Here we go again then - another year in our musical paradise. But before I launch myself into full 2016 mode, here's a quick look back at what tickled my fancy in 2015.
Five albums
A lot of people - including many of my esteemed blogging compadres - have featured the likes of Wolf Alice and Courtney Barnett in their year-end lists, while some of my other big faves of the year (The Charlatans, Foals, Public Service Broadcasting, Laura Marling, Gaz Coombes and Django Django) are well-known enough for you to either already have them or at least be familiar with them. So here's five albums I rate really highly that you may have missed: CLOWwNS - 'The Artful Execution Of Macho Bimbo' Think Franz Ferdinand with more bite, more wit and more ideas. A quite frankly brilliant debut. Really need to see them live now.
Evans The Death - 'Expect Delays'
Loads of youthful energy and fun wrapped up in a loud fuzzy swathe of guitars and occasional shouting. The singer has a really good voice, too.
Myrkur - 'M' Recommended to me by my mate Dave. Norwegian indie-pop star Amalie Bruun's black metal project heavily infused with Nordic folk music. Brutal yet beautiful at the same time.
Du Blonde - 'Welcome Back To Milk' As recently mentioned in my Beth Jeans Houghton post. A radical reinvention by Ms Houghton but a most enjoyable one it has to be said, despite the awful sleeve art.
Cattle - 'Somehow Hear Songs' My next It Came From Japan post will be a shoegaze special. It won't feature Cattle as this, their debut EP, has only just come out, but it's one of the strongest records I've heard all year.
If you're wondering why there are no Welsh albums here, it's because January's Welsh Wednesdays will feature some of my fave releases of 2015 from the Land of Song.
Five gigs
As you know, MrsRobster and I have been out and about quite a bit this year, taking in some of the very finest live entertainment acts. Well, a few decent bands, anyway. Raising kids brought our gig-going habits to an almost complete standstill for a good number of years, but now the sprogsters are of a responsible age, we have been venturing out a fair bit more over the last few years. This year my aim was to reach double figures for the first time in, ooh, some 18 years or more. We did 13! Here's my Top 5.
The Charlatans (Cardiff, December)
I said: "The best band I’ve seen this year. Probably. After 25 at times challenging years, they’ve still got it, without a doubt." [full review here] Slaves / Wonk Unit / Spring King (Cardiff, November) I said: "If we're talking about the consistency in quality of the whole bill, then this was probably right up there with our best gigs of the decade so far." Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Bristol, October) I said: "Two hours of enormous, slow-building epics that not only filled the Colston Hall, but pretty likely the whole of the city." [full reviews of these shows here] Wolf Alice (Cardiff, April) I said: "They are good. Like, really bloody good. Good songs, good sound, good singer."
Super Furry Animals (Cardiff, May) I said: "A mammoth 2¼ hour set which covered all bases - the hits, album tracks, obscurities, pop songs, psychedelic wig-outs, electronic wizardry, English, Welsh - you name it, it was in there."
Laura Marling (Bristol, May) I said: " Laura's set was masterfully arranged and executed... She seems to have eschewed much of her earlier material as if to make a statement that she has been somehow reborn... The new songs made the set even more compelling." [full reviews of these shows here]
Yes, I'm fully aware that's six gigs, not five. But heck, I couldn't decide which one to drop so I broke my own rule. That's the kind of guy I am - still a rebel after all these years!
Some other things
My Kitchens Of Distinction post racking up a silly number of views after being posted on the band's Facebook page and tweeted by Patrick Fitzgerald himself.
TheMadster getting to university, the first in my and MrsRobster's immediate families to do so. And she survived freshers! Just how proud are we?!
Wales qualifying for the 2016 Euros, a massive achievement for such a tiny nation. Arguably even better than the injury-ravaged Welsh rugby team beating England in the World Cup back in the autumn.
Looking forward to:
The new Bowie album... goes without saying, doesn't it?
The new PJ Harvey album... ditto.
The new Savages album... expecting a monster.
The Lush comeback... yaay! Gigs, new songs, Miki. Yaay!
Bob Mould and Snuff in Cardiff within two days of each other. My ears will be bleeding.
I expect to make fewer posts in 2016. It has been hard work preparing four posts a week and I'm not sure I can keep it interesting enough at that rate. Hopefully the quality will compensate for the lesser quantity. We'll see. For now though, here's one more of my favourite songs of 2015 for you. A completely new sound for Emmy The Great, but an extraordinary track and a spooky, rather upsetting video.
Fifteen years ago today, the youngest of our clan was thrust into an unsuspecting world. TheDoopster (not her real name) has always seemed to me to be a little... different - but I mean that in a good way. She's pretty quiet and doesn't give a lot of herself away - "emotionally retarded" is how MrsRobster rather amusingly (though somewhat accurately) describes her. She is, however, frequently hilarious and silly. She also has a quite amazing knowledge of animals and space, though sadly not animals in space...
In terms of music, Doopster has never expressed a particular preference for any type of music, though she has long been a Lily Allen fan. She loves playing music herself though, having been playing the clarinet since primary school and over the last 12 months has taught herself to play piano. Her mum used to borrow her iPod to listen to music as she walked to work. She (MrsRobster) loaded a bunch of albums onto it and Doopster subsequently inherited them.
Unsurprisingly, one of her faves had an animal link to it - Cold Black Kitty by Pete & The Pirates. It featured on the band's second and final album 'One Thousand Pictures'. A good choice. What was unexpected was her most listened-to track, Emmy The Great's Paper Forest. When I asked her what she liked so much about it, she just gave me a wordless shrug as she so often does when you want her to reveal something about herself!
She's an enigma, our youngest. I still haven't quite worked her out in 15 years. Still, plenty of time and at least she has taste. Penblwydd Hapus, Doop!
This week is the second Independent Venue Week. Launched in 2014, IVW celebrates and champions the small, independently run live music venues across the UK. These places really are the lifeblood of our music scene and without them we really would be in trouble - completely at the mercy of the soulless corporations who seem intent on sterilising the variety and diversity we have, distilling it into easily consumable product for the masses. Yet sadly, small independent venues continue to struggle. Far too many awesome places have closed over the years, so we really should be supporting them.
Here's our chance. Visit the Independent Venue Week website and check out what's happening near you this week. If you can get along to a show, DO IT! I'll be hotfooting it along to Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach on Saturday night to see a hometown show by the brilliant Future Of The Left (who will feature in this week's Welsh Wednesday post).
The first time I went to Clwb Ifor Bach was in October 2011 to see Emmy The Great. This was during the looooong period that MrsRobster and I didn't get out much, restricting ourselves to a mere one or two gigs a year! However, the last two years have been much more fruitful now the Sprogsters are older. The majority of the 18 shows we've taken in since the start of 2013 have been at small independent venues. In fact, since that Emmy The Great show, I've returned to Clwb to see Masters In France, Public Service Broadcasting, Young Knives, Shonen Knife, Drenge and Eagulls. Along with the Globe (my fave Cardiff venue, also a tiny little place), it has become a semi-regular haunt. It's also crucial to the Welsh music scene in particular, and a passionate supporter of the Welsh language.
There are, of course, plenty of other small indie venues I've visited over the years. My all time favourite has to be Exeter's Cavern, a place I loved as much as my own home. I was also lucky enough to play there myself on a couple of occasions. It's still going, and I hope will continue to do so for many years.
Today's tunes, then: Frank Turner is Independent Music Week's official ambassador so you're getting one of his tunes. The other choice is by Emmy The Great in memory of my first time at Clwb Ifor Bach. I very strongly urge you to listen to her new single Swimming Pool if you haven't done so already. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Support your live venues folks. You'll never know how much you'll miss them until they're gone and replaced by Carling this and O2 that. Ugh! The very thought makes me feel quite nauseous...
Five gigs
