MUSIC NEWS EXTRA
pic: JOHN GRIFFITHS
The severe budget cuts proposed by
Rhondda Cynon Taf council have claimed
their first casualties, with the Muni
Arts Centre in Pontypridd set to close.
An impressive – and listed – building,
it began life as a chapel in the late 19th
century and was converted into an arts
centre in the 1980s. While the Muni is
unquestionably the town’s flagship venue
for live music, theatre or comedy, its diary
has been somewhat sparse in the last
couple of years, likewise its sibling venues
in the RCT area, Aberdare’s Coliseum
and Treorchy’s Parc & Dare (both of
which have avoided the axe, but face their
programmes being further reduced). The
closure, part of a drive to save £70 million
over four years, has been greeted with
sadness if not outright condenmnation by
noted local figures, including Max Boyce
Dashing to the scene, as if prompted
by some sort of batsignal, to alleviate or
at least soundtrack moribund times in
Wales are Datblygu [pictured]. The iconic
postpunk band, currently a duo of David
R Edwards and Patricia Morgan, have a
surprise new mini-album, Erbyn Hyn,
released on the Ankstmusik label in early
June. Recorded in Cardiff earlier this year,
its eight songs promise to tackle “love,
sex, agriculture, education, incarceration,
freedom and sanity,” and follow a 2012
7” EP as well as a double CD of early 80s
home recordings and a documentary,
Prosiect Datblygu. Actual live gigs remain
a pipedream, but Edwards and Morgan
will appear at Erbyn Hyn’s launch (Sat 7
June, Tangled Parrot, Carmarthen), before
Edwards guests at the Dinefwr literature
festival later in the month
S Mark Gubb is a Cardiff-based multimedia
artist whose work has included a
permanent piece in Cardiff Airport and a
soon-to-be-constructed piece of public art
outside the capital’s new Admiral Building.
Nick Barker is an extreme metal drummer
with an extensive CV, having played in
Cradle Of Filth until 1999 and later with
Dimmu Borgir and Lock Up among many
others. Gubb has enlisted Barker for his
new audiovisual exhibition, Metal Militia,
now showing in Berwick – chosen because
of an occasion in 1689 when a lone man
walked through the town, beating a drum,
and swiftly rustled up a ragtag army.
On Fri 6 June, Barker’s blastbeats will
accompany a five-piece pipe band for a
half-hour performance, which will be filmed
and incorporated into the exhibition. Which,
in this column’s opinion, sounds generally
splendid, and would be more than welcome
to come to south Wales
Relish a regional release roundup? You’re in
luck. The debut album proper by the Cardiffbirthed Goodtime Boys is out now; Rain (on
Palm Reader Records in Europe, Bridge Nine
in the US) promises to be a sharp, 12-song
burst of riffs with stated inspirations including
“nature’s constant struggle to survive while
sharing earth with the human race”. Outrage
CC’s debut four-song 7” Eigengrau nails that
nihilistic Cleveland hardcore style with vicious
precision. Valleys punk hollerers Gung Ho
have a green vinyl single on the brand new Taff
label, which will also release their debut album
Finizo this month. Local experimental/drone/
noise dude Ian Watson has H