Roman walls: an untimely Time Team theme with added Yogi Bear

I feel a botany-themed post coming on.

By the way, speaking of the outdoors, what the hell is Tony Robinson up to? I swear he's digging up the whole nation bit by bit.

Oh, that's fine, Tony, you can dig a trench in my garden to dig up some old dead people or stones or shit. Sure, you can bring an old West Country rocker, as long as he doesn't steal my beer or start waffling on about possible Roman walls. There are always possible Roman walls in archaeology. Change the record.

What you don't realise is, once all Time Team's trenches link up, which they will inevitably do, the entire earth will end up two metres shallower. Scientific fact.

So let's appreciate nature before Robinson bulldozes it all up. Maybe start with Samandtheplants.

Sam loves plants. His sounds are so rural on his debut album The Eft, it's almost as if all his instruments are made from bracken. The songs are the kind you sing in the countryside, so I reckon they have no place on an uber-urban electronica blog such as this.

But then, he'll shoot off, like Tony Robinson in an out-of-control JCB, down a strange, ambient, clicky path. It's worth a purchase, because it will warm your ribcage something lovely. (Hear more of his home-woven guitars and lush electronics on his 41-copy limited edition EP In The Scare Shed.)

In other countryside news, Susumu Yokota (pictured) has followed up last year's Love Or Die with new album Mother.

Mother has more vocals than usual, but the LP remains in the territory familiar to all Yokota fans: organic, spacy, natural-sounding but always synthetic and controlled.

When listening to either The Eft or Mother, stay indoors. Otherwise, they will have you drifting asleep at your picnic, and one of two things will happen. One: bears will steal your picnic basket. Two: Tony Robinson will have the ground from under your feet - quite literally.

Stupid Tony Robinson. I reckon he's trying to steal Earth, bit my bit. Robbing bastard.

A throat-pawing, arm-wrestling, mallet-bashing preview of 2009 (part one)

The reverberating acid begins as a hum, the kind of hum that settles on your tummy, but it rises and rises with ferocity, up your chest, until a miffed guitar riff paws at your thoat.

And a robot voice announces: "WE ARE THE PRODIGY."

And so to 2009, and no prizes for guessing electronic music's most anticipated release of this year.

Three storming albums (Experience, Jilted Generation, Fat Of The Land). Then there was the Album-Five-Years-Ago-That-No-One-Really-Remembers-Coz-Everyone-Still-Blithers-On-About-Smack-My-Bitch-Up-Which-Is-12-Years-Old-Yes-I-Know-Get-Over-It. I don't think that was the exact title.

Anyhoo, watch out for the Prodigy's new LP, Invaders Must Die, in March.

Allow that, my sweet reader, to be an introduction to my preview of some other albums that will caress our earlobes in 2009.

My guide is in no way comprehensive, nor is it even accurate. I have probably missed a number of major titles, and quite frankly 99% of sales in '09 will be X-Factor related, so it's all an exercise in futility.

January.

The remnants of Add N To X have teamed up with space rockers Fuxa for a looping joy of a single Add N To Fu(x)a. I hope it's a taste of more to come from this pair.

Following his well-received album Just A Souvenir, Squarepusher will release an EP of "dancefloor psychedelia" called Numbers Lucent. If the Square one isn't nominated for the next Mercury Music Prize, I'll eat my slipmats.

The shoe-collecting Telefon Tel Aviv will flop out their first full-length offering for five years. When Immolate Yourself hits, it could be one of the best discs of the year.

February.

The Eft will waft its way from Samandtheplants, while Susumu Yokota - whose hypnotic The Boy And The Tree album was used liberally on Sunday's Top Gear Vietnam special - will explore a more vocal sound for his new Mother LP.

Not to be outdone by the Prodigy, Massive Attack will attempt a monumental return with the provisionally-titled Weather Underground. The double-album of "gothic soul" is pretty much shrouded in hushness, but it is rumoured by the rumour mill that Tom Waits will feature. That's even cooler than Hot Chip's single with Robert Wyatt a couple of months back.

If the Prodigy and Massive Attack had an arm wrestle, who would win? Please discuss.

Finally for February, there's Harmonic 313's When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence, but I've already covered this so I ought to hush my mouth.

Next?

In the second half of my preview, I will cover March, then skip the rest of the year really quickly as though I don't care. I do care, but you try getting accurate release information six months in advance.

I'll also reveal the artist I'm positively frothing at the mouth over for 2009. A clue? He's a genre-buster from Glasgow and he uses the word "shite" a lot.