Heddlu crafts a sensational & experimental debut record, "cantref"
After a series of jaw dropping singles leading up to the big day, Heddlu’s debut album cantref has arrived and it’s astounding. Please keep reading for an in-depth look at the record, in addition to a much needed background on this artist.
From the mind of Rhodri Daniel comes his newest musical project titled Heddlu in which he’s effortlessly blended together an outrageous amount of genres, styles, and ideas for a debut album called cantref. Declared as a concept album by Rhodri who’s based it around a central character, it also does an incredible job of piquing the listener’s interest with shapeshifting sonic atmospheres, inventive instrumentation, and so much more. Needless to say, we are highly recommending everyone click the play button on this beauty.
Coming in at 11 songs, spanning right around the 40 minute mark, Heddlu immediately immerses the listener into a cavalcade of pulsating synthesizers in the intro and doesn’t let up on the insanity until the final notes. A record like this that truly feels cohesive from end to end is one that hasn’t crossed our paths in quite some time, but as soon as the opener “Descenensionist” finishes, you’ve already realized you’re in for a wild time. As mentioned, cantref really does span an infinite amount of genres and we’re not even quite sure how we would label ourselves. Surely it’s “experimental” sounding, but given that he’s gone the extra mile and infused a story arch into the mix it’s just kind of become its own thing which is a massive compliment on our end.
On the background of it all, here’s the direct lyrical description of the record, “it’s a concept album of sorts, based on a central character who finds themselves washed down river and castaway at sea, only to descend to the depths of Cambrian Bay to 'Cantref Gwaelod', a mythological sunken celtic city, populated with malevolent long-forgotten spirits. Initially, the protagonist struggles to accept reality, before eventually coming to terms with their fate, and learning to float amongst the ghosts”. If that doesn’t intrigue you in some sort of way, we honestly don’t know what to say.
Through our initial listen though, there were definitely some standout moments on tracks like “Locker”, “Reset”, and “SMS”. However we really do urge everyone out there to give this an uninterrupted spin based on that aforementioned cohesiveness. Heddlu has more than proved himself on this album and we sincerely hope that a follow up is in the works at some time. For now, please go ahead and check out the links below to listen, follow along, and to keep up with all news.
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