Trwbador - Trwbador

by Dave Goodwin

published: 9 / 3 / 2013

Label: Owlet Music
Format: CD

Unusual and haunting stripped-down electro folk-pop on debut album from Welsh duo, Trwbador

Review

According to Huw Stevens on Radio 1, Trwbador are "the most exciting band in Wales", and James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers reckons he "kinda gets lost in it" with them. Somehow bestowed with an intricate, stripped down yet haunting sound somewhere between early simple folk and the growing sound of DIY electronics, Trwbador have found their own little niche during just three years of collaboration. I spent five years living and working on Ynys Mon. That's The Isle of Anglesey to you, and even managed to pick up a bit of the dialect - enough to get me by anyhow. My reason for telling you this is just to confirm that, blessed with their beautiful country and some of the really down-to-earth, honest folk that I met along the way, it is not hard to see why the Welsh have a passion for music. Wales revolves around singing and performing arts of one description or another, and I was privileged to get to some of the Eisteddfods around the area. Carmarthenshire is the haunt of this duo, a little further south from where I was. Some quirkily endearing Welsh pop/folk/electronica both weaves and meanders itself around their music. The dreamstate vocals of Angharad Van Rijswijk possess a strange childlike naivety, as Owain Gwilym’s guitar playing soaks up the eerily atmospheric keyboard and digital warblings. They self-released two appealing EPs in 2011 and collaborated with Cornershop on their 2012 Christmas single, ‘Every Year So Different’. Their previous recordings have received highly regarded airplay from Lauren Laverne, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie as well as the afore mentioned Stevens. Not everyone are going to like Angharad's creepy Feistish vocals, but somehow they are a genuine compliment to this unusual merging of wheezing electronics and acoustic guitar. Lyrically enthralling, this debut harbours some ghostly dark corners, which are explored in great detail by Gwilym's dream-inspired dabbling on the synth and guitar. Highlights hidden in the labyrinth of sound are 'Red Handkerchiefs' with its unmistakable Bjork influence, and the strange guitar work and underworldly rhythmical sighs of 'Eira'. The closer 'The Magical Glasses' lasts just over a minute and leads you into a thick, sweet jar of honey. If you check out their Facebook page, they quote influences from Acoustic Music, Analogue Synthesis, Minimalism and Popular Song Structure. They are definitely on the road, and not just on the Welsh side of the border either. I have a strong feeling we have not heard the last from Carmarthenshire's electrofolk popsters.