Today’s Track: Yunè Pinku – ‘DC Rot’

April 14, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Yunè Pinku in promotional artwork for the ‘Bluff’ EP (2022) (Photo Credit: Joshua Onabowu)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to get typing up for yet another 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! Teen Techno music producer Yuné Pinku is an emerging name in the alternative dance music community with a love for Madonna and Billy Joel drawing from her influences of 90’s Acid House and classic UKG recordings. Her sturdy profile includes a collaboration with Australian experimental music producer Logic1000 for the track ‘What You Like’ from 2021. She has also been co-signed by Joy Orbison, who invited her to contribute a guest mix for his residency on BBC Radio 1 last year. The 19-year-old artist has her roots found in Malaysia and Ireland, and you can hear her most recent work through her debut EP release – ‘Bluff’ – which is out now via PLATOON. She says, “Bluff is about letting go and reeling in, finding your feet in the night life world. I think this song is kind of an ode to London night life and it’s a song I think really sums up my feeling of the good times I had as a teenager in London, but also with the slight paranoia of the danger that exists in the night world”, when explaining her experiences of carving out her niche as a bedroom pop producer in the EDM world. If you live in London, you can also catch her playing at The Bermondsey Social Club for her debut headline show appearance on April 29h. The penultimate single to be lifted from the EP is ‘DC Rot’, and the music video acts as an ode to the homemade skateboarding reels of the 00’s. It stars her sister Faith – who also happens to be a pro skater. Let’s check it out below.

Acknowledging her passion for the craft of Skateboarding in Synth-heavy style on ‘DC Rot’, the London-based DJ says, “DC Rot is an exploration of a year and all the things you can do in one”, adding, “Whether it’s coming out of hibernation and getting older, experiencing in excess whether that be negative or positive. Putting yourself out there and sometimes getting hurt, but just going on a pilgrimage of all the things you can and can’t do. In this case, a motif is skate culture hence the title DC Rot, it can be such a freeing culture but can be pretty shakey at other times, constantly shifting”, in her attached notes. ‘DC Rot’ captures the vibe of a 00’s throwback like Peggy Gou and Park Hye Jin, balancing out a multi-tude of wavering beats and interchangeable grooves that are initially built from dissonant piano house keys and a robust kick drum sequence, while Pinku’s nonchalant vocals recite melodic lyrics like “Funky baby on the clock/Vodka tonic, 3 ‘o’ clock” and “3 more lover, down with hot/I can’t not see you enough” with a hazy, relaxed feel that makes the EDM-driven track feel like a suitable accompaniment to an evening where you are preparing for a night out. The phased-out breakbeats and the crystalline synths make for an intriguing contrast to the conversational, gently spoken-sung delivery of the vocals. This successful blurs any idea that Pinku is placing herself into a box of specific genre conventions, and the gleaming warmth of Pinku’s production manages to make the melodic progression feel quite futuristic. Her voice, meanwhile, sighs and demures magnetically to draw you into her sonic pallete before the pace spirals more uncontrollably. The pipe harmonies and the Chill Hop-oriented breakbeats pull the scene back on course later, creating a sense of unpredictable layering that feels reflective of Pinku’s lyrical themes of expressing her perceived loss of purpose in life outside of the night club’s doors. Charming and refreshing, ‘DC Rot’ shows that Pinku has the talent to disregard old traits and step into a more futuristic sound instead, while carrying herself as more than just a monetisable project with her more gripping statement of intent creatively.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Bluff’ (EP) (Released on April 1st, 2022) (via PLATOON)

That brings me right to the end of another daily post, and thank you for continuing to support the site every day! I’ll be back tomorrow, where it’s shaping up to be a ‘Good Friday’ because there’s another entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ in store for you. We’ll be previewing the new solo album from a Tom Petty and Neil Young-influenced rock star known for his work as the former lead guitarist of The War On Drugs, if you’d like to join me then. He also co-created ‘Lotta See Lice’ with Courtney Barnett in 2017.

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Today’s Track: Nia Archives – ’18 & Over’

January 17, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ’18 & Over’ (Single) (Released on November 25th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned into the text of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to dive headfirst into a new week of January with yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 21-year-old musician who was born in Leeds and raised in Manchester, Nia Archives is a London-based singer-songwriter, producer and visual artist who you may remember from the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP that she released last April that we discussed a few times on the blog. Nia Archives is an exciting new artist who fuses a range of Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Drill and Techno, House and Jungle elements into her melting pot of sounds. She is also the founder of the ‘HIJINX’ label, which is also the name of her visual archive of short DIY-style film documentaries which was a side project that she started before producing any music. Her influences includes names like Burial, J Dilla and Roots Manuva. She has recently released the follow-up track to her ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ single that she released last October with a heavier-than-usual dance recording that she implores us, lyrically, was designed for ’18 and Over’. She digs into her Carribean heritage for her new single that samples one of her favourite classic Reggae cuts – ‘Young Lover’ by Cocoa Tea from 1987. The Taliable-directed music video pays homage to London’s sound-system culture and references ‘Yardie’ films like ‘The Harder They Come’ and ‘Babylon’ from the 60’s and 70’s. She comments, “For the ’18 and Over’ video, I knew that the visuals had to be iconic as the song is an absolute banger. Working with Taliable who was the director and editor was super fun, I feel we creatively gelled really well to create this vibrant piece”, in her press statement. Let’s check it out if you are ’18 and Over’ below.

Nia continues, “The actual video was shot in my warehouse yard, I thought it would be sick to use that space as no one has ever shot a music video there – meaning it is unique to me. We kept things even more local by asking Hackney native Mark Solution if he could set up his wicked ‘Solution Soundsystem’ – it was an honour to feature it in my video”, adding, “There are also some references to the original record that I sampled for viewers to spot”, in her press notes. Starting off with chirping bird sounds that remind me of the sweetness of Aphex Twin’s ‘Syro’ from 2014 in the classic Jungle template, paired up to a steady breakbeat instrumental, Nia develops the soundscape further with a driving bass line and some twinkling Synths as she layers her vocals above the main hook of the focused sample of “Now, this one was designed for 18 and over” with a psychedelic Neo-Soul backing as the breakbeats get continually more fragmented throughout the progress of adding her own lyrics. The glistening synths soon augment into a booming bass beat that feels like a nuanced representation of Dub-rooted texture that she playfully gives a UK drum & bass twist as the ethereal mix warps into a Jungle aesthetic, eventually leaving behind a central emphasis on the early 90’s rave melodies that give us a spellbinding symphony of breakbeats, as the lyrics promise to give us. While the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP leaned into her anxieties on entering a relationship and overthinking her intimate emotions, ’18 & Over’ is a purer exploration of the Post-Garage and Jungle-driven feel that has always existed within her sound. It all feels very exciting and gripping as a result, creating very surprising shifts in production and fusing her early sound with a flipside of some traditional Reggae to pay homage to her Jamaican heritage and the country’s creative output. A heavy and engrossing evolution of her artistry that is unique to her.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Headz Gone West’ (EP) (Released on April 29th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

If you also think that Nia Archives is one of the most engaging new artists to follow in 2022, check out my previous post about ‘Headz Gone West’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/05/03/todays-track-nia-archives-headz-gone-west/

Pictured: Nia Archives in a still from the ‘Headz Gone West’ music video (2021) (Photo by Delphino Productions)

That brings us to a pretty thrilling end to today’s track on the blog. Many blessings for showing your support and I’ll be back tomorrow as we continue to hear some of the most important voices in the industry with the next post that arrives tomorrow. It will come your way by a Harlem-based poet, teacher and founding member of the Spoken Word band The Last Poets, who were widely considered to be the first Hip-Hop group.

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Today’s Track: Fasme – ‘ICI’

December 7, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Fasme (aka Tom Ferreira) playing a live DJ set at Gaîté Lyrique, Paris (2020) (Photo by Underscope TV)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for some big room melancholy that comes courtesy of yet another 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! Said ‘big room melancholy’ is one niche that the Belfast-formed dance duo of Bicep (Matthew McBriar & Andrew Ferguson) have become a pair of unofficial kings of, scoring Best British Group and Best New Artist nominations at last year’s BRIT Awards for their concoction of Italo-inspired Electronica and multi-layered Breakbeat production. However, the duo have set a few new parameters for curatorial duties with the launch of their appropriately titled imprint label, Feel My Bicep. Their first signee is the Paris-born and Nantes-based experimental electronic dance music producer Tom Ferreira, who releases his music under the moniker of Fasme. Having caught the attention of the big-league’s Bicep when he released the ‘Stretched World’ EP last April, Bicep found ‘ICI’ on YouTube and so began playing Ferreira’s music in projects like a Friday Guest Mix for Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 6 Music and the duo’s own FMB radio podcast on Apple Music. Fasme has recently supported them on tour in October and he performed a live DJ set at Sarcus Festival in France in late September. Ferreira has said that “Fasme” is a nickname that his aunt gave him at her house during the summer one year. He takes his style from the Braindance, IDM and Techno Ambient scenes of the 00’s and he has named acts like RX 101, Binary Digit, James Shinra, David Harleydson and EOD as his influences. ‘ICI’ is taken from the new ‘Home’ EP which he released in late October via Feel My Bicep, of course. Check it out.

Bicep, as the co-managers of the Feel My Imprint indie EDM sub-label, writes that “his melodic sound is created on analog synths, evolving between Acid, Electro and Braindance” on the Bandcamp listing page for Ferreira’s recent ‘Home’ extended play, adding that Ferreira describes himself as “more of a live performer than a studio man” in the product’s description page. A track that reminds me of Aphex Twin’s ‘Druqks’ double album released in the early 00’s of misfit recordings with it’s set of minimalist Classical influences and Tin Man-esque Acid Jazz wiggling production that aims to conjure up some ‘Alien-like’ qualities overall, ‘ICI’ is a mid-tempo Trance serving that wants to provide a great example of why Fasme is a decent fit for Bicep’s Feel My Bicep label. Thankfully, this is a goal that Ferreira seems talented enough to succeed within, and ‘ICI’ has all the building blocks required to be in place to keep the festival crowds grinning, as well as feeling soft and melancholic enough to please those who would rather listen while tucked into their beds with their headphones at a good volume late at night because the chords never feel too overpowering and the distorted electronic Keys sounds never feel too harsh or aggressive for the scene either. It has it’s moments of melodicism with some moody chords that take a dark approach to the layered Lo-Fi production and some big emotive Synth hooks, as well as some mechanical electronic drum kit programming that gives the tone of the track a suitable uplift, but it never quite channels these sounds into an explosive track full of beat-driven sounds and plenty of ‘Bro-Step’ energy. Instead, it feels like a more pensive and contemplative wind-down for the end of a long night. A nebulous mix of acidic Synths, heartbroken Piano chords and neat, warm Bass stabs – ‘ICI’ is more concerned with multi-layered Synth loops and powerfully entrancing moments. Overall, ‘ICI’ is an impressive little recording that pulls off the fairly difficult task of making the Bicep-esque rave-ready despondency sound a tad more positively wistful.

Pictured: Fasme (aka Tom Ferreira) photographed for a wertn.com Q&A feature (2020) (Picture via Leviet.org)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post, and we’ll be counting down to Christmas with another festive-themed post featuring a track that left its mark on the niche in 2005. At the time, the track was written and performed by a Philadelphia-based indie rock band, but the project is now the solo work of multi-instrumentalist and producer Alec Ounsworth. The band appeared in the 2008 film ‘The Great Buck Howard’, and David Bowie was famously seen at some of their shows.

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Today’s Track: Relaxer – ‘Narcissus By The Pool’

November 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Daniel Martin-McCormick in a Red Bull Studios Spotlight Session (2016) (Via RedBull.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for you to slip into something more comfortable for your daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A New York-based experimental electronic music producer, Daniel Martin McCormick has enjoyed a career that reads like a long list of small achievements. He’s also known for releasing specialist music under the alias of Ital, and he is known for his frequent collaborations with the fellow DJ Aurora Halal. He has also been a member of groups like Black Eyes and Mi Ami, and he is the co-founder of Climate Of Fear, as well as being the founder of Lovers Rock Recordings. In 2019, he established a new alias of Relaxer and he released ‘Coconut Grove’, an album which delivered something that felt more close to a pure Techno album than his earlier releases. The follow-up, 2021’s ‘Concealer’, is his first album to be released on Planet Mu in ten years. It drifts towards hyper digital sounds and it marks his return to using PC hardware. The album’s cover art, created by the NY-based graphic designer Bjorn Copeland, is an indication of his new album’s sound, which explores the sub-genres of Dark Ambient and Microhouse. McCormick notes that it reflects “this open, airy material squeezed and wrestled into a contorted shape, suspended in air with an empty center. That’s exactly how the album felt. In this sense, I wanted to take myself out of it, to let the materials bloom into their own shape, guided by my hand but not defined by my intellect or any market concerns”, in a press statement. Let’s check out ‘Narcissus By The Pool’ below.

McCormick has revealed that his latest LP was “made in a very private way” and he describes this process as being akin to “peering into materials – the materials defined the record”, adding, “Rather than making a record that’s about an emotion, or a political scenario, or the dance floor, or the empty dance floor, or any narrative, this record was about communicating with the materials and letting them speak with me” in his own press notes. Taking a mellow approach to proceedings on mid-album cut ‘Narcissus By The Pool’, McCormick takes influence from old-school 90’s Glitch and more forward-looking minimalist Techno. By disregarding traditional Dance music traits and the normal contexts of finicky textures and spacial tricks that characterize popular Industrial music, he creates a more detailed recording that is defined by how the music flows and the intimate textures that it creates on its own. Using a slightly acidic Synth line and a chiming Chiptune melody, McCormick creates something simple and effective that would not have felt out of place if it was originally released during the mid-2000’s. It is far from just a nostalgic throwback anthem, however, with some downtempo oddities in sound and a peak-time euphoria feeling that creates something that feels more firmly post-modern. In conclusion, this is a beautiful record that isn’t focused on big hooks and catchy melodies, so it falls into a bit of a niche. However, there’s absolutely nothing that is inherently wrong with that, as it feels diverse enough to appeal to different sub-sections of audiences, like those who study at their computer to the beats of Lo-Fi radio channels on YouTube and those who are likely to take things down a notch right before bedtime with their ear plugs tuned into a podcast like ‘Ambient Focus’ on the BBC Sounds app. Whatever the case, this is meticulous, very thoughtfully crafted music that is approached like a sculpture.

Pictured: Relaxer (Daniel Martin-McCormick) performing with Halal at Rewire Festival (2020) (via PR)

That leaves me with little left to say! Thank you for reading the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to resume the ‘Countdown To Christmas’ this year. Our next entry is a cover version of ‘Frosty The Snowman’ which was released in 1993 by a pioneering Scottish Shoegaze outfit whose lineup featured the head boss of Bella Union Records.

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New Album Release Fridays: Helado Negro – “Outside The Outside”

October 22, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Far In’ (LP) (Released on October 22nd, 2021) (via 4AD)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘New Album Release Fridays’ is the time of the week where we unbox one of the most exciting new LP releases of the weekend, and this week’s line-up includes plenty of options to choose from. The likes of Elton John, Self Esteem, HONNE, JPEGMafia, Parquet Courts, Biffy Clyro and Don Broco are all releasing new albums today, but, for me, the Miami-born and New York-based Nu-Disco producer Helado Negro (the main alias of Roberto Carlos Lange) is the little artist who could. You may recognize his voice from ‘Close’, the closing track of Colombian electronic music producer Ela Minus’ album ‘Acts Of Rebellion’, which he was featured on last year. As a solo artist, Lange won the United States Artists’ Fellow In Music in 2019 and he was later the recipient of the 2019 Grants To Artists Award from the Foundation For Contemporary Arts. He was also the winner of the Joyce Foundation in 2015, so there’s plenty of critical acclaim under his belt. Lange has been producing a significant amount of musical and visual art work since he first became active in 2009 through various aliases, and he’s known for his non-conventional approaches to Avant-Pop while also expressing his Latinx identity and his pluralistic sensibilities. 2021’s ‘Far In’ is his seventh full-length solo album, and it is the follow-up to 2019’s ‘This Is How You Smile’ and 2016’s ‘Private Energy’, as well as his first record to be issued on the 4AD label. Born to Ecuadorian immigrants, the record explores his childhood anxieties of feeling like an outsider in his family’s community, and his road to finding a sense of belonging. Lange simply said, “Escape is never out there, you have to look inward”, in a press release. The notable single ‘Outside The Outside’ is married beautifully to a music video consisting of camcorder footage of his family’s South Florida house parties of the 1980’s, so let’s give it a listen.

“This is a song about intimate partnerships and long-loving friendships. To be loyal freaks and an outsider amongst outsiders”, he says about the standout single ‘Outside The Outside’, while adding, about the video, “My family came to this country as outsiders looking for and finding community. People would come to our house and bond through music, family and dancing. They usually began at 8 PM and lasted until 5 AM”, he says of the guests who would stay up all night to dance the Salsa or Merengue, before he concluded, “I used to wake up and it would be 7 AM in the morning and people would still be downstairs drinking”, with a laugh in a recent interview. I think it’s fair to say that this particular concept is alien to us Brits, and so ‘Outside The Outside’ does a great job of creating a late-night vibe with an infectious groove and calling to mind the alienation that Lange struggled handling when he was being raised as a South Florida native despite his rich descent. Lyrics like “There we were/Up all night/Terrified, kissing you twice” and “They were mine/Changed my life, I forgot to show you why” feel hushed and intoned, while the electronic Synths warping around these words feel Lo-Fi and Minimalist in production. The chorus is a simple one, while a touch of introspection touches the other lyrics, as if Lange is reminiscing over the innocence that he also used to feel at the parties while growing up, as he uses lyrics like “Because my world only opens/When your world comes in” to demonstrate these emotions, and discuss how a group of lost souls coming together has formed close relationships. While the lyrics are well-written and inspired enough, it’s also the instrumentation and production that makes the track come together so strongly like it does. The track has a dance music feel, yet it goes for a more reflective and nostalgic tone instead of a swooping and euphoric one, not relying on dancefloor-ready builds and festival-friendly basslines, and instead going for something more subdued and hushed. It feels like a nice platform for Lange’s crooning vocals to create a variety of moods from, while the glistening Disco melodies and the spiraling percussion feels melodic enough to dance along to, whether as a casual listener or a hardcore fan of his work. Overall, ‘Outside The Outside’ is a cracking single that confidently captures the feelings of fostering an environment that feels supportive and comfortable that have shaped the inspiration of Lange’s new album, and the only light we see is that of a dangling Disco ball on the house’s ceiling.

Pictured: Helado Negro performing for GRAMMY’s ‘Press Play At Home’ series (2021) (Photo via PR)

That is all for today! Thank you very much for joining me, and I’ll be back for more musical musings tomorrow. We’ll be listening to the latest single from the quirky indie New Zealand Psych-Pop group Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who have teamed up with the puppeteer of The Muppets and Sesame Street to produce their latest music video.

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Today’s Track: Maya Jane Coles – “Night Creature”

October 21, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Maya Jane Coles in the official music video for ‘Run To You’ (2021) (Photo via PR/EDM.com)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to add yet another daily post to my monstrous tally of past uploads, because for the last two years, it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Today’s track is ‘Night Creature’ – and this aptly titled drum-and-bass tune comes your way from the award-winning Maya Jane Coles, an electronic house music producer and studio engineer who was born in London, and Coles is an icon of the LGBTQ+ music community. Her success is no overnight sensation, however, because Coles has instead spent numerous years playing at festivals and clubs, and she has gained attention from making remixes for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Depeche Mode, along with getting sampled by mainstream stars like Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry. Ever since Coles became active in 2006, she has collaborated with names like Tricky, Peaches and Young M.A. on her own original work. Coles has a new album coming out, ‘Night Creature’, which is her first release under her actual name since her ‘Would You Kill (4 Me)’ EP that was issued last year, but she also released her second album under the Nocturnal Sunshine side alias – ‘Full Circle’ – in 2019. She was previously a part of the electronic Dub duo of She Is In Danger with Lena Cullen, and you may also recognize her from her other secondary alias of CAYAM, which she has also released her music under. She confirmed her latest album last month alongside the release of a Triple Single where she shared the mixes ‘Night Creature’, ‘Survival Mode’ and ‘Need’ from her new LP, which sees the light of day on 29th October via her own label, I/AM/ME, and it features guest feature spots from the likes of vocalists Julia Stone, Lie Ning and Claudia Kane, and her frequent collaborator Karin Park, who are all participating on the new 13-track collection of cuts. For Coles, a DJ of Japanese descent, her new record feels like the antidote to our recent collective experiences under Covid-19 restrictions, as the LP will be exploring the allure and energy of the rave experiences which comes to life when the evening gradually turns into night and the light becomes dark. Check out the title track below.

This is spooky season after all, and after performing recent DJ sets at Fabric and Leeds’ Mint Festival late last month, Coles has been building up a sense of terror and dread for next week’s perfectly timed release, explaining about the new LP in a press release, “When it comes to my music-making, I’ve pretty much always been a creature of the night. My creativity tends to work at its best during those peaceful hours when my surroundings are at a standstill and I feel completely in my own world”, before contrasting and comparing with, “Then on the flip side, in the club, the night can shift into the most energetic and ecstatic moments in time” in her press statement. ‘Night Creature’ – the title track of the record – feels like a fitting musical transfer of these ideas, starting off with a mix of twinkling and otherworldly Horn melodies, before the Bass kicks in and the tranquil Synth melodies continue to run through some rougher melodies and a paced increase in aggression. There’s a little distortion to the bassline, which begins with a relatively slow-burning energy before the tempos frequently become more erratic and irregular in their nature. Shimmering patterns in the later portions of the track contrast the more extra-terrestrial themes naturally, as the Techno-inspired drops of Bass rumbles and kick Drum melodies become more versatile and display contrasting moods to the other aspects of the single. It feels like an eclectic dance track that would really benefit from the high energy of the crowds within the European festival circuit, and there’s a rather ominous atmosphere that undercurrents the whole package. Although there’s not a great deal left to say about the track, it certainly feels groovy and danceable in an unconventional way as the Halloween theme fits the harder melodies and the cerebral production, and it is nice how the track never veers into an over-the-top ‘Bro-Step’ style of production, sticking to her roots in club-oriented Techno and rumbling Hyperdub-like, UK-synonymous Dubstep flavours instead. A monster-mash of good ideas, both visually and musically.

Pictured: Maya Jane Coles performing a DJ set at Parklife Festival (2015) (Photo by Derek Bremner)

That’s all for today! Thank you for checking out my latest post, and I’ll be back with more posts to celebrate ‘Spooky Season’ next weekend. In the meantime, though, ‘New Album Release Fridays’ is another matter for me to deal with, so feel free to revisit the site tomorrow as we talk about the new LP from a Florida-based musician of Ecuadorian descent whose previous album got a rave review from Pitchfork. He was the recipient of 2019’s Grants To Artists award in music from the Foundation For Contemporary Arts, and he appeared on a tune from Ela Minus’ debut album last year.

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Today’s Track: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – “The Distance”

October 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: TEED (Orlando Higginbottom) in an ‘I Can Hear The Birds’ EP shoot (2020) (via Pia Riverola)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and I’ve got a new dance track to jumpstart your weekend for your daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! As I teased yesterday, ‘The Distance’ comes to you from a London-born Electronic House producer who I honestly believe is frequently at the top of my own underrated lists. The musician who consistently lives up to that pressure is Orlando Higginbottom – aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – who swept me right off my feet and onto both the dancefloor and the bedroom with 2012’s ‘Trouble’, his major label debut album on Polydor Records. Although he has not released a full-length follow-up album since that year, to say the prehistorically-themed producer has been in hibernation until now would be simply far from the truth. In 2014, he launched the Nice Age cross platform label with a collaborative track featuring Anna Lunoe, and he’s continued to release a string of emotive yet vibrant singles like ‘Energy Fantasy’ and ‘Body Move’ and he even released a breath of fresh air during lockdown last year with his ‘I Can Hear The Birds’ EP, which was immensely enjoyable. I was delighted to hear ‘The Distance’, the title track from a new forthcoming EP that he will be releasing on his Nice Age label on October 27th, which is his first piece of new music since his ‘Heartbreak’ collaboration with Bonobo early last year. He is also a classically trained musician and the son of a former Oxford choir conductor, and he’s been injecting some colour into the UK’s club environments with his music and costumes since his late teens, commenting to Spin that he was looking for a name that “couldn’t be cool, couldn’t be put into some kind of scene that gets hip for six months and then falls out of fashion” in 2015. His 2012 album, ‘Trouble’, also found places in best of year lists compiled by DJ Magazine, iTunes UK, NME and the BBC. Let’s go ‘The Distance’ below.

Higginbottom has kept rather hush-hush about the influences behind his new EP, but his Bandcamp page has been teasing that ‘The Distance’ finds him stripping the sounds back to the core roots of his very early material that he released as mixtapes on the Greco-Roman label in the late 00’s and the early 10’s, where he explored warm Jungle melodies and ambiguous melancholy with a unique twist of emotional, quintessentially English heft of depth. The title track starts off with some chirping birds and a trickling series of Synth lines, with a muted croon about a lost lover from Higginbottom floating nicely over the top, before a more cinematic burst of Bass and some carefully treading Drum beats provide a more melodic and boastful bassline. The rest of his lyrics are delivered quite hazily and nostalgically, with Higginbottom singing quietly about the memories of a past romance of which, however much that he tries to let go and live on, continues to submerge him in memory and youth. There’s certainly a slight hint of nostalgia in his vocal performance that feels small but profound, and it works very smoothly when married by the atmospheric instrumentation and the diverse tones of the electronic production that he creates. The melodies are a little disorienting and they feel fragmented in nature, which fits the themes of temporary pleasure and preserved sentimentality that is explored by the irregular time signatures and the wistful textures of his sound. Overall, ‘The Distance’ is an outstanding tune that continues to cement his status as one of the UK’s most exciting talents over the course of his career, and he lives up to my lofty anticipations once again pretty confidently and easily. It really takes me back to why I enjoyed his work so much in the first place, and that’s because he makes ‘The Distance’ feel like more than just another dance track from one of the UK’s hundreds of electronic music producers. He takes me back to the tone and style of his previous work by recording vocals that sound deliberately shaky and plaintive. They are imperfect, and this gets a wealth of genuine emotional depth across to my ears as the listener. The diffracting melodies feel deep and fractured, yet the Synth lines feel as refreshing as the first rays of sunshine after a pitch black and frosty January night, and the combo of the Drum and Bass sections continue to inject vibrancy and energy into the recording, with a cohesive variation of dance-based genre influences and an archetypal English feel to the harsh, but fair, bleakness of the songwriting. A truly exceptional effort from a genuinely talented and fulfilling, remarkable music creative.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Distance’ (EP) (Available on October 27th, 2021) (via Nice Age Records)

I hope that you enjoyed my latest blog post, and that you feel encouraged to check out some of Orlando Higginbottom’s other work. You can start with a few snippets on my blog, with a short review of his Bonobo-led collaboration for ‘Outlier’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/06/todays-track-bonobo-totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-heartbreak/. I have also talked about his birdsong EP released in lockdown in 2020, which makes for a refreshing change of pace and it was named my second favourite EP of the year. Sample ‘Los Angeles’ from it here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/08/05/todays-track-totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-los-angeles/

Pictured: TEED with Bonobo (Simon Green) in a ‘Heartbreak’ PR shoot (2020) (Photo by Grants Panier)

Thank you for checking out my blog today, and please feel free to revisit some of the ghosts of Pop-Punk past with me for a fresh new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library tomorrow. This week’s entry marks the debut appearance from a Florida Rock group who met at an AP Music Theory class in 2001. They have released five albums to date.

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Today’s Track: Wayward – “Camden Road”

October 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Lawrence Gayle Hayes (Drums/Synths) & Louis Greenwood (Sampling/DJ) (2021) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wayward is the fast-emerging Experimental Electronic music project of the London-based duo Lawrence Gayle Hayes and Louis Greenwood, who have gained acclaim from Pitchfork, Mixmag and Vice. They have worked as A&R’s for Silver Bear Recordings, and released material through the Australia-based Beasts Of No Nation label and Fort Romeau’s Cin Cin Records label, and they have been in the studio with the likes of Ninja Tune’s Park Hye Jin and Grammy-winning producer Skrillex. In March, the pair of producers released their debut LP, ‘Waiting For The World’, which was influenced by Burial’s ‘Untrue’ and they combined Drum & Bass, House, Breakbeat and Ambient elements into a concise record. Their latest release is ‘Sapphire Eyes’, a four track EP which was self-released on September 29th. It was inspired by the rave experiences they had while growing up in London – an ode to nightclubs and community. Let’s spin ‘Camden Road’ below.

Citing influences like Addison Grove, Machine Drum and Overmono for their latest short form release, the duo shared on their own Bandcamp page in a press statement, “If our debut album showcased the more reflective side of our yearning for clubs, and a softer side of the lockdown experience, this EP is the anger, frustration and urgency coming out”, concluding, “Stuck indoors again just wanting to band it out in a club with the intention of making something completely focused on the dance floor” in the notice. Their fourth track on the record, ‘Camden Road’ sticks out amongst the others for the emotive feelings which it shares, coming across to me as more nostalgic than euphoric. It boasts a similar sound to some early 00’s Hyperdub recordings and more recent Footwork releases, where the Synths and the propulsive basslines feel as vibrant as the mixed multi-cultural community that their hometown, which they are paying tribute to, has become known for in recent developments. Their vocals play with escapism, with Lawrence reciting the likes of “So much life, so much fun” and “Festivals in Hungary with black people” with a slightly muted Spoken Word delivery that doesn’t feel massively poetic, and feels grounded in approach instead, with a soft Hip-Hop rhythm and a mumbled tone of speech which fits the wonky production aspects and the very metropolitan aesthetics of London. The rest of the instrumentation goes down a treat too, with a looped Piano melody and light Synth pads creating a gentle opening, before Wayward flip the switch for the big chorus where they replace the light-hearted beats with a more rugged dance style, using some swooping drums and syncopated vocal chops to hit a BPM of around 130, which feels subversive and unpredictable when the earlier melodies are flipped on their head. Overall, I was very impressed with ‘Camden Road’, a modern dance track that has an ability of conjuring up some feelings and visuals for their listeners, a rare technique that greats like Aphex Twin and Burial have achieved in their career. It feels as fresh and lively as the street it is based on – A sprawling, multi-cultural metropolis.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Sapphire Eyes’ (EP) (Released on September 29th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for joining me, and I’ll be back tomorrow for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we take an in-depth look at the soon to be released new LP from a US female Funk, Soul and Alternative R&B singer-songwriter who performed a medley of her hits on an episode of major US talk show ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ earlier this year. She completed her studies at USC Thornton School of Music in 2018, and she was also a contestant on ‘American Idol’ in 2014. Her latest album is named after her dog – Juno.

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Today’s Track: DJ Seinfeld (feat. Stella Explorer) – “She Loves Me”

September 27, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: DJ Seinfeld in an official photoshoot for the ‘Galaxy’ EP (2019) (Photo via TicketArena.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as you’ve probably figured out by now, it is time for me to get typing up for another daily track on the blog, since its always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! DJ Seinfeld is the alias of the Swedish House music producer Armand Jakobsson, who now finds himself being based in Germany after rising to prominence a few years ago as a key part of the new wave of Lo-Fi electronic music producers alongside names like Saint Pepsi and Ross From Friends around the time of 2016. He’s been known for releasing his electronic dance material under names like Birds Of Sweden and Rimbaudian, and he is the founder of the Young Ethics indie label. Jakobsson has since played DJ sets on the stages of The Warehouse Project and Sonar By Night, he has curated one of BBC Radio 1’s ‘Essential Mix’ sets, and, to top it all off, none other than the legendary tinkerer Aphex Twin has been known to play Jakobsson’s track ‘Sakura’ in one or two of his live DJ sets. The latest release from Jakobsson is ‘Mirrors’, his first solo album in four years following his 2017 debut, ‘Time Spent Away From U’, which is out now on Ninja Tune. It’s an expansion of the style that he explored on 2019’s ‘Galaxy’ EP and 2020’s ‘Mezcalita’ EP, with the ten-track project being recorded between Berlim and Malmo, and leaning into the realms of Ambient Electronica and late-90’s Dubstep for inspiration. The album is titled ‘Mirrors’ as a reference to how the producer views a reflection of himself in the mirror and how the throes of a nasty breakup in recent times has changed these internal perceptions. He tells us in a press release, “On this album, I wanted to retain a lot of the raw emotionality that brought people to my music in the first place, but I also wanted to become a much better producer. It’s been an arduous process but it’s a real statement of where I’m at as a producer and person right now”. The new LP includes a stunning opening track, ‘She Loves Me, which finds the experimental creative working with the emerging South African-Swedish vocalist Stella Explorer. Check it out below.

Speaking of the collaboration, Stella Explorer said in a press statement, “The fine line between self-affirmation and paranoia is alluring to me, and in music it’s always present. It’s deceptive, and lyrics can change meaning at any time”, before expanding on the duality that she feels in ‘She Loves Me’ by writing, “I think the fewer words you use, the more they shift and by combining that with different intentions like you do when you collaborate with someone (like this), it makes the outcome exciting” for her press notes. For me, as a listener, ‘She Loves Me’ highly reminds me of Burial – not necessarily in the sound itself, but the way that Seinfeld selects a very small snippet of an emotive vocal and twists the context and textures of the piece, and he has a way of saying a lot without really saying anything at all, which is similar to the techniques that Hyperdub legend Burial built his career on using as his niche. ‘She Loves Me’ are the first words that can be heard on the new album, and it sets the stage going forward by exploring diverse, new avenues of his production style. The vocals feel confused and drowsy, with lyrics like “With you, so much time/Still pieces of my mind” and “She loves me/Why does she?” morphing their way around skittering Trap beats and sparkling Synth textures that evoke a little bit of Seinfeld’s Garage roots, but they largely feel focused on a bittersweet melancholy. Lyrics like “She loves me/Yes she does” float seemlessly above a meticulous amount of saturated tape effects that evoke feelings of lost nostalgia, and the more euphoric combination of gentle lo-fi synths and very thick basslines mix the nice energy that runs underneath with an inescapable feeling of change, and a tightrope between longing and reminiscence. Overall, this track was a real suprise, and I find myself to be absolutely loving it whenever I hear it. I wasn’t quite as keen on some of Seinfeld’s other material with the more Big Beat-based Garage sounds, but I love how Seinfeld plays with the meaning of vocals on this track, and the contributing vocals from Stella Explorer adds some even more delightfully clunky emotion to the formation. This one is a real treat.

Pictured: DJ Seinfeld producing an ‘After Party Playlist’ mix for BBC Radio 1 (2018) (via BBC.com)

If you loved what you just heard, you may be pleased to know that some other DJ Seinfeld-related content has been posted on the blog before. Check out what I thought of ‘Electrician’, a single previously released from the ‘Galaxy’ EP here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/28/todays-track-dj-seinfeld-electrician/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Mirrors’ (LP) (Released on September 3rd, 2021) (via Ninja Tune)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest blog post, and I’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same shtick. My next pick comes from one half of one of my favourite rap duo’s in quite a long time, who have released great projects together via Mello Music Group. You may have caught them at Sound City in Ipswich last weekend.

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New Album Release Fridays: RP Boo – “Haters Increase The Heat”

September 17, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Established!’ (LP) (Released on September 17th, 2021) (via Planet Mu)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke and, of course, the time has arrived for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! The cycle of day-to-day life has kept going, and so we’ve reached another ‘New Album Release’ Friday yet again. This week sees new albums from Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Hot Chip’s frontman Alexis Taylor, New Zealand-Australian soul star Jordan Rakei and “Gothic Blues” singer-songwriter Adia Victoria hitting record store shelves and digital marketplaces. There’s also the highly anticipated new nature-themed LP from Gothenburg crossover folk songwriter Jose González and St. Vincent’s soundtrack release for ‘The Nowhere Inn’ vying for your attention too. However, I wanted to select something more leftfield this week, and that’s ‘Established’ – the new solo LP from Chicago experimental House producer RP Boo – which is out on Planet Mu today. RP Boo is one of the most prominent figures, alongside DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn, in the evolution of the Footwork dance movement from Chicago. Footwork is a style of dance music that has derived from the roots of Chicago House, and incorporated elements of Juke House and Ghetto House along the way, and it quickly found success in the Mid-west region of Chicago, later finding popularity across the state, in the 2010’s. The rhythms typically draw from the sub-bass frequencies of Drum & Bass, the tracks usually feature syncopated samples of Hip-Hop and Future Funk, and the BPM is around 60. Footwork is reliant on the street dance of the same name, performed by the sub-cultural youth of Chicago. As one of the originators of Footwork, RP Boo started making music in the late-90’s with a Roland R-70 drum machine and an Akai S01 digital sampler, and he has since gone on to craft the mixtapes used for the Bud Billiken Parade, which is the largest annual African-American parade in the US. His new LP, ‘Established’ is highly inspired by his early times of creating Footwork music, and he channels the competitive nature of ‘dance battles’ for the release. Check out the single, ‘Haters Increase The Heat’, below.

“I want the listeners to really get close to something beautiful, to enjoy with family and friends”, RP Boo says of the highly experimental new release in a press statement, continuing by telling us about the sample track above, “I was feeling heat that I detected targeting me in the scene and I grab it and tracked it out and that’s what fueled the track”, he says about ‘Haters Increase The Heat’, the new single, where he reflects on his younger days where he developed passion for Paul Johnson’s Disco records from the late-90’s. Built from stabbing synth rhythms, a flickering drum machine pattern and an aggressive, yet fairly moderately paced, bassline. It all feels like a propulsive combination on the whole, with Boo strategically structuring the witty sample flips and the blaring siren-like sounds of the modulated Synth patterns to keep the rhythm feeling thick and fast, but perfectly paced for a high-stakes dance battle. Across the course of the track, the prominent male vocal sample gradually contorts into more of an unfamiliar grunt, while a soft female backing vocal sample feels barely recognizable among the heavy syncopation effects, but it certainly adds some ethereal tones to the mix, with bruising synth pad melodies and frisky keyboard patterns which add a joyful sense of playfulness to the sound. Before too long, we’re left with the musical equivalent of a dizzying game of Jenga, where the stripped-back foundations of alternative House music are contorted to a large extent that nearly combat the repetitive nature of the production, and the vocals strongly come across as an Urban dance battle track that often nearly doubles up as a gentle personal philosophy in the process. From a pure at-home listening standpoint, it is quite a challenging listen as the rhythmic dexterity marries the sample voice and drum machine arrangements to a level that warps each element beyond noticeable recognition, but these fundamental values are what keeps RP Boo feeling as relevant as ever, and it keeps Chicago as one of the finest purveyors of House music, albeit in numerous slightly different forms. As the music continues to evolve, so do the artists.

Pictured: RP Boo (aka Kavain Wayne Space) at a live DJ set (2019) (Photo via Backspin Promotions)

That brings us to the end of the page, and all that’s left for me to do is thank you for checking out the blog today. I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, with some more new music, this time coming from a New York-born indie pop singer-songwriter who co-founded the Art Pop trio Chairlift while studying at The University Of Colorado. Now gaining mainstream popularity as a solo artist, she has collaborated with producers and artists including Charli XCX, Blood Orange, SBTRKT and Danny L Harle, and she has written songs for none other than Beyonce and Travis Scott. Not too shabby at all.

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