Alt-Dance

Today’s Track: Mindchatter – ‘Brain Pills’

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

You need some brain pills to fuel your desire to seek new music. Time for a new post!

Pictured: Bryce Connolly (aka Mindchatter) performing at a vibrant live set (2022) (Photo via MusicTech.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke and it always used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day. That’s before my adulthood got right in the way! Somewhere deep in the suburban situation of New York City is where you’ll be able to find Bryce Connolly, a multi-instrumentalist and EDM producer who was recently featured on KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune podcast. That’s how I caught wind of ‘Brain Pills’, a rather silly yet relatable track dripped in irony regarding the current “Ask My GP” crisis that rages across the world. Finding a curious intersection between a genre-less approach to beats and blatant anecdotal lyricism on ‘Brain Pills’, he reflects on the experience of being prescribed his medication by a psychiatrist on an application via video call. Speaking about the humour and irony that he found in the experience, he says, “The whole process is extremely goofy. I was diagnosed by a woman wearing a hoodie… I’m pretty sure I was older than her, too. Anyways, it seems like this has become the new normal because a lot of people are relating to the song”, in a press release. Sample the track – which is taken from his EP ‘This Is A Reminder That You Are Not Behind Your Face’ released in February – below.

The eccentric appeal of Mindchatter’s mental health-themed music stands out for seeing the lighter side of the overwhelming aspects of life that can haunt us. It has taken him to the stages of popular festivals like Coachella, Lightning In A Bottle and Okeechobee as well as leading to support slots with artists like Polo & Pan and SG Lewis. There’s little time for grief and sadness because ‘Brain Pills’ gets to an immediate start by establishing the floaty, bubbling percussion from the opening. “Brain pills, from a doctor, on the internet” repeats as the new layers of more weighty drums and hazy, psychedelic synths progress the chords. The verse reveals more about his perception of his appointment as odd and unbelievable, as he used lyrics like “She asked questions from a PDF/I can see her apartment/It was a mess” to emphasize the careless approach of the online medical help and the fact that his mind wandered down the route of satire at the sight of her apartment seeming messier than Bryce’s own life. Effects add reverb to his vocals, giving the lyrics a trippy vibe to complement the chatter about ADHD medication. The synths have a free-wheeling effect to accentuate the psychedelia-leaning tone too, with “My chakras was not aligned” being repeated at the top of a sturdy drum beat and high frequency-aligned synths during the bridge of the track before the punchy chorus returns to take us through the journey of his imagination as his mind wanders down a different path again. Overall, I love how satire and irony are woven into the fabric of this dance track that emphasises the hillarity of an online meeting with meaningful consequences being hosted by an unprofessionally-behaved authority while feeling serious enough to surpass the stage of novelty. In a world of love songs and vengeful protest jams, it is refreshing to hear the experience of a good old anecdote being replicated in this fearless Electro-Pop track which is sharp enough to match its quirks.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘This Is A Reminder That You Are Not Behind Your Face’ (EP) (Released on February 2nd, 2024) (via Foreign Family Collective)

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Today’s Track: Bolis Pupul – ‘Kowloon’

April 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

A fish not out of water, but thriving in their natural habitat for once. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Letter To Yu’ (LP) (Released on March 8th, 2024) (via DEEWEE)

Good Afternoon to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before my adulthood got right in the way! Attempting to pinpoint the ancestry of today’s artist, Bolis Pupul, may provide enough for a full blog post on its own. Born in Belgium and raised in Ghent by a Belgian cartoonist father and a mother who was born in Hong Kong but lived in China, Pupul lived in a household that kept shlves full of vinyl records. After falling in love with Beck’s weird and wonderful 90’s LP’s such as ‘Mellow Gold’ and ‘Odelay’, he cut his teeth in a Synth-Pop project with his sister and brother-in-law that nurtured his love for eight-track Foxtex recorders and the Japanese Shibuya-key star Cornelius during the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. Fast forward to 2024 and Bolis is best known for releasing the critically-beloved ‘Topical Dancer’ LP which was a joint venture with Charlotte Adigery. As a solo artist, he is now signed to Soulwax’s label Deewee that is also the home of artists like James Righton, Marie Davidson and EMS Synthi 100 who are known for exploring futuristic 70’s Funk-driven Pop sounds. The long road to releasing his first solo full-length ‘Letter To Yu’ was full of pot holes and diversions though, like using a rail replacement bus service to travel from Littleport to Liverpool. The main cause of heartbreak was the loss of his mother, who died in a car accident during June 2008 at age 49. She was a huge inspiration for the LP, which is centered around a trip that Pupul took to Hong Kong in 2008. He visited the street where she was born and he wrote her a letter which became “the coat rack on which the entire record was hung“, as Pupul notes. Sample his sound with ‘Kowloon’ below.

The sounds of frogs, the voice of a doctor that Pupul visited and the sounds of a train platform are all recordings of Pupul’s adventure to Hong Kong that all crop up throughout the 11 tracks and the near 46-minute duration of the aromatic album that paints a picture of the Kowloon urban district that Pupul visited with an intimate touch. In fact, the seventh track on the final product is named after Mau Tau Wei Road in which the maternity clinic that his mother was actually born within. Having read all of this information on Pupul without my description of the sound, you would probably expect ‘Kowloon’ to sound like a spiritual jazz record with steady drones and a larger prioritisation on rhythm instead of melody. However, the element of suprise arrives at full throttle as the East-Asian take on the Kraftwerkian Alt-Pop of the 80’s quckly begins to reveal itself. Nostalgia and celebration are steeped in equal measure on ‘Kowloon’ which begins and ends with a stabbing, highly compressed key sound but he fills the space of sound with a gradually sauntering drum melody that swiftly evolves into a charming dance track akin to a late-90’s French House workout. The technicolour and futuristic aesthetic never dismisses the slow, hypnotic start to the track but embraces the repetition instead by incorporating East Asian touches to the European Motorik sound. There’s a characteristic that is incredibly inviting about finding release on the dancefloor given the very heavy events that set the album’s narrative in motion as well as the sense of ever-present joy that Pupul provokes so enthusiastically. His personality, soul and sense of fun is communicated through the playful composition of the track and the ambience of the vocals that almost sound intelligible, but retain the effect of being in a room with others and not being able to make out the words which happens often in life. It gives this track a sense of place, making us feel like a part of Kowloon as we listen to his martial stomp of a Synth-driven track. Overall, this is a wonderful ode to the widely believed notion that an album should provide a snapshot of the artists’ life. It feels intimate enough to retain some mystique for Pupul personally, but it feels inviting enough to give us a glimpse of his life story. A tour-de-force of euphoria, ancestry and – most importantly – cheer.

Pictured: Bolis Pupul recording a live set for Indie Rock Hit Parade w/Charlotte Adigery (2022) (Photo by WXPN)

That’s all for today! Thank you for joining me on my journey as I find my place in the music industry after a few years of hiatus due to personal issues and please join me again next week as I spotlight another example of the fantastic music which 2024 has provided since beginning 15 weeks ago. I look forward to writing to you again shortly.

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Today’s Track: Neil Frances – ‘Dancing’

April 21, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Jordan Feller (Drums/Synths) and Marc Gilfrey (Samples/Producer) (2022) (Photo by Victoria Smith)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come time to shine your favourite pair of dancing shoes before we get invested in 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! Saying “We like the idea of our music sound-tracking people’s weekends” to Karen Gree of NME in a recent interview, Neil Frances is not a solo artist – but rather the Los-Angeles based Alternative Soul duo of Sydney-born musician Jordan Feller and Southern California native producer Marc Gilfrey, who have named their debut studio album ‘There Is No Neil Frances’ to illustrate the fact. Out now via Nettwerk Music Group, the LP was recorded in Echo Park Studio over the past year and it follows the loose narrative of an insect who is trying to find its place in a utopian dreamscape. Exploring a wide assortment of Alternative Pop and Experimental House sounds on previous releases like 2018’s ‘Took A While’ EP and 2021’s ‘Stay Strong, Play Long’ EP, Neil Frances met in New York and began the project in 2016 with their intention of creating honest and authentic music. The duo have opened up a sold-out show for SG Lewis at The Shrine. They have also supported the likes of Jungle, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Poolside on tours across the US. The duo will also be performing at the Shabang Live Music & Arts Festival, WonderStruck Festival and Firefly Music Festival throughout 2022 as well, and so there’s a handful of places that you can find them love if you thoroughly enjoy the new album like I have, which features contributions by Benny Sings and GRAE. Give ‘Dancing’ a listen below.

Neil Frances have gained support from KCRW, Under The Radar, Magnetic, Flood and Brooklyn Vegan in the past few years, and their own cover version of Stardust’s ‘Music Sounds Better Than You’ has amassed over 70 million streams. Explaining the concept behind their latest outing, the duo say, “Our new album is about self-realization and becoming the person that you dream of. The concept is that we are insects on Earth who ascend into outer space to become divas at a galactic ball”, in their descriptive press statement. As the ninth track on the long-player, ‘Dancing’ marks a transition point into more accessible sounds that seem easier to groove to, compared to the slower build of the earlier tracks, with it’s silky and smooth Nu-Disco vibe. An airy, gently processed lead vocal mixes together with the World Fusion-based Drums in the opening as atmospheric lyrics like “As the sea comes speaking to me/Time will voice its drift out of key” and “When I see this all to my brain/Tell the lord we’ve trouble where we went” cleanly kick-starts the dense journey of Psych-Funk, Trip Hop and Progressive Soul that flows cohesively throughout the single. A bold, one-note hook of “When dancing is seeking delight” illustrates the themes of the track beautifully in the chorus. Musically, the instrumentation represents an ethereal blend of Future Funk and soft R&B that gets stretched out by effective sampling, light vocals and manipulated sounds to create the slow-burning textures and give the groove a hypnotic quality in the process. The sparse danceability reminds me of ‘The Slow Rush’ by Tame Impala, while the vintage-leaning dance music elements recall back Gilligan Moss to my mind and the calming mood of the soulful vocals makes me reminisce over MNDSGN’s material. There’s an eclectic range of influences in here, but Feller and Gilfrey manage to make the spatial trip through these layers of music their own by developing their 90’s New-Age influences with a neat amount of detail and showing their versatility as producers who are not constrained to one specific genre. Overall, ‘Dancing’ is a song that will make your feet move involuntarily to the rhythm.

Pictured: Neil Frances in a photoshoot for ‘Finding Rhythm’ (2021) (Photo via NorthernTransmissions.com)

That brings us to the end of another roughly 24-hour period on the blog, and I really want to wish you great luck for the rest of your week in return for your generous support. I’m going to be back for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we turn our attention towards the long-awaited and slightly delayed debut album release by an Australian Psychedelic Rock 4-piece who created their own Lazyfest music festival.

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Way Back Wednesdays: The Knife – ‘Silent Shout’

April 20, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Karin Dreijer (Lead Vocals/Keyboard) and Olof Dreijer (Splicing/Effects/Bass) (2006) (via NPR; press shoot)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to go retro with a striking piece that will tell you a story of fairly recent history with another entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on One Track At A Time, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Ever an elusive and dynamic duo, cult Swedish electronic music duo The Knife (Comprised of siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer) were never afraid to, somewhat uninentionally, capture the attention of the mainstream with their dark-leaning blend of Dubstep, EDM, Art-Pop and Psychedelia, also including some slower and darker strains of Hip-Hop and R&B, throughout the years to create music that, although Pop, was more far-reaching and progressive. First gaining an international following through their 2003 album ‘Deep Cuts’, the duo managed their own record company – Rabid Records – throughout their years of activity between 1999 and 2014. They were known for donning their Venetian masks to hide their faces in many public appearances, and they have won a number of Swedish Grammis awards despite refusing to attend the ceremonies. Although the duo decided to call it a day and disband in 2014, Karin started her own solo project Fever Ray in 2009, while Olof performs as a DJ under the monikers of DJ Coolof and Oni Ayhun. Last year, The Knife celebrated their 20th anniversary by announcing a range of re-issues on Vinyl and concert streams including BTS footage of their various album’s development. ‘Silent Shout’ – their third LP and arguably most well-received release – was among the works being featured. Let’s remember the title single below.

‘Silent Shout’ spawned four singles and the music video for the title track, along with some of the promo photos doing the rounds of the album’s press campaign, were equally inspired by the works of German-American animator Oskar Fischinger and the ‘Black Hole’ series of comic books created by the American cartoonist Charles Burns. This was also a highly influential release – with fellow artists like Lykke Li, Niki and The Dove, Tove Lo and Denmark’s MØ picking up on The Knife’s Dubstep-influenced blend of Dark Electronica and subversive Dance music rather noticeably in the years following its release in 2006. ‘Silent Shout’ – the title track – is an amalgamation of the record’s club-driven musicality and rewarding lyricism, as the deep House-leaning anthem starts off with a drawing set of Synths that evoke a Sci-Fi aesthetic as they waver along to a chilling, unearthly electronic backdrop of multi-tracked Keys and brooding Drums. A barely audible vocal comes in shortly, which also evokes a ghostly – not to mention a slightly haunting – atmosphere at times as the processed vocals are crashed through the ringer of digital manipulation. The severe distortions of Karin’s lyrics create a daring and jarring presence that pulsates from the mid-tempo opening to the early 90’s Techno and Trance qualities of the slowly bubbling outroduction, telling a narrative of a life gone awry that feels tense and high-octane while suiting the template of unpredictable Pop that shapes the rest of the full-length album. The lyrics give the tempo a slightly melodic uplift with their robotic feel, but the rich electronic backdrop incorporates a wide-ranging series of Lo-Fi Hip Hop and Dark Ambient elements, especially in how the reverb keeps the Drums and Synths feeling grounded, without overstating their direct influences. Overall, ‘Silent Shout’ represents some of The Knife’s most consistent and layered work, both in terms of the heightened production and the forward-thinking concept, from their golden years. The stunning title track marries elastic vocals and cosmopolitan instrumentation to a perfectionist level and there’s clearly a valid reason why it is remembered very fondly.

Pictured: Vinyl bundle of ‘Deep Cuts’ (Released on January 17th, 2003) (via Rabid Records)

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post and supporting my creativity, as you have no idea how much that it means to me to see some love being registered for the site. I’ll be back tomorrow, as always, to do ‘Thursday’ with a cheerful dance track by a Los Angeles-based Alternative Soul duo with a confusing name who, originally formed in Chicago, met in 2012. Their debut LP is out now via Nettwerk Music Group.

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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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Way Back Wednesdays: Hamid Al Shaeri – ‘Ayonha’

April 13, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Hamid Al-Shaeri in a recent photoshoot to promote the ‘SLAM Years’ LP (2022) (Photo via KCRW.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to go retro for another new weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ 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! Egypt’s leading representative of Arabic Pop (A genre that sounds like westernized synthesizer pop music) is Hamid Al-Shaeri, a key artist for the SLAM! label throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Often considered to be the key pioneer of Al Jeel music, this Libyan-Egyptian singer, songwriter and producer is acclaimed by critics for providing a homegrown alternative to foreign Pop artists, both as a solo musician and for his production and writing work for other artists. His impact also extends to the wider popular culture of his native country, following his recent appearance as a guest judge on an Egyptian alternative to the ‘Got Talent’ franchise of TV talent shows. In 2011, he also condemned the actions of Muammar Gadaffi – his native country’s then-ruler – against the Libyan people and he issued a call for Egypt to support them. On 25th February, ‘Habibi Funk 018: The SLAM! Years (1983 – 1988)’, was released. His first single – ‘Ayonha’ – roughly translates to the title of ‘Her Eyes’ in English and it still holds a special heart of the Habibi Funk label’s team. They say, “If you were to ask us for a defining Habibi Funk track, there are a few that come to mind. However, none are as widely connected with us at this point as Hamid El Shaeri’s ‘Ayonha”, in a press release. Although it was not as commercially successful as the popularity of his later work that ran into the 00’s, Egyptian music journalist Malak Makar considers the era as a precursor to El Shaeri’s Al Jeel style than representative of genre. In 2017, Pitchfork’s Andy Beta also described his London-produced cut ‘Ayonha’ as “the most arresting track” on Habibi Funk’s seventh release.

The recent compilation is dedicated to Hamid El Shaeri’s work for the SLAM! label throughout the times, and the idea for the project came about when Habibi Funk met Hamid El Shaeri through singer Youssra El Hawary in 2016 at his office and rehearsal space in the outskirts of Cairo. They insisted on collaborating with him after hearing his songs from the early 1980’s, composed at a time where he had just left Libya to pursue his career in Egypt via a detour in London, where he also recorded his first album. The label recalls, “He liked the idea of an effort to amplify his early works again, which, when originally released, were far from an economic success. While he was down to assist with an interview and his blessing for the project he also told us that for any license we needed to speak with the original label SLAM! who released these songs, still held the rights and also remained in business over the decades though they didn’t actively release any new music”, in a press statement. ‘Ayonha’ is an upbeat and whimsical offering that wouldn’t sound out of place on morning AM radio in California, as the cheerful melodies and the easy-going vibe, combined with the abundance of glistening Synths and the airy harmonies which convey a radiant mood, captures a burgeoning interest in wistful production and exuberant, glitzy Pop sounds for El Shaeri. The lyrics are just as generally glowing in atmosphere, as they roughly translate to lines like “Take me in your hands/Take me to a moon in the clouds” and “Give the life which has gone and which I lost back to me, let me forget the sadness and the wounds, and years of loss and suffering” in English, according to the lyricstranslate.com website. The sound is not excessively Pop-based, but there’s a generally upbeat feel evoked by the opening 60’s-leaning Strings and the percussive acoustic lead guitar melody. Ultimately, this is a crucial encapsulation of the career of a top European star. While he may be relatively unknown to music lovers in the West and there was an initially underwhelming reaction to his early work at first, it hasn’t aged terribly at all and it can lift your spirits on a day where your mind is somewhere else. Buoyant spectacle that became popular across generations in his native market.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The SLAM! Years: 1983 – 1988 (Habibi Funk 018)’ (Compilation LP/Album) (Released on February 25th, 2022) (via Habibi Funk Records)

That brings me to the end of yet another daily track on the blog. Thank you for checking out my latest post and showing me your support today, and I hope that you found it interesting. As my duty demands, I will be back tomorrow to highlight some refreshing new music by an emerging experimental electronic music artist who utilizes 90’s Acid House sounds and UKG influences to the best of her abilities, and she has a Malaysian and Irish heritage. Her debut EP, ‘Bluff’, is out now via PLATOON.

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Today’s Track: James Righton – ‘Pause’

April 11, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘JIM, I’M STILL HERE’ (LP/Album) (Available from July 8th, 2022) (via DEEWEE)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to get you re-acquainted with some new music from a familiar face with 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! If you remember the Mercury Prize-winning New Wave rock band Klaxons, known for tracks like ‘Golden Skans’ and a cover of Grace’s ‘It’s Not Over Yet’ in the late-00’s, that will be why you’re so sure that you’ve seen Stratford-Upon-Avon’s James Righton before and couldn’t quite put your finger on exactly where. Righton is married to actress Keira Knightley of all people and he also fronted the Shock Machine project that he began in 2016. He also worked on ABBA’s Voyage virtual concert tours in London last year and following from that project, a new solo album has been announced. Produced by Soulwax, ‘JIM, I’M STILL HERE’ is hitting record store shelves in July through DEEWEE. It follows the shiny Synth-Pop single ‘Release Party’ that he released on the same label last year for DEEWEE’s ‘Foundations’ compilation album release. It’s also the follow-up to 2020’s ‘The Performer’, an Alternative Pop record about the distinction between performer and person that he released during the height of the pandemic in March 2020. This was a record that I grew fond of, due to the Baroque instrumentation and the String sections that he played around with. It saw Righton grappling with his own identity, and the upcoming new album plays a somewhat similar role in exploring the family-based serenity that Righton experienced during the promotion of ‘The Performer’ through lockdown in the eyes of an alter-ego named Jim, and the songs were written in Jim’s perspective as an outrageous rock star. The new album features a guest appearance from ABBA’s Benny Andersson, and ‘Pause’ has been unveiled as the first single. It gets accompanied by a music video that was directed by Julian Klincewicz.

“The alter ego of Jim came to me whilst promoting my previous album The Performer during the first week of lockdown. Life shut down and became centered around family and domestic life. At the same time (and this did feel rather strange) I had to promote The Performer. I was asked more and more to live stream concerts through various social media platforms”, Righton says about the creation of his Jim character, adding, “So, I’d put the kids to sleep, head downstairs to my garage studio, put on my Gucci suit and became someone else. The juxtaposition of these lives felt extreme but also interesting to me. I created Jim. Jim would be the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage”, about the exaggerated semi-fictional version of himself in the form of Jim. Prince and Midnite Vultures-era Beck are clear influences the second that you press play on ‘Pause’, with 80’s Synth textures and quirky basslines creating a clear relationship between the sonic juxtapositions of Soulwax’s instrumentation work and Righton’s silky voice, where the eminently danceable Synths and the crunching Drums collide to form a warped take on 90’s Synth-Funk. The lyrics reek of narcissism and sensuality, but there’s a hint of actual romance in the more vulnerable tones of Righton’s voice despite the smooth Synth and keyboard work. A variety of lyrics including “Girl there’s never going to be no other/If I could only be your lover” setting up the stage for this contrast, while the cascading backing vocals and the preening artistry of sequences like “You can’t pause with me for the rest of my life” play with the duality between James’ true personality and the more fanciful aspirations of Jim as his alter ego. It’s an interesting proposition for the new album as the lyricism is not too different to those of 2020’s ‘The Performer’ on the surface level, but the sound is a lot more electronic and the Soulwax blueprints are definitely there. While the sound evolves the palette of The Performer’s sounds, the themes still feel just as intriguing and the explorations of self-identity remain intact. Overall, this was a refreshing and welcome return for Righton.

Pictured: James Righton in an official photoshoot to promote ‘The Performer’ (2020) (Photo Credit: DEEWEE)

If you don’t want to hit ‘Pause’ on James – fast-forward to some of his other cuts here.

‘Release Party’ (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/05/17/todays-track-james-righton-release-party/

‘Edie’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/04/02/todays-track-james-righton-edie/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Performer’ (LP/Album) (Released on March 20th, 2022) (via DEEWEE)

That brings me to the bottom of the page! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and I will be back tomorrow to introduce you to a brand new artist who goes by the name of Junior, a 24-year-old rapper and songwriter based in Bedford – here in the UK. His fantastic new single – ‘Long Way Home’ – was recently spotlighted on a recent episode of BBC Radio 6’s ‘The New Music Fix’ curated by Tom Ravenscroft.

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New Album Release Fridays: Kae Tempest (feat. Kevin Abstract) – ‘More Pressure’

April 8, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Line Is A Curve’ (LP) (Available from April 8th, 2022) (via Fiction Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to tune our ears to the more club-oriented gears of one of the modern day’s most progressive poets for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ with 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! An album about letting go and falling instead of anxiety into surrender, ‘The Line Is A Curve’ has been shaping up to be absolutely ace. This is the newest album from Kae Tempest, a poet from Westminster who has become a prominent name on BBC Radio 6 Music’s playlist throughout the 2010’s. Tempest came out as non-binary in 2020, shedding their former name of “Kate Tempest” and embracing the pronouns of they/them. Since becoming active in 2012, Tempest has been nominated for the Mercury Prize twice and they were nominated for ‘Best Female Solo Artist’ at the BRIT Awards in 2018. Outside of their music, Tempest is also a Sunday Times best-selling author and they won the ‘Breakthrough Author’ award at the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards in 2017. ‘The Line Is A Curve’ looks to repeat the success of these projects, and the BRIT School alumni mastered the record at Abbey Road Studios. It was produced by Dan Carey, which will become fairly obvious to you in a moment, executive produced by Rick Rubin and mixed by Christian Wright. The LP features guest contributions from artists like Lianne La Havas, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, Confucius MC and more. The cover photograph was shot by Wolfgang Tillmans, who worked on Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’. Speaking about the collaborative process of the album in an interview for NME, Tempest says, “For me, this album is about increasing resilience and raising your threshold for tolerance and acceptance and it’s a very beautiful album, because so many people involved in making it are people that I’ve known and loved for a very long time”, and it is out today via Fiction Records. ‘More Pressure’ isn’t the latest pre-release single from the new record, but I chose to write about it because I feel it is a track that really showcases how Tempest can stretch that voice beyond traditional Spoken Word genre boundaries. It features a verse by Kevin Abstract – who you might also know from their music in Brockhampton. Give it a spin.

“Throughout the duration of my creative life, I have been hungry for the spotlight and desperately uncomfortable in it. For the last couple of records, I wanted to disappear completely from the album covers, the videos, the front-facing aspects of this industry”, Tempest tells Brooklyn Vegan, later elaborating, “But this time around, I understand it differently. I want people to feel welcomed into this record, by me, the person who made it, and I have to let go of some of my airier concerns. I feel more grounded in what I’m trying to do, who I am as an artist and as a person and what I have to offer”, about their decision to include an image of themselves on the LP’s cover artwork for the first time. This sense of progression and comfort is replicated by ‘More Pressure’, which is anchored by abstract lyrics like “More pressure, more release, your eyes, your cheeks, your features crease” that communicate ideas of taking the weight of the world away from your shoulders and believing in your own body for reassurance. Lyrics like “One step forwards, two steps backwards/One soul’s epiphany, another soul’s madness” hits you with a more virtuosic nature, as Tempest talks about reach and distance through reflection, resulting in a sense of unsullied intimacy that is delivered in Tempest’s emotive space between music and speech. Abstract, as the featured credit, adds more intimacy to the final verse and trends towards a Hip-Hop direction, as the Synth beats become more liberating behind here. Speaking of the instrumentation, it feels interesting in not being a far cry from Sinead O’Brien’s ‘Kid Stuff’, a cracking tune by the Irish Post-Punk poet, in the similar sense of how the Dance-Rock influences come together through the insulating Synth rhythms. Instead of reaching out as most club-driven music does, however, Tempest looks inward to gain cues for the lyrics and reflect on the weight and stress in a relatively personal way. It certainly feels like some of Kae’s most accessible work, but the almost Disco-tempo melodies and the spacious bass lines still make their vocals stand out amongst the typically mainstream variety of modern music. Ultimately, ‘More Pressure’ is a strong showing that pin-points how Tempest can stretch their voice in fascinating ways to meet their own needs with the more rhythmic structure of the track and the idiosyncratic Dance influences that are still of Tempest’s heavy and reflective mood in prior releases, but the flow is simply much groovier and so it really stands out whenever you hear it on the radio. It is a really euphoric release of tension.

Pictured: Kae Tempest performing ‘People’s Faces’ at Paste Studios, New York (2019) (Photo via Paste Magazine)

That brings us to the end of another daily post! Thank you for giving a moment out of your day to support the blog, and I will be back tomorrow to review some more new music from a recent favourite on the site. This Brighton-formed indie rock band were listed among the Top 40 New Artists of 2018 by The Guardian and their previous studio album – ‘Every Bad’ – was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2020. It also appeared on year-end best lists by Under The Radar, Stereogum, Paste and Pitchfork.

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Today’s Track: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – ‘Blood In The Snow’

April 5, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Vinyl copy of ‘When The Lights Go’ (LP) (Available from July 22nd, 2022) (via Nice Age Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for you to get invested in yet another daily track on the blog, despite any incredulous looks on my face, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! 2012 (Although I discovered this soon-to-be specified record a year or two later). Picture the scene. I was a young sprog, sitting on the college bus every morning, beginning to experience alternative music outside of the mainstream for the first couple of times with a hair full of dandruff, finding my place in the world. I was being simply swept away by the vibrant Drum ‘N’ Bass and ethereal Jungle sounds of Orlando Tobias Higginbottom (aka Oxford-born House producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) who injected colour in to the club environments of the 2010’s with his melancholic textures and a sense of longing in his voice, one in few of which I truly connected with at the time, with TEED’s critically acclaimed debut album release of ‘Trouble’. An entire decade later, ‘When The Lights Go’, the follow-up to that “Jacob Classic” of an album, is finally set to arrive on July 22nd. Higginbottom is a classically trained musician who is the son of a former choir conductor from New College, Oxford and he found his own footing through his studies at the Junior Royal Academy Of Music in London, before he became obsessed with electronic music through tapes lent by his siblings. He has since become one of my favourite musicians, and one of Britain’s most underrated exports in my honest opinion, although he is currently based in Los Angeles. To say that this dinosaur has been totally er, extinct between the ten year gap would be totally untrue, however. He has released several EP’s like 2013’s ‘Get Lost VI’, 2020’s ‘I Can Hear The Birds’ and 2021’s ‘The Distance’ to typically amazing results. ‘Heartbreak’, a collaboration with Bonobo, was also nominated for the ‘Best Electronic/Dance Recording’ nod at this year’s Grammy Awards. He has also collaborated with the likes of Anna Lunoe, SG Lewis, Kelsey Lu, Shura, Dillon Francis, Porter Robinson and Amtrac over the years too, as well as touring regularly. There is a great deal of excitement towards the new album, as it represents his most substantial body of material in ten years. Check out the lead single – ‘Blood In The Snow’ – below.

‘When The Lights Go’ will feature seventeen tracks, which were all largely recorded at Higginbottom’s own home in Los Angeles, California. He will also resume touring the US and Europe throughout the spring, including a Brooklyn show at Elsewhere Hall on April 29th alongside Kate Garvey and Heathered Pearls, with solo shows in Miami, Austin, Chicago and more to follow. Talking about the arctic theme of ‘Blood In The Snow’, he says, “The song is about melting glaciers and about wanting a daughter, and where to put love in this tailspin”, in his press assertion. Hitting the ground running with a haunting Double Bass intro accentuated by glistening Keyboard riffs and hazy Synth pads, Higginbottom warmly sings lyrics like “How much longer?, Before the damn begins to break” and “Precious winter, enough will all the growth” that feel downbeat and contemplative, while ominous and slightly reclusive in tone, as he questions his ambitions towards some parenthood and compares the emotions to the cyclical processes of nature. The chorus is gentle but striking, with the colder textures combining to the somber tune of lyrics like “Names for a daughter/Blood in the snow” and “But I want her, More than you know” that feel insular and precise, although the beat-driven pacing is laid out fairly sparsely. The instrumentation blends these arena-level electronics with his human, poignant vocals, where the distorted Synths create some interplay with the melancholic qualities of his vulnerable vocals by building gradually towards a halting crescendo, where his layers of textures simply crunch together. The verses are given space by the progressive Jazz-influenced Drums and the warping Synths that build to a slight alter in pace and mood in the late stages of the track where the different Snare sound comes in and, like his vocals, these changes feel subtle but delicate and merticulously crafted. This feels very different to the more club-driven sound of 2012’s ‘Trouble’ because the assortment of sounds deliver a low-key groove instead of an anthemic ‘danceability’ to them, but the delicate vocals of Higginbottom and the progressive, yet certainly grounded, take on Indietronica is still in there. It is admittedly a slow burn, but it makes for an emotional experience when you hear the different elements come together by the end and it has a similar tone of quintessentially British sadness and almost deliberately ‘flat’ vocals that only Higginbottom could really get away with, while the lyrics promise more maturity and growth from him as a songwriter, and it feels like rarity for him to use his own voice as the producer in this day and age too. ‘Blood In The Snow’ really stands out if you hear it on the radio, and it feels different to the spectrum of genres that he is often associated with, while sounding unmistakably like him in its bold production. Instead of totally extinct, this feels totally brilliant – and I’m stoked to hear the album.

Pictured: Orlando Tobias Higginbottom (aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) (2019) (Photo via EDM.com)

Here’s my TEED-related posts to get you warmed up for this highly anticipated album.

‘Los Angeles’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/08/05/todays-track-totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-los-angeles/

‘Heartbreak’ (with Bonobo) (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/06/todays-track-bonobo-totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-heartbreak/

‘The Distance’ (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/10/16/todays-track-totally-enormous-extinct-dinosaurs-the-distance/

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

That brings us to the end of yet another daily track on the blog, and thank you for continuing to support the site, as your time and attention is always appreciated very highly. It feels quite unbelievable that we’ve almost come up to another ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ post so swiftly, but that feature continues tomorrow with a post regarding a North Carolina-born Funk, R&B and Soul singer-songwriter who sadly left us in February. She was known for her controversially sexual-oriented performance style and songwriting. She was also the second wife of beloved trumpeter Miles Davis.

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Way Back Wednesdays: The Future Sound Of London – ‘My Kingdom’

March 30, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Garry Cobain (Samples/Production) & Brian Dougans (Samples/Production) (Date n/a) (Photo via Clash)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to go ‘retro’ for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ with 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! If you are not sold on the strength of the premise of a diverse tapestry of dystopian, dark-leaning IDM and Electronica with a loose theme of urban dilapidation and urban decay, with a hint of paranoia and a Cyberpunk aesthetic alone, the UK Top 15-charting single of ‘My Kingdom’ may just convince you otherwise. This single was released in 1996 by The Future Sound Of London – an English electronic music duo formed in 1988 by Brian Dougans and Gary Cobain who met in Manchester, ironically – in the build-up to their third studio album ‘Dead Cities’ they released in the same year. The record is an expansion of the ideas they explored on 1994’s ‘Lifeforms’ EP, a more nature-oriented and pastoral record, albeit with a darker variation of sounds. ‘Dead Cities’ also included the duo’s highest-charting single ‘We Have Explosive’, which was licensed as the theme track for the ‘Wipeout’ video game on the original Playstation, and it reached #12 in the UK Singles Chart. ‘Dead Cities’ is personally one of my favourite electronic records of the 90’s because it serves as a road trip of post-apocalyptic Ambient textures, but what really makes ‘Dead Cities’ click together so neatly is the stylistic tweaks which the duo make throughout it. The ballad-style tone and floating Piano chords of tracks like ‘Max’ are very different to the ring tone-style synths of tracks like ‘Antique Toy’ or the insistent drilling of the title track that are more harsh and dissonant in mood, or really feel like they are attacking the listener. Throughout it’s 12 tracks (and a hidden segment that starts around one minute after the final track plays like an MCU-style Post-Credits scene) and a hefty duration of 70 minutes, The FSOL create a varied tapestry of electronic sounds spanning through Psychedelia, Trip Hop, Techno, Dark Ambient, IDM and Dub that are tethered to a connected, if non-singular, vision – and I also feel the record has a softer side to it that can be overlooked in favour of the more crowd-pleasing Claustrophobia of EDM cuts like the more well-known single. ‘My Kingdom’ was the preceding single to ‘We Have Explosive’ and it was given a fairly low-budget looking music video that was animated by Buggy C. Riphead – who designed the graphics of the LP’s physical copies. The CGI is dated by modern standards – but their imagination is still there. Check it out below.

‘Dead Cities’ is an underrated classic which was released on the major label Virgin Records in the UK along with Astralwerks in the US, and many music critics have attributed the album’s mastery to being the reclusive duo’s most accessible work commercially, although it still unmistakably sounds like them. In fact, ‘My Kingdom’ got to #13 in the UK Singles Chart, joining an elite club of bizzare top 40 radio hits like The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Setting Sun’ and The Orb’s ‘Toxygene’ from around it’s then-contemporary times too. The opening of ‘My Kingdom’ carries it’s weight with an Urban Trip-Hop feel as ethereal samples that give the drums an African percussion feel guides us through a gradual lift-off, before the sampled voices of an elusive choir and wistful Asian-style Horn samples that evoke a stop-and-start pace slowly join the fray of the scattered soundscape, with breakbeats and light downtempo ambience separating the structure of the elements to blend them into a more cohesive whole together. The choir section is a highlight, as the duo’s modulation makes their voices feel distant and hollow, conveying the mournful themes of a ‘Dead City’ with expert precision. I also love how the mixture of aggression and percussion on ‘My Kingdom’ has a dark edge to it and takes center stage as the drawing, expansive structure of the piece comes into view. The duo dip their toes into Blade Runner and Ennio Morricone samples specifically here, and they combine the downtempo elements of those original recordings with gloomy, foggy Ambient Electronica sounds neatly here, almost creating an abstract characteristic of a dense forest that could remind you of their prior ‘Lifeforms’ work quite noticeably. ‘My Kingdom’ has the power to give you goosebumps because of it’s darkness and vibrant atmosphere, with a certain doom-and-gloom or woe-is-me tone that is turned into something surprisingly beautiful and hypnotic as the samples stretch along it’s duration progressively and conjure up the power to create it’s own experience that feels a little seperate to ‘Dead Cities’, but is enhanced by the context of the sounds, tones, atmosphere and textures of the album it is from. It is a very well-crafted record which each lover of music should experience.

Pictured: Inserted Artwork for ‘Dead Cities’ (CD) (Released in 1996 via Astralwerks/Virgin EMI) (Photo via Eil.com)

That brings us to the bottom of the page for another roughly 24 hours period, and thank you for taking a short moment out of your day to support the site and the independent creatives that I, in turn, support here as well. It is back to new music recommendations tomorrow, as we turn our attention towards a new single by a now-duo of Indie Pop and Disco proportions from Brooklyn, New York who previously included Coco’s Dan Molad amongst their line-up. Their albums have also received acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, Paste and The Village Voice too. Their new LP – ‘Second Nature’ – will release on April 8th via Mom + Pop Records.

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