Focus Wales '23 - Day Four
If you’re looking for the big summary I promised yesterday, this is not it. If I’m totally honest, I’m not sure when that is, I don’t even know how to summarise this final day of the festival. Notice I shifted then, up until now I’ve only referred to Focus Wales as a conference, and it is, but most other people refer to it as a festival, and that is totally valid also. Yesterday felt very much like a festival.
Still this particular festival is made up largely of showcases by individual organisations, and the best one this year was from Cardiff promoters Starving Artists. Tumi Williams who heads up the organisation, has been pouring love and passion into the Welsh music scene for well over a decade. I’ve already mentioned him by his artist name Skunkadelic, and his band Afro Cluster, but his involvement goes way deeper than that. Here, it’s all about shining light on up and coming black artists in Wales.
The venue Old No. 7 was packed already for a Power Up networking event (the PRS initiative I mentioned yesterday, which Tumi has also been involved in), but everybody there wanted to stay for Mace The Great who kick started the showcase. In fact not only did everyone want to stay but tons more people wanted to come in, way more than the venue could hold. In the end I decided to step outside so others could get in, however the general consensus was that he absolutely smashed it. I don’t doubt that, I’ve seen him many times now and that’s always the case. Sadly it meant I also missed The Honest Poet who was on straight afterwards. I’ve seen his solo show a number of times, and that is awesome, but I really wanted to catch him with his new live band. Again though, the buzz afterwards was nothing but positive. I’ll have to wait til Knockengorroch in a few weeks until I can see this particular set up.
The biggest buzz amongst other artists was for neo soul singer / songwriter Adjua. I’d seen her talk before and met her briefly at a Power Up event that the BBC put on in Cardiff recently, but this was the first time catching her sing. She was playing without her band but the songs definitely stand up to the acoustic vibe and her voice is beautiful, smooth but full and when she put a little extra force behind it, I felt that right in the chest.
The final act was Mirari who played a solid set , you know whenever you see Minas DJ for an artist (which he did a number of times over the weekend) it’s gonna be decent. He’s got some top quality tracks, good presence and an energetic performance. He also jumped up later with Ogun. Both of them are on a similar tip so they work well together, sounding great across various popular rap styles. How these two are not regular on BBC 1Xtra is a crime for sure.
Of course this whole day had the backdrop of the royal coronation, but you’d hardly notice except for a few comments. Raucous Māori punk band Half/Time said something along the lines of "fuck the colonisers, fuck the coronation" before trying a sentence in Welsh. They definitely knew their crowd. Then of course there was Welsh folk legend Dafydd Iwan who was a rather poetic booking for such an occasion given that, in his words, he’s been singing about our new king for 52 years, not in favourable terms I’d wager. He played a great set. Even though I never learned Welsh in school, or managed to grasp it properly since, you can feel the passion in his voice, and there is no denying how rousing his songs are regardless of language. Of course the most rousing of all is Yma O'Hyd, the 1983 Welsh nationalist classic that had quite the revival recently thanks to Wales qualifying for the World Cup last year. It’s a powerful song, I got goosebumps when everyone sang along.
Other highlights were: Cerys Hafana, who somehow carries a punk edge, even when singing hauntingly beautiful folk songs with a stunning ethereal voice, especially when she chooses the bass guitar over her usual triple harp; Commander Spoon, a lively jazz crew from Belgium who are obviously inspired by the last wave of UK artists. You know when jazz is good when you’re waving gun fingers in the air and screwfacing by the speaker in appreciation; Culture Vultures, one of my favourite crews from West Wales who sound a little like New Kingdom filtered through cloud rap, High Focus and Blah Records, but very much repping life out in the wild west of Carmarthen; Mouraine from Edmonton in Canada was the hip hop highlight, hype as hell energy without sacrificing clarity or mic control one bit; VOYA from Cardiff, whose well respected members include Jessy Allen, Ed Boogie and Linford Hydes. Musically they sound like the best of 80s synth pop, Balearic anthems and even a touch of glam rock. Their songs are super catchy and they have some serious style going on; I caught Naduh again who had a much better show in a smaller venue with better sound, the place was packed for them too and nobody left disappointed; finally Band Pres Llareggub, the number one representation for New Orleans style brass bands here in Wales. These fellas make everything sound funky.
Of course there was also Xenith! I stepped in to cover DJ Jaffa who sadly couldn’t make it so I didn’t get to watch from out front but it felt like their best show yet, and they had a lot of great feedback from people saying it was their favourite hip hop show, or even their favourite show of the festival full stop. I love to see these fellas do well, and they’ve only just started really as their first single is due out soon. Their open mic, which they do at most shows, was also great with 4Dee, Unity, Mouraine and Rosa from Naduh all grabbing the mic. This is the best thing about Focus Wales, the way that other artists come and support each other’s shows. If you put in the work to bring people to your shows, and catch the vibe properly while you’re there, you can have better vibes than any other conference in the world right here in North Wales. I hope it paid off for everybody who smashed it this year. I’m very much looking forward to next year. As I said earlier, I’ve got some follow up thoughts but I want to let them brew for a little bit longer. Make sure you subscribe to this site if you haven’t done already.
