Hi and welcome to 2010. Mental innit? I'm in an introspective kind of mood at the moment as I look back on 10 years of releasing music under this name. Whilst the industry has changed beyond recognition, so has my attitude towards making music and I've come full circle in a way to realise what's ultimately important.

We'll be making an announcement soon about this year's activities. If all goes well, we'll have 3 records out this year - a mixture of old material and something brand new. Live dates will be sparse, but we're expecting a decent London date in the spring and hopefully something further afield as well. Quality will be the watchword. here's a couple of other bits and pieces:

Josh from Posthuman who works with me on many of the Digitonal tracks has launched a new record label, Balkan Vinyl. This is a first class, subscription based series of very limited edition, vinyl only releases, involving some utterly top notch techno, acid and electro talent, including Mark Archer, Global Goon, Plaid, B12, Ardisson, Cursor Miner, Echaskech and many, many more. I have contributed a track, Volvo, which I can safely say is unlike anything you've heard Digitonal do before - a dark, broody, very abstract acid tune. You can preview and purchase at the Balkan site - there is not a duff tune in the series.

The chaps at the fabulous r.fm just mailed me to tell me that they had posted our classic set from the Norberg Festival in 2005 up to stream. This was pretty much the genesis of the last album and it's interesting to hear it so raw and unproduced as Callum and I improvised around it. Hope you enjoy it.

A short post to wish all our listeners very happy Christmas indeed and to thank you for all the support as always. It's been a pretty incredible year for me for mostly personal and non-musical reasons and I go into this new decade with a hugely shifted world-view which I hope will inform our work. We have lots to look forward to in 2010, with a retrospective to be announced soon, and, all being well, a brand new album.

I'd like to leave this year with a repost of a Christmas Carol that I wrote a few years ago, and which a few people have asked me to make available again. It's a setting of a poem by Katherine Venn called Winter Lent...we hope that it finds you all well.

Music by Andrew Dobson
Words by Katherine Venn

Tenor Solo by Peter Kirk
Choral parts by Sophie and Andrew Dobson
Harp by Kat Arney
Cello by Jo Quail
Violin by Samy Bishai
Recorded and produced by Andrew Dobson, Christmas 2006

Download here

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/srtrallybob/2115057354/

I did think about watching the new remake of The Prisoner, but frankly, why spoil things?

But I do have some information to impart - most notably a Christmas gig at our favourite arty Southbank bar, Concrete. Our labelmates Echaskech run a monthly night there which we have, mostly in our AGT guise, played at a couple of times. Saturday the 19th of December, however, is going to see Josh and I Soundclash it up a bit with a Digitonal vs Posthuman session.

For those unaware of Josh's Posthuman project, it's been going for a good 10 years now and, whilst every album has had a chimera-like quality of completely changing style, he has been at the top of his game this year, with breakout tracks like Lander making waves in techno and breakbeat circles.

I've been a fan since the start (I remember well buying The Uncertainty of the Monkey at the now defunct Mancunian record shop, Picadilly Records - in fact, whilst I was with 65daysofstatic on their first big ITC gig), and it's always a pleasure getting to push the Digitonal boat into uncharted territory. Expect the darker, acid-flecked side of what I do to come to the fore, as I try to bring my sound into line with the cryptid Posthuman techno-monster.

Most of all, it will be a lot of fun :o)

Oh, there is probably another bit of news in that I've started production on a new Digitonal album (you'd have thought this would make the headline wouldn't you?). The last one took 4 years and a collapsed relationship to write. I'm planning to do this one by the Spring, with my family and sanity intact this time :o). More to follow...

I was hunting around my harddrive last night and I found something that I thought I'd share. A while ago, Josh and I did a set at Corsica studios. The room was pretty empty so we just thought we'd abandon our previously planned upbeat set and wing it on the ambient tip. One of the results was this improvised version of Kirsty Hawkshaw's ambient classic Orange. If you don't know the original, it's probably one of my favourite tunes of all time, almost dangerous in it's ability to make me cry. You can find it on the album OUT and it should be an essential purchase for your collection.

This is our version:

http://www.digitonal.com/mpfree/Digitonal-Orange%20Live.mp3

I don't normally post my mixes on the front page of the site, but this is something a bit special. Over the past few years I've been a resident DJ at the Big Chill Bar's Fluidnation night. Fluidnation is run by DJ, producer and all round champion Ben Mynott (ex-fragile state) with the remit of playing "just beautiful music" and has been one of the strongest supporters of Digitonal over the years. This mix is a collection of my favourite tracks over the period of the residency, sequenced, mixed and mashed. Hope you enjoy it.

Andy.Digitonal

Digitonal presents...
Fluidnation Classics

Length: 59:43 minutes (94.41 M
Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 220Kbps (VBR)
http://postbocks.com/uploads/digitonal_presents_fluidnation_classics

The Orb: Little Fluffy Clouds (excerpt)
Ulrich Schnauss: Between Us and Them
Gift of Gab: Rhyme like a Nut
Boards of Canada: Sixtyniner
Populous: Ent the Dexo
Infinite Scale: Pirkel
Blackalicious: Rhymes for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind
+One: Helix
Plaid: Rakimou (excerpt)
Kaom: All of your Mindz
John Tejada: Genetical Love
Populous: My Winter Vacation
Boards of Canada: Aquarius (Peel Session)
Push Button Objects: Non-exis (keyed in by Gescom)
Harmonic 33: Moompah
The Pharcyde: Passing me by (acapella)
Jon Hopkins: Wire
Beastie Boys: Sure Shot (acapella)
Quannum: Bombonyall (acapella)
Plaid: Shakbu
El-P: Stepfather Factory (acapella)
Somatic: No.9 (First Rate scratch mix)
Yimino: Nes [sidd]
Arovane: Cry Osaka Cry
Digitonal: A Lighter Touch
Antipop Consortium: What am I? (acapella)
Mrs Jynx: Dusty
LJ Kruzer: Ter4
WB Yeats: The song of Wandering Aengus

http://www.digitonal.com
Thanks to Ben Mynott, John Heery and Mr Tom