Baby Brave celebrate debut album with a packed hometown party at Wrexham's Rockin' Chair

Three years in the making, Baby Brave's debut album has finally arrived, and the Wrexham band could not have asked for a better welcome. Sugar to the Tongue was launched with a hometown party at The Rockin' Chair, the independent live music venue in the city centre, and the place was packed.

The band's sound is hard to pin down, mixing soaring pop melodies and disco rhythms with gut-wrenching guitars, new wave, post-punk and psychedelia. BBC Radio Wales presenter Adam Walton has described them as "brilliantly co-opting sounds of disco, new wave and no-wave New York City", while Radio X's John Kennedy called them brilliant.

The national airplay started before the album was out. Lead single Cherry Tomato made the BBC Radio Wales A-List, featured on Rough Trade's Counter Culture playlist and was picked as a Radio X X-Posure Hot One, with several plays on BBC Radio 6 Music too.

For the launch, the band wanted more than a standard album show. They brought three other Wrexham acts onto the bill: wizard-grunge outfit Groom The Giant, who recently played Bloodstock Festival's New Blood Stage, songwriter Jamie Hamlington's band Fleece, and emerging young alternative rock four-piece Roadside Assistance.

"The gig felt like one huge, mad family celebration, with everyone bringing their own energy and letting their hair down, from headbanging, hand jiving and a whole lot of pogoing," said lead singer and guitarist Emmi Manteau, who even got the crowd doing the Macarena before the band played.

"What makes Wrexham so special is the genuine love between bands," she added. "We really do have each other's backs, and there's a real team spirit here. It just felt right to celebrate the release of our debut album with the people who've been part of our journey all along."

Fleece guitarist Gareth Thomas said the night exceeded all expectations, while Roadside Assistance singer Igor Konieczny said it "genuinely felt magical".

The album has been pressed on vinyl, and as well as being sold through the band's own channels it is stocked by Revibed Records at Tŷ Pawb, a neat example of Wrexham's music scene looking after its own.

Sugar to the Tongue is available from babybrave.co.uk and from Revibed Records at Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham.