Welsh ambient-folk duo 9Bach are saddling up for the release of their second LP Tincian, which, as singer Lisa Jen explains in Jon Savage’s album bio, means "a lot of things, to move with a tinkling sound, to ring and make a clear sound. Depending on what area of Wales you are from, the meaning varies". Ahead of the album’s release on May 12 via Real World, they’ve kindly given tQ a first play of lead-out track ‘Lliwiau’, as remixed by Bristol multi-instrumentalist and Warp signee Gravenhurst (real name Nick Talbot).
The collaboration sees old friends reunite, as 9Bach’s Martin Hoyland was one-time Gravenhurst tour manager circa 2007, as Talbot has told tQ: "…and a very fine tour manager he was. I saw his band a few years later in Bristol and was mightily impressed; the final song of their set (‘Lliwiau’) went off in what I am reluctant to describe – due to the danger of sounding generic or tokenistic – as a Portishead-esque direction; featuring mainly Lisa’s reverbed vocals against a threateningly minimal tapestry of insistent dubby bass riff, Ennio Morricone guitar and a drum rhythm that sounded like it had already been remixed by Lee Perry anyway."
Talbots continues: "I told Martin it was my favourite and would love to remix it. Several years on he took me up on the offer and I was really glad to hear that they had bravely moved far from the Welsh folk song roots that provide the basis for Lisa’s songwriting, and into a hinterland of Welsh language, Morricone dub cinematics. I’ve never been asked to remix anyone, which is disappointing as I’d always loved the idea of being paid to ruin people’s music. While I suppose it is entirely understandable given that I am perceived as a singer-songwriter not as a producer, but having produced six Gravenhurst albums, and co-produced two Bronnt Industries Kapital albums, I was always slightly miffed by my exclusion from a scene which a great many Warp artists derive a bit of extra capital from, both creative and monetary."
And Talbot doesn’t disappoint on his premier remix appointment, whipping 9Bach’s original, a song that details the "positive outlook on all the pain and craziness" of child birth, into a narcotised fug of heart-palpitation bass and wraith-like vocals, which you can hear above.
