Ambient

Today’s Track: Julianna Barwick – “Inspirit”

July 25, 2020 — Leave a comment

Who needs a Zumba class when you can meditate to this? It’s time for your new post!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Healing Is A Miracle” (Released on July 10th, 2020) (via Ninja Tune)

Get yourself comfortable for the Zen-like trance! Good Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m typing up your daily track on the blog, just like always, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! This is an emerging artist who I discovered through Mary Anne Hobbs’ recent episode of the BBC Radio 6Music Recommends evening show, and I was reminded of it by Lauren Laverne on her Thursday July 16, 2020 edition of the BBC Radio 6Music Breakfast show, as “Healing Is A Miracle” was the station’s album of the day. Her name is Julianna Barwick, and she is an ambient electronic composer who is based in in Brooklyn, New York. She was inspired to create her own music by her participation in a church choir at an early age while growing up in Louisiana, and she’s been active since 2006, of which she’s been using analogue synth equipment to record her own vocal sections over the electronic synth loops that she builds. “Healing Is A Miracle” is her third album, released on July 10th via Ninja Tune. The album includes contributions of work from Jónsi (the leader of Sigur Ros), along with Mary Littlemore and Nosaj Thing. Rest your weary head to the sound of leading single “Inspirit” below.

Recorded at a time where she was making the risky move to New York City from her childhood residence in Louisiana, Barwick commands a meditational presence that demands your relaxed attention on “Inspirit”, the opener of her new album. It seems suitably easy to sink your teeth into, but the multi-layered structure hides a soft, but meticulous complexity beneath. Her vocals are simply: “Open your heart, It’s in your head”, two lines that are drenched in a cascading, heavy reverberation effect. They get constantly repeated across the four-minute duration of the track, but they never get tedious or dull, to me. That’s because the vocal arrangement is kept refreshing at each turn, flowing with shaped stretches and loops that harmonize the breezy synth pads and the mellow, faint interplanetary pipe organ noises. The vocal loops are arranged in the style of a collage, and they are difficult to decipher, although easy to notice. This creates a subtle, aired ambience that evokes the Easy Listening music of Brian Eno, with a light texture of interweaving, discreet vocal loops and globally-influenced sonic direction that sounds comparable to the 90’s ambience of Enigma and Moby. The most intriguing part of the track, however, is the use of bass. A rumble of electronic bass synth effects splice harmoniously over the midway point, but the meditative and crystallized ambience never feels disturbed, as the thin waves of decaying bass add a somewhat dream-like trance that, for me, evokes science fiction and dystopia. Each of the different elements fit like a Jigsaw puzzle together, forming an ongoing crescendo that lightly adds new components to the fray. It provides a much-needed solidarity to a time where nothing feels certain, and everyday life can often feel bizzare, since it’s very effective in transporting you to a dream-like trance through the pretty, attention-to-detail production. It’s expression through a pure form of music. Simply put, I think it’s beautiful. Close those eyes – and just get stuck into it!

  • Pictured: Julianna Barwick recording her vocals in her recording studio (2020) (Photo Credit: Sister City/Vinyl Factory)

Thank you very much for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with your brand new edition of my weekly Scuzz Sundays feature. It’s the time of the week where we revisit either a pop-punk or emo-rock classic from the timespan of the late-1990’s to the mid-200’s to see if it can live up to modern standards, named in memory of the cancelled Scuzz TV freeview channel. 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

Today’s Track: The Radio Dept. – “Could You Be The One?”

July 16, 2020 — Leave a comment

The latest in the sparsely transmitted frequencies of Lund’s Finest! It’s new post time!

  • Johan Duncanson (Lead Vocals, Producer) and Martin Larsson (Keyboard/Synths) (2020) (via Brooklyn Vegan)

Here we go again! Good Morning, I am Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up about your daily track on the blog, because, as per usual, it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every single day! I started off a two-part series yesterday, starting with the new single “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy” from The Radio Dept, a cult Dream-Pop/Shoegaze group from Lund, a small city in Sweden. The personal favourites released a new Double Single over the last weekend, and we are listening to “Could You Be The One?”, the B-side of the release, today. The band have decided that, instead of writing and producing a new full-length record, they will be scattering a range of sporadically released singles throughout the course of the year, with the intention to compile the singles onto an album-length compilation later in the year. If you’ve only jumped into the blog today, The Radio Dept. are the Swedish duo of Johan Duncanson and Martin Larrson (along with touring member Daniel Tjader), who got the name from a local gas-station-turned-radio-station-turned-repair-shop called “Radioavdelningen”, which translates to “The Radio Department”. The Dept. have never been a fixture in mainstream culture, but 2006’s “Pet Grief” and 2010’s “Clinging To A Scheme” were relative cult classics within the internet music community. I have a joke with my friend Harrison, where we call them “Lund’s Finest”. I’m certainly not sure what the competition surrounding that award is, but they’re massively underrated, and they added weight to the claim with “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy”, on yesterday’s post. Get ready for part two with “Could You Be The One?” below.

It was well-documented, on the blog yesterday, that the A-Side of the release “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy” was a changed-up cover of the Tri-Lites, a 1960’s girl vocal group’s original version, switching up the Jazzy doo-wops for hazy acoustic melodies, mixed up with a little synth distortion. The B-side “Could You Be The One”, however, is an original. Duncanson leads the track with a call-and-response lyric delivery, as he sings over the top of a radiant synth line and a glistening, breezy acoustic guitar riff: “You’ve been wishing away, Aching to be led astray, Anything to be the one who got away”, before a soft chorus incorporates a short and lush Horn section into the instrumentation of the ongoing, guitar-laden hooks. The lyrics are contemplative, but there is a sweet and progressive warmth that downplays the melancholy with a balance of joy and triumph. Duncanson adds “Could you be the one?/Could this be the day” to the vague and minimalist chorus, while the finale feels a touch more sad, but polished, as Duncanson builds up to a sweet, artistic outro of light acoustic guitar licks and subtle keyboard riffs with: “Could you be the one?, The one that gets to say, I took the chance, and got away”, using self-reflective and elegant themes of lust and unrequited romance. The “Turn To Camera One” refrain is intriguing, and it may connote a story of a film director trying to start a relationship with an actress or a producer on set, but that’s just my interpretation. Again, like with yesterday, it’s very subtle and it paints a pretty minimalist picture, but it feels more driven by character and narrative than “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy”. Another solid outing by ‘Lund’s Finest’!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “You’re Looking At My Guy” (Double Single) (Released on July 10th, 2020) (via Just So! Records)

Don’t forget to check out Part one of my two-day spread, with my review for “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy”, in case that you missed it, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/07/15/todays-track-the-radio-dept-youre-looking-at-my-guy/. I’ve also covered a few other tracks previously, you can check out my review for the recent single “The Absence Of Birds” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/06/todays-track-the-radio-dept-the-absence-of-birds/, and you can peruse my review for their sleeper gem “Memory Loss”, which I can’t believe was released exactly a decade ago, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/21/todays-track-the-radio-dept-memory-loss/

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “The Absence Of Birds” (Released in 2020) (via Just So! Records)
  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Clinging To A Scheme” (Released in 2010) (via Labrador Records)

Thank you very much for reading this post! A new weekend means another batch of new album releases, so I’m going to be choosing a single from a brand new album to cover tomorrow’s blog post. It’ll be from the new project of an English musician and songwriter who was the frontman of 90’s group Pulp, and he famously jumped on-stage during Michael Jackson’s performance of “Earth Song” at the BRIT Awards in 1996!  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

Today’s Track: The Radio Dept. – “You’re Looking At My Guy”

July 15, 2020 — 1 Comment

AJ Styles. Idris Elba. Tom Hardy – those are all such guys! It’s time for a new blog post!

  • Pictured: Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson in a press shoot for their Bandcamp.com page (2016) (via Just So!)

The voice that feels like home to me! Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up about your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! I’ve been very delighted over the last week to hear that The Radio Dept. are back to their sparse, scattered-about releases again, following their single “The Absence Of Birds” earlier in the year. An indie Dream-Pop/Shoegaze outfit from Lund, a small city in Sweden, I’ve been closely following the band since my college days of 2016, where I was introduced to them by my friend Harrison, and we have an in-joke by calling them: “Lund’s Finest”. They’ve never been a hugely promoted band, but they have a relative cult following, after 2006’s “Pet Grief” and 2010’s “Clinging To A Scheme” become cult classics on the internet. The band create music of a very articulate and whimsical style, drawing comparisons to The Postal Service. The band have cited My Bloody Valentine, The Cocteau Twins and Saint Etienne as a few of their influences. They got their name from a local gas-station-turned-radio-turned-repair shop called “Radioavdelningen”, a translation to “The Radio Department” in Swedish. Last Friday, The Dept. released a brand new single, “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy”, with the B-side “Could You Be The One?” to make it a Double Single release. The two tracks are very unlikely to get much, if any, exposure on the radio – so I thought that I’d cover both this week as a two-part series, with the former track today, and the latter track tomorrow. Without any further ado, let’s have a listen to “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy”, the title track, below.

Upon my research, it turns out that “You’re Lookin’ At My Guy” is actually a cover version of The Tri-Lites, a 1960’s girl group, track of the same title. It’s a move that might come somewhat unexpected to longtime fans of The Radio Dept, but it just reaffirms that Johan Duncanson and Martin Larrson have strong songwriting abilities, as they switch up Doo-Wop harmonies for gentle, if distorted, synthesizer loops and luscious, acoustic guitar melodies. Duncanson recites: “Little girl, just move on by/Don’t even try to catch his eye” and “Say girl, let me put you straight/You’re scheming on my steady date” to the beat of steady piano lines and distorted, low-quality synth patterns, over a poetic vocal delivery. The post-bridge is more melodic: “I don’t want to start no trouble/Little girl, you’d better move out/You’d better move, and on the double”, deposited over the top of a jangling guitar riff. A chorus rooted in the Shoegaze and Dream-Pop melodies that make The Radio Dept who they are, “Little girl, just step aside/Cause’ I’m gonna be his bride/This is where I draw the line” is slightly chant-led, and the vocals are layered above clashing drum rhythms that match the synth-led production. Duncanson continues to repeat the hook: “You’re looking at my guy”, over the top of a light string section composed by a swelling violin line. The sound is subtle and pretty, but in no way feels melancholic or dreary. It’s very nice to see (or hear, rather) The Radio Dept making more music that sounds creative and interesting, but light and warm, after a long hiatus. A new single from the duo feels like the equivalent of seeing a longtime friend after a lengthy absence. It’s rich and comforting. a wholesome outing. Although I have no idea of what their competition looks like, I feel there must be truth to the claim they are “Lund’s Finest”!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “You’re Looking At My Guy” (Double Single) (Released on July 10th, 2020) (via Just So! Records)

As a dedicated follower of The Radio Dept, I have also previously covered a small portion of their previous work on the blog. You can see what I thought of “The Absence Of Birds” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/06/todays-track-the-radio-dept-the-absence-of-birds/, and you can revisit (or discover, for the first time!) their underrated, sleeper gem “Memory Loss” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/21/todays-track-the-radio-dept-memory-loss/

  • Pictured: Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson with touring member Daniel Tjäder (Guitar/Synths) (Date Unknown)

Thank you very much for reading this post! Don’t forget to join me tomorrow for the second part of my two-part series on The Radio Dept’s new double single release, where I’ll be sharing my feelings on the B-side: “Could You Be The One?”, in due course. 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

Today’s Track: Enigma – “Sadeness (Part 1)”

July 8, 2020 — Leave a comment

This interesting German-Romanian electronic music producer managed to crack the “Enigma code” of the mainstream singles charts in the 1990’s. It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Enigma (Michael Cretu) in a photoshoot to promote “The Fall Of A Rebel Angel” (2016) (via ParisMatch.com)

Remember this one? Good Morning to you, my name is Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up 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! It’s a strange sight to behold – a composer managing to have a big chart hit with an ambient chillout track that was built upon Gregorian Chants and tribal Flute sounds, but somehow… before I was even born…. It happened! Enter Enigma, the alias of German-Romanian music composer Micheal Cretu. The inspiration for his experimental project was a product of his desire to make a kind of music that did not obey “the old rules and habits” of commercial pop music, and presented a new form of artistic expression with mystic and experimental components, according to his interview with Melvyn J. Willin. Thus, he produced atmospheric intercultural soundscapes which dabbled in elements of New-Age and Worldbeat. He became a very successful artist for doing so, selling a total of over 70 million records worldwide, and receiving three Grammy Award nominations. He’s still going, having released his eighth ambient LP – “The Fall Of A Rebel Angel” – in 2016. He burst onto the scene with his international hit “Sadeness (Part 1)” in 1990, a track that somehow reached the #1 spot of the singles charts in 24 countries, which includes the UK. Let’s have a listen back to his breakout track below!

I’ve always wanted to join the Gregorian monks, but I never got the chants! There is no denying that Engima’s “Sadeness (Part 1)” is probably the most profoundly odd track to reach #1 in the UK, but I feel there is a nice amount of artistic merit to it, as opposed to it being a ‘fad’, and just a novelty. Starting off with an ominous line of Gregorian monk chants, Cretu gradually adds the layers up to combine the Gothic themes with ambient dance beats that were in the contemporary boom period of the time. Cretu repurposes a sample of the drums in Soul II Soul’s “Keep On Movin'” to create a gentle hip-hop beat, and Cretu combines them with a shimmering Pan-Pipe hook to get a downtempo, sultry groove going. It creates a very multicultural and strange ambient texture, and Cretu expands the idea out with the sound of a woman panting after a breathy line of odd foreign language vocals, paired up with the unexpected, short burst of a guitar solo in the middle. The climax (No pun intended) matches the ongoing Flute melodies with the sequence of more beat-driven synthesizer riffs, and the bizzare Gregorian monk chants bring a full-circle effect to the cerebral, trance-inducing 4-minute duration of ethereal, rich sound effects and dense, world-based instrumentation. The Peruvian flute melodies are the highlight for me, and the combination of strange sounds are quite appealing in a surprising number of ways, such as the seductive vibe of the light female backing vocals and the chemistry the different sections have in creating the visionary style that amounts up to an ambient fantasia. I’m probably just reading a bit too much into it, but it does still sound imaginative, and deeply sensual. The layering is quite solid. Sadly, I have a feeling that – much like the ancient customs of an old Gregorian tribe – it will sadly be forgotten as time wares on, and ‘Chart Pop’ gets more meme-oriented by the second!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “MCMXC a.D.” (Released on 10th December, 1990) (via Virgin/Charisma Records)

Thank you very much for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as always, with an in-depth listen to the (Pssssst… it’s really bad) brand new single from a Scottish folk-rock band who originally performed the track, “When We Collide”, that The X-Factor winner Matt Cardle had the UK’s Christmas #1 Single with in late 2010. 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

Today’s Track: GoGo Penguin – “F Maj Pixie”

June 11, 2020 — Leave a comment

Penguins are tricky to get on with. They Fish for compliments! It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “GoGo Penguin” (Released on June 5th, 2020) (via Blue Note Records) (recordstore.co.uk)

Did you know that a Penguin’s favourite relative is Aunt Arctica? Fine, I will move swiftly on… I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up about your daily track on the blog since it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! GoGo Penguin is a name that immediately jumped out at me when I was reading Saturday’s edition of “The Guide”, a free little magazine that my mother gets with The Guardian newspaper on Saturdays. It’s not just because Penguins are my favourite animals, but also because the writer deduced that their appeal goes far beyond the modern Jazz scene, as they implement several elements of other genres such as Techno, Trip Hop, Ambient Experimental and Progressive Jazz into their minimalist sound. A trio from Manchester in the UK, GoGo Penguin refer to themselves as “The Radiohead of British Jazz” with wider, more intricate structural influences in Four Tet and Aphex Twin, on their Spotify biography page. It sounds right up my street then. Their new record is a self-titled fourth album. Have a nice listen to “F Maj Pixie” below.

There’s no need to give this one a frosty reception. “F Maj Pixie” is quite on the lengthy side at almost 6 minutes long, but it feels diverse enough to keep you invested in in it’s stop-and-start, push-and-pull nature which replaces the lack of vocals with a vibrant mix of computer-controlled technology and classically composed instrumentation. The beginning of the track uses light pedal and delay effects to develop a bass-driven groove, on the part of Nick Blacka’s riffs on Bass Guitar. Illingworth matches the fast chord progression with symphonic piano lines that jitter and fluctuate to the delicate sound of the vibrating guitar patterns. In the middle of the track, Rob Turner joins in, with big strokes of drum cymbal clashes and frenetically paced drum notes. As a result, this syncs up a crescendo of classical piano notes, electric bass guitar harmonies and organic drum patterns that build up a soundscape of tidy electronic instrumentation paired up to more freeform, organic effects. The end is a slower fade where the pace gradually lowers, but the constant melodies retain their presence until the very end as the tone becomes more left-field and downbeat. Their name might come across as daft and silly, but the band are dead serious and they seem confident in knowing what they’re doing. It’s a futuristic take on the Easy Listening sounds pioneered by Brian Eno, with a focus towards the relationship between electronic instrumentation and classically composed works. It sounds fresh and appealing, with a range of sonic influences that melt softly together.

  • Pictured: Chris Illingworth (Piano), Nick Blacka (Bass Guitar) and Rob Turner (Drums) (2020) (Photo by Jon Shard)

Thank you for reading this post! As a reminder, at One Track At A Time, we endorse the #BlackLivesMatter movement. 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 a look at a track from 1981 that a Zoom quiz reminded me about. It has a type of English takeaway in the title and it was performed by a female singer-songwriter who is the co-writer and featured vocalist of The Pogues’ 1987 christmas classic “Fairytale Of New York”! 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: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – “The Steady Heart”

June 2, 2020 — Leave a comment

It may well be steady, but it’s a Total Eclipse of the Heart! It’s time for your daily post!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “The Mosaic Of Transformation” (Released on May 15th, 2020) (via Ghostly International)

Good Afternoon! I’m Jacob Braybrooke – excuse my awful Bonnie Tyler joke – and I’m writing about your daily track on the blog because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! My latest Bandcamp discovery is “The Mosaic Of Transformation”, a new album by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. This is a record full of deep Synth tones and fluid pacing that creates a dense, experimental ambient sound. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is an electronic composer who grew up in the Orcas Island, found in the northwestern region of Washington State. Smith has, thus far, released various albums and compilation mixtapes of ambient soundtracks. She was first a part of an indie-rock group called Ever Isles before she was signed to Western Vinyl in 2015, but she’s moved to the Ghostly International label for her new album. Get a sample of her new style with the album track “The Steady Heart” below!

“The Steady Heart” breezes forward with a very spiritual feeling, with each of the different ambient layers interweaving into each other to create a soft sound that feels alike to a meditative, religious experience. Smith loops the gentle, drifting harmonics as she begins: “I believe”, slowly building a large frequency of crescendos with “I trust” before serenely laying them down to rest with her radiant glow of “Open up your heart”. The structure narrowly converges into a synthetic, beat-driven symphony as the mellow vocals drift away, but the polyphonic melodies remain contained within the laidback rhythm, almost in the same way of which a tide slowly reaches the shore on a beach. It never quite delves into an electronic dance territory in any form, but the crescendo of sounds slowly build to create a more tense atmosphere before lulling you into a bittersweet lullaby. Towards the end, Smith adds in an organic piano section which adds more eclectic instrumentation and it closes the track on a peaceful note. If you are not really used to listening to ambient music, it might fall on death ears on a first try. However, if you just keep persevering, you’ll shortly find that it’s a lovely crescendo of ambient synths and calm sounds which gradually develop in interesting ways, but it never quite piles into the wreckage, leaving you to guess what comes next and to interpret the aesthetics of the sound for yourself. A bright, fluid orchestration that merges between the organic and electronic.

  • Pictured: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith being a synth aueteur for an interview (January 2020) (via Native Instruments Blog)

Thank you for reading this post! As usual, I encourage you to look after yourself and others in these difficult times by staying safe inside, don’t do anything silly and please keep washing those hands! Tomorrow on the blog, I’ll be looking at a track from another emerging artist. From Ireland, this artist goes by an unusual pseudonym and she played her first gig at The Bar With No Name in 2015 as the supporting act for a rock band called Silences! 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: In Love With A Ghost – “We Were Friends”

May 14, 2020 — Leave a comment

I am not In Love With A Ghost, but I am in love with this soft sound. It’s new post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Healing” (Single Release) (in 2017) (Cover design by @Salisart) (via Bandcamp)

Good afternoon to you! Indeed, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing about your daily track on the blog because, as always, it’s my day-to-day pleasure to do so! Yesterday, I wrote about Skule Toyama, a little-known Chillwave DJ from Mexico who only has a small following and he’s one of my latest little discoveries on Bandcamp. Another artist from the same genre who I’ve also recently found on Bandcamp is In Love With A Ghost. However, it turns out that In Love With A Ghost has a much larger following and has become a bit of a viral sensation. Nonetheless, their 2016 EP release “Let’s Go” was my first introduction to this artist. “Let’s Go” is classified as a digital album, but it’s only very short, at four tracks with a 12 minute run time. There’s an old-fashioned IDM-style aura of mystery around this French composer, as the artist tends to only give cryptic teases towards the production and meaning behind their music. Their name is unknown, so is their backstory, and most importantly, they never reveal their face! “Flowers” featuring Nori is their most popular track from “Let’s Go”, with over 9.6m views on YouTube – but my favourite track from the album is the low-key and sad keyboard-driven “We Were Friends”. Let’s give it a listen below!

So.. That was “We Were Friends”. I feel that In Love With A Ghost manages, through the spacious synth riffs and the embellishing keyboard sequences, to create vivid, emotive feelings of closure and finality on this short track. In comparison to Skule Toyama’s track yesterday, the pacing is a lot slower and the melodies, although sweet and heavily electronically-produced, are more downtempo and less free-form in their structure, creating a highly stripped back sound, despite achieving the same aims of soothing you down and putting your mind into a state of relaxation. There’s no lyrics at all, but the distorted effects of the looping synths and the glitched-out basslines, enveloped in a pure and intoxicating Piano melody, create a gentle ambient texture that acts as a comforting bed for the beat-driven electronic effects to sit under. This results in an ambient texture that feels vaguely melancholic and reminiscent of a more innocent time. Maybe it makes you think about seeing an old friend for the first in a very long time? To me, it does, bringing an emotion of meeting up with somebody who you feel you might not truly “know” anymore and coming to terms with the nervousness and the fun you used to have, but also the happiness that comes from soon recapturing these memories. In any case, it’s completely up to you what this track is about. I think that’s where the strength of the sound lies. There’s attention to detail in the slow rainfall effects and the crackles of twigs breaking in the background, creating a feeling that is overall somber and contemplative. It feels like it has a super-sleek production behind it, of which I can tell it was a more expensive album to be produced than some of the earlier work, but it doesn’t lose it’s artistic identity or forget the roots of the music in the first place, a criticism that I point towards mainstream acts like Ed Sheeran or Drake, who just make totally generic and VERY commercial pop now. A “ghostly” presence – but a rewarding and excellent one!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Let’s Go” (Digital EP) (Released via Bandcamp on March 3, 2016) (via Z-Tapes Records)

Thank you very much for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it! Please stay safe, “Stay Alert” and keep on washing those hands! I am really excited about tomorrow’s post because I’m going to be covering a brand new track that marks the return of one of my top favourite artists in the past couple of years! I still remember when she brought her mum on-stage to celebrate it when she won Best British Album at the NME Awards last night! Watch and learn BRIT Awards, that’s how you treat a real Best British Artist! 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

Today’s Track: Ryuichi Sakamoto – “Riot In Lagos”

April 29, 2020 — Leave a comment

Kaiser Chiefs would never be able to Predict a Riot in Lagos! It’s time for a new post…

  • Pictured: Ryuichi Sakamoto pictured on the back cover art of a 12″ vinyl copy of “B-2 Unit” (1980) (via Plexus)

Good morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing about your daily track on the blog, as it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music each day! I’ve been listening to a LOT of American radio lately, as a way of broadening my horizons and exploring interesting music beyond the UK’s bubble. I was rather surprised to find that I’d never heard of Ryuichi Sakamoto, a Japanese electronic composer, prior to hearing “We Love You” being played in the early hours on KEXP, a Washington-based Community radio station. From co-founding Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late 1970’s to scoring the Oscar darling film “The Revenant” in 2015, the guy’s done a lot. My favourite release is “Riot In Lagos”, a funky track that was self-produced by Sakamoto for his second solo album “B-2 Unit” in 1980. For “B-2 Unit”, Sakamoto decided to ditch the compositional pop style of Yellow Magic Orchestra to explore his interest in ambient textures and tones rather than using Yellow Magic Orchestra’s more traditionally packaged-up formula. Check out “Riot In Lagos” below.

You could argue that nothing else really sounded like “Riot In Lagos” in the 1980’s and, in 2020, not much has changed at all because barely anything still does. This strange and experimental electro-dance record establishes a very futuristic aesthetic through it’s propulsive acid-house interludes and it’s restless, skittering breakbeat sections that make up the bulk of the verses. There’s no lyrics to speak of, but the abstract nature of the bustling, oriental techno-bleeps and an intriguing, uniquely post-modern take on the broad classical music genre, provides us with the result of a very timeless and sophisticated backdrop to the combination of an African dancehall-like energy and a more densely layered, science-fiction based Ambient House soundscape. In a few ways, Ryuichi Sakamoto also draws on the grooves of Afrobeat in his focus of creating repetitively composed, propellant melodies that feel danceable, in transporting the G-Funk mannerisms of Fela Kuti to a filtered electronic setting. The results are strikingly effective, with a nostalgic video-game soundtrack linking up with a techno-modernist House sound that feels influential for the likes of Plaid and Autechre 10 years later, along with Four-Tet and Peggy Gou in slightly later times. Basically, it’s Funk music, but created by machines – Count me as a fan already.

  • Pictured: Ryuichi Sakmoto pictured with the 2017 vinyl re-issue of his album “B-2 Unit” (1980) in Korea (via Facebook)

Thank you for reading this post! As always, I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at the brand new single from an English songwriter originally signed to Rough Trade Records who is also the son of Ian Dury and he modeled on the front cover artwork of Ian Dury’s debut album “New Boots and Panties” released back in 1977! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every daily new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Ratgrave – “World Aid”

April 18, 2020 — Leave a comment

Did you know that a Rat’s favourite game is Hide and Squeak? It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Ratgrave (Max Graef & Julius Conrad) in a still from their “World Aid” music video (2020) (via YouTube)

I’ve never seen a rat turning in it’s grave! Good morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m trying to lighten up your grey British weather Saturday with your daily post on the blog! It’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music each day! Ratgrave are an ambient experimental duo from Berlin in Germany, made up of producer Max Graef and engineer Julius Conrad. Although their names sound oddly familiar, I’ve just recently heard of them due to KEXP, an american radio station based in Seattle which played “World Aid” by Ratgrave at roughly 3.30am…. in California! This was the middle of the morning here in England. I enjoy listening to KEXP in the morning because it exposes me to a lot of music outside of the British indie bubble that I wouldn’t hear on the likes of BBC Radio 6Music or X-Posure on Radio X. Ratgrave are a “deep dive” – with figures of around 1,000 views when it comes to their recent music videos on YouTube. The duo are two multi-instrumentalists who are driven by their love of 1980’s soul, jazz and rock records, with a diverse variety of psychedelic influences that are sonically evident on their new album, “Rock”. It’s the duo’s first LP release under the Black Focus Records label! Let’s have a listen to “World Aid” below!

You might have noticed that my description of the duo’s sound was vague, but I didn’t want to spoil the suprise for you! Although the electronic production work on “World Aid” is fairly minimalist, the sound palette feels very cleansed, but it’s packed with a wide range of mismatched genres. The vocal range is very simple, with a single”I love myself” line, which sounds sun-soaked in a drum-groove melody and a continuous keyboard riff. Graef and Conrad were going for a highly spiritual, funk-infused sound on “Rock”, explaining, in a press release, that their original idea was to express: “the essence of energy and vibration we felt in different styles of music, almost like a parallel component connecting all things we like.”, deciding it as why they would simply name the album “Rock”. It’s a creative direction that has been displayed on “World Aid”. By far, the highlight of the track are the bizarre Pan Pipe melodies, which add a very Earthly and World-based tone to the eclectic Jazz-Funk rhythm of the track. This is a classical, old-fashioned style of instrumentation which doesn’t feel used very much, but Graef and Conrad keep repeating the same formula, over and over, for maximum effect. The Falsetto vocals add a disjointed Jukebox tone as they blend with the Balearic pipes and the playful Keyboard melodies. The sound design is psychedelic, a key component which feels abstract, but the delightfully “Plastic” keyboard riffs and the complex, skittering Dub beats add a warmth to the punchy, “misfit” ambient soundscape. It almost sounds like there’s a cohesive soulful disco tune hidden underneath the enigmatic, disjointed ambient textures. I find it difficult to identify what the duo’s visual aesthetic really is – judging from the art style of the music video for the track, but it’s intriguing. It may lack a slight focus to hold all the ideas together a little bit more tightly, but I love how the humour is obscure and the overall track is deliberately wonky. The result is a curiously vague, melodic pan-pipe tune that encompasses many different sub-genres of electronic Jazz, Soul and Funk at once and it’s hard to box the sound into a specific category. It’s not a track that I would expect the masses to “get”, but I wouldn’t want them to, as “Ratgrave” is an intriguing creative playground of experimentation for Max and Graef to mess around with. Cleverly layered and fascinating – it’s a nice record to keep to yourself a little bit!

  • Pictured: Official track listing from the back of “Rock” (Released on 20th March, 2020) (via Black Focus Records)

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it and please make sure that you stay at home to save lives! To give us both something to do, why not join me on the blog tomorrow for your weekly Scuzz Sundays blog post? I’ll be revisiting a big, commercial hit from a British indie rock band who once had the best-selling debut album for Polydor Records! Noel Gallagher described watching the band perform live as a “religous experience” and they were subsequently labelled as “The Who of the 1990’s”! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: The Radio Dept. – “The Absence Of Birds”

March 6, 2020 — 2 Comments

This young radio student is a lover of The Radio Dept! It’s time for your new blog post!

  • Pictured: Johan Duncanson (Vocals, Producer) and Martin Larsson (Keyboard/Effects) (2020) (via Brooklyn Vegan)

“Lund’s Finest” – is the title which me and my friend Harrison Ling have given The Radio Dept. – a cult indie dream-pop/shoe-gazing group from the Scanian city of Lund in Sweden. I’m Jacob Braybrooke – writing about your daily track on the blog, as it’s my day-to-day pleasure to do so! 2010’s “Clinging To A Scheme” is the album which Harrison used to introduce me to the pristine melodies of The Radio Dept. – an album which addressed the collapse of the “indie” music industry as the sound became a brand – but, it did so in a very stylish, artistic and emotionally upbeat way. The band have, in turn, also become one of my own favourite bands as well. “Running Out Of Love” followed six years later, an album with a more politically charged and a slightly more dance-influenced sound. It’s fantastic, then – to hear the group releasing new music again. “The Absence Of Birds” is the new single to be released on their own independently-run label, Just So! – which they set up after parting ways with their previous label, Labrador Records, due to a legal clash. In the press release, the band have teased releasing “ten or so new tracks throughout the year” – which sounds like an evidently convenient way of revealing that a brand new full-length album is looming around the corner! I discovered their return due to hearing the track being played during Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6Music breakfast radio show on Tuesday morning. Let’s have a listen to “The Absence Of Birds” below!

The Radio Dept. have always been low-key masters of synth work, in a very restraining and minimalist style, a mantra which they fulfil again through the small touches of production furnishings on “The Absence Of Birds”. It’s a slight departure from the 80’s, slightly Pet Shop Boys-ish sound of the likes of “Swedish Guns” and “Teach Me To Forget” on their previous LP, instead sounding closer to their ambient roots on the earlier albums like “Pet Grief” and “Lesser Matters”. Musically, it’s a little different to their one-off single “Going Down Swinging” from 2018 as well – with a less guitar-driven sound. The track begins with a simple keyboard riff, before Johan Duncansson, in his soft-spoken voice which sounds like home to me, croons: “There’s a drum beat and a verse/Flooding my street/And the girls, they seem ecstatic/This time, it’s not on them”, over a wistful synth chord which reflects a twinkling morning in a beautiful forest town. Later, he continues: “These are things I shouldn’t do/Just wish I was close to you/Instead I’m at a block party with neighbours/These amplified words and the absence of birds”, as a calming lead guitar riff that adds an intense gauze of bittersweet tone to the delicate melody of the track, led by modest drum clashes, a small handful of Brass instrumentation due to the lo-fi use of cymbal smashes and the light vocal harmonies. There’s a definite fragility to the cohesive qualities of the track which makes it definably unassuming – creating a vivid space (“I bet these boys will keep on dancing all night/For once they’re not the ones being blamed for the commosion) with a lack of explosion or harshness – mostly down to the intriguing lack of many electronic footnotes, although chirping sounds add a diffusion of hazard to proceedings. Some might find it a little uneventful or dull – but I think it’s what pulls the soft elements of the track together. The end result is a very “pretty” and well-rounded track which, I feel, deserves the chance to be heard on the radio. Lund’s Finest – an exquisite piece of music – although it doesn’t shout about it!

  • Pictured: Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson with touring member Daniel Tjäder (Guitar/Synths) (date unknown)

You can also read up on my in-depth thoughts on “Memory Loss” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/21/todays-track-the-radio-dept-memory-loss/

  • Pictured: Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson in a press shoot for their Bandcamp.com page (2016) (via Just So!)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow – as always – where I will be sharing my in-depth thoughts on the brand new single from a classic US recording artist who is going back to the old-school EDM roots of the 90’s raving club scene as the inspiration for his new work. Just to give you a hint, he is a celebrity Vegan who supports humanitarian rights and he owns his own Vegan restaurant in Los Angeles! He’s also published four books, including two memoirs. 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