Last updated: 18 November 2008
After witnessing New York hip hop culture in the 1980s, Blaenau Ffestiniog's John Griffiths had a musical vision.
Recruiting his friend Kevs Ford, he founded Llwybr Llaethog - a revolutionary dance outfit pioneering a bass-heavy agit-rap style with a sharp satirical edge that single-handedly invented the genre of Welsh-language hip-hop in one fell swoop.
In 1984 when we started there was nothing even vaguely electronic. We had the first rap in Welsh.
John Griffiths
Their debut release for Anhrefn Records, 1986's Dull Di Drais EP combined an urgent political message - support for imprisoned Welsh-language protester Ffred Francis, scorn for Thatcher's Conservative government - with a genre-crunching musical style that introduced the turntable scratch, sample culture, and cut'n'paste production to the staid Welsh music scene.
Many, however, refused to take the act seriously, partly because of the pair's love for futurist gimmicks - one interview the pair did for Welsh TV was supposedly phoned in from outer space - and partly, because of the group's physical dislocation from Wales: for a while, the pair recorded their music in a home studio based in a council flat in Peckham, South London.
Come Llwybr Llaethog's debut album, Da!, the line-up had expanded to a three-piece, with Ben Bentham coming onboard as bassist. It was the group's second album, Be?, that was widely assumed to be their best, though - a mischievous skewering of dole-age culture that encompassed dub reggae, formative acid house, and on Popeth Ar Y Record Ma Wedi Cael Ei Ddwyn, the phenomenon of sampling. Griffiths and Ford took fragments of Welsh records and pasted them back into an anarchic whole.
The mid 90s saw Llwybr Llaethog move to Ankst and begin a collaborative spree, which saw them work with Beganifs, Datblgyu frontman David R Edwards, and anti-establishment poet Ifor Ap Glyn. 1996's Mad!, recorded for Ankst Records, even found the duo turning their hand to the Gaelic and Punjabi tongue. But later in the decade, where many of the bands peers in groups like Catatonia and Super Furry Animals took the leap into the mainstream, Llwybr Llaethog seemed content to continue to stalk the margins.
Periodically, Ll-Ll have emerged from their hibernation to play a reggae-heavy live show, remix the Super Furry Animals, record a Peel session, or collaborate with musically sympathetic groups like Tystion or Anweledig. In 2000 they released Hip-Dub Reggae-Hop, a collection of tracks from 1985-2000 that is a great starting point for newcomers to their music.
However, the compilation didn't herald a slowing down in their output. The following year they put out the Stwff LP and the Llanrwst single, and in October 2002 put out Anomie-Ville on Crai. The following year was pretty quiet for the duo, but in early 2004 they came back in style with Sherbet Antlers, a collaboration with former Catatonia members Mark Roberts and Paul Jones.
