Today’s Track: Hiro Ama – ‘Autumn Colours’

November 9, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Promo for Hiro Ama’s interview on WorldwideFM.Net (2020) (Photo via Artist/Facebook.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to enjoy a stroll in the Autumn along to your daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Autumn, which is more widely known as ‘Fall’ to any Americans reading this for some strange reason, is a month where we all love to reflect. This is clearly very significant for the Japanese-born and now London-based Japanese Ambient composer Hiro Ama, who has just released the seasonal new single, ‘Autumn Colours’, via PRAH Recordings. Dabbling in the Contemporary Classical, Drone and Electronica genres, Ama is perhaps best known for his ‘Uncertainty’ EP that he released in 2020. On that record, Ama mixed tonal references to his Japanese homeland with pared-down House melodies and Pan-Asian instrumentals and it was self-produced within one month in his London flat during lockdown. Keen gig-goers may have noticed that Ama is also the drummer of the British Indie Pop group Teleman, alongside vocalist Thomas Sanders and bassist Pete Cattermoul, whose three studio albums have all reached the Top 75 of the UK Singles Chart and they opened for Belle & Sebastian on a tour in 2016. For his solo work, Ama has taught himself how to play the both Guitar and Piano. He has also remixed the likes of Rozi Plain and Alabastor De Plume. Out now on his Bandcamp page, ‘Autumn Colours’ is the first taste of his upcoming second solo EP, ‘Animal Emotions’, which comes after a rare break from live touring in eight years, will be released at an undetermined point of time. Settle into Ama’s ‘Autumn Colours’ below.

“As the song title says this is a song for Autumn which is my favourite season. Autumn makes me feel nostalgic and melancholic somehow and I like those feelings. Spring is too pretty and Summer is too happy – I feel Autumn represents myself perfectly”, Hiro Ama explains on his Bandcamp page, adding, “I find a bit of sadness or darkness makes music more beautiful, maybe because it’s imperfect or fragile”, to his discussion behind his latest single’s themes and explorations. Opening with an easy-going kick drum beat that rolls along at a joyous pace, ‘Autumn Colours’ bursts into life with a contemplative Piano riff and a scattering Bass line that occasionally crackles along to the upbeat tempo of the instrumental grooves. The floating Piano riff cascades into a variety of colourful guitar licks and spacious Drum grooves, with a reflective tone that keeps the proceedings feeling warm and relatively bright, but gentle and grounded in delivery. The second half of the song is where things get a little more progressive, as a harsh Synth riff introduces a more distorted nature into the track and continues to add some more diversity to the ongoing spiral of pretty, yet a little somber, Piano melodies and the Drums/Bass combo that adds a more melodic quality to the beats. There’s no need for the vocals, as the more downtempo feel of the Classical instrumentation and the more buoyant acoustic instrumentation conjoin together for a relaxing mix of laidback melodies with a darkened, sometimes rougher, undercurrent. The wavering Synth riff, found in the latter half of the track, continues to add more contemplation to the emotive style of the track and blur the lines between the lighter feelings and the more intense sequences. Overall, ‘Autumn Colours’ is a seasonally appropriate mix between an interpretation of surroundings and an internal monologue, with some hazy melodies and an ever so slightly more sinister touch, yet the Easy Listening style and flair of the track and the blissful instrumentation keeps a fairly light-hearted Jazz element in tact, as the jolly feel of seasons past draws to a close and the leaves turn brown in a surprisingly short notice.

Pictured: Hiro Ama with a Vinyl copy of the ‘Uncertainty’ EP (2020) (Photo via Artist/Facebook.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest blog post, and I’ll be back tomorrow for the final entry in our ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature of the year, as the series will be taking a short hiatus until very early in the new year. That’s because Chrimbo is a-coming, and so we’ll be beginning our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ where we review some alternative festive anthems, both old and new, that could make your seasonal playlists this December. We’ll be rounding things off with a bang instead of a whimper, as we divert our attention to a cult classic single from a French-English Avant-Pop group who are still one of the most influential bands to reach our shores as they renewed interest in older analogue equipment at a desperate time of need. They combined elements of Kraut-Rock & Lounge Jazz, and founded their Duophonic label.

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Today’s Track: Jon Hopkins (feat. Ram Dass & East Forest) – ‘Sit Around The Fire’

November 4, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Jon Hopkins in a photoshoot for a FACT! Magazine feature (2015) (Photo by Dan Medhurst)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’ve got a relaxing pick for your daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You may know the Kingston Upon Thames-born electronic music producer Jon Hopkins from his work on composing the soundtrack for the 2010 cult science fiction drama film ‘Monsters’, or his time playing the keyboard for Imogen Heap on tour. He has also produced or contributed to albums released by Brian Eno, Coldplay, David Holmes and others, and he’s taken part in various collaborations with King Creosante and Leo Abrahams. Whether you’ve heard of him or not before, the fact remains that Hopkins has always left exciting projects in his wake. His next album – ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ – is set for release on November 12th and it promises nothing different than a bold new chapter of his career, exploring genres like Ambient and Electronica in their most blissful forms. The follow-up to 2018’s Mercury Prize-nominated sister projects – ‘Singularity’ and ‘Immunity’ – his next record was inspired by a creative expedition that he took at the Tayos Caves in Ecuador during 2018, and he says, “What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance/electronica record”, also adding, “The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much – it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way”, to his announcement. The lead single, the 8-minute LP closer, is ‘Sit Around The Fire’, that sets a lesser-known talk from ceremony guide Ram Dass, as well as a music video set to scenes from his illustrated book ‘Be Here Now’, to additional production by East Forest. Let’s drift off to it below.

“Music For Psychedelic Therapy is not Ambient, Classical or Drone but has elements of all three. For me, it’s a place as much as it is a sound. It works for the somber mind, but takes on a new dimension entirely when brought into a psychedelic ceremony”, Jon Hopkins notes in a press statement, explaining, “I love this idea of music as something you inhabit, something that works on you energetically. In fact, it was while in that state that the title appeared to me. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music; the music is as important as the medicine”, in his own words. ‘Sit Around The Fire’ is possibly the most accessible track on the LP because it features some fairly conventional lyrics, which are recited in a Spoken Word poem recorded by Ram Dass that was used for a real-life psychedelic ceremony. The first half of the track is dominated by field recordings instead of catchy chords, with some sparse Lo-Fi beats and a motivational speech about presence of being and the source of the light from Dass driving the lyrics forwards. Later, East Forest introduces a calm and plaintive Piano melody to the mixture, which gently complements the ongoing vocal samples. Hopkins brings some melodious chimes into the background, while Dass continues to confront inward vocal tones through to the eight minute mark. The recording feels long, but it never feels overbloated because Hopkins manages to mesh the glitchy elements of Indietronica with the solemn, meditative style of softly building Ambient music to create something that feels more refined and introspective altogether. The lead vocals from the spiritual teacher allows you to feel sand slowly sinking between your fingers, with some calming vocals and some spacious pacing that provides some extra breathing room for the instrumentation to come through clearly. Standouts include lyrics like “You don’t need loneliness/For you couldn’t possibly be alone” that speak about the judgments and opinions of the mind, and vocals like “You don’t need greed/Because you already have it all” that evoke anti-materialism ideas, and later sections like “You don’t need doubt/Because you already know” that speak about finding inner connection and submitting yourself to existence beyond a metaphysical construct. Overall, ‘Sit Around The Fire’ was something very interesting. Far from a conventional single, it is not beat driven at all and is simply built for a different purpose than most other music. It may appear too fanciful at first glance, but the new single is an exemplification of Hopkins’ ideas to arrange music for philosophical commentary. It strengthens Hopkins to be a proper artist because he is not restricting himself to conventionality, and instead chooses to explore broader concepts on his own terms. We could all do with this 8-minute psychological mindfulness in our lives.

Pictured: Cover for ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ (Available on Nov 12, 2021) (via Domino Records)

Thank you for reading my latest post, and I look forward to delivering yet another ‘New Album Release Fridays’ pick tomorrow as we delve into one of the singles taken from one of the weekend’s most notable album releases. If you were a big fan of Soft Cell or Depeche Mode in the 1980’s, you’re hopefully going to love tomorrow’s post. It comes from a US indie Synth-Rock/Post-Punk band who have previously worked in other side projects including The Static Jacks and Machinegum throughout the years.

Pictured: Jon Hopkins performing a live DJ set at Parklife Festival (2018) (Photo by Max Miechowski)

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Spooky Season Special: John Carpenter (feat. Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies) – “The Shape Burns” (From 2018’s ‘Halloween’)

October 31, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: John Carpenter (2021) (Photo Credit: Marlow Stern/Abaca Press/AP/TheDailyBeast.com)

Halloween greetings to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, instructing you to park your Broom up and sit for a spell, since its time for the second part of our Spooktacular specials where we compare the classic and contemporary Halloween soundtracks, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Yesterday, we took an in-depth listen to ‘Michael Kills Judith’ from the titular scene of John Carpenter’s seminal 70’s horror flick, ‘Halloween’, and, today, we’re listening to ‘The Shape Burns’ from the recent reboot of the series. The production stages of 2018’s ‘Halloween’ saw the original film’s director and composer, John Carpenter, make his return to the series for the first time since 1982’s ‘Halloween III: Season Of The Witch’ as an executive producer and general creative consultant, and he also composed the soundtrack alongside Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. The flick was directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Manglehorn) and it also saw Jamie Lee Curtis return to the franchise for more to reprise her role as Laurie Strode from the original film. Ignoring the narrative continuity of previous films from the series, which saw diminishing returns in later installments, the plot of 2018’s ‘Halloween’ is set 40 years after the story of the original Thriller film and it follows a post-traumatic Laurie Strode who prepares to face Michael Myers in a final showdown on Halloween Night. ‘Halloween’ (2018) was an enormous commercial success when it broke box office records for the Slasher genre previously held by 1996’s ‘Scream’ and it has gone on to become the current highest grossing Slasher film in unadjusted dollars, racking up over $255.6m in cinema ticket sales against a fairly small production budget of $10m. ‘The Shape Burns’ occurs during a pivotal moment in the film where Strode traps her old rival – Michael Myers – in the basement and sets him alight for the final time, presumably, since Myers also stars in ‘Halloween Kills’, the sequel that is now showing in cinemas. In the US, the new sequel is also streaming on some tiers of the Peacock streaming service for 30 days after its theatrical release. Another sequel after that – ‘Halloween Ends’ – will follow in 2022. Grab a slice of Barmbrack and hear The Shape burn below.

“We wanted to honor the original Halloween soundtrack in terms of the sounds we used”, Davies has explained in a press release for the reboot’s OST, adding, “Being limited by the length of time in scoring the sequence, we focused on the director’s tempo, timing, and vision. He would tell us what he had in mind, how long the cue should be, what emotion he wanted, and we would take it from there. It’s only the three of us, there is no elaborate system. We wrote, performed, and orchestrated everything”, to his notes for the OST’s release, with the aim of paying homage to the major ‘Halloween’ score that Carpenter composed and recorded in 1978. As with yesterday, I’ve attached a clip of the scene where ‘The Shape Burns’ is used below and a piece of the audio with a plain text background in this post – just for your preference of reference! At first instance, ‘The Shape Burns’ feels surprisingly very similar to the ‘Michael Kills Judith’ stinger from the original film that we explored yesterday and that is because Carpenter and company bring back the tingling Synth melody that goes back and forth throughout the original soundtrack. Once again, things feel minimalist and the production design is not very elaborate, instead relying on rather simplistic melodies to convey emotions of bittersweet melancholy and taking the final stand that Laurie Strode and the other characters perform in the movie since the chords feel urgent. There’s less of an emphasis on tension, however, and more of an Orchestral style that suggests something has been paid off, mixing some feelings of triumph and relief in the contemporary score. It revisits the chilling Synths of the original score and the non beat-driven nature of the old soundtrack with the clear nods to Halloween’s late-70’s past, but there’s a higher tempo and some more varied Electronic keys sequences that inspires a ‘send-off’ or ‘battle’ theme, connoting a higher sense of action and pace in the recent film than the vintage one. The score taps into a slightly higher gear and it introduces some lower pitched Synths that feel more grand and cinematic than what came before, but the production methods still feel rather low-key and not too overly produced because the formula is kept simple. Overall, ‘The Shape Burns’ promises a thrilling and exciting sequence that hurtles the unsettling Strings at a neck breaking speed, while keeping the same Synth patterns and Lo-Fi production of the original score in tact. This move, in turn, adds new bells and whistles to the score in comparison to the original flick but it also manages to make it feel rather old and reminiscent of the original flick due to the clear similarities which point directly towards the late-70’s. How very Ghoulish.

If you are not currently up to speed on the first part of our Spooky series that began yesterday, check out these thoughts on ‘Michael Kills Judith’ from the original ‘Halloween’ score. Try not to get caught up in Michael Myers’ killing spree while you do it here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/10/30/spooky-season-special-john-carpenter-michael-kills-judith-from-1978s-halloween/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Halloween’ (OST) (Released in 1979) (via Columbia Records/Varese Sarabrande)

That’s everything for now – and all for this year’s All Hallow’s Eve too. There’s no tricks tomorrow though, and just treats, as we jumpstart the beginning of the new month with new music from a new artist. It comes from a 17-year-old singer songwriter who is releasing her ‘Artificial’ EP next Friday. She makes indie alt-pop songs with a hint of psychedelia and jazz – and she has received daytime airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music.

Pictured: Actor Nick Castle with Michael Myers’ iconic Halloween mask (2018) (Photo by Ryan Green)

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Spooky Season Special: John Carpenter – “Michael Kills Judith” (From 1978’s ‘Halloween’)

October 30, 2021 — Leave a comment

Happy All Hallows Eve! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m wishing you a spook-tacular season with a two-part spread of new posts where we compare the work of John Carpenter’s music for the original 1978 version of ‘Halloween’ and the recent 2018 rebooted edition, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Born in Carthage, New York – John Carpenter is an American film director, composer and producer who is known for films like ‘Dark Star’ (1974), ‘The Thing’ (1982), ‘Big Trouble In Little China’ (1986) and ‘Vampires’ (1998), with the latter earning him a Saturn Award for ‘Best Music’. His films range between cult classics and commercial successes, but he was given the Golden Coach Award by the French Directors’ Guild in 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival for his overall contributions to cinema as an art form. Carpenter also holds a Commercial Pilot’s Licence and he has appeared in many of his own films as a pilot with a rotorcraft helicopter in cameo roles. None of his movies arguably scream seminal quite like his famous 1978 horror film, ‘Halloween’, which was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library Of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” in 2006. It remains to be one of the most profitable Indie films of all-time following its release way back in 1978, and it has grossed over $70m globally. The success of ‘Halloween’ kicked off a long line of Alfred Hitchcock-inspired Slasher flicks, and it has spawned a media franchise of sequels, remakes, reboots, novelizations, comic books and video games in the years to follow. The plot of the film follows the events of mental asylum patient Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his babysitting teenage sister on Halloween night – October 31st – when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he’s on the loose and he escapes to his hometown, where he stalks a female babysitter (Laurie Strode, played by the very famous actress Jamie Lee Curtis), while being pursued by his Psychiatrist. It sounds like terrifying stuff – although I’ve only ever seen bits and pieces of the original film and the 2018 reboot, which we’ll be discussing to see what has changed (or not) tomorrow in musical terms. We’re going to listen to the music that plays in the opening scene where Michael kills his sister Judith, the catalyst for all of the stories that followed, from the original soundtrack released in 1979 in Japan, and 1983 in the USA. Grab your Pumpkin Spiced Latte and get in the seasonal spirit below.

‘Halloween Kills’ is the latest film in the series, which is showing in cinemas now. In terms of the original soundtrack, however, it was originally falsely credited to the Bowling Green Symphony Orchestra because one of the film’s producers felt that it wouldn’t be taken seriously if credited to Carpenter honestly. However, the harsh Synth theme of the film seems more famous than the film itself in some ways, and so the joke’s on them. Carpenter also states in several interviews that his father was a music professor who taught him to play a drum beat on the Bongo’s in a 5/4 time signature when he was a child, and that was the key inspiration behind the notable, abrasive Synth chords in the film that run throughout the score. I’ve included the scene where ‘Michael Kills Judith’ is used in the film for your reference, and a plain text background featuring the music itself above, just for your preference of reference! Anyways, it is easy to see that Carpenter wanted to capture a very seriously murky and uneasy atmosphere for his score, and he packs a lot of minimalist suspense material that basically acts as a recapitulation of the same eerie Synth motifs of the ongoing music into the scene. He doesn’t try to replicate a fake imitation of an orchestra playing the music, and he instead leans in to the unusual Drone sounds of the spacious instrumentation that he uses quite scarcely. The Synths are piercing and unpleasant as the original Synth sections from the original theme music keep replaying, but the opening music of the scene is not beat driven at all, and the chords and melody is barely existent. Instead, we get a slow and plodding build to some jump scare-ish like rhythms as the ghostly Piano music uses its few melodies to key effect and flutter beneath the long, Drone sequences of Ambient production. The sound quality is very good, but the patterns are irregular and they create a sense of ‘unearth’ and discomfort when you listen to it since there’s no emphasis on consistent hooks or very frequent patterns. However, there’s a slight glistening effect of the Synths at the start that could lull you into a sense of security that later proves to be false. In conclusion, this is a great part of the official soundtrack because it creates the atmosphere of inevitable stabbing and subtle tone changes to complement the horrific visuals of the movie scene while using elements of Drone music and Ambient classical music to create abnormality and uncanny emotions for the listener through the uneven instrumental patterns that are difficult to predict. It doesn’t necessarily frighten me or even scare me, but it manages to put me on edge a little bit since it prepares me for the dark and occasionally Gothic, yet coherent material of the movie.

That’s all for now! As mentioned, we’ll be comparing and contrasting the soundtracks of two of the more popular ‘Halloween’ films over the weekend, and it continues tomorrow when we listen to something from the more contemporary reboot of the series from 2018, which broke prior box office records held by ‘Scream’ on its release.

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Today’s Track: Nils Frahm – “O I End”

April 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

The bold Hamburgian Piano virtuoso who is anti-NFT and All Melody. New post time!

Pictured: Nils Frahm (in 2015) (Photo Credit: Joseph Okpako/Redferns/Pitchfork.com)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up on the blog for your track of the day, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A German composer who has gained wide critical acclaim and sizable global success since the mid-2010’s, Nils Frahm is known for combining sensibilities of electronic music and ambient Jazz with his distinct slice of self-composed Contemporary Classical music. His elaborate set-up kit of a grand piano, an upright piano, Roland Juno-60, Rhodes piano, drum machines and a Moog Taurus synth are the tools at his disposal to help him convey emotions and thoughts through his brand of mostly improvised work. He’s hugely prolific, with close ties to similarly inventive modern composers like Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller and F.S. Blumn, through frequent collaborations. He also performs with Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastien Singwald as Nonkeen. If I had to flip a coin, it would probably land on ‘All Melody’ as being my personal favourite album of his, and I’ve been an avid follower of Frahm’s recordings for the last four or five years. ‘O I End’ turned out to be a teaser single for ‘Graz’, an album which Frahm recorded in 2009 that never saw the light of day until this point. He ‘surprise dropped’ the nine-track recording in appreciation of World Piano Day on March 29, and you can also put your name down to pre-order the vinyl release of ‘Graz’ due on May 21st via Erased Tapes, and it was mixed by Thomas Geiger. Let your anxieties dissipate with ‘O I End’ below.

A fun fact about ‘World Piano Day’ is that actually happens specifically on the 88th day of the year – and that has been determined to represent the 88 total keys on a Piano. In a press statement on the belated release of ‘Graz’, Nils Frahm had an ambiguous comment to make, and all he had to say was this: “Sometimes, when you hear a Piano, you might think it’s a conversation between a man and a woman”, continuing, “At the same time, it can hint at the shapes of the universe, and describe how a black hole looks”, concluding, “You can make sounds that have no relation to anything we can measure”, in his gently philosophical musings. He’s also been in the news lately for his stance against the digital art format of the NFT which is generating a lot of buzz in the business, saying “Some of my heroes like Aphex Twin are selling, sorry, crap for 130,000 bucks… It’s unforgivable to participate in something which is so bleak and so wrong” in his take on the popular digital format, which he seems to feel is much more of a fad, although I still can’t get my head around what the platform even is. In any case, these comments were a reminder to me on what Nils Frahm is all about. What keeps us coming back to his work is the sense that, in the emotive qualities of his practices, he has an artistic gift of composing music that gives me the feeling of time slowly dissipating, and the more superficial worries of the world becoming much less important through these subtle melodies. It’s a staple from his old bag of tricks that he manages to pull off, once again, on ‘O I End’, a track which sounds contemplative and downbeat. While direct contextual meanings are open to interpretations based on your own feelings and daydreams when you listen to the track, it gives me a feeling of looking back on the fragmented memories of my life. Paired with the rather dark track title of ‘O I End’, it makes me imagine an elderly character reflecting on his life while playing an improvised sequence alone at a piano. The rhythms are deep and soulful, as the washing waves of rolling Piano melodies calmly ease their way from one moment through to the next. The downtempo keys feel isolated, but schooled in a vintage Classical music training that also meets the spontaneity of instrumental Jazz music. It’s gentle, but raw enough to make you feel as though you may be intruding on a more personal experience of the auteur’s soul. It doesn’t really “go anywhere” in the traditional sense, but you could argue that it just doesn’t need to. This is just a well-paced, but soothing and still, moment of reflection.

Pictured: Nils Frahm in Berlin, Germany (2018) (Photo by Mustafah Abdulaziz/The New York Times)

There’s my musical musing for the day – but please don’t forget to check back with me here tomorrow, for a new entry in our weekly ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature where we throw back to the sounds of the past that have influenced the recognizable sounds of the present – or sometimes look back at old rarities that are simply a bit bonkers. The mood strikes me for tomorrow for a flash back to an early recording from a Welsh rock band who are colloquially known as “The Manics” and were a key figurehead of the Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement in 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: Boards Of Canada – “An Eagle In Your Mind” (1998)

November 3, 2020 — 1 Comment

David Attenborough would be all over this bird of nature! It’s time for a new blog post!

Pictured: Marcus Eoin and Marcus Sandison in a vintage press shot (unknown date) (via Warp Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to repay my promise of typing up about your daily track on the blog today, as it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! An interesting classic IDM record that I’ve been listening to over the last few weeks is “Music Has The Right To Children”, an ambient record from 1998 which was self-produced by Boards Of Canada, a Scottish electronic music duo, on the Warp Records label. The piece of material went down as a landmark in electronic music work, and it has appeared on many best-ever lists from music publications like Pitchfork and Mojo. While the bulk of electronic music sprawls from Industrial and futuristic technology from urban environments – the intriguing case of Boards Of Canada is that the duo grew up in a very small urban community in Scotland, where they have since remained very reclusive from their fanbase, hardly ever taking part in any press interviews or live performances. For “Music Has The Right To Children”, the brothers of Marcus Eoin and Mike Sandison decided to create experimental sounds from outdated analogue software and samples taken from 1970’s public broadcasting children’s programmes to invoke themes of early childhood, nostalgia and nature. The duo have shrouded themselves in secrecy, and started making music by sending Casettes of their work to their friends and family. Let’s see a fan-made video for “An Eagle In Your Mind” below.

Fan-made videos have played a significant factor in keeping the Boards Of Canada’s fanbase active over the years, with long gaps of years between the subsequent album releases, and the band managed to pull off an elaborate “Easter Egg Hunt” in the highly-anticipated marketing push towards 2013’s “Tomorrow’s Harvest”, but that’s another story for another day. “An Eagle In Your Mind” is the third cut on the track listing for “Music Has The Right To Children”, and it perfectly sums up the basic key elements of the album, for my two cents. As you’ve probably noticed, it’s not really a track that is very accessible from a dancing point-of-view – despite being labelled as an “IDM” release. Instead, we’re given some meditative textures and peculiar sounds that feel rooted in degraded synthesizer hardware and 1970’s-inspired Hip-Hop break-beats. The track begins with a slowly fading synth line that soon washes over the top of a scratching, downtempo turntable beat sample. The sound, although entirely instrumental, manages to feel very rich and fresh because it sounds emotionally mature and hallucinatory, to a degree. Ideas of early childhood memory and adolescent behaviour peek their head in at a midway mark, when the tempo of the Syncopated backing beat increases and a very abrupt vocal sample of “I Love You” cuts into the picture, and it signals for a whistled backing vocal sample and an emerging synth line that comes into full force later on, with a harsh ambience that seems very dense. There may not be very much going on here, melodically – but the lo-fi beats have been layered in a hugely calculated and meticulous manner. The ideas of early childhood memory develops very smoothly, as a result, with cut-off samples and resonating synth work managing to evoke emotions which are ever so slightly strange and peculiar – and – for me – this is what manages to make the record stand out as a truly fascinating and unique project. It feels as if you’re a child, sitting at the TV, watching old advertisements fly by, or like you’re riding a bike with your friends around the countryside as your mind wanders to an imaginative, fantastical place. In a nutshell, it plays out like an adult’s reflection of their nostalgia – as you’re left with fragments of memories at this stage of your life and it’s hard to filter what is real and what is fantasy as a child anyways – and the record is bizarrely accurate in doing so. An album that would take time and perseverance to connect with you, but – depending on your upbringing as I was a strange child myself – it will slowly reward you with a payment of nostalgic, intricate sounds which are unrivalled. Go and listen!

Pictured: Cover Art for "Music Has The Right To Children" (LP) (Released in 1998) (via Warp Records) — Pictured: Cover Art for “Music Has The Right To Children” (LP) (Released in 1998) (via Warp Records)

Thank you for reading my new post! Please feel free to join me tomorrow – where we’ll be making a change of pace with an in-depth look at the latest album from one of the most legendary African-American Hip-Hop groups of all-time, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Fame in 2013, and critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine named them as “The most influential and radical band of their time” for AllMusic in 2017. 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: Candace – “Still Phase”

October 12, 2020 — Leave a comment

A “Witchgaze” trio from Portland who you’ll never see Coven. It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Ideal Corners” (Released on May 29th, 2020) (via Self-Released/Bandcamp)

Good Morning! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, it’s time for me to type up about your 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! With their self-described “Witchgaze” sound, Candace are a Shoegaze and Dream-Folk band from Portland, Oregon. The line-up is made up of Mara Appel Des Lauriers, Sarah Nienebar and Sarah Rose, who share the vocals and guitar roles on their tracks, with Des Lauriers supplying the Drum parts too. They first met in Minneapolis, where the three ladies bonded over their love for guitars in their parents houses, before forming their band (Which was then-known as Is/Is) in 2009. They currently self-produce all of their music, and they self-release it all on their Bandcamp page. They seem to have quite the prolific discography if you take a moment to look at all of the music releases on their Bandcamp page, and “Ideal Corners” is the latest full-length album release, which they uploaded onto the page on May 19th, 2020. The release saw them collaborate on production with Larry Crane, and it was recorded at the Jackpot! Recording Studio almost a whole year ago. It also finds them experimenting with electronic Synth hardware, namely drum machines, to add an “otherworldy” feel to their guitar-led Shoegaze sound. “Still Phase” is the lead single from their recent album, and the trio commented, in a press release, that it “is about coming to terms with the senslesness of inaction, about learning over and over again that there is ‘no right time’, nothing is ever definite”. Let’s relax and take a listen to “Still Phase” below.

Their recent album explores “themes of nostalgia and hope, the unease of modern band life, expectations and inertia – all encapsulated into tightly written psychedelic dream pop songs” according to their partner label Little Cloud Records. It’s certainly noticeable that “Still Phase” has a significantly light and gentle sound, and there is really not much in the way of explosive variations in sound or memorable lyrical hooks here, necessarily. However, it’s melodic enough. The vocals are fairly easy to decipher, which is quite an unusual trait for a Shoegaze release, as Ninebar chimes: “Forget my name, go on, let this soar, we’re flying/Keep on trying” and “Now, I know you then” at a soft ease, over the top of an increasingly layered series of psych-laden textures, with fluffy and laborious guitar work easily blending with a set of gently melancholic backgrounds, and soft-centred drum beats which slowly build up to a distorted layer of heavy bass as we near the track’s conclusion. There is also a sense of strength that develops between these minor changes of tempo as well, and the thorough line is a droning, but calming, lead vocal that has a proverbial effect of just massaging your ears. Overall, it presents a textural backdrop of a gorgeous pool of soft psychedelic sounds for you to submerge yourself in, even if this pool could be a little deeper with further experimentation of a slightly more varied set of sounds. It’s still a beautiful and lovely sound though, and the DIY feel, that reminds me of Beach House and Mazzy Star, weirdly adds a little more engagement to it, with it’s simplicity.

Pictured: Mara Appel Des Lauriers (Drums/Producer), Sarah Nienabar (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar) and Sarah Rose (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) (2016) (Photo by Jeni Wren Stotrup/The Portland Mercury)

Thank you very much for reading my new post! Make sure to check out the blog tomorrow, where we’ll be heading across to the Merge Records label to take an in-depth look at one of their latest releases. The single comes from an electronic Post-Punk producer from Washington, DC who has previously released her material on Danger Records, and “she favours smart, sharp, effortlessly cool compositions that worm their way into your conciousness without breaking a sweat”, according to NME’s Jordan Bassett. If you really 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: Silverbacks – “Dunkirk”

August 22, 2020 — Leave a comment

An exciting new band who aim to exchange Gold for the price of silver! New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Fad” (Album/LP) (Released on July 17th, 2020) (via Central Tones Ltd.)

Good Morning! I am Jacob Braybrooke and I am typing up about your daily track on the blog – as per usual – because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Not to be confused with a breed of Gorillas of the same name, Silverbacks are a new 5-piece indie rock band from Dublin, Ireland. The group have been making strong waves stateside and internationally, with their D.I.Y. rock sound that harkens back to the taut rhythm drive of late-70’s Indie Punk, while incorporating a NYC Synth-Punk style reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem, and paying tribute to the quintessential New York sound with a discordant element of No-Wave. They have been working with Girl Band bassist Daniel Fox, as a producer, on their debut album, “Fad”, which has garnered critical acclaim since it’s release in mid-July of this year, via Central Tones. Fun fact, the band were supposed to play a gig at my local venue of The Sugar Mill in Stoke-On-Trent back in May, and I was planning on going to check them out because I had heard of them before, but well… We all know how that turned out! Let’s just check them out now, instead – with “Dunkirk” – below.

Ireland has become somewhat of a signature area in the development of an emerging guitar sound, with the ascending popularity of aggressive Indie Punk outfits like Fontaines DC, The Murder Capital and Bambara, a market of which I get the sense that Silverbacks are tapping into with “Dunkirk”, but they stand up to these acts with their comparatively more melodic pull, as they are also trying to quietly sneak into the NYC No-Wave revival scene. The track, lyrically, is a dystopian re-imagining of the events of the Battle Of Dunkirk in 1940, with Daniel O’ Kelly using snarky hooks like: “A safety pin right through the ear/40 years of manhood” and “Swinging arms, Beating commuters on the tarmac beaches of Dunkirk” to rhythmically bring things up to date with the exploration of masculinity and domestic-ism as themes. An “every punk trick in the book” signals a knowing nod to a churning Bass guitar hook that takes the steady Lead guitar hook to a more fiery place and creates a rougher energy, to counteract the cleaner production style used in the verses. The chorus explores the idea of the Dunkirk beaches now being a holiday resort for the OAP crowd, with a sarcastic undertone of couples in failing marriages in similar vein to The Sex Pistols’ “Holiday In The Sun”, as his vocals grow in disorientation and precedes a high-pitched interlude. The delivery has a Drone quality to it, and the guitar riffs remain to be driven by intellect. The tension gets calmed down by an upbeat bass guitar riff that comes out of nowhere, forming up a Math-Rock inspired outro that suprised me as a listener, and deviates from the D.I.Y. punk style that it was building towards at a gradual place. Overall, the guitar work feels impressive and the sound pays off in challenging the conventions of a typical indie punk act. I probably wouldn’t choose to listen intently to it, as I’ve never been a part of the musical world it’s catering towards and it mainly washes over me quite a bit, which makes it quite difficult for me to feel that I can judge a record like this. For what it is worth, however, I think they’re a stronger part of the popular new Irish punk scene, but it is sadly not a sound that I’m really into – it’s just not “my thing”. But, I feel it is technically good, and worth a listen.

Pictured: Daniel O’ Kelly (Lead Vocals/Writer), Killian O’ Kelly (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals/Producer), Peadar Kearney (Lead Guitar), Emma Hanlon (Bass Guitar) and Gary Wickham (Drums/Percussion) (in 2020) (via PR)

Thank you for reading today’s blog post! Tomorrow marks the signal for a new weekly edition of Scuzz Sundays, the time of the week where we take a look back at an Emo-Rock or a Pop-Punk relic from between the late-1990’s and the mid-2000’s. Shockingly, we’ll be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the feature with an in-depth look back at a terrible tune that was a predominant part of the Scuzz TV era… But most fans probably would not have it any other way! 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: Aphex Twin – “#3”

August 18, 2020 — Leave a comment

Happy Birthday, Richard – I hope your card came! It’s time for a special Birthday post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Selected Ambient Works (Volume II)” (Released on 7th March, 1994) (via Warp Records)

Only the die-hards will get the reference above… Good Morning and a Happy 48th Birthday to Richard D. James, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m typing another daily post on the blog, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! As mentioned beforehand, August 18th marks the commemorative birthday of one of the best people to have ever lived, Richard D. James, mostly known as Aphex Twin, who is 49 years old today. If you’ve been following my blog and my other projects for a long while, you’ll be aware of my totally unprofessional Fanboy obsession for the guy. He is, without much doubt, my favourite male solo musician of all-time. Therefore, I have planned to look back at one of his most popular projects, “Selected Ambient Works Volume II”, to mark the occasion. Released in 1994, this was his second full-length album, which James claims to have literally made in his sleep… heavily inspired by melodies that he’s heard while he was Lucid Dreaming at night. He likens it to “Standing in a power station on acid”, and it enjoyed a relatively quiet release period based on my research (Since I wasn’t born then… So don’t quote me on it), before it gained a large cult following and it became one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of the 1990’s, appearing on all-time best lists from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Spin. There’s no lyrics whatsoever, and the sound sees James harkening back to the Easy Listening classics from Brian Eno, during the 1970’s, for inspiration. The main factor of significance related to this album comes from a service which allowed fans to mail each other and discuss the obscure sounds and deep, layered soundscapes of the record. In a time where social media simply did not exist, it was basically the first album ever to basically get talked about, thus becoming a social event. None of the track listings have official names either, and one fan – Greg Eden, has once popularized names of the track which get used by fellow fans and journalists based on a murky set of images that can be found in the album’s liner notes of each physical copy. “#3” is one of James’ most beloved tracks by fans and the press, and it is more commonly referred to as “Rhubarb”. Let’s have a listen below.

If you’re only recognizably familiar with “Windowlicker” and/or “Come To Daddy”, this would likely catch you off-guard and take you by suprise quite a lot! “#3” is not very beat-driven at all, instead offering to you a moment of serene beauty and timeless fascination, demanding your full attention as you stand still for a few moments and simply interact with the sound. It deeply moves many of James’ most dedicated fans, with a light tension which captures a feeling between distressing and comforting. “#3” consists of a static synth line that feels soft and consonant, with a peaceful tone and a very subtle rumble of Bass which gently alters the course of the key changes throughout the track. It shines in allowing you, as the listener, to associate the track with whatever nostalgic images or contemplative emotions that your mind can conjure up. To me, it reminds me of a well-kept lake of water, as a tide moves briskly, but slowly, outwards as the ripples of the wave form a small tide. This is due to the percussion-free electronica forming up a meditative sentiment, and the breezy Organ pipe melodies adding a semblence of a sun-soaked vibe to it. The album was a slow-burning word of mouth triumph in it’s success, and it manages to feel wholly original and highly different to James’ other works. Once you have interacted with the record by giving James your co-operation, it slowly unfolds and it becomes a record, with “#3” in particular, that replaces it’s initial uncompromising feel with a charm that gets slowly discovered. It requires the surrender of your brain cells to work it properly, but it’s well worth the effort because this is music that has a transcendent beauty of it’s genuine own. One of the most interesting selections from one of the all-time greatest!

Pictured: Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) at an undisclosed gig in his early days (1992) (via electronicbeats.net)

If you’re pining to hear some more Aphex material, you’ve come to a decent place! You can read up my thoughts on “Vordhosbn”, from 2001’s “Drukqs”, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/24/todays-track-aphex-twin-vordhosbn/, and you can also check out my festive write-up for ““XMAS EVET_10 (Thanaton3 Mix)” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/12/24/christmas-eve-special-aphex-twin-xmas-evet_10-thanaton3-mix/. Or, if you’re a first-time listener or you want to get more familiar with Richard’s beautiful music, you can check out my very own podcast here, which offers a guide of “5 Tracks To Get You Into Aphex Twin”. Once more, my heart goes out to Richard on his special Lornaderek day!

Pictured: Richard D. James on a poster for a live performance at Hallum University, Sheffield, England (1993)

Thank you very much for reading my new post! It will be back to business as usual tomorrow, with an in-depth listen to a pretty recent track which I sadly didn’t quite get the time to cover nearer to the time of it’s release. This next cut comes from an Essex-based singer-songwriter who started writing her own music when she was around 7, before re-entering the scene at the age of 9… and she’s now currently signed to Asylums’ indie label, Cool Thing Records. 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/