SWN FESTIVAL
Various venues, Cardiff
With over 120 acts scattered across 15 different venues in the short space
of 72 hours, the inaugural Swn Festival was a massive jamboree of music meeting
the arts. Conceived by Huw Stephens, the gregarious DJ put his industry muscle
to good use by roping in a melee of cutting-edge artists and curators.
The first day belonged Zak Condron and his band Beirut. The congruous sound
created by the Santa Fe collective was followed up by DJ David Holmes who produced
a set that flittered between gritty funk and bass-heavy reggae.
The intensity quelled on the Saturday as country-tinged northerners Cherry
Ghost rattled their way through a series of laments doused in blissful Americana.
The band acted as a neat warm-up to the new-wave legend that is Edwyn Collins
who played like a man resurrected, especially after his recent health scares.
The party had to come to an end at some point and it was only right that it
concluded within the home of Welsh music - Clwb Ifor Bach. Punters dashed between
the upstairs and downstairs floors to catch Slow Club, Bobby Conn and garage-rock
purveyors The Black Lips. Stephens also got the chance to put his own musical
slant on proceedings by closing the festival with a DJ set that bounced between
raucous indie anthems and Welsh-language staples. Swn translates into English
as noise, rather apt as its reputation alongside other festivals with a similar
agenda can only project louder.
Jo Roberts
We were there, were you?