Welsh Johnny Rotten be like ‘right now (in a minute)’ [can I have some funding now? - Ed]
GIGS
SAT FEB 3: CRAVEN, GOBLIN, DOMNIQUE CHARLEY @ SHIFT, Cardiff, 19:00
There’s nowt so queer as folk (ahem): Craven are a Cardiff / Stroud-based folk troupe whose rough and ready, bilingual takes on traditional ballads open up new contexts for the contemporary tavern-lurker; huge tip for Lankumesque drone lovers. Goblin are a not-wholly-dissimilar six-piece who came together at Hobgoblin Music, London, and appear to operate on the principle that this stuff has always been pretty weird and subversive. There will be hurdy-gurdy. Support from singer & story-teller Dominique Charley
SUN FEB 4: TEDDY HUNTER & BAND, AHGEEBEE @ Paradise Garden, Cardiff, 16:00
An intimate not-quite matinee sesh with dreampop abstractionist / neolith enthusiast Teddy Hunter, who is raising money to bring the rest of her band along to her upcoming appearance at New York’s ‘New Colossus’ festival. Support from Rhodri Brooks aka AhGeeBee, a indie-leaning multi-instrumentalist who’s keen to point out he’s doing his ‘alternative set’; expect the unexpected
MON FEB 5: ASH COOKE, GARETH ROBERTS, LYNDON OWEN @ Bank Vault, Aberystwyth, 19:30
Improv night out west, with three duets and a trio advertised. Ash Cooke’s ‘Gwrth-gitâr’ practice (that’s ‘anti-guitar’) has earnt him international kudos, and rightfully so: last year’s Yn Syllu ar Sain was a favourite, a collaboration with Japan-based guitarist Kawol Samarqandi which leaps with effortless grace between the tuneful, the tactile and the pleasurably unsettling. Further discord from poet Gareth Roberts and multi-instrumentalist Lyndon Owen, who you may know from improv jazz-metal mob The Plague Doctors, among other things
TUE FEB 6: MUMBLES, INCORRIGIBLE GIRL, THE MERMERINGS, BETO BETO, ROMA LANE @ The Moon, Cardiff, 19:00
It would be remiss of me not to include a band who describe their sound as ‘Bill Orcutt joining Porridge Radio’: Mancunian power queerdoes, FFO open-tuned major-key agit-rock. Joined by a volley of Wales-based acts including intriguing new venture Beto Beto who bill themselves as Jazz-Punk-Experimental
FRI FEB 16: ZELT, CITIES, HEAD NOISE, SSICK @ The Moon, Cardiff, 19:30
Many-faced post-rock-tronica via Turkey and the UK, incorporating elements of dabke, abstract acid and slick, steely guitars. Heady stuff: have previously released material on the now South Wales-based Stridente label. Support from Swansea space-faring four-piece Cities, Cardiff synth-punks Head Noise, and industro-pop from Stridente boss Ssick
SAT FEB 17 / SUN FEB 18: RIVERSIDE AUDIO WALKS WITH FELIX TAYLOR @ Riverside, Cardiff, 11:00 & 14:00
Sound artist Felix Taylor has created an audio walk around Cardiff’s Riverside district, in which listeners can tune into multiple FM broadcasts of music, field recordings and conversations with residents about ‘the everyday ghosts that haunt us’; mine is the bloke on Cowbridge Road East that won’t clean his gaff, but of course, that would be a Canton matter. The recordings will be available for a month from Feb 17th onwards, all you need is an FM receiver and the map below. A group walk has been organised by the Cardiff community organisation Gentle / Radical; tickets are free, but you must get a ticket
SUN FEB 18: THE CHISEL, RIFLE, FATAL BLOW, CANKICKER @ The Globe, Cardiff, 19:00
Oi oi: modern bovver-boy rumble for street-punks on the pulse. You’ve been warned. Support from Rifle—low-born bastard riffs; all your favourites, played with conviction—and Cardiff’s own Fatal Blow. Also on the bill:
TUE FEB 20: KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE, GEHEIMNISKNECHT, SEAN ADDICOTT, SORROWING KNIGHT, SLOW MURDER @ SHIFT, Cardiff, 19:00
Dean Robinson‘s reign of terror in Cardiff continues; for my money, the last Cardiff outing was a surprisingly melodious yet no-less punishing exhibition from the frosty edge of the void, but since every visit of his has been different, there’s no telling exactly who will show up. Meanwhile the D&Dification of the underground continues at a pace, with dungeon-synth from not one but two shadowy questers: some might know Geheimnisknect from blackened Belfast death-metal lot Unyielding Love, whilst Sorrowing Knight is a brand new project from Al Evans aka Ordeal By Roses. I’m told they’ve bought a cape special, so you know they’re serious. Further support from Sean ‘Tallest Man in Ambient’ Addicott—ecstatic resonance and majestic frequencies—and risky flights through fields of static from Cardiff’s Slow Murder
SAT FEB 24: PENGUIN PEBBLING @ SHIFT, Cardiff, 19:00
A very cool collaboration between Ty Cerdd and the Aubergine Café, led by Cardiff duo Ardal Bicnic and producer Jake Griffiths. Brings together six neurodivergent early-career artists working across several fields including classical, composition, improv, folk, noise, visual arts and more. Their names, in no particular order: Eranan Thirumagan, Ffion Campbell-Davies, James Jones, Laura Phillips, Neo Ukandu and Rhiannon Takel
SUN FEB 25: DIRK SERRIES / COLIN WEBSTER, RALPH CLARKSON / MATTHEW GRIGG / TIM HILL, JON RUDDICK @ SHIFT, Cardiff, 19:00
You might know Dirk Serries from his long-running ambient project Vidna Obmana, but he’s also an improvising guitarist; expect waves of hollow-body a-tonal drift, of the sort that can remove you from time and place entirely. Joining him is UK saxophonist Colin Webster, who I’m hoping brings his baritone. Support from numerous fellow UK jazz mainstays including Bristol-based trombonist and composer Ralph Clarkson, guitarist Matthew Grigg (who did this cool release with Webster) and Somerset saxophonist Tim Hill, who I hear used to play with Derek Bailey! Wow. Further support from SHIFT boss Jon Ruddick, who will be doing a no-input mixer set (*Rodney Dangerfield voice* let’s hope it has no output either!)
THINGS I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:
- I listened to this Bill Evans Special on NTS from a couple years back and whilst some of it’s a bit schmaltzy for me, some of it’s the exact sort of profound and mysterious type of mellowed-out I love. That’s modal baby! This live set from 65 is also very cool
- Like this from Danish Composer Astrid Sonne, who’s done an about-turn and made something resembling a pop album. Heard about this in Tone Glow, a substack that’s worth more of your time than this one
- Case in point: I clocked from their EoY list that I’d missed amazing new music from Chuquimamani-Condori, also known as Elysia Crampton. Like 2015’s American Drift, it’s a dense, multi-dimensional collection of sonic collages, distinguished for me by its optimism; there’s something in the mix, the spacing of elements, which evokes a sensation of elevation. I was lucky enough to speak with Elysia many years ago if that sort of thing interests you, but this quote I thought was great: “Consider all the text written on what we call the Jurassic or Cretaceous periods, or what we consider primeval in general. Almost every story I’ve ever read, fiction or nonfiction, has this barbaric, ruthless concept of organisms living in those time periods. But who is to say that the dinosaurs and other life forms didn’t invent or develop their own ethics? Who is to say that much like birds, their apparent relatives, the dinosaurs didn’t master song and use it as a means of communicating and telling stories, or even establishing things like morality, which historically is tied to music and storytelling? They certainly lived long enough for one to logically consider the possibility. So much of how we look at and acknowledge not just history but life itself is based on the formation of the colonial sovereign subject, which is so, so narrow”
SGARAB NEWS
There is but a single King of Love C20 left, and it can be yours today. Panama Papers tapes are also running low although we might do a fresh run for our upcoming tour with THANK at the end of March. The next Sgarab release is from Scottish performance artist T Person, entitled The Sun / The Throat: terse compositions of mythology and desire, assemblies of quiet rage. Some more exciting gig and release announcements soon, including a special compilation
IKLECTIK
The much-loved London venue and centre for collaboration and research has been forced to shut by the bastard, blood-sucking forces that now more or less run this rapidly failing state: property developers. Please consider donating to this Crowdfunder, which aims to keep their vision alive through the establishment of a dedicated ART LAB for experimentalists to continue doing their thing. We were lucky enough to host one IKLECTIK resident, ECOLAGBOHRSAC2021, at SHIFT last year and anybody who came along to that will understand the kinds of things the space has made possible
FREE PALESTINE
The genocidal massacre of Palestinian civilians by the state of Israel continues, and the attendance of as many as 12 ministers at a Gaza / West Bank resettlement conference makes clear that ethnic cleansing is an agenda shared at the highest levels of Israeli government. The decision of the UK government to halt funding to the UNRWA is a callous, cowardly capitulation, one which I think demonstrates how this situation concerns us all in so much as Israel’s actions are setting the agenda throughout the West: your taxes are paying to bomb Yemen, one of the most impoverished nations on the planet, and your politicians are spending their time defending this. Donate to Medical Aid for Palestine today
Xavier Boucherat is a Cardiff-based musician, promoter and writer. Check out Sgarab Tapes on Bandcamp. Through the Night is published whenever there’s time, here on Substack
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
If you enjoyed this, you can buy me a non-alcoholic lager here (I was informed recently that this link has been broken forever so if for whatever bizzare reason you’ve tried and failed to do this before, now’s the time to try again)