Review: Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18, Elijah Minnelli – The Bunkhouse, Swansea

Pierre Donahue

Tonight’s venue Swansea’s Bunkhouse has recently been acquired by the Music Venue Trust, in a bold but welcome move to protect it for prosperity. With small venues across the UK closing at an alarming rate, It’s easy to see why they have acted to save this one. A compact and perfectly formed place, that has clearly paid a lot of attention to the audience and artist experience alike.

Elijah Minnelli kicks proceedings off to a sparse but appreciative audience with his dub folk infused sounds and clearly enjoys himself.

Whilst perhaps more suited to a more boisterous setting, his enthusiasm soon rubs off and there is plenty of head bobbing and foot tapping to be seen around the dark corners of the room. Any doubts that there might be a low turnout are quickly dispelled, and a healthy crowd is in attendance by the time Rio 18 take to the stage.

Welsh and Brazilian music might not be an obvious collaboration, In fact aside from passionate football fans, beaches, and a love of music there is not much common ground between the two countries. If faced with a choice between Rio De Janeiro or Barry Island I know which one I’d choose. But it works in this case and much better than you’d think.

The bilingual trio led by Carwyn Ellis includes Venezuelan percussionist and singer Baldo Verdu and Elan Rhys of Welsh band Plu. Carwyn, who hails from Anglesey, is a busy man these days. Apart from Rio 18 he has his own band Colorama, but also plays with The Pretenders, collaborates with Edwyn Collins, put together the band Bendith with fellow Welsh musicians Plu and hosts a show on Soho Radio.

Rio 18 mixes Brasileiro beats with Cymraeg seamlessly, in fact at times both welsh and Portuguese is sung alongside each other. There is a touch of genius in the entwining of those sun kissed Bahain grooves with the lyrical allure of the Welsh language – so unexpected and yet so right and proper. It works an absolute treat.

Carwyn ( vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards and effects) full of wit and charm, calls his songs tropical gog and music inspired by ice cream weather. It’s hard to disagree. The music uplifting us all out of autumnal Wales to Brazil and back again.

New album Radio Chevere is a mystical journey through a myriad of different styles, stopping off sonically at Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, California and Carnarvon via samba, salsa, funk, disco, psychedelic and electronica and it’s all on show tonight. The challenge of performing it’s full depth as a trio live augmented by a backing track, which whilst not being ideal, doesn’t detract too much from the performance.

After being introduced as a rare creature from Caracas, Baldo Verdu, the afro sporting, brightly scarfed percussionist jumps up from behind his Congo’s, for track Casa Loca, grabs a mic and theatrically owns the stage. At one point whistling to great effect as if being possessed by a Venezuelan spaghetti western soundtrack. Afterwards Carwyn cheekily challenges anybody to whistle like that on a Wednesday night.

Elan Rhys (vocals and percussion) is a long time Carwyn collaborator and is a joy to watch. Adding some beautiful harmonies, dancing, smiles and plenty of Hwyl. She has her turn in the spotlight and is equally energetic with disco infused track Gwely’r Mor.

The biggest cheer of the night comes for their BBC 6Music playlist favourite – Ola! – which is perhaps the reason for most being in attendance. This signifies that things are drawing to a sweaty close. Carwyn thanking the audience for coming out on a school night, also thanks BBC Radio Cymru who have clearly had a big part to play behind the scenes in this musical collaboration.

As we all go out into the dark night, on a day when the US election hung heavy over the world, in a small corner of Swansea, Rio 18 gave us an example, should it be needed, of the special place that music takes us to. A perfect antidote to the external world whilst simultaneously showing us that harmony between cultures can exist. Escapism is good in moderation.