Taking all the credit

Having been banging on about physical media and the demise of the record shop only yesterday, I found myself purchasing a download-only album mere hours after publishing said blog entry. My main excuses are that a) it was only a fiver b) it isn't available by any other means. I'm not especially fond of downloads, mainly because I rarely form an attachment with music I acquire in that manner, but on this occasion I'll make an exception. The album I download was 'I, Yeah!' by up-and-coming (get me!) Bristol band, Glow.

Regular readers may remember me droning on about the sheer majesty of Northampton's finest, Maps, last year. The album, 'We Can Create', just edged 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' as my album of 2007. It's slightly squelchy, delightfully indie, intelligently-crafted electronic music. And that, my music-loving-internet-browsing chums, is also how I would describe 'I, Yeah!' Seriously, it's that good. It hasn't been with me long enough for me to make insanely hyperbolic statements about how it's as good as the Maps album, but I can forsee a long and beautiful relationship. It won't be quite as beautiful as could be though, because it's a CD-R. Still, mustn't grumble. This appears to be a clear argument for the increasing reliance on digital releases. My guess would be that this album would have been a financial nightmare to get off the ground if it had to be pressed up and packaged as a full CD release, but as a download that you can pay for with Paypal, it's a (relative) piece of piss.

I should just confess at this point that I shambled upon this rather wonderful album as a result of the tireless work of one Adam Walton. I've mentioned him before for one reason or another, but for those not up to speed he's the host of a late-night new music show on BBC Radio Wales. I became hooked on the show in an earlier format during my later teenage years living in South Wales and I've kept listening from time to time ever since. A few months back he played the Glow album in its entirety. As it happens, I missed that show, but while following the time-extinguishing Google/Wiki trail of Adam Walton I happened upon a post on their site about him doing that. So, I had a listen and the rest, as they say, is history. For those counting cliches in this post, I think that's four.

Adam's great, by the way, and sadly not as revered as he should be. There are two remaining, essential new music shows for me these days - one is, as you may be aware by now, Gideon Coe on 6music and the other is Adam's. He plays some truly bizarre stuff from time to time, but his show is essentially a latter-day John Peel show with the emphasis on Welsh music. Last night I heard a hip-hop group called Mudmowth - great, although the Myspace page appears to have been written by an Alan Partridge version of Westwood - a delightful female artist by the name of Georgia Ruth Williams, the folksy delights of The Toy Band and a truly brilliant indie band called Man Without Country. Click on the respective names to find out more and/or have a listen to last night's show via the BBC iPlayer. He's on every Sunday from 10pm.

Oh, and if you didn't click on the link above, go and buy the Glow album here.