Today’s Track: Black Country, New Road – “Track X”

April 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

X-Men, X-Rated, Xtr-emely good, or reminiscent of the X-Factor? Time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Art for “For The First Time” (LP) (Released on February 5, 2021) (via Ninja Tune)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Have you eaten all of your Easter Eggs yet? If not, here’s a few minutes to indulge along to. ‘Track X’ comes from the fresh Math-Rock and Prog-Rock (It’s tricky to label their sound under a specific category), London band Black Country, New Road, who seem to be one of the most hotly-tipped new alternative music projects in quite a long time. Their early singles generated a ton of rave reviews, and the release of their debut long-player – ‘For The First Time’ – was absolutely hyped up to the hills prior to it’s release in February on Ninja Tune. The Quietus even thought they were “the best band in the world” leading to it’s release. It is less of a group per-say, and more of a 7-piece collective of young creatives mixing Post-Punk guitar riffs with classical, orchestral instrument sections. Usually when a release gets this eagerly anticipated over, I wait for a few months before I take any focused listens. That’s just because I often feel that rave reviews, or even universally negative ones, usually sway your pre-conceptions. It can be a tricky thing to navigate, where there’s no right or no wrong, but I’m ready now to unpeel the skin of these layers. Made from stock footage, check out the video for ‘Track X’ below.

“Never made it out into one of our live performances – We decided to resurrect it during the recording of ‘For The First Time’ and assemble it into the studio. The story is old, but a good one and worth telling” is what the pen man Isaac Wood had to say about the story of ‘Track X’. One fun fact about BCNR is that violinist Georgia Ellery, from the Warp Records signed duo Jockstrap, is a part of their line-up. Now, I am a huge fan of Georgia and that water-tight little project, and so that’s how I first found my way to them. BCNR have also been known to play around with Jewish Klezmer music for their atmosphere-oriented output, although ‘Track X’ feels like a more subdued and relaxed affair. A set of confessional lyrics, matched to Reichian percussion and a dreamscape of equal Strings and Saxophones, ‘Track X’ is a slowly unveiling ballad about finding romance in the UK’s DIY gig scene. Lyrics like “You’ve got great hips, I’ve been shaking ever since” and “In your name, in the same room where we f****ed as kids” have an earnest and unsettling feel, but the folk-inspired female backing vocals counteract this dry crooner delivery with a soothing, relaxed tone. The wry vocals are also referential to the band and their stories themselves, with lines like “I told you I loved you in front of Black Midi” and “I tried my best to stay afloat, after I sacrificed the goat” that each feel like inside jokes, giving the vocals an intimate touch (Black Midi being the name of another hugely popular DIY band in the UK). When I read that a release has been this mulled over as “the next big thing” by critics and people in general, I often find them difficult to connect with because it doesn’t always feel personal to me. In the case of BCNR, this is partially true. I find the rhythms don’t really go anywhere and the themes being explored in the songwriting feel a bit jumbled, and pinballed around the place at points. However, I’ve read many times that a truly great album should always be a snapshot or document of the artist at that place in time, and BCNR manage to do this quite comfortably. Albeit disfigured and left to the listener to fill in the blanks due to the vagueness of lines like “I guess, in some way”, there’s a straight essence of who they are that I can latch onto, although I can’t claim to fully understand everything that was going on. It feels very articulate, with a solid emphasis on how it makes you feel. So, overall, you know what – not bad.

Pictured: Isaac Wood (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Georgia Ellery (Violin), Tyler Hide (Bass Guitar), Charlie Wayne (Drums/Percussion), Lewis Evans (Saxophone), May Kershaw (Keyboard/Synths/Backing Vocals) and Luke Mark (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) (2020) (Photo via Max Grainger/TheGuardian.com)

I guess, in some way – That line wraps up everything I’ve come here to do today. I’ve got another special weekend of unusual posts on the way from Saturday onwards, but, until then, we’ve got another ‘Way Back Wednesday’ to burst through. It’s another Easter-themed track, which didn’t previously make the cut. It’s related to the festival pretty closely, however, and it comes from a wildly successful Irish rock band who have strung their fans along past “The Edge” of a whopping 150-170 million sales globally, and have won a total of 22 Grammy Awards, known for their elaborate live tours in the 80’s and 90’s. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Easter Monday 2021 Special: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Jesus Alone” (2016)

April 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for 30 years – this guy is a big deal. New post time!

Pictured: Poster for ‘20,000 Days On Earth’ (Dir. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard) (2014) (Drafthouse Films)

Good Morning to you – It’s Jacob Braybrooke, I’ve got my morning Cappuccino coffee on the side, and that means that it’s also time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wishing you a nice Bank Holiday Monday with another Easter-themed post from a music legend, albeit more loosely than yesterday. A more contemporary track, ‘Jesus Alone’, was the lead single from Australian Garage-Rock icon Nick Cave, for his sixteenth studio album with The Bad Seeds, entitled ‘Skeleton Tree’. The elevator pitch for that record probably sounded a lot like “Cave has always played with Death – and now he confronts it”, with the album being written and recorded about the heartbreaking death of his son. The album earned some absolutely rave reviews, heralded by his fans as a masterpiece of grief and loss. I can’t claim to have fully listened to, or even understood, everything that Cave has released. However, I know that he truly is a fascinating artist and that he’s one of those rare talents that are impossible to imitate – and so I have a lot of respect for the cultural icon. The album was released alongside a documentary film, ‘One More Time with Feeling’, a pseudo-sequel to 2014’s ‘20,000 Days On Earth’, which combined interviews and videos of Cave making the album. Let’s check out ‘Jesus Alone’ below.

‘Skeleton Tree’ was recorded over 18 months and saw Nick Cave experiment with Synth technology, which was a style of production that Cave had always shied away from prior, with the Avant-Garde music techniques and unconventional structures of songwriting leading Cave to say, “What happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that you just change”, on the accidental cliff fall of his 15-year-old son, Arthur. It makes for some gut-wrenching subject matter, and I’ve said that Easter is a loose theme for it’s opening track because it has something of a dual meaning, with Cave juxtaposing a call of goodbye to his Son, with a call for forgiveness and closure to God. Over the top of dissonant drum machine loops and synth-oriented rhythms, Cave cries out “You fell from the Sky, crash-landed in a field near the River” above the rumbling of the bass. It makes for a graphic image, with a tense and eerie atmosphere which draws from the cinematic and the expansive. The repeating bridge of “With my voice, I am calling you” sees a taut Piano melody enter the fray, with the instrumentation sounding fittingly fractured and broken in it’s off-kilter sensibilities. Lines like “You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now” and “You’re a distant memory in the mind of your creator” see Cave move slowly towards a religious plea for help, although he’s hesitant to accept God as his savior because he simply wonders why his son was taken by Death, and not him. The ending, however, see Cave grow slowly, but progressively, into a more impassioned voice-over. “Let us sit together, until the moment comes” seems to be the cue point for this, as swelling Orchestral sections and Baritone musings represent a slow change in instrumentation and an all-important change of tone in the process. Overall, it’s probably not for everybody – with the delivery being a methodical and slowly revealing affair, and the subject matter hitting close to home. However, that makes it seem all the more urgent and all the more intimate, with the songwriting feeling deeply personal for Cave. Yet, we’ve all had the times when we’ve suffered loss, and it’s something that feels very distant for us to talk about, and we often deal with it ourselves and in our own ways. Therefore, Cave’s musing becomes a ghostly and beautiful affair, with the chilling and ethereal sound making for an otherworldly listen. Very personal, yet easy to connect with. You know – It’s simply just really good.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Skeleton Tree” (LP) (Released on 9 September, 2016) (via Bad Seed Ltd.)

Pictured: Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave playing on the Pyramid stage on day five of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 30, 2019 in Glastonbury, England (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

That’s all for now – run along and enjoy your day off work. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at some recent music from a Prog-Rock collective of youngsters who have already released one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, earning praise on their way to stardom from publications like The Quietus, The New York Times, and The Guardian, often being compared to the 90’s act Slint. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: NOISY – “Where’s Your Head?”

January 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

You may find yourself Drowned In Sound as a Consequence Of Sound! New post time!

Pictured: Cody (Rapper/Lyricist), Connor (Lead Guitar), Spencer (Bass Guitar/Producer) (2020) (via PR) — Pictured: Cody (Rapper/Lyricist), Connor (Lead Guitar), Spencer (Bass Guitar/Percussion) (2020) (via PR)

NOISY by name – and noisy by nature! Good Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s now time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A Worthing-based Rap-Rock band who describe their material as “mosh-pit worthy noise for the paranoid age”, NOISY have liked to blur the lines of different genres since they formed in bassist Spencer’s basement roughly 18 months ago. Their main influences include Slowthai and Yungblood, and the trio are hoping to support You Me At Six and Bad Sounds on tour for their rescheduled dates later in the year. These days, NOISY are currently signed to Island Records, an imprint of the Universal Music Group, and the major label support has helped them to turn the heads of DIY, Dork and The Line Of Best Fit. Ubisoft also used one of their signature tracks, “So What”, for the soundtrack of their latest Open-World action video-game, “Watch Dogs Legion”, which allowed for wider exposure. “Where’s Your Head?” is a sample of the 3-piece’s sound, which they released as a single last summer – and it was re-released last October as a part of the ‘I Wish I Was A…’ EP. Check out the self-directed video below.

“Where’s Your Head?” is a track simply about having the back of your friends, and the songwriting was highly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also took to the streets of Worthing to shoot the music video, as vocalist Cody told the press: “With the subject being quite close to home we wanted to shoot the video all around our hometown Worthing, going to all the places where we’ve met and hung out through the years of knowing each other”. This release, as per fitting of the band’s name, is noisy indeed. Themes of looking out for your companions are echoed during the first two verses, where Cody raps: “I know a sad girl hitting my phone at two, Waking me up ’cause she’s got the blues” and “I know a sad boy losing his left and right, He could be using a mate tonight” over the top of feedback-drenched guitar lines and tribal, ethnological chants that add a backing vocal. Lyrics such as “When he be down, he be questioning his life” and “It’s proving hard to get somebody, Just to talk back” are delivered speedily, and at the breakneck pace of the changing instrumentals, but they suggest a murkier implication for the lyrics. We get some slowed synth lines in the bridge, and then we get ominously thumping electronic bass-lines that allow a brief moment of sentimentality to burst through the Post-Punk guitar sounds, and the energetic lead guitar chords keep things moving at a fast pace. Starting off with the good, I actually think that what Noisy are doing here is original and fresh – mixing the Post-Rock instrumentals with the IDM-centric compositions feels youthful and dynamic. However, If I’m being honest, I don’t like this one very much at all. There’s certainly potential here, so I don’t mean to knock them down too much. However, for me, it feels less like NOISY and more like MESSY. It’s nice to see them mixing elements of Rap-Rock, Post-Grunge and Electronica together, but they feel burned into a cauldron with no real rhyme or reason here. There’s simply something very “off” about the pacing – the attempts to change the tone feel very uneven and jumbled to me, and it almost feels like the synths are trying to fasten bits of the tune together instead of retaining a control to the proverbial chaos. There’s just not a consistent tone that connects the transitions together, and I’ve noticed there’s a bit of a “record label” chorus going on here, and that element of “Pop” also feels buried under the rubble of grunge-driven punk sounds and techno soundscapes. To conclude, I think there’s something with this band – it sounds student-friendly and buoyant. However, the major issue, for me, is just the tone – there just isn’t a lot of cohesion behind the blending of the genres, and the sound feels confused as a result. In my opinion, it could simply be improved with more flow and less clamour – although I have nothing wrong with music being noisy, as shown by my love for Aphex Twin over the years. Sadly, I also need the odd thing to put into the “Worst” category of my monthly wrap-up posts, and not everything can be good. On a positive note, I see big potential here.

Pictured: NOISY outside of Wingfield House (2020) (Photo Credit: Raw Power Management/PR)

That’s the end of the story for today – Thank you for the support! I’ll be back for more tomorrow, as always, as I continue to obliterate the final remains of my 2020 backlog with an in-depth look at a recent track to come from one of my Bandcamp deep dives of last year. This independent project represents the new material to come from a duo who previously compiled half of the line-up for the lo-fi indie rock band, Spring Meadow. As a newly formed duo, the two producers released an EP last year on the Practice Music label. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Ndidi O – “Hands High”

January 4, 2021 — Leave a comment

Raise your Hands Up High in the air – Get ready for this anthem! Time for a new post!

Pictured: Ndidi Onukwulu in a rare photoshoot (in 2014) (Photo via MontechristoMagazine.com)

New Year’s is all over. Nevertheless, my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about your daily track on the blog, and it’s back to the daily task for another year, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! January 4th is a tricky day to pick something for, and so we’re dipping into the archives instead with a track that I discovered, not long ago, through the KCRW “Today’s Top Tune” podcast of free daily music downloads. Here, we have “Hands High” – a 2018 single by the Canadian-born Desert Blues/Alternative Folk singer-songwriter Ndidi Onukwulu, who is currently basing the powerful voice of her’s around the British Columbia, at the moment. “Hands High” was the lead single from her sixth album, “These Days”, which she self-released in March of 2018. A two-time Juno Award nominee, Ndidi O co-produced the LP record with Mischa Chillik, a fellow Canadian multi-instrumentalist, who she also records music with as a Trip-Hop duo, under the name of BOGA. Without further ado, let’s listen to “Hands High” below.

“These Days” was an album which encompassed the genres of Neo-Soul, Blues, Americana, Desert Rock ‘N’ Roll and Electronic Jazz, and it saw Ndidi O explore the roots of her early Blues/Soul roots, a sound she harvested through open mic nights in the NYC scene, and the Blues and Folk scene of Toronto, throughout her years as a member of other side-projects before embarking on her solo career. According to Ndidi O, “Hands High is an ode to humanity”, and she elaborated on this by adding: “We live in such precarious, ugly times and this song was my response” to the press notes for the track. A style that feels reminiscent of The Kills and Gwen Stefani, Ndidi O repeats: “These Days” over the top of a thunderous, Power-Pop bass guitar riff. She extends her sense of vocal harmony for the bridge, as she croons: “So, take me up baby/Take me up, high/As high as I’m burning” to the sound of duelling backing vocals and a repeating three-chord guitar sequence. She goes for a big sweep in the main chorus, when Ndidi layers: “Hands High/Shake and Roll, and let’s all move together” above the huge, shimmering electric guitar work, adding a sense of power and heft to a set of lyrics dealing with ideologies of togetherness and unity, and connoting themes of shared experiences nurturing the soul. It never feels hugely political, but her striking vocals and her Blues influences goes a long way into the territory of a rally cry, and a call for action, with change being achievable through a shared vision. The lyrics are a little generic here, but I think that they manage to solve their purpose reasonably well. Much of this is garnered through the strength of Ndidi’s vocals, which function as a vehicle for the rhythm guitar lines and the Desert-Folk instrumentation to continue bouncing from. While there’s nothing outstandingly innovative in play, her voice provides a nice, shining beacon, to encourage fellowship.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “These Days” (Released on March 16, 2018) (via Self-Released)

That’s all for today… Please come and join me again tomorrow, where we’ll be taking an in-depth look at some new music from a sample-delia duo based a little closer to home for me. The single comes from a Nottingham-based Chillout/Electronica music duo who are known for the quirky sense of humor baked into their sampling work, and have just released a brand new full-length album, which marks their first major release in the long time of 11 years. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

New Year’s Day Special: Cee Lo Green & The Muppets – “All I Need Is Love”

January 1, 2021 — Leave a comment

To have any dislike for The Muppets would be a big crime to Kermit. Happy New Year!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Cee Lo’s Magic Moment” (LP) (Released on October 29, 2012) (via WB Records)

Let’s add in an extra HOOTENANNNNNY!!!!! Good Morning to you, it is the first day of January, and I’ll tell you what, this is the best that I have felt all year… I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about your special New Year’s Day post on the blog – because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! If you know me, I’m not really one to celebrate Novelty tracks or commercial tie-in’s here on the blog – but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have a soft spot for The Muppets, the most famous TV creation of Jim Henson… or, rather depressingly, Disney’s The Muppets now. Nevertheless, here’s an odd little Festive track that was released around this time of Christmas and New Year’s a whopping eight years ago now. “All I Need Is Love” is the handiwork of Cee Lo Green, a pop culture icon and coach of The Voice in the US, who is also known for being one half of the Southwestern Alternative Hip-Hop duo Gnarls Barkley, who had an enormously huge international chart hit with “Crazy” back in 2006. In 2012, it seemed that Sufjan Stevens wasn’t the only artist to be overjoyed with the thought of the festive season. “Cee Lo’s Magic Moment” was a full-length Christmas album which came from Green in October 2012, and the album managed to sell a total of 181,000 copies in the US at the time. Interestingly enough, it was also Green’s first album release not to feature one of those Parental Advisory stickers that you used to get on physical records – on a CD. Without further ado, let’s watch Green perform the track with The Muppets below.

Come to think of it… That last fact may suprise you, but it turns out that if you search for the “Explicit” version of Cee Lo Green’s international chart hit, “Forget You”, on the internet, then you will get what’s recognizably a completely different meaning to the old track. Nevertheless, The Muppets collaboration of “All I Need Is Love” is still a perfectly safe tune for the little ones to tune into today. As you can tell – and as you would have likely predicted – the style of the track borrows heavily from the “Mah Nà Mah Nà” theme tune which The Muppets have popularized over the years. Not many people probably know, however, that according to my research, it was borrowed from Piero Umiliani, an Italian composer of film scores. The Muppets get in on the action with a comedic sample of the old theme, and a selection mini-narratives in the music video. Green’s voice isn’t bad at all, and he soulfully croons the likes of “Watches, car, the agent sent me/A sixty inch in every room/But all I wanna see is you” and “Santa don’t know what to get me, I just want to see my baby” along to the beat of The Muppets giving him interruptions and an upbeat, soaring set of Brass-based arrangements. The second verse sees Green perform duelling vocals with Miss Piggy and pals, before we get to the hook-led chorus where the gang come together for a cheerful, festive sing-a-long, on top of a Motown style of Jazz instrumentation. Sleigh bell melodies and little guitar licks evoke a happy, jovial feeling. I feel the use of The Muppets adds a good bit of character to the track, although the mash-up also lends to some very uneven cohesion, and I think the tune struggles to really flow together in some areas of the track. Yet, it’s an engaging mix of mismatch pudding and the assembling of the weird, gibberish voices just adds a sense of quirk and humor that would have made it a bit flat and forgettable otherwise, and it simply wouldn’t be as much fun without the bizzare collaboration of The Muppets being involved. Overall, I can’t deny that it’s a bit of a train-wreck and it’s probably more suited to Christmas than New Year’s to my error, but I still think it’s superbly good fun and entertaining to listen to. If The Muppets are getting some work, what’s not to like? All I’ve left to do is wish you a Happy New Year – and thank you so much for supporting me throughout the year. Here’s to an excellent 2021 – and let’s try our best to give this virus the boot!

Pictured: Cee Lo Green at the premiere of Marriage Boot Camp (2020) (via Jemal Countess/Getty)

Thank you for ringing in the New Year with me on the blog today. As with every day, duty will continue across the new year, and that starts off tomorrow with our first regular post of the New Year. This single was a collaboration between a Japanese electronic dance producer who has a love affair with Funk, Latin and Jazz – and a Barbadian-born singer-songwriter who is now based in Los Angeles, and she was mentored by Patrice Rushen. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Jens Lekman – “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love”

December 22, 2020 — Leave a comment

Oh, You’re So Silent, Jens. Every Little Hair knows your name. It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Jens Lekman performing “A Postcard To Nina” live (in 2008) (Photo via Interface Sessions)

Good Morrow to you, I am Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about today’s track of the day on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day. Jens Lekman, by far, is one of my favourite Songwriters of all time – and that is because the Swedish songcrafter is also one of the best pure storytellers. Bittersweet, witty and anecdotal – Lekman knows how to tug on your heartstrings with a simple strum of his Acoustic guitar, as much as he knows how to make you smile to a witty rhyme or a quirky bit of sample work. By now, Jens has truly cemented his place as one of the true “Jacob Classics” in my life, and he’s 9-times-out-of-10 the artist who I come running back to whenever I’m going through a difficult time. To be honest with you, I was desperate to see my sister and her fiance this year for Christmas, and given the news in the UK over the weekend that Covid has scrapped the country’s plans for this festive season, I was very cross with the government and I was very disappointed by the events. However – “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love” came to mind. I’m feeling a lot better now, by the way, and I felt this song was a particularly relevant one for the moment, because it’s a track that’s really about putting things into proportion, as you’ll soon see. “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love” was a single released from Jens’ second album, “I Know What Love Isn’t”, which came out to decent critical acclaim in 2012 – through the Secretly Canadian record label. Time for you to check it out below.

“I Know What Love Isn’t” was released five years after his debut LP record, “Night Falls Over Kortdela”, and to give a little bit of background explanation to the development of the follow-up, Lekman posted on his blog: “I believe in Love”, before adding, “I just get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I need to put it into proportion, it’s something that you have to do a lot, when you’re Jens Lekman”, to his description of this track. Yes, Jens is singing about a failed relationship here, but the focus isn’t about how everything ends, it’s on how, as Jens put it in another track from the record – “The World Moves On” – the world just shrugs it’s shoulders and keeps on going. Opening with a sombre Piano line and a swirling electronic sample beat – he settles into a folk-led bass guitar melody and a gradually evolving, sampled Horn melody. In the chorus, Jens croons: “A broken heart, is not the end of the world/’Cause the end of the world/Is bigger than love” over the top of a fluttering rhythm of softly sweeping String melodies and a jovial, upbeat acoustic guitar beat, with some pleasant vocal harmonies being thrown in for some emotive effect. The bridge is a highlight, where Jens lists how much bigger that life is than a relationship with trivialities such as: “And it’s bigger than the Stock market/and the loose change in your pocket” and “And it’s bigger than the Spider floating in your Cider” just to add a little more context to the message behind the vocals of the track, and detail how the latest heartbreak is quite meaningless compared to a literal collapse of the world. The songwriting feels quite emotionally rich and thematically mature, and it’s great to see how Jens has been able to see life past a broken love, and evolved as a person in the mechanics of the wider world. Although there’s nothing about this track that would strike you as particularly experimental, or culturally groundbreaking – It was, and still is, a very worthy addition to Jekman’s canon of weary-eyed and anecdotally driven musings of life and mindset, with melodies that are simply sumptuous and the lyrics are just flat-out nice. I think anybody can benefit from hearing a little bit more of Jens in their life.

Pictured: Cover Art for “I Know What Love Isn’t” (Released on Sept. 4th, 2012) (via Secretly Canadian)

We previously looked at ““Kanske är Jag kär I Dig” from “Night Falls Over Kortedala”, right at the beginning of the time where I started out by writing this daily blog online. For more of Jens, you can still check it out here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/03/todays-track-jens-lekman-kanske-ar-jag-kar-i-dig/

Pictured: Cover Art for “Night Falls Over Kortedala” (Released on Sept 5th, 2007) (via Secretly Canadian)

Thank you for checking out my new blog post! I’ve got more Christmas-themed music to show you tomorrow. This will be a track that’s brand new out for this year, and it’s all about spending Christmas in the hard time of the Covid-19 pandemic. It comes from an Indie Rock duo who once wrote a song about the Darts player Richie Burnett. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Christafari (feat. Makamae Auwae) – “Angels We Have Heard On High”

December 19, 2020 — Leave a comment

Don’t ever forget that it all happened Once In Royal David’s City! Time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Reggae Christmas” (Released on October 8th, 2013) (via Lion Of Zion Ent.)

Twas’ the weekend before Christmas! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up all about your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to get virtually typing up about a different piece of music every day! “Angels We Have Heard On High” is a track that I’ve actually been really looking forward to sharing with you all week – but I thought I’d leave it until now because it feels closer to the week of Christmas, and I know that you always want to hear a good one on a Saturday, or, I at least hope so. It comes from Christafari, an 8-piece Christian Reggae-Dub super-group who were put together by Mark Mohr, an ordained Church minister who was born as a Rastafarian, before he became a Christian at the age of 17. Morh also fronts the band. “Angels We Have Heard On High” was originally released back in 2013, from their “Reggae Christmas” album released through Lion Of Zion Entertainment, but it was re-released a year later, along with a new music video. This is a Reggae take on the “Angels We Have Heard On High” French hyym, which tells the story of the birth of baby Jesus from The Gospel Of Luke. Let’s take a listen to it below.

My research indicates that Mark Mohr found an affinity for Reggae music, becoming a grower of Marijuana, in his teens, after a visit to Jamaica in 1986, but his life took a turn for the best, and, after enrolling in Biola University in 1993, he received his ordination in 1997. The video for “Angels We Have Heard On High” is a real Christmas Cracker (Sorry!) and it makes me laugh out loud with the cast of colourful characters who answer their front door to find Christafari and Makamae Auwae singing the carol to them, and I feel that the Thor guy really deserves a special mention, in this post, for his dance moves. As for the song itself, it’s highly joyous and cheerful, with a minimalist vocal production that reminds me of Pentatonix in it’s Acapella influences. A fun Marimba beat and a percussive Jamaican Steel Drum beat form the groovy rhythm, as Auwae sings: “Angels We Have Heard On High/Sweetly singing O’er the Plains/And the mountains in reply/Echoing their joyous strains” on top of a light auto-tune effect that makes her voice sound clear and on-point, but not too artificial and overproduced. A Dub beat is created by Mohr, who adds a rhythmic delivery to “Me say, we give him the glory” and he, in fact, almost creates a Hip-Hop melody. The rest of the group provide some well-spirited vocal harmonies in the background, throughout the song, which are quite subtle and inobtrusive, but the odd “Hey” and the longer notes of the chorus make it feel more ‘Christmassy’ and more seasonal. It’s the cheerful chants of “Gloria, In Excelsis Deo” that gives it an uplifting punch, while the instrumental beats sound very jovial and melodic throughout. The percussion is really crowd-pleasing stuff, and I think the track manages exceptionally well to remind you of the true meaning of Christmas and slightly distract you from the heavy consumerism of the Festival, while still retaining a fun, engaging, upbeat and positive vibe. It also feels very ‘Christmassy’, while providing a nice alternative to the generic tunes from Band Aid or Paul McCartney that you end up hearing ten times a year. If you ask me, this is an absolutely fantastic way to put the “Christ” back into Christmas!

Pictured: Mark Mohr, Avion Blackman-Mohr, Ziza Mohr, Nikita Carter, Renato Taimes, Markus Ritchie and Justin Nalimu in the official music video for “Broken Spears” (in 2019) (Photo via PR/YouTube.com)

Thank you for reading my latest blog post! As per usual, I’ll be back at it again tomorrow, for a Festive edition of our weekly Scuzz Sundays feature, where we take an in-depth listen to one of the ghosts of Pop-Punk or Emo-Rock’s past, released between the mid-1990’s and the late-2000’s. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Dent May – “I’ll Be Stoned For Christmas”

December 16, 2020 — Leave a comment

Fair enough. It’s been a pretty tough year, after àll. It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Dent May recording music in his home studio (in 2017) (Photo via WeirdoMusicForever.com)

Good Afternoon! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to get writing up about a different piece of music every day! Truth be told – I’m writing this on my smartphone toay because my laptop charger decided to cop out yesterday, and so I naturally fiddled around with it to try and fix it until my battery went flat, so you may have to bear with me, if the format isn’t quire right today, but that’s not going to stop me from sharing more Alternative festive music with you as Christmas time quickly approaches. “I’ll Be Stoned For Christmas” is a modern, red-eyed take on the seasonal ballad “I Will Be Home For Christmas” that comes from Dent May, a Los-Angeles based singer-songwriter signed to Carpark Records – where you’ll also find Toro Y Moi, The Beths and Skylar Spence. He loves to explore Psych-Pop, Prog-Rock, New Wave and Indie Folk tones in his music, and he started out his music career as a member of The Rockwells – a Power-Pop group from Missisipi. May’s most recent album is “Late Checkout” – which he released in August this year. The Christmas track, however, is six years old now – releasing on his Cat Purring self-release label – back in 2014. Let’s check out the festive music video for the track – which was directed by Robbie Hillyer Barnett – down below.

“I’ll Be Stoned For Christmas” was released on December 12th of that year, “Just in time to soundtrack your own disillusionment with Christmas week”, according to a press release from May, at the time of it’s release. It seems to be that May was a little ahead of the ball game of the current “Bedroom Pop” trend of indie music at the time, as he mixes the excitement of coming home to his family for Christmas with the mental isolation that could sometimes string along with that. May sings on about visiting his childhood friends over the top of an 80’s-influenced Synth bed which adds a hint of melancholy to the soft, Acoustic guitar strums. He later sings, above a slightly off-kilter Soprano production tool, “I’ve been chilling with my parents, they’re driving me mad, So I’m trying to get lifted with you now” and “We roll up my Cousin’s stash, and go wild at the party, yeah, we’re having a blast” to convey the slacker Rock sensibilities that come with the mild Psychedelic electronic loops. The chorus is a slightly less downbeat affair, as May adds a gently propulsive Guitar and Drums combo to the vocals, as he chants “I’ll Be Stoned For Christmas, this year” above the Psych-Folk mixture of sounds, before adding an “I’m sorry, Momma” for good measure. The hook feels heavily inspired by Mac DeMarco, as a mid-tempo Psychedelia adds some emotive lyricism to the noticeable Folk inflictions. It isn’t a bad thing though, as it’s still a decent sound that conveys May’s range of emotions pretty nicely, despite obvious similarities, as it’s also encalsulated under the same genre umbrella. In any case, May will be getting stoned for Christmas and, in a year of some absolute turmoil, I have a feeling that he will not be the only one this year.

Pictured: Dent May in a promotional shoot for “Across The Multiverse” (2017) (Photo via Tidal.com)

Thank you very much for checking out my latest blog post – and for bearing with me for today! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, for an in-depth look at another Alternative festive tune – This time from a legendary Japanese D.I.Y. Post-Punk female group who once used to perform as The Osaka Ramones – a tribute band to The Ramones. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: The Futureheads – “Christmas Was Better In The 80’s”

December 10, 2020 — Leave a comment

Travelling through time like the DeLorean on a festive winter’s breeze. New post time!

Pictured: Ross Miller (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Synths), Barry Hyde (Lead Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals), David Craig (Bass Guitar) & David Hyde (Drums) (2019) (Photo Credit: Paul Alexander Knox)

Season’s Greetings to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about another random Christmas song, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! The Futureheads are another one of those Punk-Rock bands who were a part of the “indie” boom of the 00’s – in the vein of The Wombats, Editors and Maximo Park. Influenced by New-Wave and Math-Rock bands like Gang Of Four, Fugazi and Devo – the 4-piece group were formed in Sunderland in 2010, and went on to have quite a few hits on the UK Singles Chart, such as “Hounds Of Love”, “Decent Days and Nights” and “Skip To The End”, among others. Back in 2010, the band decided to get festive with a one-off Christmas single titled “Christmas Was Better In The 80’s”, where the indie troupe grimace about the lost nostalgia of their childhood Christmas season and reminisce about those days where Space Invaders was in, and Rubik’s Cubes were the must-have toy of the yuletide season… Not that I’d really know of. I was born in 1998. Anyhow, they released it through their own indie label of Nul Records, along with the accompanying music video below, which was also a part of the group’s 10th birthday celebration since they formed. Let’s take a blast from the past with the track below.

“Christmas Was Better In The 80’s” was released six days before the actual day of Christmas back in 2010, and they also released their fourth album, “The Chaos”, earlier that year. It seems they really were as busy as the Elves in Santa’s workshop, then. Most recently, the band released their sixth album “Powers”. last year, which also marked the end of a six-year hiatus for the band. The track is written in a first-person perspective, as the band’s lead vocalist, Ross Miller, sings: “On Christmas Eve in the 80’s/My mother would say to me” above a soft and minimalist Piano section. After singing: “Christmas was better in the 80’s/Better in the 1980’s”, we reach a dramatic key change of upbeat bass guitar riffs decorated with sleigh bells and long backing vocal harmonies. The band declares together: “The snow was deeper in the 80’s/And everybody used to play, outside on Santa’s sleigh” over the top of quickly paced guitar work and a fast, uptempo delivery. Miller, meanwhile, continues to reminisce about the yuletide season of his adolescence, singing the likes of “Plastic trees and snowball fights/Happy Days and Silent Nights” while the band provide some choral backing vocal harmonies and some quick, percussive Bell melodies in the background. It doesn’t really evoke the Synth-obsessed Dance-Pop that arguably dominated the musical culture of the 1980’s, but it feels sentimental and nostalgic enough to create a decent alternative to the bucketloads of royalty payments which Mariah Carey or The Pogues make every year from streaming services. I like how it feels original too, and it’s not a reworked version of a traditional carol or a cover of a typical Christmas track with slightly varied lyrics to make it about the 1980’s. Overall, while the music itself sadly doesn’t really sound as if it’s coming from the 1980’s, the Everything Everything-esque vocal hooks and the sharp, guitar-driven Indie Rock sound make for a good slice of modern originality – even though I can’t compare the Festive tidings of the 1980’s to the present offerings…because I just wasn’t born then.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Christmas Was Better In The 80’s” (Released in 2010) (via Nul Records)

Thank you for checking out my new seasonally themed blog post! New Release Friday is definitely happening tomorrow – as we take an in-depth look at a brand new album release which I’m really excited about. It comes from an Australian Plunderphonics/Sample-Delia duo who had to make their fans wait 16 years between the release of their breakthrough debut album and their hallucinogenic-inspired sophomore album follow-up. It’s only taken four years this time – so we could say thank goodness for that! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Orlando Weeks – “Safe In Sound”

May 18, 2020 — Leave a comment

It may not be safe outside, but we’ll always be Safe In Sound! It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “A Quickening” (Available to buy from June 12th, 2020) (via PIAS Recordings)

Good evening, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and you’re reading your daily track on the blog because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Orlando Weeks’ “Safe In Sound” is another one of these tracks which I haven’t quite got around to writing up about before, despite it being a few months old. However, late certainly doesn’t mean least in this case – although you could say that I’ve been waiting to type about this one for “Weeks” – Pun intended! Orlando Weeks is the leading man of the fairly well-known English alternative rock band The Maccabees, who have had a share of minor UK hits, such as “Pelican” and “Toothpaste Kisses”. Since the band parted their seperate ways in 2016, Orlando Weeks has begun to work on launching his solo career. His solo debut album “A Quickening” is set for release on 12th June via the PIAS Recordings indie label. I don’t want to give much away, so let’s just have a listen to the single “Safe In Sound” below.

“Safe In Sound” serves up as a Pristine and Smooth-Jazz like introduction to his cuts on the new album which document the birth of Weeks’ first son. It’s a fresh-sounding and naturally sonic track that re-introduces us to Weeks’ mellow vocal delivery, but a re-positioning of his guitar work. Weeks sings: “I would wait forever to hear the sound that you’ll make” over the top of constructed brass sounds and sparse, Brian Eno-like synth loops. The beats are infused with slight Jazz sensibilities and ethereal qualities that capture the essence of anticipation within his feelings of anxiety and excitement during the monumental, albeit scary, life moment. Weeks also sings: “Cut to pieces/Torn to ribbons/Caustic in your critics” , a closing lyrical hook which enhances the warm and nervous emotions of the layered piano arrangement, topped off by kaleidoscopic sampling effects that blends with the jittery horn sections, the Blues-ish guitar elements and Weeks’ laidback vocals to create an art-style collage of Shoegaze-esque rhythmns that, for a lack of a better word, constantly fidget and itch to the restrained vocals. It’s admittedly similar to The Maccabees’ in it’s opening and it sounds quite a lot like Bombay Bicycle Club, but it feels very inspired and it captures the emotions of it’s subject matter very fluently. It sounds like an instant influence point for other bands to follow, potentially in bigger releases, which is a very good thing in the case of establishing Weeks in his beginning solo career – Bravo!

Pictured: Orlando Weeks in a photoshoot for an interview with DIY Mag (2018) (Photo Credit: Emma Swann)

Thank you very much for reading this post! Please stay safe (In Sound), don’t do anything silly and keep on washing those hands! As always, I’ll be back tomorrow, with an in-depth review of a newer single from a Northern Irish electronic duo, signed to the Ninja Tune label, who used to run a blog called “Feel My Bicep” that specialized in posting lost and forgotten edits of Chicago House, Detroit Techno and Latino Disco mixes. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime

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