Doo-Wop

Way Back Wednesdays: Gilberto Gil – “Aquele Abraço”

May 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

“Gil is Tropicalia’s rude essence” – Sasha Frere-Jones, 2020. Finally, let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Gilberto Gil in Valencia, Spain (2021) (Photo by Gérard Giaume/Berklee College Of Music)

Good Morning to you! It’s a beautifal day outside, and so I’m here to sweeten it up with your daily track on the blog, as it’s still my day-to-day pleasure. First of all, my apologies for disappearing from the face of the Earth for the last couple of days. I ended up getting a small extension for my Masters work because my project wasn’t quite ready yet, and it’s been a busy road of traffic up in the head lately. I’m perfectly fine now, so don’t you worry. I’ve always set up this blog as a place of pleasure and enjoyment, and so I never wanted for it to feel like an obligation or a chore, so I just needed a minute to focus on the stress personally and the tasks at hand. It’s all good!

With those modules submitted, let me introduce you to our pick for today. For my project, I was researching ‘World Music’ and whether this term holds discriminatory context. One of the genres that I explored was Tropicalia, a movement that saw it’s artists – the likes of Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and Bahian graphic designer Rogerio Duarte, express political protest through eclectic music styles and promote messages of defiance against the ruling military coup which took over Brazil in 1964. It was a moment, rather than a movement, with the protests winding down from around 1968 onwards. It was a very busy time for the likes of Gilberto Gil, however, who was also very much a key creative figure in the revolution. Gil and Veloso were threats to the military. They were imprisoned for two months, then deported, moving to London for a little bit. He returned to Bahia in 1972, and he’s continued to work as a musician, politician and environmental advocate. He also served as Brazil’s Minister Of Culture between 2003 to 2008. “Aquele Abraço” was issued in 1969 by Universal, but Gil would perform the track during marching protests during the time of Tropicalia. The title roughly translates to “The Hug” in English. Let’s reflect on the busy time for Gil below.

‘Aquele Abraço’ was written during a time of house arrest, where Gil developed the melodies and lyrics, before putting together the instrumentation for it’s recording. It became a major hit in the charts of Brazil during 1969, and it was performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games by Marisa Monte and Seu Jorge of the Bossa Nova corporation, MPB. Reaching iconic status in his home turf, Gil’s lyrics invoke themes of neighborhoods, Samba schools, national landmarks, and the popular musicians of Rio De Janeiro. I’m not entirely familiar with how the music was made, since it was well before my time, and I cannot understand the actual lyrics. However, it’s clear enough that it’s Latin-flavored Samba with a gentle guitar rhythm. The rest of the instrumentation is very percussive, with shuffling Maraca beats and a shimmering Cuica rhythm that creates a sultry, sentimental and celebratory tone. Gil whoops and hollers his way through soft, lounge Jazz influences and psychedelically driven drum parts that get some effects going within the backdrop. It mostly feels like a love letter to his nationality and his peers, and expresses a sound that overall feels ‘exotic’ or very ‘distant’ in it’s experimentation – where sentiments of Rock ‘N’ Roll and the use of electric guitars make the rhythms feel progressive for the time. On the whole, it’s an impressive combination of relaxed and joyful, and it was too edgy to be seen as lawful by the government. That’s a pretty big thing. I have probably got a different stance on it as a Western listener with a white British ethnicity compared to the purpose of the track for the society it was aimed at, and it’s worth considering that I’m only reviewing it in hindsight. However, it’s still evident that Gil is music at it’s core – expressing to the public of Brazil that arts and culture had a role in developing Brazil as a nation during his commercial peak and soaring to the heights of Tropicalia.

  • Pictured: Gilberto Gil in a PR image for NN North Sea Jazz Festival on July 12, 2019 (Photo via NSJ)

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow as we pick up right where we left off with some brand new music. Tomorrow’s talent is a gender fluid rapper, producer and visual street artist who is also the founder of the NiNE8 Collective in London, and they share an eerily similar stage name to a certain under-rated star who scored a huge UK and US hit with ‘Bulletproof’ in 2007. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: The Lightning Seeds – “Pure”

May 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

I’m going to keep this pure – It’s one of my Dad’s favourite bands! Let’s go Way Back…

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Cloudcuckooland” (LP) (Released on January 29, 1990) (via Ghetto)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to take a moment out of my deadline work-filled day for an in-depth look at one of the seminal sounds of the past that has influenced those of the present, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! For those of you who perhaps don’t listen to much music or radio, you would probably know The Lightning Seeds best from their work with comedian David Baddiel and presenter Frank Skinner on classic UK footie anthem ‘Three Lions’, which has reached the top of the UK Singles Chart on three different occasions since it’s release due to the World Cup. Up to that point, however, the then-emerging Liverpool indie trio experienced commercial success ahead of the Baggy Brit-Pop era of the 1990’s. Case in point is their debut single, ‘Pure’, which was the first track which vocalist Ian Broudie had “completely written and sung, ever” and it reached #16 on the UK Singles Chart. Not too shabby for a first effort, right? At the time, it was mostly a solo project for Broudie, who followed up on his first crossover chart hit with the release of his debut album, ‘Cloudcuckooland’, to US chart success in 1990. Let’s revisit the video for ‘Pure’ below.

It was only when 1994’s ‘Jollification’ was released when Broudie decided to expand his project of The Lightning Seeds to a full-fledged touring band, with the band’s most famous line-up joining him. Before signing to Epic Records, Broudie had his roots set in small Noise-Punk 70’s bands and became better known a producer rather than a musician, contributing to work for acts like Echo & The Bunnymen and The Fall, prior to embarking on the trip of The Lightning Seeds in 1989. ‘Pure’ saw Broudie spring to mainstream radio consciousness for the first time after the initial run of 200 copies of ‘Pure’ on physical formats proved too little for the demand. Mixing catchy pop hooks with a youthful, simple innocence, Broudie made a hit out of a happy pop tune with the appealing instrumentation. The chorus, and the refrain of “Don’t sell the dreams you should be keeping, Pure and simple every time” is very memorable and easy to relate to, with verses that are written from the viewpoint of a burgeoning relationship with the purest of sweet love sentiments, despite our narrator seeming to be in a little state of doubt where nothing seems impossible. His vocals are shaky and veering towards the nervous side, but they add solid effect to the overall performance, where the expressions of the vocals are, you’re going to hate me for this, pure and simple every time. Musically, we’re being treated to slightly psychedelic Horns, the gentle strumming of the bass guitar, and the three-note synth sequences that all do their job and don’t ever overstay their welcome. There’s not a great deal to it instrumentally, but the sum of it’s parts each play out nicely with a pretty, birdsong-like structure. It’s a very radio-friendly tune, but everything is tied together neatly, and there’s a nice twist to the upbeat mood where the lyrics become more of an ode to the beauty that never lasts. Sure, it’s one of my Dad’s rock tunes, but I’d take it over Coldplay any day.

  • Pictured: The Lightning Seeds with comedian David Baddiel (1996) (Photo by Alamy/The Irish Sun)

That’s all for now – but I’ll be back tomorrow for more musical musings. Join me then for an in-depth look at some new music from one of Brit-Pop’s most promising modern inventors. The now-duo were formed in Sunderland in 2004, and have a brand new album out now on Memphis Industries. The band have been nominated for the Mercury Prize and, at times, have been joined by members of Maximo Park and The Futureheads in their line-up. 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: Drug Store Romeos – “What’s On Your Mind?”

April 29, 2021 — 1 Comment

‘For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo’. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “The World Within Our Bedrooms” (Available: June 25, 2021) (Fiction Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s finally time again for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A brand new indie dream-rock band from the self-described ‘sleepy’ town of Hampshire in England – the trio of Drug Store Romeos have, thus far, released five critically acclaimed singles together, and their latest one comes with the announcement of a full-length debut album being released in the summer. ‘The World Within Our Bedrooms’ arrives on June 25th via Fiction Records, where you would also find acts like Snow Patrol, Kate Tempest and Billie Marten. The band members have all been associated with each other since meeting at school at nearby Farnborough, and they’re set to perform at End Of The Road festival in September. They say the album is like a “Kaleidoscopic exploration from the heart of middle England”, and it’s lead single comes with a music video directed by Qianhu Yu. I’ll try my best to find out ‘What’s On Your Mind?’ below.

‘What’s On Your Mind?’ was premiered by Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6Music, and the band say that “The last half of the song is our interpretation of a mental journey through realizations about past situations that send you down rabbit holes of thought that end up linking to other rabbit holes”, and it’s certainly a track that sounds like it might be best experienced at a late-evening time when you’re settling in your duvet to go to bed. The lyrics are vague, with spectral verses like “Wondering how/Things have turned this way/Often I’m glancing, to another day” and “Given an insight, Let me catch a thought/Perspective so often/Come up short” that skew towards the poetic. Matched by some mid-tempo guitar lines with delay pedal effects to slow the instrumentals down and some slightly glitching keyboard riffs, it seems like an argument has taken place with a friend, love interest or a parent, but the lack of detail gives space for the slow chords and a feeling of vulnerability to show through the crackled drum beats and the fragmented, experimental song structure. There’s enough of an outline to draw a sentimental meaning from, however, and the escapist Synth beats and the nimble Drum rhythms add enough of a melodicism to counteract the otherwise cerebral layout. The half-way point marks the cue for a change of pace, as the drum part gradually gets faster and a yearning backing vocal comes out of the self-reflective qualities of the lyrics. The abandoning of clear-cut vocals makes for a more acidic and dream-like feel, with a beguiling bass-line and a beating guitar melody slowly increasing the tempo. The sound reminds me of Shoegaze groups like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, while the enigmatic vocals and more expansive electronics calls to bands like Beach House or The Big Moon. Whereas most bands play a consistent tone throughout their albums, Drug Store Romeos seem to be going for a more fluctuating mood, one where we’re exploring the ever-changing mental state of our narrator over a stretch of time. It carves out a unique niche for them, where the negativity of the lyrics are not as clear-cut as that, and can lead to a positive change of mind. On the whole, I think this is a lovely little track. Subtle and nocturnal, it’s a deliberately puzzling at-times, but satisfying sound to start exploring.

  • Pictured: Sarah Downie (Lead Vocals/Keyboard/Synths), Charlie Henderson (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) & Jonny Gilbert (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2020) (Photo via Twitter.com)

That’s all for now – but the clock marks for a cue point for ‘New Album Release Friday’ tomorrow as we explore one of the weekend’s new full-length album releases. It seems fairly crowded this week, but I’ve settled on the new release from a Celtic Punk staple from Massachusetts who have pulled in a festive appearance on the blog before, and one of their more well-known tracks was used in the 2006 Martin Scorsese film ‘The Departed’ which starred Matt Damon and Vera Farmiga. 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: Chubby and The Gang – “All Along The Uxbridge Road”

March 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

13 Tracks – crammed into a measly 28 minutes at a pummeling pace. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Speed KIlls” (Released on October 8th, 2020) (via Partisan Records)

Good Morning to you – My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time again for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! The above tagline wouldn’t be the worst option for a campaign advertising ‘Speed Kills’ – the latest album from the UK Post-Hardcore rock band Chubby and The Gang, which did it’s rounds last autumn. Something of a super-group of the more successful early-2010’s British ‘Pub Rock’ bands, with a 5-piece collective made up of musicians from groups like Arms Race, Vile Spirit and Gutter Knife, ‘Speed Kills’ was the debut album offering from the group, which was originally released in 2019 by Static Shock Records. However, the group signed with Partisan Records (Known for acts like Laura Marling, Fontaines DC and Pottery) last year, who decided to digitally remaster and formally reissue the debut LP for a vinyl re-issue back in late November. Produced by Jonah Falco, the concept of the much talked-about record plays out like a pummeling pub crawl traversing through London’s capital thoroughfares, with influences dating back to the 50’s. Join me after the speed bump “All Along The Uxbridge Road” below.

The music from Chubby and The Gang is known to often make use of samples from dated children’s animated TV programmes like The Jimmy Rogers Show, which helps the collaborative project to mix up a fun concoction of Melodic Metalcore, Post-Hardcore, Blues and Doo-Wop that give the high tempo frequencies and their use of hooks an upbeat coat of polish, which gives their back catalog it’s heightened, animated style of qualities. ‘All Along The Uxbridge Road’ was the lead single from an album which subtly deals with the themes of trade unionism, police brutality and pride of the lower working class. That much is true in the case of ‘All Along The Uxbridge Road’, which doesn’t exactly boast a deep substance and a social conscience. However, it does show a precise sense of time and place in it’s broad strokes. Led by rhythmically charged guitar hooks and unrelentingly quick drum time signatures, the track channels a sense of fun, and dare I say, ‘brattiness’ in it’s power-pop influences and the channeling of it’s late-70’s aesthetics. The lyrics are basically inaudible with the chugging guitar lines making it tricky to keep up with, but there are splashes of blues Harp instrumentation and some swift vocals that, for me, take the mementos of the essence of early Motorhead or mid-00’s System Of A Down in their stride. It is a flawed experience, for me, however – my main concern being that this project may be a little bit of a ‘one-trick pony’ in the sense that the lyrics lack a more expansive character. Similarly to this, the several key changes and lack of moments in reflection render things lacking in variation a little for me. Although perhaps paced too quickly for it’s own good, the track manages to get some of it’s deeper themes across pretty nicely, as the fluidity sells the chaos of the current moment nicely. Overall, although it feels a bit lacking in substance, it’s hard to fault the uniqueness of the sound, and the playful character that the band brings. Anti-Pop and yet ‘anti-Cop’.

  • Pictured: Charlie “Chubby Charles” Manning-Walker (Lead Vocals/Harmonica), Ethan Stahl (Rhythm Guitar), Tom “Razor” Hardwick (Bass Guitar), Maegan Brooks (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Joe McMahon (Drums/Percussion) in a promotional shoot for “Speed Kills” (2020) (Photo via PR)

That’s all I’ve got for you today! I’ve got a train to catch – so, See Ya! Scuzz Sundays is back tomorrow, however, with an in-depth look back at a classic from the ‘Emo’ era of the late-90’s breaking into the mid-00’s. It has been quite a while since we really had a ‘big name’ on the feature, and I’ve been saving this one for quite some time. It comes from a guy who used to genuinely freak me out as a kid. Although controversial, he was still a staple of the era, winning four Grammy Awards and heading an Art exhibition at at Kunsthalle gallery in Vienna with film director David Lynch, in the process. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: The Flamingos – “I Only Have Eyes For You”

March 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

The 1950’s bird-like vocal group with a hefty load of Flamboyance. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Flamingo Serenade” (LP) (Released in April 1959) (via End Records)

Good Afternoon to you – As always, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s finally time for me to get my fingers on the keyboard and type up your daily track on the blog, since it’s routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day – and in the case of Wednesdays – a track from before the 2000’s that influenced the sounds of the present. This week, we are really going WAY BACK, because “I Only Have Eyes For You” was actually written and performed back in the 1930’s, originally by the composer Harry Warren and the lyricist Al Dubin, for their musical comedy film, “Dames”, which was introduced by Dick Powell and released by Warner Bros Studios in 1934 to cult success. However, the tune was made most popular in the late-50’s when the long-storied US vocal choir The Flamingo’s released their own cover version by putting a classic Doo-Wop spin on the old track to bring the early R&B influences of the dated recording to a modern update. Needless to say, the cover version recorded by the bird-named band was a huge commercial hit – where it peaked at #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and at #3 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. It saw similar success in the UK, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Flamingo’s version on a list of their “500 Greatest Songs Of All-Time” at the #157 position. Billboard magazine were major fans of the group, who wrote: “Universally hailed as one of the finest and most influential vocal groups in Pop history, The Flamingo’s defined doo-wop at it’s most elegant and sophisticated” for their 2014 retrospective. On that note, let’s cast our minds back to the 50’s with the track below.

Originally formed by Jake Carey and Zeke Carey in Chicago of 1953, The Flamingos later expanded to a full line-up with specific changes over the years. but they still found widespread attention with tracks like “If I Can’t Have You” and “That’s My Desire” that cemented their places as some of the earliest, but most significant releases of the band’s heyday. This has ultimately led to the band getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2011 – since we all know that old-school Rhythm ‘N’ Blues shares close ties with the development of Rock ‘N’ Roll traditionally – and the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in the year before. Some of their big awards have thanks to pay 59’s “I Only Have Eyes For You” cover, which has become one of their most defining singles. The doo-wop vocals add a fresh dimension to the less restrained nature of the original track, where lyrics like “You are here, and so am I/Maybe millions of people go by, But they all disappear from view” are slowed down and given more space to breathe. The tone goes deeper, and it feels more emotional. Words like “The moon may be high/But I can’t see a thing in the sky” paint a fantastical and romanticized view of a moonlight setting, and quicker lines like “My love must be a kind of blind love/I can’t see anyone but you” are undercut by the central hook of “I Only Have Eyes For You”, where the narrative of being joined by a old flame for your company feels soothing and inobtrusive. The interweaving “Sha Bop, Sha Bop” stabs of the backing vocal arrangement places the emphasis on the dream-like qualities of the slow backing harmonies and the near-hypnotic relaxation of the minimalist guitar licks. In fact, there’s very little instrumentation at all – with only a sparse Piano melody and a light shuffling of a Drum beat entering the fray now and again. I may probably consider it to be “Grandad Music” if I was in a bad mood today, but since I’m feeling of the right frame of mind to listen to it today, I think it’s gorgeous. Through using the effects of the deep echoes and the sentimental lyricism, it manages to bridge the gap between R&B and soft Pop releases by placing a simple emphasis on love and desire, appealing to a wide audience in the stages. A gold Oldie.

Thank you for travelling back to the good ol’ days with me as my trusty companion today! Please feel free to join me again for an in-depth look at some more recent music tomorrow, albeit it’s a release that has been in my drafts page for a little while now. Don’t let that discourage you from checking it out however, because it’s still a fascinating little track that comes from a US Experimental Hip-Hop trio who have really managed to carve out a niche for themselves by mirroring the cinematic sounds of Horror B-Movie soundtracks to acclaim and popularity in recent years. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/