Wednesday 20 May 2015

Welsh Wednesday #37

#37: Stwff by Gwenno

Gwenno Saunders is half Welsh, half Cornish and was schooled at the Seán Éireann-McMahon Academy of Irish Dancing. There's no doubting her Celtic credentials. She is perhaps best known as a former member of the Pipettes, but she has also played keyboards for Elton John, presented her own show on the Welsh language TV channel S4C, and currently hosts a show on Cardiff Radio.

When she gets time, Gwenno also makes records of her own. Last year, she put out 'Y Dydd Olaf' (trans: The Last Day), her first full-length solo album. It's 44 minutes of electronic bliss akin to Broadcast, mid-to-late period Stereolab, and fellow Welsh compatriots Gulp. It is named after Owain Owain's dystopian sci-fi novel about robots taking over the world. It's sung in Welsh and Cornish and it's a rather lovely thing all told.

Stwff (trans: Stuff - you'd guessed that though, right?) is a perky little number that has woodblocks in it. You can't beat a good woodblock, a very under-utilised percussive delight in my view.




2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this one. I have been curious about this record. Really liked that first Pipettes album.

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  2. I missed this post and coincidentally have posted Chwyldro today at Bagging Area

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