Feb 22, 2009

Roman walls: an untimely Time Team theme with added Yogi Bear

I feel a botany-themed post coming on.

By the way, speaking of the outdoors, what the hell is Tony Robinson up to? I swear he's digging up the whole nation bit by bit.

Oh, that's fine, Tony, you can dig a trench in my garden to dig up some old dead people or stones or shit. Sure, you can bring an old West Country rocker, as long as he doesn't steal my beer or start waffling on about possible Roman walls. There are always possible Roman walls in archaeology. Change the record.

What you don't realise is, once all Time Team's trenches link up, which they will inevitably do, the entire earth will end up two metres shallower. Scientific fact.

So let's appreciate nature before Robinson bulldozes it all up. Maybe start with Samandtheplants.

Sam loves plants. His sounds are so rural on his debut album The Eft, it's almost as if all his instruments are made from bracken. The songs are the kind you sing in the countryside, so I reckon they have no place on an uber-urban electronica blog such as this.

But then, he'll shoot off, like Tony Robinson in an out-of-control JCB, down a strange, ambient, clicky path. It's worth a purchase, because it will warm your ribcage something lovely. (Hear more of his home-woven guitars and lush electronics on his 41-copy limited edition EP In The Scare Shed.)

In other countryside news, Susumu Yokota (pictured) has followed up last year's Love Or Die with new album Mother.

Mother has more vocals than usual, but the LP remains in the territory familiar to all Yokota fans: organic, spacy, natural-sounding but always synthetic and controlled.

When listening to either The Eft or Mother, stay indoors. Otherwise, they will have you drifting asleep at your picnic, and one of two things will happen. One: bears will steal your picnic basket. Two: Tony Robinson will have the ground from under your feet - quite literally.

Stupid Tony Robinson. I reckon he's trying to steal Earth, bit my bit. Robbing bastard.

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