INTRO |
DISC 1 |
DISC 2 |
DISC
3 |
BONUS DISC |
MAP OF WALES |
BUY A COPY | PICTURES & PRESS
Three CDs and 48 tracks of drone, field recording, free improv, plunderphonics, space-rock and unfettered noise, pulchritudously packaged in a petite black box, all from Wales and quite possibly featuring no-one you've heard of. The most likely candidates are avant-garde harpist Rhodri Davies, one-time Gorky's Zygotic Mynci producer Gorwel Owen and Jackie-O Motherfucker-feted free folkers Nawadaha; a number of others have no releases, demos or online presence. Don't read this as a black mark against the cherishable Fourier Transform label, which since releasing Aufgehoben's raging
Anno Fauve LP a few years back has gone above and beyond in its efforts to document the abrasive fringes of sound. It's hope beyond hope that anyone might like all of
Brave New Wales, but quality control is tightly observed, with effective unknowns like Edwin Pang and Green End Listening Station cleansing and challenging on the sly.
Noel Gardner,
Plan B
Welsh experimental label Fourier Transform launch their most ambitious project yet with this three-CD box of the best in current Welsh experimental music. A tough job considering that, to me at least, the ideas of Welshness and the avant-garde seem about as mutually exclusive as Robert Mugabe and a fair election (satire!). However, for the most part, they pull it off admirably. This box manages, in one fell swoop, to draw a map of the Welsh experimental scene with musicians from all parts of Wales accounted for; even Mid-Wales, which you wouldn't have imagined to be populous enough to produce anything leftfield enough to warrant inclusion here.
Indeed, there's a suprising breadth of material here ranging from arty conceptual stuff (
Moving a Pile of Bricks... is exactly that) to harsh noise (Gimp Nipples, Rose Heyworth, Edwin Pang). Unfortunately, it's the harsher moments that tend to let this collection down slightly with only Edwin Pang rising above the ill-considered, tinny digital noise of the other artists that are plowing the harsh noise/power electronics furrow here. But low points are scarce in what is an impressive, and important, collection.
Iain Peebles, Sŵn Magazine
I could only think of one Welsh band, on top of my head, being Super Furry Animals, but they don't seem to part of this collection... It's quite a daring move to start with a couple of strong noise pieces on disc one, but as the CDs evolve there are also other forms of music, mostly ambient and field recordings, as this turns out to be a release of music that is nowhere near rock music and that's the cool thing about this release, it's all connected to the world of experimental music, in all its shades and colors. Hard to tell track by track what is there, but as a whole, this is an excellent introduction to Wales and its musical undercurrent.
Frans de Waard,
Vital Weekly
This is not a CD to do your washing up to on your battered kitchen stereo. Sit comfortably together in an ambiently lit room. Play the CDs through a decent sound system and make time for it, it deserves your full attention... a rollercoaster of emotions with no commitments, complete unpredictability, moments of blissful euphoria and relexation, wrapped in black. What more do you want?
Emma Louis,
Snowdonia Nights Out Gazette
