acid ambience, and quick, hooded nods to Chain Reaction. All the good stuff. Tidy darts
Dead-end downer beat from cowardly ex-Cardiff funsters including Owen ‘O’ Williams, my favourite voice of all. I love it; a minor wealth of theme tunes for forbidden sitcoms, never aired because they’re too real. Listening to it right now in fact and telling myself that ‘everything’s going to be ok’, like some feckless clown
LATELY I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN LISTENING TO:
- My latest favourite on Resonance FM is The Ambrosia Rasputin Show with certified bam-up artist Ivor Kallin. Impeccable farce, featuring plenty of the exact sort of engrossing, soulful improv I appreciate most. This latest episode features an exquisite recording of people talking over saxophonist Lol Coxhill, live somewhere in 80s Cardiff
- Love this new record from Rian Trainor and Acholi fiddle player Ocen James, pure outernationalism, sounds like nothing I could imagine. Also loved Daniel Spicer’s feature on James for The Wire, the main theme of which is how bloody difficult it was getting in touch with the guy
- I’m guessing it’s because of last year’s re-issue, but I’ve been going through what I can best describe as a Krusty’s Clown College episode with experimental Japanese rockers Les Rallizes Denudes; I never encountered them before, and yet suddenly it seemed there were a great many people, mainly on Twitter, insisting I need them in my life. Which is fair enough, they’re really great
- The Bezerk OST (?)
Xavier Boucherat is a Cardiff-based musician and writer. You can listen to and read his work here. Through the Night is published monthly on Substack. You can subscribe below.
If you are a recording artist in Wales or from Wales making anything freaky, I’d love to hear your stuff, particularly if you’re from a group that traditionally lacks representation. You can email me at throughthenightwales@gmail.com
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