gwenno

We're honored to share the gorgeous first single from Gwenno's entrancing new album Le Kov, written and sung entirely in her ancient mother tongue of Cornish, and due March 2nd on Heavenly. According to a press release, Gwenno's goal was to "create a document of a living language, explore her identity and the endless creative possibilities of a tongue that has a very small surviving artistic

I had to include Y Gwefrau as they went to the same secondary school as me and are from Cardiff. This is more at the pop end of the spectrum but I love this video, it's just young women being carefree and having a laugh and there's nothing more empowering than that...

Excellent punk band, Fflaps, filmed this in Berlin in 1990. I love Ann Matthews's voice, it goes against every expectation or rule of what a female singer should sound like that a very conservative Welsh establishment has set over the years, and that is to be celebrated...

I include PNW in every list that I get to make, and for good reason! Fun fact - the lead singer, Gareth Potter, had a role in massive BBC soap opera Eastenders as a youngster, and has formed many a band as well as this one. Check out Ty Gwydr and Traddodiad Ofnus too if you get the chance...

Welsh dub-electronica pioneers Llwybr Llaethog have been going for over 30 years. They met at school in Blaenau Festiniog, a mining town in north Wales and moved to Peckam during the 80s. They're a prolific and massively underrated band in my opinion and capture industrialised, inner-city living perfectly...

Datblygu are arguably Wales's seminal band. They have been a constant and consistent reminder of the love and frustrations of life, they have always sung in Welsh but that has never deterred the legions of fans that they've gathered across the globe, and rightly so - they're brilliant to listen to whether you understand what Dave is singing about or not...

This is from Recordiau R-Bennig, I don't have much info about this one but I had to include it as it's so good. -- Gwenno

Taken from Gwenno's excellent 2015 LP Y Dydd Olaf, out now on Heavenly. Directed by Jacek Davis:

Former Pipettes front-woman Gwenno remixes the title track from one of our favorite records of the year so far, transforming Stealing Sheep's infectiously off-kilter pop gem "Not Real" into a chugging, hypnotically disorienting electro-kraut-pop jam...