Aside from being an all round nice guy and absolute legend, Paul Hazel is a composer, musician, record producer and film maker from Swansea. It was a pleasure to have Paul headline a special show for us at this year’s Swansea Fringe Festival at Cinema & Co where he launched his newest release, ‘Test Pattern Redux’, and further proved why Paul is a force to be reckoned within the wider electronic music scene. 

Paul moved to Wales from London in 2003 and lectured at Swansea College of Art for 14 years. During this time, he co-founded the Swansea Laptop Orchestra, who if you haven’t experienced before you definitely should. 

The music that Paul creates is multi-disciplinary, thought provoking and really clever. This was translated during his set at the Swansea Fringe festival, which I was really lucky to catch (after a volunteer forced me to stop panicking and sit and enjoy Paul’s music).

It was an incredible experience - I went from being ridiculously stressed to be completely immersed in Paul’s set, forgetting, almost instantly everything else in the world. The sounds Paul produced were hypnotic, textured and consistently interesting - this, matched with the visuals behind him, made it (for me) the perfect live show. 

It’s interesting to read Paul’s three basic principles that he has for his creations after experiencing it, it really makes sense and is working well. His basic principles are: 1) achieve the most possible with the least: “less is more”. 2) each piece of work is an attempt to question the assumptions on which it is built 3) striving for art that “performs the possibilities it promotes”. 

Paul also runs his own record label, Bamboo Radical, where you can listen to his tunes - I highly recommend that you do. His most recent release (also available on 12” vinyl) Test Pattern Redux (2018) is an absolute techno classic and the EP Dreaming Detroit (2018) matches this quality and showcase the range of influences that Paul has on his music. 

His website is also worth a read - you can find out about all of Paul’s work, including his really interesting trip to Japan. On this note, check out his most recent offering: “Kyoto Air Conditioner Dub”

Even if Techno or Electronic music isn’t your bag, I implore you to give Paul’s stuff a go. I bet you’ll find yourself lost in his sounds, leaving everything behind and coming out the other end thinking “I can’t wait to do that again…”

Written by Simon Parton

Since we started the Swansea Music Hub, it’s been really great for us to watch the progress of young bands over the last year. One that we’ve had a keen eye on from the start is Vanilla and it’s been really encouraging to see them go from strength to strength over the last year or so.

The band released their official debut single ‘See’ last week - one that will be familiar to those of you that have seen the band live, it is an absolute indie banger. Championed already by Adam Walton on the BBC Wales Introducing show it proves that the future is certainly bright for the young band.

Take a shot every time you see James naked x Check us out on: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Vanillabanduk/ Twitter https://twitter.com/vanillabanduk Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vanillauk Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/vanilla-official Bandcamp https://vanillauk.bandcamp.com/releases

They’re a great band to see live - we went to their headline show at Sin City earlier this year and it went off! Really fun, energetic and their crowd surfing abilities were top notch.

They’re also really sound lads & are forever supporting the music scene here in Swansea - you’ll notice guitarist Keiran’s sweet Swansea Fringe Festival volunteer t shirt in the single artwork. They’re always at others’ gigs, always really positive about the scene and just all round top guys.

Vanilla Facebook | Vanilla Twitter | Vanilla Spotify | Vanilla Instagram

Written by Simon Parton

One of my favourite thing about doing stuff for the Swansea Music Hub is discovery. Discovering new artists is exciting, but when you discover whole scenes within the wider Swansea music scene it's amazing. 

The Swansea underground house / techno is one of these scenes I've come across and it is thriving - and at the forefront of the this scene is Electronic / Techno / Minimal / Acid House DJ & producer Mikki James. 

A resident of (almost) 9 year old underground house and techno party Dogruff, Mikki has a wealth of experience and has perfected her craft as a DJ and producer. I'll have to admit that techno, house and acid isn't at the forefront of my musical tastes but Mikki's tunes really resonate with me and as a fan of other sub-genres of electronic music I can really appreciate the tracks that she's made. 

We're lucky enough to have Dogruff DJing at this year's Swansea Fringe Festival and we've featured a Dogruff party as gig of the week before - which subsequently put me onto Mikki's music and her most recent offering is my favourite. 

Hypnotic beats, lush textures and really nicely selected samples that wash over you as - I've also noticed that in the 6minutes that I've already listened to I haven't stopped tapping my feet and grooving in at my desk. There's a vocal sample cleverly placed just after the first third of the track and I was willing for it to return; (perhaps intentionally) it doesn't and that made me really appreciate the deeper textures and sounds within the track. 

Before this gets too much like a musicology assignment of me deconstructing Mikki's tune, I'll move on to two more tracks I'd like to highlight.

I guess it was the titles of these that drew me in to listening to these (in amongst Mikki's vast collection on her Soundcloud). I'm not sure if they're linked in anyway (the titles suggest that they are & there are lots of deep musical things I could say to delve into it - I won't...!) but I lost myself in both - definitely check them both out. 

Like I said at the start, I don't consider myself an expert in techno / house / minimal / acid - but I really enjoyed working my way through Mikki's stuff. The mix that she has up up on her Mixcloud is also superb - highlighting that Mikki's skills & selections as a DJ are also ace. 

Catch Mikki DJing at Dogruff's 9th birthday party - you can also catch a Dogruff party this weekend at the Last Resort or see them DJing at The Swansea Fringe Festival alongside Roughion on Friday 5th October. 

Mikki James Facebook | Mikki James Soundcloud | Mikki James Mixcloud

Written by Simon Parton