Let's have a break from politics

How about a little light music. In my sporadic trawl through my hard drive, we've reached Brigyn, and their Brigyn 3 album. I like them a lot, but I won't talk about them because some people turn off as soon as they hear certain words, such as 'Welsh' and 'folk'. They're missing out.

I got into music properly when I went to Bangor University just at the time that the weird folk-pop (and other genres) Welsh-language scene emerged: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Ectogram, David Wrench, Tystion, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals - they all played in Bangor and some of them made their names on a wider stage too.

The latest wave are part of the purer folk scene that's gripped Britain recently. It's a little tamer than the booze and mushrooms 90s scene, but the music being turned out is very beautiful.

This will calm us all down after a fraught week.

New Sounds from North Wales

I'm currently listening to Brigyn's Brigyn 3 - a bunch of kids from North Wales who've released quite a lot in Welsh and are starting to sing in English too. They're pretty good: lots of folk, tinges of decent jazz, judicious use of electronics and a pretty clear line from Scott Walker and Tindersticks too. They're not experimental like SFA, Gorky's or Ectogram, but excellent nonetheless - think a Welsh Kings of Convenience. Not sure why they're called 'Twig' though…

Here's a couple of fairly straightforward acoustic bits.