Hip hop
If this was an information film from the 1950s, Wrexham would be described as “a city on the up”. The takeover of its football team has, of course, become a globally-renowned success. However, before all the Hollywood interest, the wonderful and ever-expanding FOCUS Wales festival has quietly spent the last decade ensuring Wrexham and North Wales retains a cultural identity. Wales’ geography means that its South and North often feel distant from one another, with cultural events too frequently remaining in the more populated South.
FOCUS Wales has grown into a vast arts showcase, featuring over 250 artists from around the world, a film festival-within–a-festival, industry conferences and countless other arts events. The 2024 edition takes place across a dozen venues, hosting the finest young and established musicians here in Wales, numerous emerging British acts and others from across the globe, some in the form of international showcases. With an expected attendance of over 20,000 people, it’s a huge event for this relatively small city.
For those going and are looking for some tips, we’ve put together a list of bands and musicians that we’re particularly excited about seeing. The list is of course, not comprehensive, but aims to offer a representative range of the exciting Welsh and international acts that FOCUS have curated for their 2024 edition.
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Fat Dog / Penny Black (Room 1), Thursday 9th May, 10:40pm
Unless you’ve been completely cut adrift from the UK’s post-pandemic live music circuit, you’ll be aware of the unstoppable force that is Fat Dog. The South London five-piece play a unique brand of synth-punk/rave–rock that’s as good as guaranteed to whip any crowd into a giddy frenzy. The young band have had a rapid rise; from forming in 2021 to selling out London’s Scala less than two years later. This is all before even releasing their debut full-length, which is due out this summer.
Get down to Penny Black late on Thursday night and expect sweaty mosh-dancing, a drummer in a dog mask and the giddy thrills of what frontman Joe Love calls Fat Dog’s “screaming-into-a-pillow music”.
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Chroma / Llwyn Isaf, Friday 10th May, 6:50pm
Since forming in 2015 as fresh-faced teens, Chroma have spent the last nine years grafting hard on the Welsh, national and eventually international music scene. Over the last 18 months, however, things have really taken off for the bi-lingual alt-rockers. The trio have signed to esteemed indie label Alcopop! Records, released their debut LP, played shows in Europe, South Korea and New Zealand and scored a huge support slot at Foo Fighters’ Manchester shows this coming June.
Driven by an aggressive rhythm section (drummer Zac Mather and bassist Liam Bevan) and the stage presence of frontwoman (and queen of the Welsh music scene) Katie Hall, the Pontypridd trio have grown into a seasoned live force. Make sure you catch them on the Llwyn Isaf stage on Friday evening.
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Sage Todz / Ty Pawb, Thursday 9th May, 9:45pm
Sage Todz occupies a thrillingly-unique corner of the Welsh music scene. While there’s plenty of great Welsh rappers (see the likes of Luke RV and Dom a Lloyd at FOCUS 2024), Todz’s brand of bi-lingual drill has captured national attention like few Welsh rappers have before. Hailing from a small village in Gwynedd, Sage Todz (real name: Eretoda Ogunbanwo) and his Nigerian family were subject to a string of appalling racist incidents during his youth. Upon moving to London for university, he started making drill and used his childhood experiences as potent fuel for his dextrous, culture-smashing bars.
Now an established force in Welsh music, the charismatic Ogunbanwo brings his exhilarating live show to Ty Pawb on Thursday at 9:45pm.
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Deerhoof / The Rockin’ Chair (Room 1), Saturday 11th, 12:00am
Alongside its host of emerging Welsh and British talents, FOCUS Wales also plays host to seasoned international names. Among the picks of this 2024 bunch is cult US favourites Deerhoof. The San Francisco mob are a chaotic delight, providing you’re into oddball experimental rock music that tilts from art-pop beauty to improvised noise chaos. Deerhoof possess a mammoth discography (18 studio albums along with various EP’s and collabs), so expect an unpredictable ride through their dense and madcap musical vision.
They’re on at midnight on Saturday night which means they’re guaranteed to blow the minds of some tired and drunken brains. For the more clear-headed; keep an eye on drummer Greg Sauiner, whose expressive drumming is as unique as any you’ll ever see.
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Chalk/ Penny Black (Ground Floor), Saturday 11th, 10:10pm
Staying with the non-Welsh recommendations; Chalk are a zeitgeist riding/defining Northern Irish trio, whose techno-infused post-punk/noise rock materialises as an incendiary live spectacle. For fans of the abrasive grooves of Model/Actriz, Gilla Band and Mandy, Indiana, Chalk will feel like a gift from the heavens. The much-discussed post-punk revival of the last decade is starting to splinter, and Chalk’s dark, electronica-infused branch is proving the most fresh and electrifying.
Chalk are playing on the Ground Floor of Penny Black on Saturday. This one comes highly recommended to all FOCUS attendees interested in music at its most savagely cutting-edge.
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Red Telephone / The Rockin’ Chair (Room 1), Friday 10th May, 10:15pm
One more dark and moody tip before we lighten things up; Cardiff’s Red Telephone are an alt-rock four-piece whose aesthetic is intriguingly hard to surmise. The band describe themselves as sounding like they could have “emanated from a club in Blade Runner’s dystopian LA – combining angular guitars, krautrock rhythms and new wave synths”. To many musos (certainly the open-minded types attending FOCUS Wales) this summary will prove a tantalising combination.
The band are playing a great slot on Friday night at The Rockin’ Chair, before Welsh indie darlings Adwiath and after South Korean punks Sailor Honeymoon. If you’re looking for a venue to spend a few hours in on Friday eve, you won’t find one much better than this.
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Islet / Llwyn Isaf, Saturday 11th May, 7:25pm
The defining act in the modern Welsh alternative canon is Super Furry Animals. They’ve inspired a whole generation of quirky psychedelic rock, represented at FOCUS 2024 by the likes of Cosmic Fog Dog, Melin Melyn and the incomparable Islet. The term ‘psychedelic’ gets bandied around a lot, but these Cardiffians epitomise it. Their music is joyously incantatory, full of repeated musical mantras and transcendental grooves that elevate the listener to a shiny higher realm.
Islet are also a super fun live act, with a penchant for colourful outfits, engrossing improvisations and trading instruments. The four-piece are FOCUS veterans, wholly befitting of their status as penultimate act on Saturday’s Llwyn Isaf bill, smartly placed before the similarly-transcendent Spiritualized.
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FOCUS Wales runs between May 9th – 11th.
WORDS: Tom Morgan
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