DATBLYGU

Terfysgiaith 1982-2022 (Ankstmusik)

Does it strike you as feasible that the best two-person lo-fidelity anti-establishment postpunk band of the 1980s-into-90s Welsh language alternative rock scene could also have been the best Welsh language band, the best Welsh band, best Welsh postpunk band, best postpunk band, best band? If I added some more fridge magnet-style rearrangements of those signifier terms would it drive home the point any further?

Ankstmusik, the label which released most of Datblygu’s music in their existence – inspired bursts of creativity with long wilderness intermissions – devised this 60-song, three-CD compilation as a tribute to the continuing glory of that existence. In summer 2021, before they could release it, Datblygu’s lyricist and main vocalist David R. Edwards died. A great loss, to few if anyone more than Patricia Morgan, Datblygu’s chief instrumentalist, who is interviewed (in Welsh) for the booklet of Terfysgiaith 1982-2022.

Notably, and cheeringly, it ends with the revelation that a posthumous Datblygu album is planned, featuring Edwards’ vocals on five songs, but for now let us toast what came before. The first 42 songs range from privately circulated early 1980s cassettes to 2020’s excellent Cwm Gwagle LP; the remaining 18 are your textbook ‘rare, live and unreleased’ gumbo, so even if you are someone who read the first paragraph of this review going YES I KNOW ALL THAT, there may be treasure lurking on that mirrored disc.

Much more than this, a healthy culture would have a copy of Terfysgiaith 1982-2022 close to hand in every household, be they Welsh-speaking, anti-establishment, postpunks or none of those things.

words NOEL GARDNER