Y Niwl
| Y Niwl | |
|---|---|
|
Performing at the Summer Sundae festival 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Gwynedd, north Wales |
| Genres | Surf |
| Years active | 2009- (hiatus) |
| Labels | Aderyn Papur |
| Associated acts | Alun Tan Lan, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Eitha Tal Ffranco, Topper, Jen Jeniro |
| Website |
www |
| Members | Alun Evans, Llyr Pari, Sion Glyn, Gruff ab Arwel |
| Past members | Pete Richardson |
Y Niwl are a surf instrumental band[1] from North Wales, formed in 2009. Its members are Alun Evans (guitar), Llyr Pari (drums), Sion Glyn (bass) and Gruff ab Arwel (organ and guitar). The band's name is pronounced Uh Nule and means 'The Fog'.[2]
Style and influences
Alun Evans has said: "It's essentially not complicated music, it's just rock 'n' roll basically, simple and raw. I still don’t have much of a collection of surf music and I was never really into that particular style of music in the past. The only thing I really had was an old Shadows album on tape."[2]
Recording
Alun Evans said: "Most of our material is edited jams... We usually record ourselves jamming then take out the best bits and form a song. Other times, someone will come up with an idea and we’ll work around that."[2]
Y Niwl (album)
The band's debut album, Y Niwl, was released on 29 November 2010 on the Aderyn Papur label.[3] It was recorded at Bryn Derwen studios and engineered by David Wrench. The songs' titles are numbers in Welsh, but do not reflect the order of the track listing. Evans explained: "When we started writing the songs we named them numerically in order, just to make it practical. But then when we wanted to change the track listing of the album around, we couldn’t rename the songs so we stuck with the songs and their numerical titles."[2]
Y Niwl was named The Sunday Times Album of the Week on 2 January 2011[4][5] and received 7/10 in reviews by the NME[1] and Drowned in Sound.[3] The track Undegpedwar was used as the theme tune to the BBC television show Football Focus.[6]
References
- 1 2 Laura Snapes. "Album review: Y Niwl - Y Niwl". NME.com. NME. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 Dave Owens (1 December 2010). "Surf's up for Y Niwl". South Wales Echo. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- 1 2 "Y Niwl - Y Niwl - Releases - Drowned in Sound". Drowned in Sound. Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- ↑ "Y Niwl". The Sunday Times. 2 January 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- ↑ "Sunday Times CD of the Week accolade for student's band" (Press release). Bangor University. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
- ↑ Samantha Castle (11 August 2011). "Welsh band Y Niwl score with Football Focus theme tune hit". North Wales Weekly News. Retrieved 15 October 2011.