EDM

Today’s Track: Mindchatter – ‘Brain Pills’

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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Today’s Track: Elkka – ‘Make Me’

March 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

Femme Fatale is for the artists with more than just a pretty face. Time for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Prism Of Pleasure’ (Available from May 3rd, 2024) (via Ninja Tune)

Pleasure. Sexuality. The glare of desire that blurs out everybody else in the room. The look of love at first sight that paints an immediate picture of that one you want to be with regardless of a physical connection. These are all common human themes that feel relatable within the results of Ellka’s latest track ‘Make Me’ which has, over the past couple of weeks, grown on this exhausted music journalist like the wings slowly forming on a caterpillar which turn it into a beautiful butterfly as it manifests over the course of approximately 4 weeks on average. Elkka is the release name for the Cardiff-born DJ/Producer Emma Kirby who is currently making a name for herself on the EDM scene in London. Following years of being widely supported by peers including Four Tet, Caribou, Sofia Kourtesis, Jon Hopkins, SHERELLE and Floating Points, Kirby is set to unleash her first full-length album record ‘Prism Of Pleasure’ onto the public on May 3rd via Ninja Tune. She also won an AIM Award for Best Remix for her work on a ‘Megapunk’ remix, a track which was originally produced by one-woman Emo/Punk orchestra Ela Minus. A 10-track project written over the course of 18 months, ‘Prism Of Pleasure’ is a bold, vibrantly textured exploration of intimacy and identity within the LGBTQ+ community that explores her gradual rise to day-to-day music production as a lucrative career. The cover artwork is rooted in this concept, which features a photograph of Elkka taken by her wife Alex Lambert who is also an artistic collborator that represents the ideology of the female gaze that has always been prevalent in the media. ‘Make Me’ is the sensual and ambitious lead single of the long-awaited album that promises to stand as a token of her personal evolution as an artist. Spin it below.

“Make me love you, make me love you, make me love you” is a hypnotic refrain that reverbarates through the four-to-the-floor rhythmic pattern of the track and, in its straightforward essence, gets the pure pleasure that has rested in Elkka’s mind across to the listener as an emphatic statement of lust and attraction. “Make me is one of the first tracks I wrote for this project. It really sums up the album for me. Its about connection and vulnerability you feel with someone whilst laced with this uncontrollable intensity and pattern“, Kirby has told the press about the single in her promotional materials which makes it clear to her fans that ‘Make Me’ is an emblematic assertion of the album’s main drive. The hefty, continous drum beats and the opaque, substantial synth notes mesh beautifully with the straightforward, fleshy vocals to create the substantial amount of intensity that can be heard in the new, glistening track. At one point, the dense crescendo is relaxed and the vocals have a more disco-esque feel to them that allow a flirtatious quality to merge through the foundations. By the end, it’s clear that a mixture of warm intentions and simple sexuality are rubbing against each other to create a beautiful dance anthem that is so sonically varied that it pulls you in unexpected directions while remaining consistent to its core of displaying pure passion in a romantic situation. Overall, I love ‘Make Me’ due to this zealous and excitable style and while it isn’t hitting you around the head with its LGBTQ+ themes, they feel integral and necessary to the tune in a natural way.

Pictured: Emma Kirby (Elkka) showing off her pandemic studio set-up (2021) (Photo via TheVinylFactory.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me on the recent reunion tour for One Track At A Time after I went on a hiatus and please join me again next week where I will be showcasing another one of my favourite recent releases. Next time, it is coming from a Belgian electronic music producer who has been stepping out of the shadows of a Charlotte Adigery collaboration to shine in his own solo spotlight. I look forward to it!

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Way Back Wednesdays: The Knife – ‘Silent Shout’

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

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

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

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

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

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Today’s Track: Yunè Pinku – ‘DC Rot’

April 14, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Yunè Pinku in promotional artwork for the ‘Bluff’ EP (2022) (Photo Credit: Joshua Onabowu)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Teen Techno music producer Yuné Pinku is an emerging name in the alternative dance music community with a love for Madonna and Billy Joel drawing from her influences of 90’s Acid House and classic UKG recordings. Her sturdy profile includes a collaboration with Australian experimental music producer Logic1000 for the track ‘What You Like’ from 2021. She has also been co-signed by Joy Orbison, who invited her to contribute a guest mix for his residency on BBC Radio 1 last year. The 19-year-old artist has her roots found in Malaysia and Ireland, and you can hear her most recent work through her debut EP release – ‘Bluff’ – which is out now via PLATOON. She says, “Bluff is about letting go and reeling in, finding your feet in the night life world. I think this song is kind of an ode to London night life and it’s a song I think really sums up my feeling of the good times I had as a teenager in London, but also with the slight paranoia of the danger that exists in the night world”, when explaining her experiences of carving out her niche as a bedroom pop producer in the EDM world. If you live in London, you can also catch her playing at The Bermondsey Social Club for her debut headline show appearance on April 29h. The penultimate single to be lifted from the EP is ‘DC Rot’, and the music video acts as an ode to the homemade skateboarding reels of the 00’s. It stars her sister Faith – who also happens to be a pro skater. Let’s check it out below.

Acknowledging her passion for the craft of Skateboarding in Synth-heavy style on ‘DC Rot’, the London-based DJ says, “DC Rot is an exploration of a year and all the things you can do in one”, adding, “Whether it’s coming out of hibernation and getting older, experiencing in excess whether that be negative or positive. Putting yourself out there and sometimes getting hurt, but just going on a pilgrimage of all the things you can and can’t do. In this case, a motif is skate culture hence the title DC Rot, it can be such a freeing culture but can be pretty shakey at other times, constantly shifting”, in her attached notes. ‘DC Rot’ captures the vibe of a 00’s throwback like Peggy Gou and Park Hye Jin, balancing out a multi-tude of wavering beats and interchangeable grooves that are initially built from dissonant piano house keys and a robust kick drum sequence, while Pinku’s nonchalant vocals recite melodic lyrics like “Funky baby on the clock/Vodka tonic, 3 ‘o’ clock” and “3 more lover, down with hot/I can’t not see you enough” with a hazy, relaxed feel that makes the EDM-driven track feel like a suitable accompaniment to an evening where you are preparing for a night out. The phased-out breakbeats and the crystalline synths make for an intriguing contrast to the conversational, gently spoken-sung delivery of the vocals. This successful blurs any idea that Pinku is placing herself into a box of specific genre conventions, and the gleaming warmth of Pinku’s production manages to make the melodic progression feel quite futuristic. Her voice, meanwhile, sighs and demures magnetically to draw you into her sonic pallete before the pace spirals more uncontrollably. The pipe harmonies and the Chill Hop-oriented breakbeats pull the scene back on course later, creating a sense of unpredictable layering that feels reflective of Pinku’s lyrical themes of expressing her perceived loss of purpose in life outside of the night club’s doors. Charming and refreshing, ‘DC Rot’ shows that Pinku has the talent to disregard old traits and step into a more futuristic sound instead, while carrying herself as more than just a monetisable project with her more gripping statement of intent creatively.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Bluff’ (EP) (Released on April 1st, 2022) (via PLATOON)

That brings me right to the end of another daily post, and thank you for continuing to support the site every day! I’ll be back tomorrow, where it’s shaping up to be a ‘Good Friday’ because there’s another entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ in store for you. We’ll be previewing the new solo album from a Tom Petty and Neil Young-influenced rock star known for his work as the former lead guitarist of The War On Drugs, if you’d like to join me then. He also co-created ‘Lotta See Lice’ with Courtney Barnett in 2017.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Today’s Track: Röyksopp (feat. Alison Goldfrapp) – ‘Impossible’

March 22, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Röyksopp (Svein Berge & Torbjørn Brundtland) (DJ’s/Producers) (2022) (Photo via SynthpopFanatic.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to raise our spirits above from the depths of despair with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Weaving between Progressive Synthpop, Acid Techno and Dark Ambient across the last two decades, the Norwegian electronic dance duo of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland have decided to tear up the rule book in retiring the traditional album release format with their upcoming sixth LP release – ‘Profound Mysteries’ – that hits store shelves on April 29th via Dog Triumph Records. To date, the duo – who were formed in Tromsø in 1998 – have been nominated for two Grammy Awards, won seven Spellemannprisen Awards, performed globally on tours, had four consecutive #1 albums in Norway, and collaborated with huge names like Robyn. Therefore, it’s somewhat strange that, aside from a vague familiarity with their name, they have largely slipped my radar in their time. However, I heard ‘Impossible’ on The Current’s Song Of The Day podcast and its deep, dark grooves were enough for me to keep listening on rather than just hitting the skip button like I sometimes do. ‘Impossible’ features the vocal abilities of Alison Goldfrapp, the lead singer of 00’s commercial euro-disco heavyweights Goldfrapp, and Röyksopp are pitching their imminent full-length new release as “an expanded creative universe and a prodigious conceptual project” in their press release. One of these projects is ‘The Conversation’, a recent short film uploaded to their YouTube channel last month that was directed by Danish filmmaker Martin De Thurah. To give you some more context about what they actually mean, the duo say, “As human beings, what we don’t know vastly overshadows what we do know. As teenagers, we would discuss our own fascination with the infinite and the impossible. The most profound mysteries of life”. Check out the lead single below.

It has been a long time since we’ve heard from the duo since their last LP release – 2014’s ‘The Inevitable End’ – launched almost eight years ago. Commenting on the collaboration for ‘Impossible’, guest vocalist Alison Goldfrapp says, “It’s been great working with the wonderful Svein and Torbjørn from Røyksopp. I’ve been a fan of their music for years and it was a fascinating joy creating ‘Impossible’ together. I truly hope everyone enjoys the track as there’s more to come”, in her press notes. Mimicking the visual of a glittery disco ball slowly fading to a liquid ink black in terms of sound, ‘Impossible’ starts off with a smooth set of Synths that recall a clear Disco influence before slowly growing into a barrage of assaulting textures as the bassline becomes more crunchy in style and the percussive Drum melodies contribute to the shimmering delivery. Goldfrapp’s lyrics feel hypnotic and alluring, with vague and enigmatic, in terms of mood, lyrics like “You’re the world ablaze/You’re the space between/Impossible/The perfect dream” and “I can touch the sky/Hear your lion heart/Feel the inside” that reveal little in the way of clear-cut details, but they carry a sensual yet not overtly sexual tone that floats above the more relentless pace of the instrumental parts to give the thumping concoction of downtempo electronica and progressive disco music an ethereal, polished feel. It builds to a neat closing stretch where the same lyrics are repeated amongst a more silk-like texture of electronic beats, where it feels like high-stakes tension has been relieved in favour of more operatic thrills. It sounds far from overly commercial, but it sounds melodic enough to feel like a natural selection for a single rather than purely an album track, and the vocals from Goldfrapp’s vocalist seem musically upbeat in the vein of their more well-known cuts in the mainstream while retaining an experimental, high-pitched finish. The production feels delicate overall, where a diversity of textures and genre ideas have been put together in a meticulous way that makes them feel coherent together when the sum of each part is added in unison. The spaced-out synths grow a little bit tiresome by the track’s end for me, but the pacing feels sublime and the chemistry between the two acts is excellent too, making the disillusioned grooves feel addictive while rewarding and challenging to keep listening to. Overall, although I feel that ‘Impossible’ is more of a “good track” than a “truly special” one due to it’s tendency to grow just a tad tedious by the end, it features an intriguing array of sounds that indicate subtle hints of different dance-related genres that are whipped together in a blender to conjure up a pretty well-textured smoothie. One for a long night ride home.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Profound Mysteries’ (LP) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Dog Triumph Records)

That brings us to the end of a fairly cryptic new post on the blog today, and I’ll be taking a break from my recent recommendations tomorrow as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’. Thank you for supporting me today, and please feel free to join me again then for a look back at an early 00’s UK Hip-Hop classic by a British rapper and producer who has produced numerous singles and albums for the Big Dada label since 1994. His track in question was memorable for it’s intentionally similar melody to the ‘Doctor Who’ TV theme track and it reached the top spot of the UK Dance chart.

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Today’s Track: Flume (feat. MAY-A) – ‘Say Nothing’

March 19, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Palaces’ (LP) (Available from May 20th, 2022) (via Future Classic Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to contribute to what is hopefully shaping up to be a good weekend for you with Saturday’s track on the blog, given how it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! An Australian pioneer of the Future Bass genre during the 2010’s, Flume is the DJ/Producer of Harley Edward Streten who has topped the ARIA Albums Chart a few times over and he has reached Double Platinum sales in his home turf. He also won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the Grammy Awards in 2017 for his second studio album ‘Skin’. Those who are a little less familiar with the name of Flume may have heard remixes he has created for the likes of Lorde, Arcade Fire and Disclosure in the past. He has also worked with a whole host of Australian and international artists like Anna Lunoe, Chet Faker, Slowthai, JPEG Mafia, SOPHIE, Vince Staples and others on extensive collaborations throughout the years. Following up his well-received ‘Hi, This Is Flume’ mixtape that he released in 2019, as well as his Toro Y Moi collaboration hit ‘The Difference’ from 2020, ‘Palaces’ is his third canonical studio album that is set to arrive on May 20th via Future Classic Records. It has been in the works since Streten relocated to a coastal town in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, where he says he “found inspiration from the flora and fauna surrounding him” there, and so he has been experimenting with field recordings of nature sounds and birdsong while producing his new full-length recording. The lead single ‘Say Nothing’ features vocals by the rising star MAY-A. Let’s give it a spin below.

The AIR-Award winning musician’s new album enlists guests like Damon Albarn, Caroline Polachek, Emma Louise, Laurel, Quiet Bison, Virgen Maria, Oklou and Kučka for collaborations this time around, and, speaking on the new Alt-Pop cut, Streten explains, “This song is about feelings of post-relationship clarity”, adding, “We wrote the song midway through 2020 while the pandemic was still pretty new. I was really excited about the initial idea, but it was only once I got back to Australia in early 2021 and linked up in the studio with MAY-A that the song really came to life”, in his press statement. Starting off with a blurring effect on the Synths that shortly expands with euphoric Bass and fractured Snares, MAY-A sets up the tone of the vocals with her lovesick croon of “As far as summer goes I’m not even close/To wearing you like clothes when nobody’s home” that feels a little nervous and unsettling, as the Drum and Bass sequences gains traction and sits at the rear view mirror when the pre-chorus comes in. The chorus itself has brooding and pulsating elements that doesn’t quite allow the Bass and the Drums to fully unleash just yet, with a lean structure held together by the polished Pop sound and the viscerality of the dark Synths. It materialises with MAY-A’s declarative croon of “Say nothing, If you don’t wanna say goodbye” that feels a little poignant, and it feels emotional, especially for what predominantly remains a Dance-Pop track. ‘Say Nothing’ shifts away from Straten’s Future Bass origins to acquire a bolder Drum ‘N’ Bass feel, especially in the concluding moments where it feels more aggressively percussive. Behind the decks, he plays with duality in the track by blending dissonant drums with slower chords and elegant vocals in the backdrop, a combination that shouldn’t naturally go together on paper, but it feels pretty cohesive enough due to the Pop feel that lies underneath the leaner, experimental structure. There’s a lot of intricate details in the melting pot of sounds, but it could also fit right in with pop heavyweight DJ’s like Calvin Harris or David Guetta as it feels Pop-oriented and very polished. For me, the ‘Pop Polish’ does feel a little by-the-numbers at times as the chorus doesn’t feel particularly psychedelic or ethereal, however, I feel the production flair would be appealing to many listeners of a more casual variety, although I personally felt it didn’t connect as well as the prior section. That nitpick aside, Straten shows that he’s an excellent producer again by mixing a wide variety of tones together in a way that works to create the overall texture and the songwriting feels more interesting than it may appear on the surface due to the fractured effects on the vocals and the twists on duality as a theme. Appealing to a mainstream audience while experimenting with the tropes of modern Pop, albeit to slightly mixed results on the latter in my opinion, there is laughably an awful lot you could say about the summer-ready ‘Say Nothing’.

Pictured: Flume with Toro Y Moi in the music video shoot for ‘The Difference’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Joyce Kim)

If you want to hear ‘The Difference’ that Toro Y Moi made to Flume’s sound, click here:

Flume & Toro Y Moi – ‘The Difference’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/06/todays-track-flume-feat-toro-y-moi-the-difference/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Difference’ (Single) (Released on April 30th, 2020) (via Future Classic Records)

That brings us to the bottom of the page for another 24-hour period! Thank you for your continued support for the site, and please make sure that you join me again for ‘Scuzz Sundays’ tomorrow as we take a listen to something British from the 2000’s that was probably heavy enough to be played on the channel. It comes from an Alternative Rock band from Newcastle who were pretty beloved on the blog when they released their most recent LP ‘Nature Always Wins’ last winter. This time, we’re going to look at the retro incarnation of the band who are led by Paul Smith and their first studio album – ‘A Certain Trigger’ – was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005.

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Today’s Track: The Halluci Nation (feat. Chippewa Travellers) – ‘It’s Over’

January 6, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Tim Hill (Producer/Engineering) and Ehren Thomas (Mixing/Percussion) (2020) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! You are tuned into the text of Jacob Braybrooke, as we ready ourselves for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Music you may have missed from last year headlines the page today, and it comes your way from an Ottawa-based Canadian experimental electronic dance music duo known for blending Ethnotronica, Moombahton, Reggae and the ‘Brostep’ term of post 2000’s Dubstep with elements of First Nations music, particularly known for their vocal chanting and high-speed drumming – and their name is The Halluci Nation. It wasn’t always that way, however, as the band used to be titled A Tribe Called RED, a homage to the legendary Hip-Hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Last year, however, they decided to scrap their old alias in light of “as we move into this next phase of our evolution, we also find it necessary to remember our past”, in their own words. Now a duo comprised of Tim Hill and Ethren Thomas, their name is a phrase borrowed from activist/artist John Trundell to “describe the vast global community of people who remember at their core what it means to be human”, in Trundell’s quote. The group describe their own style of music as a “Stadium Pow-Wow” sound, which is a style of contemporary club music for urban First Nations (A society of Canadian indigenous people who are classified distinctly from the Metis and Inuit groups). My first experience with The Halluci Nation was hearing their stellar third album, ‘We Are The Halluci Nation’, released in 2016. The follow-up, ‘One More Saturday Night’, was self-released last July, which finds the duo collaborating with the likes of Black Bear, The Beat and Northern Voice – some of which they have frequently recorded material with before. The band’s latest album pays tribute to the Electric Pow-Wow gatherings at Ontario’s Babylon nightclub the group ran between 2007 and 2017. Hear more about their change of identity below and skip to 1:05 to hear the new track ‘It’s Over’ below.

“We wanted to pay homage to the Electric Pow Wow and wrap that whole decade of the experience up and close the cycle, and in doing so give direct co-ordinates of where the future was headed. In a nutshell, that’s what this album is about”, says co-founder Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas in a press release, explaining, “We just wanted to make a party record, as well, one that people could dance to while still having the strong message we are known for”, about the planning and recording behind the record. Going for a more psychedelic take on their older material, Hill and Thomas combine stretched samples of vocal chants performed by Chippewa Travellers with EDM-inflicted Dubstep to explore the memories of the club nights that brought their Canadian community of indigenous people together back in the 2000’s, but the ferocious pace of the brisk Drums also imply a regret concerning the abrupt disbandment of the Babylon nightclub’s scenes. Some fragmented Synth effects are sprinkled throughout the song that evokes the vibrant nostalgia and anti-colonialism surrounding the club nights. Meanwhile, the driving melodies of the instrumentation are there to remind you that it is a positive dance record, as their signature style of moulding Septia-toned vocals from Chippewa Travellers together with visceral drum and bass melodies that set things into motion with a commanding Bassline, while the trickling Trap snares and the some declarative EDM drums that gradually incorporate reverb-drenched Dub and righteous vocal chants into the equation. ‘It’s Over’ suffers from repetition a little, but it does a fantastic job of spreading the message that forms the emotive core of the album that breathes new life into a memory or dream that settler colonialism and its extractive violence have attempted to erase, and ‘It’s Over’ provides a club-heavy but contemplative moment that gives the affirmations and goals of The Halluci Nation a reasonable amount of space to take root, as the band continue to cement themselves as one that needs to exist to serve the social purpose.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘One More Saturday Night’ (Released on July 30th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

I have previously shined a small spotlight on The Halluci Nation before their rebranding, with a detailed post about another track that aims to get more indigenous people represented in the media. Find out more about ‘The OG’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/13/todays-track-a-tribe-called-red-feat-black-bear-the-og/

Pictured: The Halluci Nation performing at the Lost Lake Festival (2017) (Photo Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

That’s everything I’ve got lined up for you today! I’m still working on my year-end Albums list of 2021 and it is coming soon. In the meantime, thanks for checking out my latest post, and I’ll be back tomorrow to get you re-acquainted with a Grammy-nominated Texas-born Jazz artist and a Houston trio who host the ‘AirKhruang’ radio show on Facebook Live and NTS Radio. They will be releasing a direct sequel to their earlier collaborative EP ‘Texas Sun’ on 18th February through the Dead Oceans label.

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Today’s Track: Flight Facilities (feat. Channel Tres) – ‘Lights Up’

December 22, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Hugo Gruzman (DJ/Producer) and James Lyell (DJ/Producer) (2021) (Photo via James Gourley/Getty)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and it’s time for me to help you fill up the funky playlist for the disco at your Office Christmas Party at the end of this working week, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Flight Facilities are the Australian Electronic Dance duo of Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell who were formed in Sydney in 2009 and also perform under the name of Hugo & Jimmy. On previous recordings, they have worked with prominent names in the industry including the ‘Princess of Pop’ Kylie Minogue herself – as well as Bishop Nehru, Reggie Watts, Stee Downes and Owl Eyes. Although the seven year gap has not been a complete drought of material for the die-hard Flight Facilities fans out there – it is still testament to the streaming-dominated state of the modern music industry that their second LP record ‘FOREVER’ – released on November 12th via Future Classic – was their first true album release since 2014. It has reached #6 on the Australian Albums chart and it features another array of guest vocalists including Emma Louise, BRUX, BROODS, Jody Felix, Your Smith and DRAMA. In a statement, the AIR Award-winning duo said, “The best way to describe this album is a combination of where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going. As true as it was from our first release, the foundations and glue for all our work has consistently been ‘collaboration’. While our musical journey has always been an intentional exploration of multiple genres, our hearts and roots lie on the dance floor. We applied that same explorative ethos to this record, taking a concerted dive delve into the previously untouched niches and era’s of dance. It’s been a long time coming, and only the same time will tell if it was worth the wait “, in a press release. The new album will also be supported by the ‘FOREVER’ tour that will commence in Perth during March 2022. The lead single, ‘Lights Up’, features the high in demand Compton producer and vocalist Channel Tres. Buckle your seat belt up and mount into it below.

With his low-pitched and sensual vocal delivery, Channel Tres has been a lyricist that everybody in the dance industry has been itching to include on their tracks. In the last few years, Tres has worked with a gigantic list of electronic dance producers including Disclosure, SG Lewis, Tokimonsta, Polo & Pan, Emotional Oranges and many more – so he has been everywhere as if he is the Jimmy Carr, Rosie Jones or Rob Beckett of dance music. ‘Lights Up’ features noticeable influences of Future Garage and Detroit Techno – and Flight Facilities note, “We’ve always loved the sound of the early Detroit House scene that crossed over with the Paradise Garage era. Combined with our love for Channel’s voice, it seemed like a perfect fit”, in their press release. ‘Lights Up’ almost sounds like a track that was being recorded whilst at a secluded street party with industry friends in Chicago, with Tres opening the scene with “Y’all should’ve called me to work on the album earlier/We could have been making something great” over a muffled vocal delivery following a lengthy fade-in to the track. The rest of the vocals mix an informal delivery with a quickly paced Spoken Word spin on gentle Hip-Hop, with Tres splurting out lyrics like “Trying to catch a Bass, and I’ll slide on you” and “I’m a MC, BYOB, bring your own bottles” that he recites with the silky and mildly sexual low-pitched croon that we’ve heard him use to similar effect on Disclosure and T’Challa King feature spots before. It definitely feels like his trademark and although it does not feel unexpected, it works smoothly here and plays to familiar strengths as usual. It establishes a tone of confidence for the rest of the track, which jolts along at an uptempo but not overly heightened pace. An influence of Detroit Techno – from the likes of Joe Smooth – drips from every note of Hugo and James’ production, with some velvet-smooth Synths that reassure us that this flight is going to be a smooth and relaxed ride. The personality of the track is charismatic enough, however, and one particular highlight of the track for me is towards the end where Tres repeats the refrain of “Got the whole city going up” while Horns continually whirr in the backbeat, giving off an impression that Horns are lighting things up in the background, as this section gives the Synths some added momentum to increase the aggression of the instrumentation slightly and drive the melodies forwards. Meanwhile, the two-step drum beats and the fluctuating Bass patterns blend together with Tres’ accentuated vocals nicely during the main bulk of the track. Overall, this was a strong effort from all involved that does ‘Dance Music’ in a modern enough way, while also respecting some of the relatively forgotten sub-genres of House and Techno from the past, giving it a retro-futurist feel. The track originally dates back to April so, although it fits more of a summer vibe than a cold December one, remember that it is summer in Australia.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘FOREVER’ (LP) (Released on November 12th, 2021) (via Future Classic)

That’s all for now! Thank you for your smooth sailing with me today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to ‘Light Up’ the eve of Christmas Eve with an affectionate lump of seasonal Silton coming from a Rochford-born Jazz singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter who has famously covered Radiohead’s ‘High and Dry’ to mainstream success in the UK charts.

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