Guest Writer Bryony Adams caught The Wytches at the rebranding of Swn Festival… here’s what she saw…
DimSwn may have been scaled down in size this year to a single day’s worth of musical acts but it certainly still delivered the same magnitude of excellence it does year after year.
Previously a four day festival of music across various Cardiff venues, over 200 acts performed last year during the four-day-fiesta of music during Swn Festival, orchestrated by radio One DJ Huw Stephens and Promoter Jon Roston.
The festival has been streamlined now to become DimSwn, and as disappointed as the loyal band of Swn followers were to hear the news of a bite size addition of their favourite festival, the rebranded and newly formatted night went on with the same sense of excitement and Rock’N’Roll as it always does.
Amidst the plethora of acts that graced the streets of Cardiff on the debut of the new DimSwn was the three-piece band from Brighton, The Wytches. Making a very strong claim for the revival of psychedelic surf rock and blues the three gloomy, longhaired boys from Brighton mustered up some definite noise upstairs in Clwb Ifor Bach.
Their debut album ‘Annabel Dream Reader’ is described as a ‘Break up album’ by front man and songwriter Kristian Bell – while its not your quintessential soundtrack to heartbreak it seeps emotion and passion from every pore with a shambolic mix of bleeding guitar and thrashing drums cloaked with a certain menace which you could definitely get on board with during a period of heartache.
Their performance high above Womanby Street, Cardiff was a frenzied and loud affair, something that the trio did well to pull off in such a small venue, which perhaps did not cater fully to their specific sound. Although their psychedelic prowess filled Clwb with nostalgia for the psychedelic it was difficult to decipher each track as they ripped their way through their non existent setlist leaking from one musical piece into the next in an almost operatic style bringing an unfamiliar feeling to the crowd. This unusual style of performance, although unconventional, did not deter from the fantastic racket the three talented Brighton boys unveiled on stage, which contributed to the arrival of DimSwn.
Bryony Adams
You Can Listen to ‘Anabel Dream Reader’ here:
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