Album Review: Trwbador - Trwbador
- Written by Matt Jones
I don’t know when or where I first heard of Trwbador, but wherever they are mentioned, their name seems to be already recognised, if not yet fully appreciated. Like the troubadours from which they take their nominal inspiration, word about the Welsh girl-boy duo seems to have travelled far and wide but stayed long enough in each place to make just enough of an impression. Indeed, it is hardly necessary that they stick around long to have an impact, but the duo’s debut album leaves listeners hoping they will.
“I’ve got a dirty mind, you’ve got a dirty mouth” are the first words which draw the listener in to this cheeky, ten-track electronic collection. The music itself can only clumsily be classified as ‘electronic’, for what Trwbador really produce are complex, multi-genred symphonies built around some central electronic support. But ‘cheeky’ is the perfect adjective (if I do say so myself), because what shines through on record that doesn’t so much in Trwbador’s relatively shy live performance, is the band’s sense of humour. ‘Sun In The Winter’’s tongue-in-cheek take on global warming demonstrates that brevity is the soul of wit through lyricism such as ‘They say the sun’s too hot these days, but in our town it always rains’. Such words capture something rare in contemporary music; not just a sense of humour, but a particularly Welsh sense of humour if ever there was one.
However, one should be hesitant to label Trwbador as such, because as the album progresses, it becomes clearer that they are in something of a dilemma over their identity as a ‘Welsh band’, with surprisingly pleasant results. On the one hand, tracks such as ‘Eira’ are surreal, serene salutes to Welsh folk which see guitarist Owain Gwilym, in the perfect complement to Angharad Van Rijswijk’s lyricism, building something beautiful from simple foundations. But other tracks such as the band’s admittedly Grand Theft Auto: Vice City-inspired ‘Safe’ (notably chosen as their first release) are more Kate Bush than Carmarthenshire. Sitars, glockenspiels, tablas (?) and other sounds the average listener cannot reliably source not only add huge variety and mystery to the album, but point to the fact that Trwbador are not just another Welsh band.
Of course, this is not to say at all that Welsh music has not produced huge talent in recent years (which it would be redundant and impossible to list here). But whether intentional or not, what Trwbador’s debut album represents is a brave experiment in escaping the comfortable niches which other Welsh bands have already carved out. Welsh music circulates apace in the contemporary music industry, but perhaps because of factors such as the history and geography of Wales relative to other parts of the country, seems to do so largely on well-beaten tracks (esp. rock and indie-rock). Trwbador, however, don’t sit neatly alongside the likes of The Joy Formidable or even the more original stylings of Gruff Rhys. Granted, Trwbador still feels like a first album which is slightly underproduced in places, but most of all it is the duo’swillingness to be playful in the widest sense that makes them great musicians rather than great Welsh musicians. Of course, it is difficult to tell what will happen to Trwbador as young musicians based outside of the epicentres of the UK music industry (the duo currently reside in Swansea). But in their debut album at least, they seem to be hitting several unusual and interesting notes ripe for further indulgence.
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