WHAT is it about Wales and skewed, charming DIY psychedelia? After the solo whirls of Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s Euros Childs, here comes the debut album of self-professed “strange pop” by H Hawkline, alias Huw Gwynfryn Evans.
Born in Cardiff, he lives in LA, but occupies a musical other-world, coaxed out into the open by another Welsh exponent of wonderfully weird pop, Cate le Bon. Partners in life and music, he plays in her band, she plays on his album, as well as producing a record that is warm and groovy, jerky.
The lyrics are eccentric; the guitars, unpredictable and fidgety; the rhythms, perkily repetitive; the melodies, mischievous, on twisted pop songs that recall early Orange Juice and early XTC, albeit at a more languid pace. The likes of Moons In My Mirror, Rainy Summer and Spooky Dog will have you falling for Huw, Hawkline and sinker.
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