July 20, 2000

Cardiff Toucan Club

[a]Llwybr Llaethog[/a]: the Welsh [a]Orbital[/a]. Only older and madder.

It's tunnel vision gone mad. Cardiff techno-dub duo Llwybr Llaethog have been around for over 15 years, represent the weirder end of the relentlessly weird Ankst label, and have a name guaranteeing them zero exposure outside their homeland (it means 'Milky Way' in English, if you must know).

So can their continuing lack of fame - namechecks from Gruff Super Furries aside - be attributed to the myopic English musical oligarchy that chooses to waste money on meat-and-spuds guitar mediocrity? Er, probably. Because Llwybr Llaethog are fantastic.

It's their marginal status that allows John Griffiths and Kevs Ford to forego the distracting pressures of entertaining hundreds of pill-blasted techno robots, and get on with the task of fucking shit up. All the same, the early-Aphex avant-rave of 'Drilacila' is as sweaty and klaxon-worthy as dub epic 'Wyf Gymro' is undulating and beatific.

Decidedly lo-fi stuff it may be, using just one deck and a battered mixer, but during the Plastikman minimalism of 'Kunstrock', it sounds very much like two unsung electronic geniuses trying to get out. Which in a way, it is. Llwybr Llaethog: the Welsh Orbital. Only older and madder.