FOCUS WALES: DAY THREE
I forgot how real festival fatigue is! Day Three and my legs feel like they’ve run a marathon, my head is fuzzier than a furby and my voice is starting to crack. Wouldn’t change it for the world though, I’m at my happiest hopping from venue to venue watching live music, meeting inspiring people and chatting to friends and peers from morning til morning. Bravo Focus Wales, it’s an absolute privilege and I’ve still got a day to go. First I need to tell you about yesterday though, it was definitely a vibe!
First proper outing of the day was to go and see L e m f r e c k at Llwyn Isaf. It must have been quite a daunting venue to play, a massive circus tent in the centre of town and for the first 10 minutes of the show I’d say 90% of the crowd was other artists, with Minas, Luke RV, Honest Poet, Kiddus (who jumped up for a guest appearance on their new single ‘Closer’) and Rona Mac all turning up early to catch this talented Cardiff artists who graced BBC Introducing’s “One to Watch” list this year.
L e m f r e c k might not have filled the tent but he had no problem filling the stage with a huge presence and much more energy than most artists can muster. His sound is hard to pin down which I love and he flits easily between jazzy RNB and Grime, backed up by a three piece band and huge on stage visuals. He is definitely an artist with a professional approach and a unique artistic vision so I really hope to see big things happen for him in future.
Speaking of unique visions, let’s go back to Kiddus which thankfully I did after not quite feeling his performance the day before. Perhaps I’d been expecting something else after he’d cockily called me out on Twitter for missing his name out of a Focus Wales roll call. To be fair I couldn’t have expected anything to do with Kiddus as there’s definitely nobody else quite like him. At times he appeared intensely introverted on stage, crooning out tender RNB songs, but then with big explosions of eccentric energy. There’s a hint of Tyler The Creator at times and although I’d say he’s got some way to grow to fully realise his artistic path, I’ll certainly be keeping an eye to see where it goes.
The surprises didn’t stop there, I headed back to St Gilles Parish Church for Tuuletar, a 4 piece acapella group with a fierce sense of style singing an interpretation of Nordic folk music over Hip-hop and Dancehall beatboxed rhythms. Songs about struggle and the move from isolation to freedom, which I could really feel even if I didn’t understand the Finnish lyrics. They were a force on stage and I was gutted to only see a few tunes as I really wanted to catch the end of Junior Brother, a Folk singer from Ireland. Both acts have me reaching for the thesaurus so I don’t overuse the word unique but it’s really hard not to attach that to them. At times JB reminds me of an Irish Richard Dawson but that wouldn’t be a fair representation. In fact, the best thing to do is just have a listen to him, here’s ‘Hungover At Mass’ which I thankfully managed to catch despite being quite late for his set. It’s probably fair to say that he’s an acquired taste, but I love this song and I would quite happily call myself a fan of his music in general.
Sadly due to a few technical complications the times had been thrown out in a couple of venues so I missed a couple of acts such as Panic Shack that I really wanted to see. I saw them last week alongside Bob Vylan, they were brilliant. Bob Vylan also played here at Focus Wales last night but I couldn’t make it there either, there were reports they were a highlight though and I can well imagine it!
Because of the timing situation my own showcase was running late and so I didn’t really get to enjoy Flamingods as much as they deserved. I would happily go to see them again though. I was too busy thinking about getting them off stage so we wouldn’t have to cut anyone’s sets afterwards. Although I was absolutely gutted that Juice Menace couldn’t make it to perform, it was almost a blessing time wise. There was certainly one moment during Aleighcia Scott’s set where I considered not allowing her encore but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it thankfully. I DJed for her at both shows yesterday and even though a large number of people in the crowd had seen her just an hour earlier they still appreciated her set just as much and sang along with her Dawn Penn tribute ‘No, No, No’.
For me, Aleighcia is by far one of the greatest Reggae voices to come out of the UK. Her rootsy and soulful Lovers Rock style is so uplifting and she’s a genuine pleasure to be around. I also caught a little taste of her forthcoming album, produced by legendary Jamaican producer and sound system selector Rorystonelove. It’s called ‘Windrush Baby’ and is going to be a must have for any respectable Reggae listener out there. Not that her appeal is limited to a strictly Reggae audience after being A Playlisted a couple of times on BBC Radio Wales. Last night she even had the agent from a leading Folk festival contemplating booking her there, watch this space.
The next artist on stage for Kaptin Selects was Eädyth, another powerful voice in the Welsh Music scene with tons of talent. Singing heartfelt RNB songs in both Welsh and English from behind her keyboard, she holds the space really well. I honestly have visions of hearing her Welsh language tracks playlisted on BBC 1Xtra or 6Music (as they have on both Radio Wales and Radio Cymru), that would be a beautiful thing indeed.
Harare born, Cwmbran based rapper and singer Szwe was up next and despite admitting to being incredibly nervous beforehand, gave a great performance with three tracks from his recent album ‘The Glorious Life Of Being Misunderstood’ including ‘Sleeping On Me’. If anyone there had been sleeping on him, then they certainly won’t be after last night.
Sadly technical issues marred M9 Awakenings’ set so I don’t think we got the full experience from this psychedelic rap duo but there was definitely some love for them in the crowd still.
Rounding off the night was Tumi Williams aka Skunkadelic who is also one of the programmers for the festival, as well as a panelist with his promoters hat on yesterday. He’d already rocked the festival once with his band Afro Cluster, an incredible live band who just seem to go from strength to strength and are a must see at any festival the play. This time he had world class beatboxer, sax player and loop pedalist Mr Woodnote in tow and they both laid down the perfect party vibes to finish the night off properly, rinsing out the very last drops of dancefloor energy from everyone in the room. As I said at the start, it was definitely a vibe! Massive thanks to everyone that made it down and huge love to Focus Wales for making it happen. I was real happy with the acts and the turnout, plus I got to play a whole bunch of other Welsh artists between shows. To be honest it’s just nice to drop the likes of Mace The Great, Benji Wild and The Honest Poet through a big system. Speaking of which, they are all performing today so I’d better get out there and see them. Final episode in the Focus Wales saga coming tomorrow!
