Today’s Track: GoGo Penguin – ‘Ascent’

March 15, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Chris Illingworth (Piano), Nick Blacka (Bass Guitar) & Jon Scott (Drums) (2021) (Photo by Emily Dennison)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to rise to the occasion for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You can hear the break-beat’s and minimalist ambient Piano section of Aphex Twin’s discography, Electronica-inspired drums that could be right out of Squarepusher’s playbook, the groove-oriented blueprints of the heavyweights of contemporary classical composers like Phillip Glass, and countless more influences like Trip-Hop and Nu-Jazz in the music of the Manchester-formed Progressive Jazz band GoGo Penguin, who we previously covered in time for their self-titled album release in 2020 with the engaging single ‘F Maj Pixie’. Two years later and the Mercury-Prize nominated modern classical composers are back with ‘Ascent’, a deep 4-minute minimalist ambient piece that takes it’s inspiration from the likes of Brian Eno, Massive Attack and Radiohead. The band are currently signed to the French independent label Blue Note Records and are one of the label’s best-selling artists in selling in excess of 300,00 albums. The new track is also their first to feature the new drummer Jon Scott, who has replaced Rob Turner, a departure which was announced via Bands In Town and the group’s other social media platforms last December. If you live in Cambridgeshire, you can catch GoGo Penguin at The Junction on November 9th. Let’s give their newest single a spin.

Jon Scott’s name was the first to come up when the band was looking for a new drummer as bassist Nick Blacka had played some Jazz gigs with him when they started out in Manchester years ago and they have crossed paths several times since, and so the freshly re-established trio retreated to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Real World’ studios in Wiltshire to work on new material late last year, becoming stronger by the pandemic as a result of being unable to tour. Talking about ‘Ascent’ in a press release found on the Terrorbird website, pianist Chris Illingworth says, “The composition takes it’s inspiration from the duality often found in the big events in our lives, moments that can simultaneously make us feel both loved and isolated, fearful but confident, proud and humbled”, adding, “Ascent expresses the journey through these experiences in life, moving forward into the unknown, but with hope not fear”, in the trio’s statement. All things considered on that front, ‘Ascent’ starts off with a peaceful tone as a stuttering drum opening paves the way for a signature minimal Piano beat to create waves of arpeggiated Piano melodies to form the meditative groove for the main bulk of the well-structured and steadily sequenced track. The Piano pattern is repetitious, but it is well-developed because it is supported by a neatly balanced rhythm section and a backdrop of warmth in textures throughout, with elements of roots-flavored Jazz and electronic dance that introduce a morphing set of fresh melodies into the fray frequently enough. The cohesive and percussive drum patterns convey the reflective tone tidily, while the electronic elements and slight club music motifs make the piece feel more modern and contemporary overall. ‘Ascent’ provides for a peaceful and emotionally varied space for escapism, relaxation and enjoyment while being held together by a robust yet reliable rhythm. It definitely reminds me of Richard D. James’ downtempo Piano work, and, as a huge fan of Aphex, I find this particular influence to be appealing. Despite introducing a fresh member to their ranks and rebuilding chemistry – I felt that ‘Ascent’ picked up right where they left off.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘GoGo Penguin’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on June 5th, 2020) (via Blue Note Records)

If you love ‘Ascent’ and want to hear more of this band, you can Go Go here for more:

‘F Maj Pixie’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/11/todays-track-gogo-penguin-f-maj-pixie/

Pictured: Chris Illingworth & Nick Blacka with their former member Rob Turner (2020) (Photo Credit: Jon Shard)

That’s all for today! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, I hope that you enjoyed reading it and your support is always highly appreciated! I’ll be back tomorrow as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, as we revisit an indie rock favourite from 2006 that KEXP presenter Abbie Gobeli recently reminded me of. The title track of an album with the same name, the dance-rock meets garage revival number has been proclaimed as the unofficial theme track for the popular British 00’s drama ‘Skins’ because it was used a lot on the DVD menu and promotional material for the programme. The associated album reached #1 on the UK Indie chart.

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Today’s Track: Nightmares On Wax (feat. OSHUN) – “Breathe In”

November 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’ (Released on October 29th, 2021) (via Warp Records)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to indulge your senses into 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! ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’ is the latest LP to come from the legendary Leeds-born and Ibiza-based electronic Trip Hop producer Nightmares On Wax – the now solo project of George Evelyn that used to be a trio with Kevin Harper and John Halnon up until the early 90’s – who has scored multiple crossover hits like ’70’s/80’s’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Finer’, ‘Know My Name’ and ‘I’m For Real’ in the UK Singles Charts. He is the longest serving signee to the iconic forward-thinking experimental label Warp Records, and the critical acclaim of classic albums such as 2006’s ‘In A Space Outta Sound’, 1995’s ‘Smokers Delight’ and 2008’s ‘Thought So’ have led to his projects being highly anticipated among electronic music fans as some of the genre’s most important offerings. Sadly, he became more like ‘Nightmares No Vax’ in some Twitter posts leading up to the marketing machine of the new record, but, luckily, none of these controversial opinions have really cropped up on-record or became too preachy, and he opted to explore the general themes of freedom and meditation on his new album, and so it’s quite nice to see that he’s supporting freedom of speech without bringing any harm to others, and I could see his perspective as a creative coming from a non-white background. ‘Shout Out To Freedom’ has instead been released to pretty positive reviews, and it features a solid guest list of names including Greentea Peng, King Shabaka Hutchings of The Comet Is Coming fame, Mara TK, Pip Millett, Haile Supreme and others – each of which have been asked by Hill to collaborate on songs exploring what freedom means to them. The only single taken from the record with a music video attached is ‘Breathe In’, a mid-album track which includes vocals from the NYC duo OSHUN. Check it out below.

“I feel like I’ve been set free of something and I am now becoming who I really am”, says Evelyn of Nightmares On Wax fame, adding, “I’ve been gigging non-stop for 10 years, and that experience has been beautiful but it also drained me emotionally. As a creative, you’re always questioning everything. So, having the time and the space has meant that I could do a proper deep dive into this stuff. So it was all about this journey of going back to myself, and realizing being at home with my wife and my daughter that I’ve not really been here properly. It’s like I’ve just woken back up to what I actually have – and it’s already here”, when writing all about his new album – ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’. ‘Breathe In’ still contains the influences of Curtis Mayfield and Quincy Jones that have all shaped his typical concoction of Funk, Soul, Jazz, Downtempo Electronica, Dub and Techno that have kept his project alive for many decades and have characterized his sound, while putting a more modern spin on these styles predominantly within the lyrics, which discuss the simple act of staying off your phone and meditating instead. ‘Breathe In’ takes a slinky and psychedelic groove, embedded with the lyrical themes of nature and mindfulness, and Evelyn arranges some 90’s Trip Hop beats and a playful 90’s ploy on old-fashioned Dancehall melodies that have a weightlessness and an airy sense of production to them, mixing nicely with the deep and spiritual vocals from OSHUN that echo Dub all over the track. Some interesting String samples and subtle Keyboard loops make up the rest of the instrumentation, and there seems to be a lush 70’s Black Exploitation vibe to things where the usual elements of Jazz, Funk and Soul come together from Hill, some genres that he’s well known for exploring. A mix of darker Piano chords and punchier beats differentiate this track from some of his familiar 90’s and 00’s chilled out House offerings, and the more spacious parts of the vocals build to some longer harmonies and some sustained notes in the latter half of the track. While there aren’t any lyrics that specifically stick out to me, it seems like a variety of ideas are being conveyed through the balance of Urban and Nature that OSHUN evoked here. Overall, ‘Breathe In’ was a track which I enjoyed from the new album, which really strikes me as a good headphones-in-bed type of listening experience. While not as essential as other recent Warp Records efforts from the likes of Yves Tumor or Jockstrap, due to some of the melodies feeling as though they meander along a little bit, I still have a pretty positive perception of it. I like how it manages to not quite sound like any other track that I have heard from Evelyn to date, as the tribalistic drum loops and the psychedelic Soul feel manage to sound interesting. Whereas most of his tracks gives me a warm and comforting feel inside, this one feels more urgent in taking action, which is different to the way that most of his other singles make me feel. While there’s a general sense of positivity, it seems slightly more alarming. A great-sounding return.

Pictured: Nightmares On Wax (aka George Evelyn) performing at Wire (2016) (Photo by Justin Gardner)

That’s all for now and thank you for continuing to support the site. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is set for tomorrow, and we’ll be focusing our attention to an English rock band who got their big break in 2006 when their Platinum certified debut album won the ‘Indie Album Of The Year’ gong at the 2006 PLUG Awards and each member of the band have continued to work on their own solo side projects in more recent times. Whilst together, the London band have sold over three million albums worldwide as of 2012.

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New Album Release Fridays: Soccer96 (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis) – ‘Sitting On A Satellite’

September 24, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Dopamine’ (LP) (Released on September 24th, 2021) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for yet another 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! It has been a very slow week, and so I’m looking forward to taking it all down a notch with the help of the new highly anticipated album release from the London-based Drum and Synth duo Soccer96. There’s also new albums from Public Service Broadcasting, Wigan local heroes The Lathums, Marlowe’s lyricist Solemn Brigham, Merge Records’ label boss Mac MacCaughan, intriguing World-infused UK Drum & Bass producer Zen Dub, and more hitting both digital and physical storefronts for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ this week. As aforementioned, Soccer 96’s new album is one of the few LP releases that I can childishly say that I’ve been ‘Hyped up’ for in a while, based on the quality of their prior work, the singles taken from the album so far, and the general excitement about this release in Alternative music circles. Soccer96 is the side project of keyboardist Dan Leavers (‘Danalogue’) and drummer Max Hallett (‘Betamax’) from the Prog-Jazz trio The Comet Is Coming who, for those still uninitiated, are a terrific London-based Nu-Jazz trio also involving Shabaka Hutchings (‘King Shabaka’) who were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2016 and were signed to Impulse! Records in 2018. Leavers has produced albums for Ibibio Sound Machine and Snapped Ankles, while Hallett has played the Drums with the likes of Sons Of Kemet and Yussef Kamal, and so the two musicians are very active on the UK’s underground scene. Together, Soccer96 specialise in a really diverse blend of Prog-Jazz, Instrumental Grime, Dark Ambient and Electronica that always feels as fresh and eclectic as ever. Their new album, ‘Dopamine’ – also featuring collaborations with Salami Rose Joe Louis and Nuhu Ruby Ra – is being released digitally today, with a short stint of physical transparent blue/marble brown Vinyl copies set to follow on 15th October, which are limited to just 300 copies on Rough Trade’s website. Check out the latest single below.

‘Dopamine’ is a concept album exploring the narrative of an artificial intelligence programme taking over a human nervous system, a sci-fi vision of a codependency between humans and machines, as the robots only source of dopamine is from people, and vice versa. It began life as a sonic reaction to the graphic novels of Moebius’ Jean Giraud, and the duo displayed one of the revered French artists’ paintings in the middle of their studio when recording the album for inspiration. Hallett told XLR8R, “All musical decisions would centre around this image. It was a depiction of a cosmic traveler gazing across a desert at a sort of crystal city. If the music was resonating with the image then we knew we were on the right path” in an interview. As a single itself, ‘Sitting On A Satellite’ is very obedient to these visual ideas, with the two very talented players conjuring up an Astral set of themes with the Space-Age synths, the hazily atmospheric tones and the pulsating drum rhythms that give the duo the platform to express themselves creatively with no ties to their previous projects, giving them ample creative freedom in their approach. The vocals, meanwhile, are highly processed and they seem to depict the double alter-ego system of an AI gaining human consciousness. Together, everything makes for a very hypnotic and entrancing blend of refreshing keyboard sections, laidback Drum grooves and intoxicated vocals that give off a wonky feel to the eclectic graphical influences. There feels like less of a Grime influence that we heard on The Comet Is Coming, but the London Jazz blueprints are still intact, with a colourful set of ambient instrumentals and broad sweeps of percussion that bring the duo’s niche cyber-imagination of androids to life. All in all, this is an inventive and visually creative twist on Progressive Jazz – with some vibrant experimentation and some Gorillaz-esque vocals that just orbit around the listeners ears with a calm confidence.

Pictured: Dan Leavers (Keyboard/Synths) and Max Hallett (Drums) (2021) (Photo by William Barnes)

As mentioned above, we’re all great fans of The Comet Is Coming on the blog, and, to help them take off, we’ve covered some more of their spacey stuff on the blog. Check out ‘Lifeforce Part II’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/28/todays-track-the-comet-is-coming-lifeforce-part-2/

Pictured: Betamax & Danalogue with King Shabaka Hutchings in The Comet Is Coming (2019) (via PR)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me on the blog, and I’ll be back for more tomorrow. Join me then for something a little more radio-friendly (But still quite cool) single from a Liverpool-formed indie band who have been around since 2003. The band, known for the frontman’s smarky witticisms and realistic depictions of young adult issues, have released music for 14th Floor Records and Bright Antenna Records, and the veteran rockers have sold over one million copies of their albums worldwide.

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Today’s Track: Kozmodrum – “Wormhoooooooooole…”

August 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and now is the time for me to pollute your ears with another daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day! This is a shortened week of project work for me on the blog this week, and so I’ll be going away for my sister’s wedding during the week, but I still wanted to sneak ‘Wormhole’ in, and this new one comes from a Croatian 5-piece group called Kozmodrum. Exploring Dub, Techno and House, the quintet have found success in their domestic market and they seem to be looking to gain new fans overseas with the release of their self-titled third full-length album, back in June, via Rika Muzika. Describing their sound as “Organic House Music”, the band use the framework of a DJ set by producing electronic compositions that were designed to be played openly, where they loop beats until a cue point is given to indicate a switch to another part. On Facebook, they pitch this as “Jazz-infused Post-Rock meets Ambient Electronica meets Tech House with a percussion twist”, and that sounds really good to me. A 5-piece led by a classically trained drummer – Janko Novoselić – Kozmodrum won a Porin Award (The Croatian equivalent to the BRIT’s) for their second LP, ‘Gravity’, released in 2017. I was really pleased that John Ravenscroft introduced me to this project on BBC Radio 6 Music a number of weeks ago because it’s been growing on me ever since. Check out the lead single of the band’s new album, ‘Wormhole’, below.

Kozmodrum cites Tycho and Elektro Guzzi as their stylistic influences for their new record, and they told Twisted Soul, “After our first two albums, that were each very different in their own way – the first one being an exploration of Jazz/Fusion moods and the second veering toward more electronic/ambient atmospheres – this album is the most truthful representation of how we really sound live” in their own promo message. ‘Wormhole’ is a tune that was being developed over the space of five years until it reached its final form that you can hear on the new LP, and this tireless dedication to their own craft clearly shows in the meticulous structuring and the layers that build throughout the track. The six-minute duration seems to be on the longer side of things, but the instrumentation is paced nicely and it feels packed neatly considering the various Drum, Synth, Keyboard and Bass sequences in play. There’s no vocals, just pretty guitar melodies and splashings of rumbling Bass that gets a light-hearted tone across, and the animated music video adds nicely to the hand-woven aesthetic of the overall proceedings. As you would expect for a mix between Jazz and non-traditional Dance music, there is a fairly minimalist start to things before the different layers keep building and then evolving to form new loops, creating some sublime electronic grooves that have a bright warmth to them in the process. More complex, fragmented and harmonic Synth sounds follow in the later stages and small elements of Prog-Jazz and Math-Rock are evoked through the specific timing schemes. I really like how the track takes cues from Nu-Jazz, non-traditional Punk and experimental Electronic music to do something unique with the instruments being used, and the resulting sound is a blissful and chilled affair that is never afraid to throw some rougher sounds into the mixture. Once established, the grooves bump and slither their way through a Psychedelic concoction of genres that just slips neatly into your ears and keeps you actively listening out for the chord changes at the same time because they feel interesting and carefully textured. In summary, it is a lovely listen and definitely worthy of more ears than it’s been getting.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Kozmodrum’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on June 25th, 2021) (via Rika Muzika)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for reaching this historic part of the day for me, and please feel free to join me again tomorrow as we do it all over again. I’ll be supporting more music from a lesser-known artist in John Peel style again as we take a detour into some DIY Hip-Hop production. My next pick comes from a 30-year-old rapper from South East London who has based his new album, ‘Section 1’, on the tragedies that have all defined his twenties, such as mental health struggles and familial loss. It’s a hard-hitting listen that demands your hearing.

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May Bank Holiday Monday Special: Breakestra (feat. Charli 2na, Double K & Soup) – “Family Rap”

May 31, 2021 — Leave a comment

A ‘Family Affair’ to mix up the Funk flavour of your Bank Holiday. Time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Hit The Floor” (LP) (Released on October 25, 2005) (via Ubiquity Records)

Good Afternoon to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – wishing you a healthy, happy Bank Holiday Monday! It’s time for today’s track, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Family Rap’ is a Funk track from 2005, and so it’s pretty niche. It also doesn’t really fit the timeframe of the pre-2000’s ‘Way Back Wednesday’ or the Emo phase theme of ‘Scuzz Sundays’, and so it’s something that’s nice and different to revisit on a bright day such as this. ‘Family Rap’ comes from Miles Tackett’s Breakestra music ensemble that started out as an ensemble playing live covers of Funk, Soul and Jazz breaks to the style of the pre-sampling 70’s. Since then, Breakestra has worked with a huge variety of different guests – such as the late DJ Dusk, Jurassic 5 rapper Charli 2na and the Soul vocalist Afrodeyte. ‘Family Rap’ was the promotional single taken from 2005’s ‘Hit The Floor’, which was their first full-length album, which they put out through Ubiquity Records in 2005. It was their first record to feature entirely original recordings of tracks that fused elements of Hip-Hop, Funk and Soul Fusion. It comes highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good groove or have enjoyed Tackett’s live shows, along with the two ‘The Live Mix’ parts of LP releases which Breakestra released prior to this one. It’s time to kick back, relax – and simply ‘Hit The Floor’ with ‘Family Rap’ down below.

“While Hip-Hop DJ/medley inspired covers are the foundation of Breakestra, it is only natural we’d want to express our own soulful proclamations”, is what Miles Tackett posted on Bandcamp to explain the project’s transformation from a live covers band into one producing their own material for a new transition in 2005, adding “I’ve been releasing original Funk cuts before putting out The Live Mix, Part 2. The first Breakestra single was an original song called ‘Getcho Soul Togetha”, so this album is really just a part of the natural flow”, he added to the press statement. ‘Family Rap’ feels like a solid fit for the size and lively atmosphere of one of Breakestra’s critically acclaimed live shows, as lengthy Trumpet sequences and a shimmering bass groove rolls the Hip-Hop essence along. The rap vocals are pretty tricky to keep up with, adding an increasingly quick tempo to the clattering Drum instrumentation and the Swing-laden Saxophone melodies. There’s a particularly nice section of Tinny drums towards the middle stretch, before the second half of the track adds a more percussive breakbeat to the stylistic Funk revivalism. The track manages to feel rather old and classical in it’s approach to 60’s Soul and 70’s Jazz, with a healthy dose of Rap vocals that reminds me of the music that A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul used to make in the development of West Coast Hip-Hop. Vocally, Charli 2na & Double K bring some forceful rapping to the mix, as the lyrics take us through an idyllic route of “The City of Angels”. There’s nothing that striking to the vocals, but it accompanies the dance-oriented rhythms nicely and it adds a melodic attitude to the fray. Overall, it’s a relentless barrage of old-school Funk and DLO3-esque Jazz sequences that conjure up pictures of Booker T & The MG’s or Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, and a nice way to keep Funk music going until the likes of Thundercat arrived during the 2010’s.

Pictured: Miles Tackett, Davey Chegwidden, Mixmaster Wolf, Todd Simon & Carlos Guaico (2015) (via PR)

That’s it for now – I hope that you enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday Monday! Join me back here tomorrow for some brand new music, as we delve deep into the brilliant new track from Sheffield’s finest experimental pop project. You may know her from her time as the drummer and occasional vocalist or guitarist of the Slow Club duo. She also went on to feature on vocals for Django Django’s ‘Surface To Air’, which appeared on that band’s third studio album, ‘Marble Skies’. 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/

Way Back Wednesdays: Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”

January 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

As Booker T would have said around that time – Can you dig it, Sucka? New Post time!

Pictured: Ishmael Butler, Ladybug Mecca and Craig Irving (2005) (Photo Credit: LasVegasWeekly.com)

Good Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to – you guessed it! – get typing up your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day. Never mind the “Rebirth Of Slick” – it’s the “Birth of a New Era” here on the blog today – because this is my first entry in a brand new weekly feature. “Way Back Wednesdays” (…See what I did there?) is a new weekly entry where, each Wednesday, we take an in-depth look back at an influential cut or a rarity, that was released pre-2000. I feel this is just a decent way to get more broader, classic music thrown into the mix, to go along with all of my new release-based output that runs on the blog throughout a typical week. Digable Planets was the brainchild of Ishmael Butler, Craig Irving and “Ladybug Mecca” Marianna during the 1980’s and 90’s, a trio of Hip-Hop chic who you could label under the umbrella of “Boom Bap” Hip-Hop artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy and Nas, who were emerging in contemporary rap culture of the time. Interestingly, they never set out to be a “Jazz-Rap” group – they simply made use of Jazz-infused samples and using the resources that were available for them to use, being as creative as their composition practices would allow by experimenting with the tools at their disposal. “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” was their first single, and it became the lead single of their debut LP, “Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)”, released in 1993 via Pendulum. The track got to #15 in the US Billboard Hot 100 charts, and it was certified as Gold by the RIAA shortly after, with the sales figure of 500,000 units. Thanks to today’s tech – You can still check out the music video below.

Although the track was never intended to be a “Hit” – It still earned the group the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1994. Sadly, it seems that it was not really meant to last for Digable Planets. Their second album, “Blowout Comb” – released in 1994 – failed to match the success of their original LP effort, leaving the group to follow their own paths and begin their own seperate projects, although there have been a few notable reunions in the decades since. Nonetheless, “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” would have been an impossible development in Experimental Hip-Hop and Sample-Delia at the time, even if Ishmael Butler likes to now record his own left-field Funk music under the alias of “Shabazz Palaces” in these trying times. It was anchored from a sample of the 1979 track “Stretching” by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, whereby the trio interlace fragmented Trumpet breaks and smart, catchy Acid Synth rhythms. Butler raps about childhood and the political awareness of underground hip-hop records in the first verse, while Marianna raps about the feel of unity that it encourages in the second verse, and Irving jumps in with a verse on the expression of ethnicity through hip-hop culture at the end. The “Cool Like Dat” refrain changes to “Chill Like Dat” and “I’m Peace Like Dat” throughout the process, and the combined “We Jazz Like Dat/We Freak Like That” hook at the end sets a table for the trio’s lofty musical ambitions. The sound is confident and polished – with vintage Saxophone riffs and light-hearted dribbles of Acid Synths crafting a satisfying, mid-tempo Jazz-Aura aesthetic, which has been created uniquely through sampled materials. The “Boom Bap” production feels less aggressive on this release, in juxtaposition with their peers of the time. However, it creates an atmosphere of “Slickness” and “Cool” that makes it an enjoyable listen – due to a relaxing Lounge-Jazz vibe, and it still remains to be the chemistry of the three musicians that makes it work – and so it jostles happily through the spectrum of Hip-Hop self-aggrandization.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Time and Space)” (1993) (via Pendulum Records)

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my exciting, new post! As always – you can join me for more of the same tomorrow, where we’ll be taking an in-depth look at a more recent release that you may have missed throughout the last year. We’re going into Electronic/IDM territory tomorrow, with a single from a San Francisco-based producer who is often compared to the likes of Boards Of Canada and Ulrich Schnauss in the ways that he merges natural sounds with synth beats. You may also know him as ISO50 for his graphic design and photography work. 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: Pan Amsterdam (feat. GUTS) – “Carrot Cake”

October 9, 2020 — Leave a comment

Let’s pray the whole dessert doesn’t have a soggy bottom. It’s time for your new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Carrot Cake” (Single) (Released on August 5th, 2020) (via Def Pressé)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, just like always, I’m here to write up about your daily track on the blog, since it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to get typing about a different piece of music every day! Pan Amsterdam is a very tricky one to give many introductions about, and that’s because he is a producer and composer who thrives on being an enigma. He writes for his online biographies, “We really don’t know exactly where Pan Amsterdam comes from. He was found on the coast of Miami, Florida in a state of apparent amnesia”, later adding, “Pan Amsterdam must have been unconscious on the coast for 22hrs before he was discovered by none other than rock icon and ‘The Godfather of Punk’, Iggy Pop”, who has always been a very frequent collaborator for this musical mystery. His accent has a very Eastern American sound though, and he has nodded to his accent as a cross between Brooklyn, Jersey or Manhattan in a track on his debut album, “The Pocket Watch”, which was released in 2018. Since then, it’s been reported that Pan Amsterdam is supposedly the alias of a New York-based trumpeter and songwriter, Leron Thomas. Nevetheless, the usual two-year turnaround period has just come and gone, and “Pan Am” is back with the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed (If critically-dumbfounded, more like) debut record. “HA Chu” was released last Friday, on October 2nd, via the Def Pressé label. With high-profile new album releases from Róisín Murphy, Groove Armada and The National’s lead member Matt Berninger, and impressive lower-key releases from Working Men’s Club and Loraine James, it really has been one of the most busy weekends of new music releases, for me, in quite some time, and “Pan Am” looks to be no exception to the former rule, given his ascending popularity. Guest work on the album comes from Iggy Pop, Jimi Goodwin (Doves) and Jason Williams (Sleaford Mobs). Let’s have a tasty slice of “Carrot Cake”, featuring GUTS, down below.

Critics have noted that “Pan Am” goes for a more darkly textured sound on the bulk of “HA Chu” in comparison to his more Jazz-infused predecessor, as he gets together with the collaborators that I have listed above, and a couple of surprising notables to record one of the strangest and most enigmatically endearing releases of the autumn season. “I’ll funk like rotten milk and pass the expiration date/I’ll make your granny’s cow lactate” are just a few little snippets of the quirky songwriting that “Pan Am” uses to his odd advantage throughout the course (the Dessert one) of “Carrot Cake”, as he mixes up an exceptionally abstract two-step Parisian drum groove with a hazy, laidback synth rhythm that, for me, goes back to the late 60’s era of “Pre’ Hip-Hop” in conceptual spades. GUTS adds the female backing vocal of “Come In Closer” to create a weirdly soothing backing vocal that adds textured layers of good sensual feelings to proceedings. The male vocals are seemingly unrelated to this, and the lyrics being drawn upon are mostly a mix of creative wordplay and dry humour, which combine with the whirling keyboard riffs and the funk rhymes to create the subtle early Hip-Hop sensibility which carries the comic relief along to a robustly paced effect. He throws obscure pop culture references on the cards, almost muttering: “Because I don’t fight/I eat chips, and I watch a lotta’ Kung-Flu flicks/Way Of The Dragon be my profile pic” at a steady pace to an intelligent wit. The production is rooted in G-Funk and Soft-Pop, and that’s before we get to the Trumpet instrumental outro, which feels smoky and old-school in it’s delivery. Lyrically, the substance is almost non-existent because they do not really make any actual sense, but they manage to subvert your expectations of a contemporary record, and “Pan Am” strings the words together to a quirky, rhythmic pattern which makes up for a cohesive flow, and they sound good together as a result. This really takes a bit of skill, but “Pan Am” makes it seem easy. Overall, it’s tricky for anybody to properly identify what’s going on here, but I like it – and I think that’s the main point. One of the most essential tunes for the present time.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “HA Chu” (Album/LP) (Released on October 2nd, 2020) (via Def Pressé)

Thanks for checking out your daily blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off the weekend with an in-depth look at a track which was released earlier in the Spring by an artist who recently appeared on KEXP’s “Live At Home” series of virtual gigs. He has also performed at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival, and he has earned praise from radio broadcasters including Annie Mac, Huw Stephens and Jack Saunders. None of his two songs are the same! 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: Thundercat – “Funny Thing”

July 2, 2020 — Leave a comment

The lady who shouts “Thundercat” on The Undateables would love it! New post time!

Pictured: Thundercat (Stephen Lee Bruner) performing at the 02 ABC, Glasgow (2017) (via WikiMedia Commons)

Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I am writing about your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! For today’s track, Thundercat is obviously not their real name. It is, indeed, the stage name used by Stephen Lee Bruner – a Funk, R&B and Soul singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California – who adopted the name as a tribute to his love for anything Geek culture-related, such as his love for 1980’s cartoons and the Japanese Manga/Anime franchise Dragonball. It’s all a part of his brand! His fourth studio album, “It Is What It Is”, was released earlier this year, and it is dedicated to rapper Mac Miller, who sadly died aged 26 in 2018, as you might know. Bruner produced his new record with Flying Lotus, and it features guest appearances from Childish Gambino, Kamasi Washington, Ty Dolla $ign, and many others. A single that grabbed my attention from the album, while listening to BBC Radio 6Music in the daytime, was “Funny Thing”. Let’s have a listen to “Funny Thing” with its video below.

Just shy of two minutes long, Thundercat could have a potentially big hit on his hands if he allows the bouncy electronic drum grooves and the celestial synths of “Funny Thing” to swell. Bruner uses a playful fusion of old-school Funk, Soul and R&B, with a modern synth-led instrumental twist, to detail a romantic moment as a dancehall-like, drug-infused love party nears toward it’s end. There’s a cheeky idiocy in all of his lyrics: “Someone hold my phone/Cause’ I can’t hold my tongue” and “Then I’m gonna ruin the fun/ that’s not your problem because I’ve seen to much baby, Sorry if I get a little PTSD”, as Bruner delivers the honeyed vocals, layered above the backdrop of a bouncy, stomping bass line and a skittering drum loop to create the wonky, synth-soul sensibility. In the chorus, he intonely warbles “I just want to party with you tonight, because you make everything alright” over a soft, lo-fi keyboard riff. The visual aesthetic is vintage Funk-Soul and animated, and the sonic direction is rickety and psychedelic, but I also find there to be a sadness to the track as well. The synth lines are mid-tempo and downbeat, with an expressive vocal delivery that makes me feel like Bruner could also be lamenting a failed relationship or an unstable life decision at the party. It sounds intimate, and the poignant Falsetto lyric delivery is what makes this track stand out for more than it’s playfulness and it’s quirky humour. It’s a very old-fashioned sound which harkens back to the thematic racial unity of Funk and Jazz in the 1960’s and 70’s, and it’s more appealing to mature listeners than a teenage audience. The contemporary lick of synth makes it compulsively listenable.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “It Is What It Is” (Released on April 3rd, 2020) (via Brainfeeder Records)

Thank you for reading this post! In regards to #BlackLivesMatter, we endorse the peaceful protests on One Track At A Time. Please go and check your local area for good charity causes that help those directly affected by racism and injustice. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at the new track from an emerging female solo artist, who I have covered and positively reviewed beforehand, whose last music video was co-directed by Loyle Carner, and she landed a spot on the BBC’s Sound Of 2020 poll. 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