The Welsh Music Prize will take place later in October and the shortlist of 15 artists will find out who takes home the prestigious prize, honouring the creativity and talent in the music industry in Wales. Chosen from a panel of industry experts, and whittled down from a list of 130, the 15 artists selected include established names Manic Street Preachers being nominated for their 14th album and eight debut albums from Art School Girlfriend, Breichiau Hir, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, Dead Method, Danielle Lewis, L E M F R E C K, Papur Wal and Sywel Nyw. Gwenno's Tresor album, her third, is also nominated for this year’s Mercury Music Prize.
This years’ ceremony is at Wales Millennium Centre on Saturday, October 26, and will be presented by BBC Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri. The event will welcome a live public audience, for the first time, as part of Llais, Cardiff’s flagship international arts festival, and include performances by some of the shortlisted performers. The Welsh Music Prize will open Llais, which returns to Cardiff from October 26 to 30 with an eclectic line-up of international acts including John Cale, Pussy Riot, Cate Le Bon (shortlisted for Welsh Music Prize for her album Pompeii), Death Songbook, Abdullah Ibrahim, Midlake, and black midi.
Last year's winner of the Welsh Music Prize was Kelly Lee Owens' Inner Song, which explored the personal pain of her own struggles, while embracing the beauty of the natural world. She has released the theme song for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Here's the shortlist for the 2022 Welsh Music Prize and a bit more about them:
Adwaith – Bato Mato
Four years after Carmarthen band Adwaith’s first album release, the band has now returned with their much-anticipated record ‘Bato Mato’. Taking its name from their trusty guide while aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, the album possesses a seemingly cosmic connection to their journey across the frozen outer-reaches of Russia; an allegory for the sonic character of its material, while foreshadowing the glimpses of isolation upon their return home.
Art School Girlfriend – Is It Light Where You Are
‘Is It Light Where You Are’ is the debut album from Art School Girlfriend, moniker of Wrexham producer, multi-instrumental musician and songwriter Polly Mackey. Mostly written over a two-week period of 14-hour solo studio sessions, the bulk of her album is torn straight from a journal kept throughout 2019, chronicling the end of a US tour, the tumultuous ending of a six-year relationship and Mackey’s journey back to London from Margate, where she lived and co-owned a book shop with her then girlfriend.
Bryde – Still
Sarah Howells from Pembrokshire is Bryde, and this is her second WMP nomination. Still is an album about the different kinds of love as hinted at in the bracketed song titles. As Sarah explains: “So many lovesongs glorify the idea of throwing yourself at someone, the drama, and the pain of love. I wanted to own up to doing that but acknowledge that there are many other healthier ways to think about love and then start a conversation about it.”
Breichiau Hir – Hir Oes I’r Cof
Breichiau Hir’s debut album is a nostalgic exploration of growing up in an ever-changing city and losing touch with reality and yourself through nostalgia. The Cardiff six-piece blend cathartic intensity, enormous walls of sound and fragile melancholic moments with a sole mission to move and connect to their audience. They tackle hard-hitting themes with poignant lyrics, self-deprecating humour, and surreal wordplay in their native Welsh language.
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – Backhand Deals
With Backhand Deals, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are ripping up the rule book. A rejection of rock music's more archaic ideals, their debut album plunges into Tom Rees’ exploration of honesty and authenticity and untangles what it means to be a ‘rock star’. The key to this demystification is Rees’ sharp wit - using sarcasm and humour to keep the listener in limbo, and in turn, leading their audience to face their own thoughts.
Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
Pompeii is Cate Le Bon’s sixth full length studio album and follow up to her 2019 album, Reward. This album was created in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result this album is a much more introspective record. In this album Le Bon collages the saxophones and bass grooves of Pompeii into a heady harmonic mix of psychedelia and pop, awe and bewilderment. From Newcastle Emlyn originally, Cate was based in Cardiff for years, and now lives in Joshua Tree, Los Angeles, USA.
Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18 and The National Orchestra of Wales – Yn Rio
Yn Rio is very much another chapter in Carwyn’s continuing Latin American musical journey. However, on this release Carwyn Ellis has teamed up with the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales to provide beautiful orchestral accompaniment to his collection of Welsh language songs which draw on the Latin American musical flavours of Bossa Nova, Cumbia, Samba and Tropicalismo. Starting as a project for BBC Radio Cymru, the album was performed live at live years’ Green Man Festival.
Dead Method – Future Femme
Produced by Edward Russell (Inside The Groove), the album is a reinvention of Dead Method’s signature witty pop motif that explores his experiences as an LGBTQ+ artist. Dead Method is a pop star for the new age, whose music plunges deep into the depths of alternative electro-pop with a dark edge as he explores life itself.
Danielle Lewis - Dreaming In Slow Motion
Originally hailing from the West coast of Wales, Danielle Lewis emerges with her stunning album 'Dreaming in Slow Motion'. With compositions of the spectral to the serene, underpinned by her singular, saintly vocal stylistics; Lewis’ evocatively titled debut collectively offer a collage of her life as she navigated her early adulthood. 10 songs of breathtaking tenderness and ethereal presence that pioneer between the realms of dream and reality.
Don Leisure - Shaboo Strikes Back
Cardiff producer Don Leisure has evolved considerably in the decade or so he’s been releasing music. 'Shaboo Strikes Back' is a follow on from the first 'Shaboo' album which documented the road trip of Don's youth – featuring hip hop music interspersed with Asian radio station jingles of old, dedicated to Bollywood actor, Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwani - Don Leisure's late uncle. The album was a favourite of Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music.
Gwenno – Tresor
Tresor is Gwenno Saunders’ third full length solo album and the second almost entirely in Cornish (Kernewek). Written in St Ives, Cornwall, just prior to the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and completed in Cardiff during the pandemic along with her producer and musical collaborator, Rhys Edwards, Tresor reveals an introspective focus on home and self, a prescient work echoing the isolation and retreat that has been a central, global shared experience over the past two years. Tresor is also nominated for this years’ Mercury Music Prize.
L E M F R E C K - The Pursuit
Newport rapper L E M F R E CK’s 'The Pursuit' is about the pursuit of love, happiness and community in their broadest forms. He is one of the most exciting artists on the scene. As L E M F R E C K explains, “The year I started writing was a horrendous one for myself and community. A pandemic that showed how little we were loved. Protests that made us confront our past. And from that I realised how little I loved myself. 'The Pursuit' explores what happens when you are in a constant chase for things that you don't necessarily know want you back.”
Manic Street Preachers - The Ultra Vivid Lament
‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is the Manics' 14th studio album and entered the UK charts at No. 1 on its release in September 21. It’s eleven tracks perfectly marry introspection, quiet rage and sublime, irresistible tunes, and were recorded at Rockfield in Monmouth and the bands’ Door to the River studio in Newport. The Sunday Times said “…the new album is prime pop Manics: killer choruses, with unapologetically literate songwriting that plugs you straight into the emotional mains”. The Blackwood band’s album also features the late Mark Lanegan.
Papur Wal - Amser Mynd Adra
With members from Ynys Mon, Caernarfon and Cardiff, Papur Wal’s debut album was the culmination of years of gigging and releasing melodic indie singles. One of the busiest bands on the Welsh language scene, it earned them a nomination for Welsh Language Album of the Year.
Sywel Nyw – Deuddeg
Sywel Nyw is Bangor musician Lewys Wyn. Deuddeg won the Welsh Language Album of the Year at this year’s National Eisteddfod in Tregaron, and is a collaborative album. Featured vocalists include Dionne Bennett, Mark Robers, Lauren Connelly and Endaf Emlyn. According to Lewys, the project was a way of creating music outside the “formulaic” and “monotonous” album process, whilst simultaneously tapping into Wales’ diverse music scene with the album featuring both established and upcoming Welsh artists from far reaching genres.
Read next:
An interview with Gwenno - the first Mercury Prize nominated artist not to sing in English
Giles Coren tours Pembrokeshire and absolutely loves it, finding 'the world's best sandwich'
21 Welsh seaside pubs so inviting they'll have you heading for the coast right now
Gre e n Man 2021 - How Wales' biggest festival came back from Covid
