Bass Clef ... newie

This guy is doing some great stuff. This is a tribute to his rave roots. Excellent EP.

Songs of the Year 2012

Hey Kids. Welcome to my annual compilation (the online version for those I haven't been able to send a CD to). No write-ups this year (phew I hear you say). Just to say that as ever I had no trouble filling this comp with great tunes. The problem was more about what to leave out. My personal favourite of this list is Major Lazer's "Get Free" which is just about as perfect a pop song as I could ever wish to hear. If you think this mix starts slow and a little fiddley-dee please do persevere over the first minute and a half of the first track by Advisory Circle because when it kicks in IT REALLY KICKS IN. One artist I have really enjoyed this year which I forgot (uhm!!) to include is Die Antwoord the bizarre hip-hop act from South Africa. They have made me smile just about more than anyone else so it was daft to forget them but in a way it's better to watch their stuff on YooToob because they really do produce the most incredible videos. Have a look at this one here as a supplement to my mix ...  http://youtu.be/8Uee_mcxvrw. Anyway, Happy Christmas to anyone popping over here to listen to this. Have a great 2013 and hope you find some stuff you like on this mix. Love from DJG xxxx

David's Annual List of Favourite Songs 2012 by David Griffiths on Mixcloud

La Bionda - I wanna be your lover (Discoring) - YouTube

I know this is absolutely terrible in so many ways but...I dunno, that proto-acid bass synth line and robotic voices. I just can't help falling for it. I just want to put on a puffy blouse and groove. It's all very Blakes Seven. And the haircuts and the 'tash ... that was the future kids!

Beach House's "Bloom" mini review

The strength of "Bloom" is that it sounds exactly like its brilliant predecessor "Teen Dream". It feels warm, cosy and familiar. It's a wonderfully snug fit for existing fans but at the same time it's sure to bewitch many new ones who have an inclination for hazy dream-pop. Beach House's sonic recipe is undeniably magical. BUT .. and it's a very big but, all its strengths might also be this record's Achilles heel. I'm now on my 7th listen and it sounds lovely, really it does, but nothing is walking up to me and giving me a great big kiss. Nothing is as instantly intoxicating (or beautifully odd lyrically) as "Zebra", the song that ultimately sold me on "Teen Dream". True, I was sceptical about "Teen Dream" too when it came out, but that was more prejudice about the band's sudden tectonic shift from cult darlings to major players. Simply hearing "Zebra" shattered that silly resistance. This time, a few plays in, there is just the faintest whiff of a group which may be treading a little too much water.

Women and vintage modular synthesizers

I was interested to read this article in Wired about some very obscure 70s electronic music that underscored a sequence in the movie The Hunger Games.

It's an amazing 9 minute experimental drone piece by (to me at least) an unknown composer called Laurie Spiegel who produced it in her apartment in Manhattan. Unfortunately it is not on the soundtrack album to the movie (a whole other story!).  I was curious and found a bit more on YouTube such as this (wonderfully entitled "Improvisations on a Concerto Generator").

I think that it'll be worth delving deeper. Incidentally her ancient-looking personal website contains a lot of conceptual stuff about her work AND this pretty great tribute from the rather better known experimental composer Terry Riley, who described music as - "Some pretty amazing heartfelt molecular inner-happening soundscape soul journeys" (molecular inner-happening soundscape soul journeys!!! wow - must remember that the next time someone asks me why I seem to enjoy listening to lengthy atonal noise pieces). It's always interesting coming across these female pioneers of experimental electronic music (especially because the genre in it's modern guise is a mainly male domain) and along with Laurie Spiegel I recently stumbled upon the work of another female artiste, Suzanne Ciani who is actually quite a successful composer for film and TV (she has been nominated for Grammys numerous times). Turns out a lot of her early work was quite "out there" and a decent compilation of her more experimental electronic compositions has just been issued on the ever-reliable Finders Keepers records. Here's a track by her off that album...and like the Spiegel track in the Hunger Games this is also a lengthy "tone" piece ... very hypnotic and beautifully textured.

It'd be stretching it to say that this hitherto obscure female aspect to early electronic music reveals a whole new layer to the genre but it certainly adds an interesting counterbalance to the "men-in-labs" narrative that usually springs to mind. I think it probably suggests that there is a whole lot more out there to discover in terms of artists and the styles of music they were writing and producing with the new sound technologies which were being invented throughout the 20th C. So good news for record crate-diggers everywhere. The gems are still out there (in all genres).

My Songs of the Year 2011

Seasonal joy ... here for your delectation is my very own pick of the pops for 2011. I will say right here that I forgot to include the rather brilliant Jens Lekman and Friends (I'm his girl) singles both of which just came out. Apart from that, this little lot are my special little musical pals for this year. Merry Christmas to you xxx David

David's songs of the year 2011 by Lightspeed Future Lullaby

1. Burial - Street Halo - Street Halo EP - UK
Burial has a "trademark sound", but like Boards of Canada before him, it is seminal, unique, much mimicked and never equalled. SONG OF THE YEAR.

2. Beirut - The Rip Tide - The Rip Tide - US
A welcome return for one of the truly great bands to emerge in the last decade. Hard to choose one track from the album, but this mournful title track edges it just. ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

3. Deerhoof - Super Duper Rescue Heads! - Deerhoof vs Evil - US
My daughter sings this - to my delight. Deerhoof continue to make skewed left-field pop with addictive hooks.

4. The Advisory Circle - As the Crow Flies - As the Crow Flies - UK
The prolific Jon Brooks in his AC guise on the ever-wonderful Ghost Box label (almost album of the year).

5. Zomby - Natalia's Song - Dedication - UK
Haunting standout from his first album on 4AD, featuring Zomby hallmarks like the wild time signature shifts but distilled down into a melodic tour de force.

6. Twin Sister - Kimmi in a Rice Field - In Heaven - US
Amongst the very very best of the recent crop of US bands filtering 80s influences into modern synthpop.

7. Connan Mockasin - Faking Jazz Together - Please Turn Me Into the Snat - NZ
Often called whimsical, this lovely fella from NZ via Elephant and Castle is just plain unique.

8. Balam Acab - See Birds (Moon) - See Birds - US
Spacious electronica with a dubby feel, from US sample wunderkind.

9. Metronomy - The Look - The English Riviera -UK
Perfect synth-pop originating from the unlikely environs of Totnes Devon.

10. Jon Brooks - Wandur Weltzeit - Music for Deiter Rams - UK
A musical tribute to Deiter Rams, designer of the Braun AB-30 alarm clock, from which all the sounds on this track are drawn.

11. The Field - It's up there - Looping State of Mind - DE
I think the album title says it all. A perfect example of the art of repetition.

12. Panda Bear - Surfers Hymn - Tomboy - US
The solo spinoffs from Animal Collective continue to thrill.

13. Rustie - Globes - Glass Swords - UK
It's prog Jim but not as we know it. An album from a dubstep hero that has divided opinion.

14. Tennis - Marathon - Cape Dory - US
A song that makes me want to be in the song. Very evocative.

15. Walls - Heat Haze - Coracle - UK
Label-mates and soul-mates of The Field. More repetitive bliss.

16. The Mummers - Call Me a Rainbow - Mink Hollow Road - UK
Lavishly orchestrated but still plaintively-beautiful song-craft.

17. PJ Harvey - On Battleship Hill - Let England Shake - UK
I think...my favourite ever PJ Harvey song!

18. Washed Out - A Dedication - Within and Without - US
An artist fast out-growing the "chill-wave" (hypnagogic was such a better name for it) micro-genre which has informed a lot of US indie since 2008. Reckon he'll last.

A Christmas single by me

"Now it's Christmas" is a "Christmas single" - if you click through on the link below you can buy it and all proceeds go to Oxfam so please please be so kind. It's only a quid. See it as my version of getting sponsorship for running a marathon!!

Inspired by Ze's brilliant Xmas album from 1981 this comes in at the more wide-eyed and bushy-tailed end of the Xmas spectrum. Just a plain ole sentimental "want you back" love song.

Written and produced by David Griffiths with substantial input from Bryn and Cat (Sonic Magpie) - to whom many thanks.