February 2026 sees the launch of the debut album from Welsh musicians Dave Beese & Lee Powell under the studio band moniker - Inconia. The pair originally met and performed together in their early twenties blasting out heavy rock covers around the clubs and pubs of South Wales. As young men with financial commitments, this gave way to the hard-working gigging of the social club scene entertaining audiences in between bingo sessions.
Dave explains. 'It was one hell of a musical apprenticeship, but we had some great musicians in the band. We all sang, so the harmony vocals alone made us stand out, even though we were so young. I remember an occasion when we played in legendary Cardiff rock venue - Bogiez, for a charity gig, belting out Ozzy Ozbourne, Deep Purple and the like, and then racing up to Taff's Well Ex-Servicemens club. There, we would change into our cabaret pyjamas and croon out Queen, ELO, Kenny Rogers, Hollies numbers - quite bizarre, but it was great musical development.'
30 years on, and following a chance meeting at a funeral of an ex-band member, Lee invited Dave up to his own home studio to re-record some the earlier rock tracks they had written as young men. Reflecting on the prospect while watching a black and white western film, Dave fiddled around with a guitar riff and recorded it using his phone to send to Lee as more of a joke to suggest his creative juices were stirring. Lee takes up the story, 'Dave sent me a guitar riff which I loved and asked him to develop it into a song. I could immediately see the potential of it. He may have been joking, but I certainly wasn't!' The song turned out to be the anthemic rocker - 'Here Comes the Thunder' - the first song completed. The concept of a new album had been born.
Dave fills in his time between teaching guitar privately in the Cardiff area and writing through a multitude of genres. He learned to play the piano at an early age which explains the ample smattering of keyboards & synths which are a principal component of the album. Lee has played session bass and released several solo albums, and most recently teaming up with ex-Budgie drummer Steve Williams playing live. Their shared love of harmony vocals is apparent throughout the album providing classy production values to the more raucous Les Paul/Kemper combination which breathes venom through the heavier riff-laden songs.
Following the initial catch-up, it didn't take long before Dave started to get serious with the writing calling on a truly eclectic mix of influences. Between them, they cite Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Toto, Heart, Queenryche, Gary Moore, The Alan Parsons Project, Clannad, Genesis and so much more as song writing influences. The Gambler is a real mixed bag of musical ideas stretching from classical/ethereal Celtic folk to action soundtrack, to headbanging hard rock - but with lush multi-layered harmony vocal lead and backing vocal lines.
If you're after an album which sends you on a musical journey through classical/Celtic folk/sci-fi-action soundtrack/hard rock and blues. then you'll do far worse than give this incredibly well written, performed and produced album, a listen. It's a delight for the true music fan and keeps your attention up to the lovely final fading harmony vocals - a definite signature of what is a very, very good debut album from two very talented musicians. What makes it all the more impressive - is that the entire album was written, self-performed, recorded, engineered, produced and mastered at the pair's respective home recording studios. I think that's what we used to call in the old days - 'talent'.
Ian Pemberton