Tincian (Real World, 2014)
Tincian, the Welsh band 9Bach’s debut recording on the Real World label after their first self-titled 2009 import release, is an intriguing collection of contradictions. Dipping fingers into Celtic folk against a sharply worked atmospheric feel, Tincian unfolds with a lush backdrop of guitar, harp, piano and percussion against the crystalline vocals of Lisa Jen. And, again those light, floaty vocals, delivered in Welsh and a bit of Greek, work against expectations with song subjects ranging from the agony and ecstasy of childbirth, foxes, Aboriginal children snatched from their mothers and a mother rescuing her child.
Falling somewhere between folk and a band backed singer/songwriter, Tincian pulls off an intimate, plush sound that occupies a space rooted to earth by the music and yet takes the listener to the ethereal with its vocals.
Made up of drummer and percussionist Ali Byworth, bass guitarist Dan Swain, harpist and vocalist Esylit Glyn Jones, pianist and vocalist Lisa Jen, guitarist and percussionist Martin Hoyland and vocalist Mirian Haf Roberts, 9Bach unravels the traditional folk sound with stunningly smart arrangements and unexpected twists and turns, all without leaning to overproduction to overflowing.
With only one traditional song, Tincian relies on Ms. Jen for the lyrics and melodies with Mr, Hoyland lending a hand to Ms. Jen with the music and arrangements. Tincian proves potent with delicately worked vocals against a backbone of percussion, piano, guitar and harp.
Opening with the plush, loungy “Lliwiau,” listeners are soothed by Ms. Jen’s lovely vocals before Tincian dips into the percussively rich “Llwynog.” Pulsing with layered vocals against a percussive heavy backdrop, “Plentyn” is a sweetly delightful, just as darker tracks like “Pa Le?” and “Ffarwel” dazzle with a subterranean meatiness.
The intense feel of “Ffarwel” thrums with the added bonus of the male chorus, the Black Arm Band Company. One of the gems on Tincian is the vocal kaleidoscope found on “Babi’r Eirlys” featuring Lou Bennett. Tincian closes with the lovely “Asteri Mou,” deftly infused with guitar, piano and harp.
Defying folk conventions, Tincian comes across a familiar landscape seen through new eyes.
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Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
