CaStLeS are a psychedelic pop trio from a village at the foot of Mount Snowdon, which is just 20 minutes from Portmeirion, the village in Gwynedd where the classic 60's TV series 'The Prisoner' was filmed. The three members, Dion Hamer (drums, vocals), Cynyr Hamer (vocals, synth, guitar), Calvin Thomas (bass, synth), like the area so much they interrupted their day jobs in 2016 to record a concept album about the joys of living there titled 'Fforesteering', delivering a paean to the beautiful countryside of Snowdonia. The song titles are mostly Welsh-language, including 'Ar Agor' (Open), 'Argau' (Dam) and 'Tynnu Tuag At y Diffeithwch' (Drawn Towards the Wilderness), but the music transcends language barriers. Before that I'd discovered them through their 'PartDepart' EP, and after that from a few songs that they posted on Soundcloud, some of which later turned up on 'Fforesteering', although in different forms. Their music is a blend of warped Welsh indie, 60's west coast jangle and 70's Cologne motorik, which somehow seems to work perfectly. I haven't heard anything new from the band since that 2016 album, so I fear that they've now broken up, but luckily they've left behind enough material to compile an album of songs which didn't make it to 'Fforesteering', plus early versions of some tracks that did, all of which shows that CaStLeS had a promising career ahead of them if they'd stuck it out.
01 Mountaineering
02 PartDepart
03 Nightingale
04 Foresteering
05 Look Through The Keyhole
06 Time Slips Away So Suddenly
07 Argua
08 Ar Agor
09 Here Comes The Moonshadow
10 Mule In The Mill
11 Amcanu
Changed their name to "Worldcub" a year or two ago. It appears that they are still around (last release was in 2020).
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that they're still going, albeit under a different name. They were a breath of fresh air in amongst all the indie-rock of that period.
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