Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard up for Welsh Music Prize

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s latest album Y Proffwyd Dwyll has been shortlisted for the 2017 Welsh Music Prize.

The doom outfit from Wrexham are the latest to be named as one of the 12 shortlisted artists for the award, with Baby Queens, Beneath, Gruff Rhys and Georgia Ruth already revealed.

The band say in a statement: “We are surprised and honoured to be shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize. We’ve always tried to include where we come from in the music we write.

“The Welsh language is beautiful and very descriptive so we wanted all our album titles to be in Welsh. We really wanted to explore and advance our sound with this album so we included more stuff like vocal harmonies and analogue synths.

“The response the album received was great and being invited to play in such cool places such as Poland, Germany and Lithuania kind of indicates that Welsh music does travel well.”

The Welsh Music Prize was created by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens and music promoter John Rostron and previous winners include Gruff Rhys, Future of the Left, Georgia Ruth, Joanna Gruesome, Gwenno and Meilyr Jones.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Milk And Sugar in the Old Library, Cardiff, on October 20 and will be chosen by a panel of industry experts.

Stephens says: “It’s been a strong year for albums in Wales. This shortlist reflects that and we can’t wait to find out which album the judges choose.

“The Welsh Music Prize has really grown in stature over the years and now we see international press and the music industry recognising the title as an important and respected accolade.”

For more information, visit the Welsh Music Prize website.

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.