Info: Back in the summer of 2015 excellent Irish music blogger Barry Gruff put myself and Dan Amor, the founder of Welsh indie label Cae Gwyn Records, in touch with each other and it resulted in a wonderful musical relationship blossoming (I'm sure Dan agrees!). Through his label Dan shared with me some of my favourite music from the last few years, in fact, he's never sent me a single track that I felt in any way underwhelmed by, always the opposite.
This would in turn open other doors with Dan introducing me to Welsh music blogger and indie PR guru Aled Thomas and an exchange of music between Ireland and Wales happening across both of our blogs, Aled has a soft spot for THUMPER to say the least. The Welsh independent music scene has paralleled what is happening here in Ireland over the last few years, two small countries on the edge of Europe punching above our weight, so it's been a highly enjoyable exposé for me personally.
Recently Recordiau Cae Gwyn celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a compilation (casgliad) of some of their artists, many of whom I've had the pleasure of reviewing here over the years including mr.huw, Omaloma, Lastigband and Pablo Vasquez to name but a few, all of whom are featured on the above album. You'll find, like me, that there is a joyful mixture of highly original psychedelic, jangle, experimental and dream pop to be found within and it's a perfect introduction to what's going on over in Cymru with these artists receiving regular airplay on BBC Radio courtesy of Lauren Laverne and Huw Stephens, the Welsh Dan Hegarty.
Best of all, this compilation is available as a free download, and features brand new as well as older tracks. You can grab your copy here https://caegwynrecords.bandcamp.com/album/casgliad-cae-gwyn
Penblwydd Hapus Cae Gwyn! Xx.
