★★★★

ALL you long-time searchers for the natural heir to legendary Welsh cosmic folk rockers Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (come on there must be some) need look no further.

From deep in the country that brought you Gruff Rhys and Euros Childs comes another singer whose name you’ll need help pronouncing; Meilyr Jones.

What Jones keeps from the manifestos of the aforementioned semi-legends is that off-kilter song writing that often eschews traditional structure, wonderful melodies mixing with strident chords, keeping you on your toes.

What he adds is one of the most beautiful voices in indie music today.

And he’s got magnetism in spades. At Bleach in front of a small but wowed crowd (some Welsh speakers in too) he’s the full nerd.

Tall, rangy, pudding bowl haircut, bright red polo neck and half-mast trousers, iffy dancing and a wonderful selfdepreciating humour, he is a compelling performer.

After the light soul opener How to Recognise a Work of Art we are into an hour or so of delightful chamber pop from his debut album 2013.

He’s his own man ,of course, but there are hints of Morrissey, Brian Ferry and maybe even a dash of Jacques Brel in there, his tenor voice soaring and swooping around intriguing lyrics.

And the true test of modern stagecraft is passed with flying colours.

Any singer who is prepared to risk a pared-back song in these days when some audiences are prepared to pay ticket prices just to talk loudly and obnoxiously about their day in the office is on the high wire.

But here, as Jones plays simple chords on a piano on the divine Refugees, you can hear a pin drop.

To prove he’s a gambler he ends by asking for the PA and amps to be switched off, singing acoustically before walking off through the crowd into a bright future as two violins play out.