Triple bill honours smaller venues
INDEPENDENT Venues Week, at the end of January, is a nationwide celebration of smaller music venues, and a chance to acknowledge the contribution of those who own, run, and work in them, and their value in providing a stage for newer acts.
The only North Wales venue featured in this special event, brought by 2017 ambassador Tim Burgess of The Charlatans and O Genesis record label, and supported by the Help Musicians UK charity, is Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda, with a concert at 7pm on Saturday, January 28, featuring Yucatan, Horsebeach, Documenta and DJ Delweddau Hen Dduwiau (aka Rhys Spikes). The three bands will also be performing in Belfast and Manchester during the week.
North Wales band Yucatan (named after a region of Mexico) has been creating chiming, ethereal lullabies since 2006, born of a desire to create abstract, epic music.
Yucatan’s self-titled debut album was released in 2007, from Sigur RÓs’s studio in Reykjavik, followed by ‘Uwch Gopa’r Mynydd’ (Above the Mountain Summit), the band’s second album in summer 2015.
The band is noted for immersive live performances, of sweeping instrumentation, soaring choirs and shimmering string sections.
Horsebeach is an indie/guitar-pop outfit from Manchester, and describes itself as a reverb-drenched, chorus-heavy chiming guitars and brooding melodies.
It was started by Ryan Kennedy as an unambitious – albeit fulfilling – one-man project whose debut selftitled album quickly blossomed into one of the sleeper hits of 2014.
Documenta is a Belfast-based psychedelic band, and describes its ori- gins as follows: “Started as a one one off project but slowly expanded like a bad disorganised universe, Documenta will produce 18 original songs plus a few covers then finish.....
“three chords good, two chords better, one chord best”.
Documenta designates its genre as Drone-Pop, which seems oxymoronic.
When it’s not used to identify unmanned aircraft or a male bee, “drone” implies a low energy, dull tone. On the other hand, Pop music tends to be high energy. But the self-designation by Documenta as being a band in the Drone Pop genre is not inappropriate.
The Belfast band’s uniquely murky style of electronically enhanced rock employs a versatile combination of downbeat guitar grooves, distorted melodies, loops, reverb, and some eerie layered vocals.
Documenta’s construction of a sophisticated wall of sound may not be particularly revolutionary, but it seizes the moment with rigorous efficiency. ● This gig has a minimum age limit of 18, and tickets at £5 are available from the venue on 01248 208 485, or log on to http://neuaddogwen.com.