The euphoric return of Flamingods! The much celebrated multi-instrumentalists bring their explosive, high-energy show to FOCUS Wales 2024!

CVC, or Church Village Collective in full, named their band after the sleepy Welsh town they come from and, if they have it their way, will soon bring international renown to their hometown.

The six-piece musical collective are influenced by Snoop Dogg, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Super Furry Animals and Red Hot Chili Peppers and are comprised of singer Francesco Orsi, bassist Ben Thorne, drummer Tom Fry, keyboardist Daniel ‘Nanial’ Jones and singing guitarists David Bassey and Elliot Bradfield.

It’s worth noting that the latter two, despite never having met them, are related to Welsh royalty Dame Shirley Bassey and Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield, respectively. Maybe owing to genetics, Bassey states “I don’t think I’d be able to not do this, I don’t actively choose to, I’m just drawn to it”. But the band are all as equally talented with different skills that aid the cacophony of their sound. Simply put, CVC are a democracy, greater than the sum of its parts, and destined for world domination – perhaps!

CVC’s message is a universal one “peace and love and good times, stay real, stay true and that’s it.”

Their ‘Welsh Music Prize’ Nominated debut album ‘Get Real’, produced by the band and mixed by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys), was released at the start of 2023 to critical acclaim (“A cracking debut album of feelgood, uber-retro gems” – NME, “A remarkably fully formed debut” – The Times), a year in which they’ve been touring to sold-out venues in the UK as well as wowing crowds across Europe & in the USA (“The best live act I saw last year – of a list which includes Paul McCartney, The Prodigy & Wet Leg” – The ArtsDesk).

Come join the Collective!

Cardiff’s Red Telephone bring dark and brooding alt-rock that could have emanated from a club in Blade Runner’s dystopian LA.

Sailor Honeymoon was born as a collaboration between photographer Abi Raymaker 장인화 and techno DJ Zaeeun Shin 신재은. Their vision was realised at jams with other friends in a shared practice room where their noisy loose improvisation was charged with chemistry, a small act of rebellion in a country where talent is meticulously manufactured. The spontaneity of the project leads Sailor Honeymoon to do things like swapping instruments when jamming and calling all their female fans onstage at shows, earning them a growing reputation in Seoul’s music scene. To them, these unorthodox approaches help them redefine what it means to be a recording artist in Korea, where pop culture encourages artists to be flawless and pristine.

Cosmic Dog Fog were sent to planet Earth in its time of crisis, on a mission to assist the awakening of a global community consciousness. They arrived during the first of the great lockdowns in March 2020 and found sanctuary in a strange industrial North Wales town known as Sunny Wrexham.

During lockdown the cosmic duo built up a large online following due to their ongoing theatrical psychedelic, lo-fi casio, space pop live streams. CDF performed on a number of online events exposing their abstract musical experimentation and songs to a wide audience.

CDF finally got to play to people in the flesh at FOCUS Wales2021 and raised the roof! Even Gruff Rhys was impressed filming the Space Party finale thanking CDF on his personal Instagram page after the show.

CDF released their debut single ‘Overgrown’ through ‘Hound Sound Records’ in April 2022 followed by a string of live shows, festivals and ‘Space Parties’ across the UK. With the success of their debut single CDF have secured a string of shows including Gruff Rhys’s festival ‘Ara Deg’ supporting Snapped Ankles, and Llangollen Fringe festival supporting The Turbans.

“That was an astronomical space jam” Gruff Rhys

Adwaith return to FOCUS Wales with a 3rd album in the works and a swell of momentum behind the band following their biggest year to date, which included big shows at Glastonbury, SXSW, and Eurosonic, alongside a swell of support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, KEXP, and 6Music, following their Welsh Music Prize winning 2nd album Bato Mato.

Snapped Ankles return to the forest, but it’s not as they left it. Trees planted in neat rows. A well-ordered monoculture with access roads and heavy machinery. The smell of greenwashed money in the air. There’s no sign of the ancient woodland they emerged from on debut album, Come Play The Trees. And it’s far cry from the gentrified East London they found themselves hawking on Stunning Luxury. All is not well in the face of progress. Welcome to the Forest Of Your Problems.

Forest Of Your Problems runs the gamut of modern woodwose emotions. In this neat human approximation of the forest, it’s an increasingly knotted affair. Despite all of this, Snapped Ankles haven’t lost their innate ability to make you want to move your feet – their Teutonic forest rhythms are still shot through with post-punk lightning.

Snapped Ankles outsider status has always allowed them to hold a mirror up to society. Now the boundaries are not so clear. In the years since Come Play The Trees was released, their cult has flourished. Previous album Stunning Luxury saw the band invited to play the BBC 6 Music Festival and a KEXP session on the back of a sold-out UK tour which culminated with two nights at Village Underground in London. As those who have witnessed the shamanic ritual of their live shows will attest, they are a truly unique, communal experience.

‘Deerhoof has a track record of at least one excellent record a year.’ New York Times

Deerhoof’s new album, Miracle-Level, was produced, recorded, and mixed by Mike Bridavski at No Fun Studios in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s the band’s 19th album and the first to be produced, recorded and mixed entirely in a recording studio. All of the songs are in Japanese.