This week's show is now available via the iPlayer.

I'm of the opinion that 2011 was a Very Good Year for Welsh music.

OK, I'm not aware of any Welsh bands who clawed their way to the top of increasingly irrelevant sales charts. I'm only vaguely aware of a few bands whose music got clutched to the hearts of an international audience: The Joy Formidable, Gruff Rhys... erm... I believe Kids In Glass Houses, Funeral For A Friend and The Blackout had excellent years, too.

But sales aren't my domain. Feel free to make an argument that they should be below, however I can't see it being persuasive. I lost faith in the UK public's ability to value real talent over anodyne, herd-fed, manipulative karaoke bilge somewhere in the middle of X Factor's third series. It's an easy target, I know; but for those of us who cherish creativity it's a planet-sized target in good need of a visit from the Death Star.

Every Saturday evening my daughter sits there, hypnotised by Cowell's spinning reels, and gets conned about what is / isn't incredible, what is / isn't talent, what does / doesn't constitute the remarkable. Yes, I've laughed at it, got drawn in to the soap opera of the whole thing, spat takeaway curry all over my TV reading @Martin_Carr's tweeted commentary. But it's getting beyond a joke now, innit? It's a joke that turned into a plague - and the wooden cart is passing outside the daubed doors of the truly talented.

But I'm not a snob. I don't want the music I love the most to be secreted off in its own a-commercial cloister. I'd throw garish street parties were Bastions, Knickers, Future Of The Left, Tiny Skitz or H. Hawkline to reach the top of a chart, even if it were a chart of my own devising. Any excuse for a party!

I suppose, in some respects, my Christmas Day show is a chart of my own devising. Fifry-five pieces of Welsh music that filled my knackered old sails with a fulsome wind, blowing me to thrilling, hitherto unexplored territories. Not all of my favourite pieces of 2011, though; not when there wasn't room for the explorative, long-form excellence of Blatnova or much of what appeared on the Under The Spires label.

So, 2011 brought me Sex Hands, Joanna Gruesome, Chloe Leavers, Hotel Shampoo, Ifan Dafydd and a few dozen others, tightly packed into this 3 hour celebration of Welsh creativity, vision and imagination.

With the demise of Radio 1's dedicated Welsh Introducing show, the death of S4C's Bandit, and budgets everywhere shrinking to accommodate bankers' mistakes, the opportunities to showcase and encourage the most sonically talented of our populace are diminishing. Those people who graft our livelihoods onto racks that shrink and expand according to minute variations in the stock markets should be aware of the contribution creativity can make to a struggling economy. Especially in times like these.

Plus - unless you're in an extreme situation - a song as beautiful as, say, Sam Airey's The Blackout will be a shoulder to cry on when the darkest clouds gather; or something as rollicking and defiant as The Bright Young People's Devil's Pinch will chase those damned clouds away. Or set them on fire.

Music is therapy; cathedral and market all-in-one. It's the heartbeat of every nation and we should do whatever we can to look after that heart. It's more than a few snotty kids making a racket - but, all the same, god bless those snotty kids, one and all.

Let the street party begin, then. Who's got the cupcakes?

Many thanks / diolch o galon,

Adam Walton

IRMA VEP - 'What's That In Your Mouth?'
Llanfairfechan

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Cradle'
Mold

GRUFF RHYS - 'Sensations In The Dark'
Bethesda

METABEATS - 'The Snap Featuring Mudmowth, Rtkal & Ruffstylz ( Radio Edit )'
Cardiff

SKINDRED - 'Warning'
Newport

WIBIDI - 'Some People'
Cardiff

LLWYBR LLAETHOG - 'Bodlondeb Ty Cnau ( Featuring David R. Edwards )'
Blaenau Ffestiniog / Cardiff

KORELESS - 'Up Down Up Down'
Bangor

LA DECADANSE FEATURING GWENNO - 'Pretty Pretty'
Brighton / Cardiff

KNICKERS - 'My Baby's Just A Baby ( But I Love Him So )'
London / Cardiff Distribution

Y NIWL - 'Chwech'
Gwynedd

KEYS, THE - 'I Tried To Find It In Books'
Resolven / Cardiff

WHITE NOISE SOUND - 'Sunset'
Swansea

GALLOPS - 'Joust'
Wrexham

SCIENCE BASTARD - 'Trevor'
Newport

LOVELY EGGS, THE - 'New Allergies'
Lancaster

GENTLE GOOD, THE - 'Llosgi Pontydd'
Cardiff

LLEUWEN - 'Cawell Fach Y Galon'
Bangor

TINY SKITZ - 'Grime Is The One'
Newport

YR ODS - 'Troi A Throsi'
Gwynedd

JONNY - 'Waiting Around For You'
Pembrokeshire

EUROS CHILDS - 'Something On My Mind'
Pembrokeshire

BASTIONS - 'Visitant'
Anglesey

STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR - 'I Am Weatherproof ( Album Version )'
Cardiff

JAY ROBINSON - 'Get Mad Now'
Colwyn Bay

GOLDEN FABLE - 'The Chill Pt. 2'
Ewloe

LITTLE ARROW - 'Boat'
Cardiff

SWEET BABOO - 'The Day I Lost My Voice'
Bangor / Cardiff

IFAN DAFYDD - 'No Good ( 12" Version )'
Llanrug

SHY AND THE FIGHT - 'All That We See Or Seem'
Chester / Llangollen

LOS CAMPESINOS - 'Songs About Your Girlfriend'
Cardiff

HOUDINI DAX - 'Robin You Lie'
Cardiff

H. HAWKLINE - 'You Say You Love Me'
Cardiff

MC MABON - 'Health And Safety'
Caernarfon

AKIRA THE DON - 'Babydoll'
Anglesey

BWGAN, Y - 'Dali Lawr'
Porthmadog / Caernarfon

PULCO - 'Whistle Frog ( E.p. Version )'
Bangor

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Polymers Are Forever'
Cardiff

SATURDAY'S KIDS - 'Whisper In My Ear'
Cardiff

TRUCKERS OF HUSK - 'Dear Malcolm Sullivan I Hope You're Alive?'
Cardiff

VVOLVES - 'Clearer ( E P Version )'
Monmouth / Cardiff

SEX HANDS - 'Way No Way'
Dwygfylchi / Llanfairfechan / Conwy

JOANNA GRUESOME - 'Sugarcrush'
Cardiff

LOOSE CAPACITOR - 'Frankensynth'
Ruthin

TRWBADOR - 'Sun In The Winter'
Camarthen / Cardiff

HUW M - 'Ysgafelloedd Gwag'
Pontypridd

CHLOE LEAVERS - 'Don't Leave Your Joy'
Colwyn Bay

COLORAMA - 'Lisa Lan'
Benllech

COWBOIS RHOS BOTWNNOG - 'Celwydd Golau Ydi Cariad'
Llyn Peninsula

BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE, THE - 'Devil's Pinch'
Rhyl

STRUCK A NERVE - 'Can't Lose Out'
Cardiff

SAM AIREY - 'The Blackout ( Radio Edit )'
Anglesey

XXXY - 'Ordinary Things'
Swansea

DAU CEFN - 'Cariad'
Caernarfon / Cardiff

LOWLAND HUNDRED, THE - 'The Hushing'
Aberystwyth