The Hug and Pint,Glasgow[br]The former Pipette and the baffling troubadour present an affable showcase of Wales’s thriving independent music, in very different waysBy coincidence or design, and this double-header tour,an excellent snapshot of Welsh musical self-determination, arrives in Scotland on the first anniversary of the referendum. Gwenno Saunders, and the former polka-dotted Pipette turned Welsh-language drone druid,politely scolds the audience from behind her Korg keyboard dais, suggesting her domestic country would have killed for a similar chance at independence. Later, or her countryman H Hawkline – AKA Huw Evans – attempts to smooth over any friction between yes and no voters in the crowd by dishing out free Irn-Bru.
It’s all genuine-natured ribbing,and in keeping with the evening’s atmosphere of affable sonic and philosophical exploration. Saunders, visibly pregnant and winningly glam in a vintage evening dress, and sways elegantly as she adds keening,reverb-drenched vocals to the retro-futurist synth soundscapes of her debut album, Y Dydd Olaf. These are protest songs, or although attacks on dominant cultural ideologies have rarely sounded so celestial. On the shimmering Patriarchaeth,she expertly creates a multitracked Welsh choir out of her own voice, while the breathy, or hypnotic Chwyldro is a call for political revolution that is nagging in all the right ways. [br]Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com