Review of 2014 pt.1 - Dig That Treasure!

2014 was the first full year of Dig That Treasure! Having come into existence late-summer 2013, the remaining months of that year saw me building the foundations of the blog and radio show. It feels like the turn of the year was when everything kicked off. Despite large chunks of the year being quiet (I travelled from May-July and was distracted by study in October) the Dig That Treasure! name really gained momentum in the last twelve months.

This blog was started as a reaction against zeitgeist blog-buzz sites that all write about the same music in the same manner, providing little that is different or stimulating. By nature then this blog - keenly encompassing music regardless of decade, country or 'genre' - is not best suitable for an 'end of year list'. It's not that I avoid new music, because I don't. Rather, it's that new music isn't my priority and I would not listen to something purely because it was new. I will happily spin anything without much care for when it was released.

On this blog I've only ever posted in four formats: the standard track review, the band profile, the radio show catch-up, and the guest post. I decided after much deliberation that I'd break this mould for a special 'Review of 2014' post. What follows is a fairly lengthy ramble through the past 12 months, starting with a review of all things Dig That Treasure! before moving on to discuss my favourite musical happenings of the year.

Dig That Treasure!

I published three very exciting guest posts this year. In January, interdisciplinary artist KARESS contributed a mix of J-pop, K-pop and synthpop. February saw producer, Glass Ghost member and Here We Go Magic collaborator Eliot Krimsky contribute a collection of "iconic songs of alienation". In March I published a seriously leftfield mix of "wordless vocalisations", compiled by Otis Fodder, member of the legendary The Bran Flakes.

There were twenty-eight episodes of the Dig That Treasure! radio show on Resonance 104.4fm, one of which was dedicated to an incredible session by Adrian Knight, later released on Bandcamp as the first Dig That Treasure! Records release. Eternal thanks to Ed Baxter and everyone else at Resonance for the opportunities I've been handed.

Despite moments of quiet, the blog continued strongly. Highlights included a discussion of Francophile Japanese pop music, a biography of Joe Meek and a look at dictatorial Zaire. Elsewhere, I contributed an article on Ethiopian pop music to Tom Robinson's Fresh On The Net, and an essay on the impact of dictatorship on Soviet pop music to new culture website Retrospective.

December saw the first ever 'Dig That Treasure! presents' gig, with a triple bill of cosmic female-fronted acts featuring headliner Laetitia Sadier supported by Jane Weaver and Let's Eat Grandma. It was a sell-out and a resounding success, best encapsulated by this glowing review from John Doran of The Quietus.