I always start with the best intentions, planning a montage of the best music, extracts from the most interesting interviews and blogs, a trawl through the best bits of the fascinating regular contributors to the show – building a veritable Frankenstein's monster of Welsh musical excellence. Then I start assembling the programme by looking, first, at the best music that has been gifted to me. And I end up with a playlist that's over 10 hours long. That's TEN HOURS LONG!
Okay, raise the quality threshold. Cut out the stuff that maybe is going to get trumpeted elsewhere anyway; hack away tracks that I really like but perhaps don't love quite as much as their adopted brothers and sisters; stab others in the back simply because they don't 'fit' in the grander scheme of things; make decisions that are as easy as wilfully pouring lemon juice onto my own naked eyeballs.
I'm now down to 6 hours. All of this is supposed to fit into a 3 hour show, remember. So long story cut an iota shorter: I have to sacrifice the plan to include talkie bits - music is king, queen and all the subjects of this realm, after all, with me acting fool amongst the storm.
I pray for some quantum miracle that will allow me to create a new dimension in radio time so that I can get 6 hours worth of music into a 3 hour slot. But the gods are just like the majority of the rest of Wales and they aren't listening to me either. Apart from the god of lost causes (a Wrexham fan) who catches up via the iPlayer. Good for her!
Sorry, got sidetracked by false modesty.
Clearly no quantum miracle is going to help me. World Service is immovable. 3 hours it is.
Next step, I do something I never do otherwise. I listen to every track on that playlist (over 100) and work out where I can fade in and fade out so that I can cram more music per square inch than I have ever achieved before. But that's time consuming and it feels like I am sacrificing all the interesting spacey bits, making the kind of brutally unmusical decisions that are normally the preserve of heads of music at commercial radio stations.
Even after all that bloody maths, I'm still left with too much music and too little time. The bolt gun comes out and I have to start being callous. Tracks that I love - like, say, that lead track off Ersatz's debut album, or Soft-Hearted Scientist's 'Manta Ray On Main Street' - are taken round the back of the house:
"Sorry, I've tried everything to squeeze you in. It's not that you're any worse than any of the ones who made it onto this ark, you're just..."
"Pull the trigger, Adam. We're not that bothered, you know. It's not like this is Peel's Festive Fifty or anything..."
BANG!
It's heartbreaking. As I laid the headstone on Polly Mackey thinking "Well, she's going to do very well in 2010, I'll be able to include her next year" - I was almost in tears. Please don't think I'm exaggerating. I have lost sleep over some of the decisions I have made, I've visibly aged and, er, put at least 2 pounds on. Yes, this was the reason for the extra 2 pounds.
Finally I have 67 tracks I think I can shape into some kind of programme. The only way to achieve this feat is to chop all that is unnecessary out, me in other words. Suits me. Then there is the technical challenge of how I knit this together as seamlessly as possible. I decide to approach it as a mixtape - it'd be impossible (well with my skill deficiencies) to mix it seamlessly. Welsh music isn't uniform, 120bpm four to the floor dancefloor fodder that a llama could mix. It's shifts and shimmies all over the stylistic and tempo spectrum.
I give my CDJ's a dust. Fire up Traktor Scratch Duo and just do it.
It's rough as nuts. Breakbeats smash into surf guitars; acerbic hardcore blasts out of sweet psych vibes; some dubstep gets stranded on the indie club dancefloor. Beats are matched with all the sartorial grace of a Christmas jumper convention. But it's as good a snapshot of Welsh music in 2009 as any you'll hear, I think. In the aftermath I realised that there were tracks that I'd overlooked that I had wished I'd included, not least something off Sibrydion's 'Campfire Classics' album or Akira the Don's 'the Omega Sanction' mixtape. And there is no Valleys pop metal. A definite blindspot for me. And, oh god, didn't the Viva Machine album finally get a release this year?
After 50 hours of preparation, tearful whittling and half-assed execution, It's done. And you can hear it at the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pgmjz/Adam_Walton_27_12_2009/
I hope you enjoy it. Really I do.
Here is the running order with approximate, iPlayer-derived times* for when each track starts. I'm hoping that you'll listen to the whole thing, if you have the time, but I have no right to demand three hours of your precious time, obviously.
It's a bloody good listen, I feel. I'm taking none of that credit. It's entirely due to the Welsh musicians involved (and Ellie Goulding!).
Here you go:
1) 0'00 - Colorama 'Dere Mewn' - whimsical gemstone melodies that glint with the naive wonder of 1966. From the excellent album Magic Lantern Show.
http://myspace.com/coloramsound
2) 2'00 - Threatmantics 'James Lemain' - rollicking, nightmarish updating of folk standard, Matty Groves. From an album, Upbeat Love, released at the tail-end of 2008 that deserved much more attention.
http://myspace.com/threatmantics
3) 3'57 - Joy Formidable 'Cradle' - propulsive and effortless dream pop that reminds me of Last Splash-era Breeders. Great melodies - and that's a piece of praise in inverse proportion to the amount of words used to state it.
http://myspace.com/thejoyformidable
4) 6'38 - Race Horses 'Man In My Head' - a cartwheeling psychedelic vignette steeped in everything from Syd Barrett to the Moody Blues and Gorkys to Grandad's old rock n roll 45's.
http://myspace.com/racehorsesmusic
5) 8'56 - Truckers of Husk 'Person' - off kilter fractal jigsaws of the Bhundu Boys doing to the human voice what Fridge did to pianos and xylophones.
http://myspace.com/truckersofhusk
6) 12'00 - zWolf 'Room For Doom' - glitch breakbeat soundtrack to a remake of Dirty Harry.
http://myspace.com/zwolfzwolfzwolf
7) 15'14 - Pete Lawrie featuring Speech Debelle 'Black and Blue' - remarkable rhodes-driven 'R&B' that actually has roots in rhythm and blues rather than the bling-encrusted charlatans who misappropriated the genre. Featuring a turn from this year's Mercury Music Award winner, Speech Debelle.
http://myspace.com/petelawrie
8) 17'51 - Metabeats 'Fruit Salad' - woozy, plinky plonk keyboards jammed together in a summer playground.
http://www.myspace.com/metaphysicalish
9) 19'15 - Eilir Pierce 'New Year's Eve' - outstanding and difficult to categorise electronic genius that obliquely recalls Datblygu and The Fall. This isn't from 2009, but 2009 was the first time I got to hear Eilir's remarkable music (thanks to Alan Holmes from Ectogram / Cob Records).
http://www.myspace.com/eilirpierce
10) 23'01 - Pen-Ta-Gram 'Sun Is Shinin' / North Wales Wreckers' - Ed Holden / Mr Phormula provides the soundtrack to North Wales' summer festivals.
http://www.myspace.com/pentagramcymraeg
11) 26'37 - Bastions 'Misery King' - veins bulging, swollen hearts, guitars like shrapnel, just fricking brilliant.
http://myspace.com/bstns
12) 28'30 - Super Furry Animals 'Moped Eyes' - insouciant brilliance from Dark Days / Light Years. The sound of Steely Dan loosening up, too stoned to irritate with muso-cianship. More Rhodes. There's a theme developing, here.
http://www.superfurry.com
13) 31'33 - Martin Carr 'Orpheus Lament' - beautiful song, great album (Ye Gods And Little Fishes). Yes this was in last year's best of, too - however the album didn't get a full release until this year.
http://martin-carr.com
14) 34'50 - Owls 'Baby, Now We're Free It's Easy' - frankly outstanding power pop with an irresistible tug that fills me with joy. I have no faith in the music industry (that remains) because it manages to miss / ignore songs as good as this.
http://myspace.com/owlsulike
15) 39'01 - Dez Williams 'Rust Proof' - you want to hear some intelligent and imaginative four-to-the-floor techno? Certainly. Here you go: a love for sound and the communal rush of a full dancefloor permeates every second of this extract from the BRILLIANT Tommy Ponk EP.
http://www.myspace.com/dezwilliamsmusic
16) 42'00 - Don Goliath 'Lot's Wife' [Deep Vein remix] - I don't know much about Deep Vein. But this remix is a brilliant and tasteful example of the art. Great work.
http://www.myspace.com/dezwilliamsmusic
17) 45'16 - Mr Curtamos 'Junglebiz'. Expansive and forward-thinking dubstep from Cardiff. Stolen from Kaptin's essential Chrome Kids blog.
http://www.myspace.com/mrcurtamos
http://chromekids.com
18) 47'06 - Visionary Brotherhood 'Sunday Break' - Brilliantly crafted breakbeats from West Wales. Like Four Tet with all the opaque posturing stripped out.
http://www.myspace.com/visionarybrotherhood
19) 49'51 - Y Niwl 'Wyth' - clearly in thrall to the Ventures, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Man Or Astroman and the like. But when it's done this well, who gives a joyless stuff?
http://www.myspace.com/yniwl
20) 52'02 - Cate Le Bon 'Hollow Trees House Hounds' - Grimm, but not grim; nightmare-like, but not nightmarish, lysergic wooze that woos the heart and the head. You can taste the colour of Cate's dreams in this song. And they taste weird, but very very good.
http://myspace.com/catelebon
21) 55'27 - Jen Jeniro 'Dolphin Pinc a Melyn' - oh my god! It's as if this was born in the same fairytale forest as Cate's song. Written at the edge of the map where all the wild things are. Recorders tumble, ebows drone, we slip into another dimension.
http://www.myspace.com/jenjeniro
22) 59'26 - Masters of France 'Jack Little' - chops get chopped in a thoroughly engaging and choppy fashion. Who knows how many are the family Ginsberg, or how many different musical projects they're involved in. It's certainly enough to addle my stupid head, but when the DNA mutates into guitar-driven rock n roll that sounds as fresh as this, biographical fact plain doesn't matter.
http://www.myspace.com/mastersinfrance
23) 1hr 03'17 - Gallops 'Lasers' - Wrexham's thunderous musical artisans drive their polyphonic splinters deep into the brain on this track from Huw Stephens' The Music Sounds Better With Huw comp. Debut EP proper will follow early in 2010. I can't wait.
http://www.myspace.com/thegallopsband
24) 1hr 06'46 - Mr Huw 'Ffrind Gora Marw' - democratic melodies for all. Mr Huw pens tunes children could singalong with after a single listen. An estimable skill.
http://www.myspace.com/ymrhuw
25) 1hr 08'48 - Organ Morgan 'Scent of Rainy Pavements' - aka Mathew Mayes - Avalanches-esque cut 'n' paste love letter to music to lift the heart and the most reluctant of feet.
http://www.myspace.com/organmorganmusic
26) 1hr 11'50 - Klaus Kinski 'Caesar' - out on the beach at Llanfairfechan during one of the regular storms of spit and slate that regularly batter that part of the North Wales coast, you can feel like you're at the edge of the world. This is the perfect music for falling over that edge, dragging the rest of the world along with you. My wife and daughter hate this. HATE IT. Brilliant.
http://myspace.com/klausruddykinski
27) 1hr 15'31 - Exit International 'Sex With Strangers' - rock n roll. ROCK N ROLL. Every one of Wales' bland pop metal bands should be forced to listen to this until they understand that you need much more than a haircut and self-immolating lyric to make great music.
http://myspace.com/exitinternationalmusic
28) 1hr 17'31 - Paper Aeroplanes 'Take It Easy' - the sound of your heart at sunset. All embers and sweet aches. Sarah's voice is the reason we evolved ears. Well, it's certainly the reason I'm thankful that I evolved ears.
http://myspace.com/paperaeroplanes
29) 1hr 21'15 - Ellie Goulding 'Starry Eyed' - seems like I tripped up, here. Ellie Goulding isn't Welsh and has no roots in Wales. That has only transpired since I recorded this show. I love this song, though. This is the token offering from elsewhere (Hereford, to be precise). It's brilliant. Anyone who lumps this into a 'scene' or movement on the basis of Ellie's gender deserves to miss this wonder of a pop song.
http://myspace.com/elliegoulding
30) 1hr 24'06 - Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band With Tim and Sam 'Summer Solstice' - I'm running out of superlatives, now. What can I say that will do this immaculate patchwork of acoustic guitars, woodwind and glockenspiel justice? Yes, it's whimsical; no, it isn't twee; yes it is a fine refuge from the dark world outside. Their debut album is a reason to wear earplugs at nasty loud gigs. Otherwise you may miss the embroidered subtleties that shimmer just beyond plain hearing. And that's where the true beauty lies.
http://www.myspace.com/timandsamstimandthesambandwithtimandsam
31) 1hr 26'51 - The School 'And Suddenly' - this finally got an official release (American label Slumberland Records) on 7" this year. Available NOW on iTunes. I'm very embarrassed about how I cued this into the mixtape. But it had to be done 'live'. Sorry The School. You deserved much better. I knocked the 'Play' button reaching for a mug of tea.
http://myspace.com/theschoolband
32) 1hr 29'01 - Le B 'Cat Song' - Le B (aka Laura Bryon) released an EP like one of those games compendiums that used to be rather popular in the dim mists of time before computers and the internet. This EP revels in its limitations ('just' acoustic guitar, voice and an imagination) to create something original and transcendent. The EP was released on Bird Records, an offshoot of the legendary Twisted Nerve Records. And Laura also managed to be ace in King Alexander and as part of the glue for this year's Sŵn Festival *AND* as a Vinyl Vendetta. I'm in awe of LeB.
http://myspace.com/monnomestleb
33) 1hr 31'18 - VanGuard 'Mount Helicon' - the best tip I had this year (from Swansea's Colin Consterdine). This young duo from West Wales are already receiving deserved support from tastemakers at Radio 1. In retrospect, I can't believe how little of this storming track I have included in the mixtape. I must have needed a wee, or something. Which you'd think would have meant that I would have played more, but what actually happens is that my brain goes into some strange timezone where every second lasts a minute. I love this track, too. Check out their myspace page for more brilliant productions and remixes.
http://myspace.com/levanguardfunk
34) 1hr 32'49 - Acid Casuals 'Cauchy Horizon' - the Som Bom label is releasing peerless techno that rather enjoys doing the unexpected with sounds you don't normally hear blasting from nightclub speakers. Anything the label released this year is worthy of investigation. But Cauchy Horizon is my favourite. All those weird breakdowns and that wasps nest of a sound that weaves itself in and out of the mix makes it for me.
http://www.myspace.com/sombom
35) 1hr 34'48 - eViLs 'It's the End of the World' - and so we tumble into eViLs in a most undignified fashion. I wanted to play more of all of these tracks but time restrictions (see tortuous blog) meant that I had to flit through without doing any of the tracks any real justice. You're free - naturally - to investigate further and more fully. In fact, I'd implore you to do so.
http://www.myspace.com/evilsmusic
36) 1hr 37'11 - Martipants 'Onyamonio' - scratchier than a stray spaniel, this is more electronic playground frolics that are delightfully reminiscent of the Avalanches. Great fun and on the excellent Self Raising Records.
http://myspace.com/martipants
37) 1hr 39'22 - Yr Ods 'Ffordd ti'n troi dy lygaid' - Great pop music. Less is more. I love this.
http://www.myspace.com/yrods
38) 1hr 42'20 - the Victorian English Gentlemens Club 'Dog' - a big hammer of a tune. But it's a hammer decorated in flowers and shaped like a flag. A pink flag. This is artpop with wires defiantly crossed. The album, Love On An Oil Rig, does for spikes in pop music what Vlad the Impaler did for spikes on city walls.
http://www.thevictorianenglishgentlemensclub.co.uk
39) 1hr 45'06 - Future of the Left 'Throwing Bricks At Trains' - what the hell are they on about? What are the precedents for this? Can I sum up how good it is adequately in a short paragraph of nonsense? No. As good as go karts were when I was 8. Oh, yeah!
http://futureoftheleft.com
40) 1hr 47'41 - Harbour 'Hearing Loss' - hearts on sleeves rarely sound as good as this.
http://www.myspace.com/harboursucks
41) 1hr 50'19 - Solutions 'Fighting Tigers' - this makes me want to cry. I'm sure that wasn't Solutions' intention. I'm moved by this because it reminds me that there is nothing to rival being young and being in a good band. One day soon Solutions will be a great band.
http://www.myspace.com/solutionsmusic
42) 1hr 53'29 - Switch Fusion 'Reach Out' - great Welsh music comes in all forms and styles and from all over the country. Perched somewhere on a mountainside in Llanberis is Dafydd Gethin Owen. He's already been picked up by Radio 1 and his crunching compositions have that extra dimension that make them dance music that is also essential listening far removed from the dancefloor.
http://www.myspace.com/dnbswitch
43) 1hr 56'39 - Dr wUw 'I'm a Free Man' - elsewhere in Llanberis (!) Dr wUw makes a remarkable fusion of reggae and electronic music that is part ragga / part jungle / part drum n bass / all glorying in the never-ending possibilities of sound and technology. Phil (Dr wUw) co-promotes regular reggae-influenced nights at Hendre Hall in Tal Y Bont. His love for the music that informs his sounds is evident for all to hear. I love it, too.
http://www.myspace.com/wuwzer
44) 1hr 59'10 - KZSS & ATMA 'Obsidian Sunrise' - this sounds so otherworldly… like something that could have tumbled off the Blade Runner soundtrack. Actually it's from Newport. It's beautifully done. The best use of the Amen break I've heard in many a year.
http://myspace.com/kzss
45) 2hr 02'59 - 9bach 'Cariad Cyntaf' - the debut album on Gwymon is this much magic multiplied by a factor of ace. Seriously, your ears and your heart will thank you for it.
http://myspace.com/9bach
46) 2hr 05'30 - Annalogue 'Corn Curl' - Annalogue is Ann Matthews from Ectogram's solo project, and Brocken Spectre, her debut album, is music from the edge of the gloaming: all shifting, indistinct shapes and umber textures.
http://www.myspace.com/annolog
47) 2hr 08'20 - Alex Mountaineer 'Monkey' - similarly, Alex Mountaineer (or Alex Germains, formerly of the Mountaineers) makes music in thrall to nothing but his imagination and the sounds he can colour those dreams in with. This is a remarkable concoction of oriental sounding twangs and discordant strings and woodwind. Brilliant.
http://myspace.com/alexmountaineer
48) 2hr 11'50 - the Damn Blags 'Oil Change' - if Beck collaborated with The Fall it might sound like this. Until Frank Zappa takes over partway through. Best use of a talking wah in 2009, easy.
http://www.myspace.com/thedamnblags
49), 50) & 51) 2hr 15'20 - tracks from the Doc Feistr concept album. Great mentalness. I love the sound of imaginations running riot. And turning into sea monsters in the middle of a greasy spoon.
http://docfeistr.com
52) 2hr 19'11 - Science Bastard 'Lizard' - ha ha ha! That squeal of feedback is the finest sound in the whole 3 hours, I think. This is all that stops alien species from invading and subjugating us. Until they can fathom out what the heck Science Bastard are on about, they're staying well away. We have 4,317 years 10 months 14 days 17 hours 14 minutes and 12 seconds until they break the code. Make the most of it.
http://myspace.com/sciencebastard
53) 2hr 21'03 - The Irascibles 'Six O Clock' - I think there might be a Young Marble Giant involved in this. Not that that matters. This is like listening to a Soweto school band trying to play my dad's old rock n roll singles (yes, them again) after one listen. THAT good.
http://myspace.com/theirascibles
54) 2hr 23'41 - Pulco 'The Ballad of Billy D Horsey' - I should build a shrine to home recording and the new vistas of music that have been opened up by not having to go into an expensive recording studio with all those intimidating faders, and the fascistic piece of glass that separates the nobs with the knobs from the musician (so they can make smart arse comments about yet another failed take.) OK, maybe I'm letting my own personal experiences taint the whole picture, here. Ashley Cooke makes something magical on this track whilst exploiting his own child. Phil Spector (if we're still allowed to talk about that murdering genius) would be proud.
http://www.myspace.com/pulco
55) 2hr 25'58 - The Loves 'Love Song #7' - The Loves (well, head honcho Simon) are on the verge of giving it all up. Over a decade of pop music fetishism and worship in the face of clueless hostility or deaf indifference have taken their toll. There are, however, plenty of us who have - as invited - loved the Loves. Their album from this year, 'Three', is a love letter to great music mostly from the past. Loves is all around.
http://www.myspace.com/lovetheloves
56) 2hr 28'03 - Blue Eyed Shark Experiment 'Goodbye My Little Friend' - talk about pop music. This is pop music. In a perfect world it would be. A lullaby for bruised souls who'd rather hear Grandaddy at the top of the charts than the X Factor. Or - *especially* or - Rage Against the Machine. Sigh.
http://myspace.com/blueeyedshark
57) 2hr 31'00 - Camera 'Change Your Mind' - Wrexham has been responsible for some very fine music this year. Swathes earned himself some good oxygen in the NME; Polly Mackey played SXSW and won sponsorships and support from industry bigwigs; Mother of Six released a stonking debut EP (received just too late to make it here). But did anyone from the North do anything to match Camera's excellent FREE Fireflies EP? This is 'just' emotive and melodic rock music, the kind they've been crafting, peerlessly, for nigh on a decade. To my mind we should not take their excellence for granted.
http://www.myspace.com/cameratheband
58) 2hr 34'18 - Mechanical Owl 'Make It Last' - more emotive melodic guitar music. It's nothing new, on the surface of things. But only idiots judge things on the surface alone. Mike
http://myspace.com/mechanicalowl
59) 2hr 27'56 - Son Capson 'Did You Crash a Car into Stonehenge Girl' - Liam Percy George's piano is on an endless downhill slope, and as it avalanches down, down, down showering all around with gravel and barging mountain goats out of the way, Liam screams his visions at the blurred world rushing by. May he never reach the bottom of that slope.
http://myspace.com/isoldmysisteronebay
60) 2hr 40'17 - the Stilletoes 'I Need to Roam' - ah. Just, 'ah'.
http://www.myspace.com/thestilletoes
61) 2hr 42'07 - the Lowland Hundred 'Allt-Glais' - anything that brings to mind Robert Wyatt has to have a singular, heartwarming and melancholic beauty to it. I've never heard such a heartfelt hymn to the natural world around us. This makes no concessions to bandwagons or zeitgeists and it's all the more precious for that. Very very wonderful.
http://www.lowlandhundred.com
62) 2hr 47'20 - Alun Battrick 'Gad i Mi Fod' - who is this? A remarkable song that again reminds me of Robert Wyatt. There are echoes here, too, of Bowie and Cale. But I'm scrabbling for reference points. It's another beautiful and singular vision. Please send me more Alun.
http://myspace.com/alunbattrick
63) 2hr 51'35 - John Lawrence 'Post Armageddon Blues' - Rainy NIghts is one of my favourite albums of the year. This song is massive in scope and vision - lyrically and sonically - and yet it never strays away from sounding intimate and personal. A damn fine way to (almost) end this show.
http://myspace.com/infinitychimps
64) 2hr 58'10 - Silent Disco at Sŵn Festival 'You and Me Song' - a remarkable end to this year's Sŵn Festival. 2,000 revellers singing the Wannadies. The sentiment seemed like an apt way to usher in the end of proceedings.
65) 2hr 59'30 - Rhemp 'Concerto Cornetto' - Johnny R reminds us that music is about defying convention. It's a great thought to take with us into a new decade.
Well, that took a lot longer than I ever expected.
There are many, many songs that didn't quite make it into the playlist above. Listening back I'm pleased with my attempt to squeeze the highlights of 2009 into one 3 hour show. Of course there are oversights. You're more than welcome to scream about what you think should have been there in the space below.
It's your music and recommendations that this show subsists on. Without you, really and truly, the show is nothing.
Please address high quality .mp3's to: themysterytour@gmail.com
If you know a band / producer / DJ / visionary / poet please nudge them in my direction.
Happy New Year / Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.
Map of this playlist:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&z=8
* - if the start of the show is reinstated on the iPlayer this will throw the timings above out -- I'll try to change the timings above if that is the case.
©Adam Walton
2010
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