With my recent return, I thought it was a good time to introduce a new feature I’ve been thinking about for a while. Much of the focus of this site has always been on new music, and it still will be, but I thought it would be good to look back a bit more often as well. In Praise Of will see me write about everything from labels to albums, bands through to festivals and even entire music scenes and genres. Sometimes it will be sparked by a new record, sometimes it might be an old obsession that I’m falling in love with all over again. The idea is basically to give me the room to explore whatever I fancy at the time and hopefully, some of my enthusiasms might even rub off – and what better place to start than with a little-heralded independent record label that always dares to dream big, Libertino Records.

Achub y Byd un gân ar y tro
Saving The World One Song At A Time

Like many of the best ideas, and almost all of the worst ones, Libertino Records was dreamt up on the dancefloor of a nightclub. The venue in question was The Parrot in Carmarthen (now known as CWRW), one of those semi-legendary small-town venues that even the briefest glance at the listings of, shows it punches way above its weight. Gruffydd Owen had just seen two bands perform at what were some of their very first shows, one was ARGRPH, one of the label’s first signings, and the other, a band that needs no introduction around these parts, Adwaith – both acts that would soon become part of the Libertino revolution.

It was through Adwaith that I first came to know Gruffydd and his magical record label. That was via their 2016 single, Pwysau, which would eventually appear on their debut album Melyn. It remains one of my favourite things they’ve ever done, all luxurious harmonies, psych-folk-influenced guitars and contrastingly clattering drum rhythms. As unlikely as it all sounds now, two things were obvious from that interaction, Adwaith had dreams to achieve success way beyond any narrow definitions of Welsh language music as it existed at the time, and Libertino Records both believed they could make those dreams come true and were willing to put in the leg work to do so. That ethos has always been at the heart of the label’s plans, “to push forward and take Welsh music further than ever before”. I was apparently one of the first writers outside of Wales to cover Adwaith, something I’m immensely proud of, and a fact that also shows how far Welsh language music has come since then. So often with music that isn’t sung in English, there’s an acceptance that it will be a niche interest, a small-scale offering to proud native speakers keeping some old tradition alive. Libertino seem to see something different in the bands they champion, it’s as if they don’t notice what language a song is sung in, they just hear bands deserving of attention and go out of their way to help them find it, determined to find an audience for their bands wherever it may lie.

Playing the label game for nearly a decade now, Libertino recently took some time out from the new music grind to release SWIGOD (Bubbles), the label’s first compilation, as they put it, “a celebration of everything Libertino has stood for since day one: being fearlessly independent, pushing Welsh music beyond borders, and believing—always—that music is magic, and that the world needs to hear it”. This mission statement of a record is a quite remarkable thing, twenty-nine songs that showcase the breadth and brilliance of the label’s output. Of course, some of the bigger names stand out, Chroma, who’ve gone on to sign with Alcopop! and support the likes of Loose Articles, Goldie Lookin’ Chain and an up-and-coming band called Foo Fighters. Here they offer the remarkable Weithiau, a showcase of their crunchier, grittier early days, dialling down their pop-punk tendencies as it brings to mind the likes of Soot Sprite or Cult Dreams. Elsewhere, the label’s two Welsh music prize winners, Adwaith and Rogue Jones pick out big-hitting numbers, with the former sharing their stadium-ready wall of sound that is ETO, while Rogue Jones offer the swirling, strutting charms of Triongl Dyfed.

While Libertino might be synonymous with psychedelic, folk and indie sounds, SWIGOD also shows the label’s support for the vast array of sounds coming out of Wales right now. N’famady Kouyaté is a Cardiff-based, Guinea-born musician, whose main instrument is the balafon, a traditional wooden xylophone, sacred to West African culture, who here shows his love for his adopted home with Aros I Fi Yna. Elsewhere Eädyth showcases her trailblazing bi-lingual take on electro soul, which leaps out as something unique not just to the label, but perhaps to Welsh music as a whole.

I could spend nearly as long as the record lasts waxing lyrical on some of my favourites here, whether it’s the confrontational art-punk of ANGHARAD’s Postpartum or the Penguin Cafe-like meandering folk of Hotel Et Al’s Heneb Yfory. I’ll reserve some special praise here for the closing track, Alex Dingley’s Lovely Life To Lead, from his third album, Beat The Babble. Recorded with Cate Le Bon, Tim Pressley and Samur Khouja, despite it’s loft cast, the record still seemed to go somewhat overlooked, yet it remains one of the most beautiful things the label has ever put out. Showcased here by this heartfelt piano plea, Alex’s vocal is sure to bring a tear to the eye as he sings of that universal feeling of wanting just a little longer with the ones we’ve lost, “what I’d give to spend just one more day, castaway on a senseless breeze, I dreamt that you were well and free from pain, you were you again”.

One of my favourite bands on the label are also perhaps the closest to a gateway between Welsh music’s past and its future. Ynys is the latest project from Dylan Hughes, whose previous band Race Horses, which also featured the fabulous Meilyr Jones, made a brief but memorable splash at the end of the noughties. With Ynys, Dylan seems to have let his imagination run wilder than ever, turning his hand to everything from the wiry and wistful sounds of the Welsh coast, through to a recent shift into showcasing his love of all things Northern Soul. It’s exactly this spirit of invention and creative freedom that is at the heart of Libertino Records, a label that has always been about their belief in their musicians to produce something magic, that special something music does that lifts it way beyond what’s cool or what sells records.

For pulling down the borders and sharing the wonder of Welsh music with the world, I can only say Diolch Libertino and here’s to whatever comes next, I can’t help but feel they’re only just getting started.

For more information on Libertino Records visits https://www.libertinorecords.com/.