Cosmorat, Fräulein, Aziya and more bring the energy to DIY’s stage at Sŵn Festival • Festivals • DIY Magazine

Of all the new artist tastemaker festivals dotted throughout the increasingly packed yearly calendar, Cardiff’s Sŵn is a true winter gem in the crown. A genuine platform for spotlighting local talent as well as a magnet for returning heroes (headliners English Teacher) and country-wide breakthrough stars alike, it marries both sides of the coin whilst maintaining a spirit of true music fandom. You won’t find lanyard-waving fast passes or ridiculous, impossible queues here; instead, Cardiff is wonderfully manageable, with most of the 10 venues in hopping distance from each other.

One such venue, located in the vibey basement room beneath Jacob’s Antiques Centre - home to vintage wares, characterful bargains and a chirping parakeet - is where DIY’s stage parks itself up for the Saturday. Before the evening’s entertainment, however, it’s up to the venue’s roof garden for a trio of special afternoon treats that begin with a live podcast recording featuring main stage second headliner Antony Szmierek. Joining for a chat through his frankly ridiculous childhood as part of DIY’s Before They Knew Better pod (heading to a streaming service near you soon), the Mancunian reminisces about his wild school bus trips, where kids would regularly rip the lights off the ceiling, and simpler times sat in a peg basket as a toddler, watching the washing machine spin. A perfectly normal start to a festival day.

London’s Ellie Bleach is up next, performing a short, stripped-back set including a sad girl rework of the sassy ‘Doing Really Well Thanks’ and a country-tinged take on ‘Hottest Man Alive 1995’. Like Father John Misty without the Y chromosome, the sparser arrangements allow Bleach’s superlative, wry songwriting to really shine. Cardiff’s own Melin Melyn, meanwhile, are local celebrities in these parts and, following a secret set earlier in the day that sees their queue at Clwb Ifor Bach stretching down the road, their turn on the roof is packed. With an idiosyncratic and wonderfully Welsh touch that puts them as natural successors to the likes of Super Furry Animals, it’s not just in winning tracks like ‘Vitamin D’ that they thrive. Dressed in matching Wes Anderson-adjacent outfits and with enough bants to fill a stand-up set (“This is a stripped-back set, so that means we’re going to take one item of clothing off after each song”), the band are a treat for all the senses.

Down to the basement, and if the uncharacteristically sunny afternoon had lured people into a false sense of security, then Alien Chicks are here to blast that irrefutably away. One minute they’re wild like black midi gone hardcore, then next comes a bossa nova bit, then we’re back to chaos. Cobwebs be gone. Though fellow Brixton Windmill regulars mary in the junkyard might conjure up a quieter storm, their following set contains just as much intensity. Vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor’s tone is naturally ethereal but beefs up on the climax of ‘Ghost’, stretching into falsetto on debut single ‘Tuesday’. If Radiohead took a weird walk through the creepy bits of Moominland, you might end up here.

Having supported the likes of Black Honey and Jesse Jo Stark, Aziya has everything needed to make the jump up to big stage top billings herself. Amping up the heavier side of recent tracks ‘bbydoll’ and ‘crush (tom verlaine)’, and ripping out guitar solos, tonight she’s an icon in the making who could straddle the pop and rock worlds with ease. Meanwhile, it’s friends reunited as Fräulein and Cosmorat - who recently joined forces for a remix - provide a magnetic one-two punch. The former, the PJ Harvey-channelling duo of guitarist Joni Samuels and drummer Karsten Van der Tol, sound fuller and more confident than ever as Samuel manipulates her voice from resonant purr to full-on scream; the latter are a whirlwind of buoyant energy, with frontwoman Taylor Pollock the sort of magnetic leader you imagine will send Hayley Williams fans racing for the merch stall. When they come together to play their aforementioned collaborative take on Cosmorat’s ‘Backseat Baby’, it’s a joyful, unexpected treat.

The night rounds out with local favourites Half Happy who, now on their second set of the festival, still pull the punters in with lashings of ‘90s-influenced dream-pop. You can hear nods to Cocteau Twins in some moments, and Alvvays in others; as a whole, it’s a warm aural bath to relax in. And with a final set from Manchester trio Nightbus, who honour the legacy of their hometown with the sort of dark, driving post-punk that nods so heavily to Joy Division it literally interpolates ‘Shadowplay’ into their own ‘Mirrors’, it’s time to emerge back onto the Cardiff street (via a goodnight to Jacob’s resident parakeet).

The Best of the Rest from Sŵn

Automotion

Fronted by co-vocalists Jesse Hitchman and Lennon Gallagher (yes, son of Liam), it’s commendable how Automotion have entirely swerved both the nepo route - instead plugging away firmly at the toilet circuit - and any real signs of Britpop 2.0 descendancy. Instead, the majority of their set at Clwb Ifor Bach leans into post-rock territory, creating dense walls of sound before throwing in a bit of baggy lightness and a bonkers mathy number at the end for fun.

The New Eves

Brighton quartet The New Eves feel like relatively solid bets for a big 2025 - not because their music is obviously commercial friendly; no, this is psych-folk, chanty, pagan oddness to the nth degree. But, through their complete commitment and understanding of the niche they’re channelling, there’s a cohesiveness that feels fully-formed and ready to go.

The NONE

Gathering pace as a true word-of-mouth live band, The NONE might still have no music available on traditional streaming services but the message has clearly reached Cardiff’s packed Clwb room. Fronted by the powerful, aggressive vocals of frontwoman Kaila Whyte, there’s heaviness and hardcore sensibilities here but also nods to the ‘00s indie dancefloor - thanks, likely, to the presence of Bloc Party’s OG bassist Gordon Moakes.

Casual Smart

Cardiff’s Casual Smart, playing upstairs at the Tiny Rebel taproom, are almost certainly too baby-faced to get served at the bar below, but their youth is their greatest weapon. Like The Moldy Peaches before them, there’s a ricketyness and fragility on show here, not least in recent debut single ‘It Doesn’t Get Any Easier’, that’s charm personified.

Tags: Alien Chicks, Antony Szmierek, Aziya, Cosmorat, Ellie Bleach, Fräulein, Half Happy, mary in the junkyard, Melin Melyn, Nightbus, Sŵn, Festivals, Reviews, Live Reviews