I’m over 2008 already. In fact, two months ago I bought a 2009 diary and I’ve been using it ever since. My personal indignation about all that was unfavourable in 2008 is surely not replicated by Australia’s Pivot. By anyone’s standards, they’ve had an outstanding year: signed to Warp Records, released a sensational album (‘O Soundtrack My Heart’), had an EP remixed by Clark and Rustie, played with Sigur Ros, toured the world. And that was just yesterday afternoon. With so little left to prove, I suspect 2009 might be a quiet one for Pivot. No, sorry, they’re touring Australia next month with Gary Numan – my mistake.

As if their schedule wasn’t rammed to the hilt already, the overachievers also found time to make their own podcast mix series, ‘O Download My Heart’ featuring songs and sounds inspired by their activities over the last twelve months. ‘Cosmic Gods Of Synth’ gave us their tribute to the keyboard wizards of yesteryear (Jean Michel Jarre being reawoken for that one, presumably with his light harp intact), ‘Australian Music’ thankfully reappraised all that is cited worldwide about the Aussie scene, and ‘Autobahn Favourites’ was a 200kph ride through Krautrock old and new. The latest episode ‘Cities’ records their “European Odyssey” with a themed podcast featuring Steve Reich, Trans Am, Flying Lotus, Talking Heads and Scott Walker. One hopes that’s the last instalment in the series – they’re making the rest of us look slack by comparison.

Pivot – Cities | mp3

Subscribe to Pivot podcast series via http://pivotpivot.net/podcast/odownloadmyheart.xml.