And the man from Taranaki with the Welshiest name outside of Llanelli (and before you ask, yes I can say that Welsh place name too; the long one), Evan Rhys, is back with an uplifting anthem called It’s Not Your Fault. Release date is 12th April, so diarise.

We’re treated to some intricate guitar layering, with some nicely toned double rhythm chord and power chord work, atop a light, up-tempo bottom end. We get some sweet lead extrapolations at pleasantly unexpected points. It doesn’t make the song a stop-start affair; rather, it works to pick it up in energy even further.

This track bursts with positivity and light. This is a good thing, as the subject matter is those poor victims of misplaced blame – the victims of mental and physical abuse, bullying, any number of things which can leave humiliation and shame as scars on the soul. It’s Not Your Fault. These messages are always applauded by me when the platform of music is used to deliver them.

Recorded and produced by Sam Johnson at Rhythm Ace, Evan played all guitars and sang his usual crystal clear tenor, ably accompanied by bassist Hamish Cameron and drummer Christian Jacobsoni Rangel. Great work all round from some demonstrably professional musicians.

This is maybe what I’d class as 2024 prog-rock. It’s definitely something that fits under a number of umbrellas: it’s got a commercial edge to it, it’s got clear rock connotations, and the overall mastered version could still sit in a lot of indie playlists. Evan Rhys is a talented songwriter, both lyrically and in composition, and is certainly up there in the brightly lit and ever growing list of jaw-dropping talent Taranaki is revealing to us all.

I’d love to see a music vid for this track. Something with some live performance with some storyboard clips, a lot of mobility and parallaxing cameras, some deep lighting and the like. It’s definitely one to enjoy on a road trip or a commute, and I have no doubt it will be a favourite live for its overall vibe and the build-up closing segment, which an audience is going to engage with most definitely.

Keep ’em coming Evan. ‘warae teg bachgyn da!