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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Today’s Track: Nia Archives – ’18 & Over’

January 17, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ’18 & Over’ (Single) (Released on November 25th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned into the text of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to dive headfirst into a new week of January with yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 21-year-old musician who was born in Leeds and raised in Manchester, Nia Archives is a London-based singer-songwriter, producer and visual artist who you may remember from the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP that she released last April that we discussed a few times on the blog. Nia Archives is an exciting new artist who fuses a range of Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Drill and Techno, House and Jungle elements into her melting pot of sounds. She is also the founder of the ‘HIJINX’ label, which is also the name of her visual archive of short DIY-style film documentaries which was a side project that she started before producing any music. Her influences includes names like Burial, J Dilla and Roots Manuva. She has recently released the follow-up track to her ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ single that she released last October with a heavier-than-usual dance recording that she implores us, lyrically, was designed for ’18 and Over’. She digs into her Carribean heritage for her new single that samples one of her favourite classic Reggae cuts – ‘Young Lover’ by Cocoa Tea from 1987. The Taliable-directed music video pays homage to London’s sound-system culture and references ‘Yardie’ films like ‘The Harder They Come’ and ‘Babylon’ from the 60’s and 70’s. She comments, “For the ’18 and Over’ video, I knew that the visuals had to be iconic as the song is an absolute banger. Working with Taliable who was the director and editor was super fun, I feel we creatively gelled really well to create this vibrant piece”, in her press statement. Let’s check it out if you are ’18 and Over’ below.

Nia continues, “The actual video was shot in my warehouse yard, I thought it would be sick to use that space as no one has ever shot a music video there – meaning it is unique to me. We kept things even more local by asking Hackney native Mark Solution if he could set up his wicked ‘Solution Soundsystem’ – it was an honour to feature it in my video”, adding, “There are also some references to the original record that I sampled for viewers to spot”, in her press notes. Starting off with chirping bird sounds that remind me of the sweetness of Aphex Twin’s ‘Syro’ from 2014 in the classic Jungle template, paired up to a steady breakbeat instrumental, Nia develops the soundscape further with a driving bass line and some twinkling Synths as she layers her vocals above the main hook of the focused sample of “Now, this one was designed for 18 and over” with a psychedelic Neo-Soul backing as the breakbeats get continually more fragmented throughout the progress of adding her own lyrics. The glistening synths soon augment into a booming bass beat that feels like a nuanced representation of Dub-rooted texture that she playfully gives a UK drum & bass twist as the ethereal mix warps into a Jungle aesthetic, eventually leaving behind a central emphasis on the early 90’s rave melodies that give us a spellbinding symphony of breakbeats, as the lyrics promise to give us. While the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP leaned into her anxieties on entering a relationship and overthinking her intimate emotions, ’18 & Over’ is a purer exploration of the Post-Garage and Jungle-driven feel that has always existed within her sound. It all feels very exciting and gripping as a result, creating very surprising shifts in production and fusing her early sound with a flipside of some traditional Reggae to pay homage to her Jamaican heritage and the country’s creative output. A heavy and engrossing evolution of her artistry that is unique to her.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Headz Gone West’ (EP) (Released on April 29th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

If you also think that Nia Archives is one of the most engaging new artists to follow in 2022, check out my previous post about ‘Headz Gone West’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/05/03/todays-track-nia-archives-headz-gone-west/

Pictured: Nia Archives in a still from the ‘Headz Gone West’ music video (2021) (Photo by Delphino Productions)

That brings us to a pretty thrilling end to today’s track on the blog. Many blessings for showing your support and I’ll be back tomorrow as we continue to hear some of the most important voices in the industry with the next post that arrives tomorrow. It will come your way by a Harlem-based poet, teacher and founding member of the Spoken Word band The Last Poets, who were widely considered to be the first Hip-Hop group.

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Today’s Track: Maya Jane Coles – “Night Creature”

October 21, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Maya Jane Coles in the official music video for ‘Run To You’ (2021) (Photo via PR/EDM.com)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to add yet another daily post to my monstrous tally of past uploads, because for the last two years, it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Today’s track is ‘Night Creature’ – and this aptly titled drum-and-bass tune comes your way from the award-winning Maya Jane Coles, an electronic house music producer and studio engineer who was born in London, and Coles is an icon of the LGBTQ+ music community. Her success is no overnight sensation, however, because Coles has instead spent numerous years playing at festivals and clubs, and she has gained attention from making remixes for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Depeche Mode, along with getting sampled by mainstream stars like Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry. Ever since Coles became active in 2006, she has collaborated with names like Tricky, Peaches and Young M.A. on her own original work. Coles has a new album coming out, ‘Night Creature’, which is her first release under her actual name since her ‘Would You Kill (4 Me)’ EP that was issued last year, but she also released her second album under the Nocturnal Sunshine side alias – ‘Full Circle’ – in 2019. She was previously a part of the electronic Dub duo of She Is In Danger with Lena Cullen, and you may also recognize her from her other secondary alias of CAYAM, which she has also released her music under. She confirmed her latest album last month alongside the release of a Triple Single where she shared the mixes ‘Night Creature’, ‘Survival Mode’ and ‘Need’ from her new LP, which sees the light of day on 29th October via her own label, I/AM/ME, and it features guest feature spots from the likes of vocalists Julia Stone, Lie Ning and Claudia Kane, and her frequent collaborator Karin Park, who are all participating on the new 13-track collection of cuts. For Coles, a DJ of Japanese descent, her new record feels like the antidote to our recent collective experiences under Covid-19 restrictions, as the LP will be exploring the allure and energy of the rave experiences which comes to life when the evening gradually turns into night and the light becomes dark. Check out the title track below.

This is spooky season after all, and after performing recent DJ sets at Fabric and Leeds’ Mint Festival late last month, Coles has been building up a sense of terror and dread for next week’s perfectly timed release, explaining about the new LP in a press release, “When it comes to my music-making, I’ve pretty much always been a creature of the night. My creativity tends to work at its best during those peaceful hours when my surroundings are at a standstill and I feel completely in my own world”, before contrasting and comparing with, “Then on the flip side, in the club, the night can shift into the most energetic and ecstatic moments in time” in her press statement. ‘Night Creature’ – the title track of the record – feels like a fitting musical transfer of these ideas, starting off with a mix of twinkling and otherworldly Horn melodies, before the Bass kicks in and the tranquil Synth melodies continue to run through some rougher melodies and a paced increase in aggression. There’s a little distortion to the bassline, which begins with a relatively slow-burning energy before the tempos frequently become more erratic and irregular in their nature. Shimmering patterns in the later portions of the track contrast the more extra-terrestrial themes naturally, as the Techno-inspired drops of Bass rumbles and kick Drum melodies become more versatile and display contrasting moods to the other aspects of the single. It feels like an eclectic dance track that would really benefit from the high energy of the crowds within the European festival circuit, and there’s a rather ominous atmosphere that undercurrents the whole package. Although there’s not a great deal left to say about the track, it certainly feels groovy and danceable in an unconventional way as the Halloween theme fits the harder melodies and the cerebral production, and it is nice how the track never veers into an over-the-top ‘Bro-Step’ style of production, sticking to her roots in club-oriented Techno and rumbling Hyperdub-like, UK-synonymous Dubstep flavours instead. A monster-mash of good ideas, both visually and musically.

Pictured: Maya Jane Coles performing a DJ set at Parklife Festival (2015) (Photo by Derek Bremner)

That’s all for today! Thank you for checking out my latest post, and I’ll be back with more posts to celebrate ‘Spooky Season’ next weekend. In the meantime, though, ‘New Album Release Fridays’ is another matter for me to deal with, so feel free to revisit the site tomorrow as we talk about the new LP from a Florida-based musician of Ecuadorian descent whose previous album got a rave review from Pitchfork. He was the recipient of 2019’s Grants To Artists award in music from the Foundation For Contemporary Arts, and he appeared on a tune from Ela Minus’ debut album last year.

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Today’s Track: Wayward – “Camden Road”

October 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Lawrence Gayle Hayes (Drums/Synths) & Louis Greenwood (Sampling/DJ) (2021) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wayward is the fast-emerging Experimental Electronic music project of the London-based duo Lawrence Gayle Hayes and Louis Greenwood, who have gained acclaim from Pitchfork, Mixmag and Vice. They have worked as A&R’s for Silver Bear Recordings, and released material through the Australia-based Beasts Of No Nation label and Fort Romeau’s Cin Cin Records label, and they have been in the studio with the likes of Ninja Tune’s Park Hye Jin and Grammy-winning producer Skrillex. In March, the pair of producers released their debut LP, ‘Waiting For The World’, which was influenced by Burial’s ‘Untrue’ and they combined Drum & Bass, House, Breakbeat and Ambient elements into a concise record. Their latest release is ‘Sapphire Eyes’, a four track EP which was self-released on September 29th. It was inspired by the rave experiences they had while growing up in London – an ode to nightclubs and community. Let’s spin ‘Camden Road’ below.

Citing influences like Addison Grove, Machine Drum and Overmono for their latest short form release, the duo shared on their own Bandcamp page in a press statement, “If our debut album showcased the more reflective side of our yearning for clubs, and a softer side of the lockdown experience, this EP is the anger, frustration and urgency coming out”, concluding, “Stuck indoors again just wanting to band it out in a club with the intention of making something completely focused on the dance floor” in the notice. Their fourth track on the record, ‘Camden Road’ sticks out amongst the others for the emotive feelings which it shares, coming across to me as more nostalgic than euphoric. It boasts a similar sound to some early 00’s Hyperdub recordings and more recent Footwork releases, where the Synths and the propulsive basslines feel as vibrant as the mixed multi-cultural community that their hometown, which they are paying tribute to, has become known for in recent developments. Their vocals play with escapism, with Lawrence reciting the likes of “So much life, so much fun” and “Festivals in Hungary with black people” with a slightly muted Spoken Word delivery that doesn’t feel massively poetic, and feels grounded in approach instead, with a soft Hip-Hop rhythm and a mumbled tone of speech which fits the wonky production aspects and the very metropolitan aesthetics of London. The rest of the instrumentation goes down a treat too, with a looped Piano melody and light Synth pads creating a gentle opening, before Wayward flip the switch for the big chorus where they replace the light-hearted beats with a more rugged dance style, using some swooping drums and syncopated vocal chops to hit a BPM of around 130, which feels subversive and unpredictable when the earlier melodies are flipped on their head. Overall, I was very impressed with ‘Camden Road’, a modern dance track that has an ability of conjuring up some feelings and visuals for their listeners, a rare technique that greats like Aphex Twin and Burial have achieved in their career. It feels as fresh and lively as the street it is based on – A sprawling, multi-cultural metropolis.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Sapphire Eyes’ (EP) (Released on September 29th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for joining me, and I’ll be back tomorrow for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we take an in-depth look at the soon to be released new LP from a US female Funk, Soul and Alternative R&B singer-songwriter who performed a medley of her hits on an episode of major US talk show ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ earlier this year. She completed her studies at USC Thornton School of Music in 2018, and she was also a contestant on ‘American Idol’ in 2014. Her latest album is named after her dog – Juno.

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Today’s Track: The Bug (feat. Flowdan) – “Pressure”

September 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Fire’ (Album/LP) (Released on August 27th, 2021) (via Ninja Tune)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke and it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day, so it’s time to put that into practice by publishing yet another daily track on the blog! Having been active in the UK’s underground Techno scene since the 1990’s, notably as one of Hyperdub’s most significant signings during the early 2000’s, Weymouth-based electronic music producer and journalist Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin has dabbled in the genres of Dubstep, Post-Hardcore, Industrial Hip-Hop, Dancehall, Power Electronics and more in experimental ways throughout the course of the last two decades, fronting different music projects like ICE, Curse Of The Golden Vampire and Techno Animal. There was also the collaborative moniker of King Midas Sound, which he has fulfilled with graphic designer Kiki Hitomi and poet Roger Robinson. There’s an air of 80’s Avant-Punk on his recently released solo album, ‘Fire’, which quickly became one of the year’s most anticipated hardcore album releases when it was released in the same month that it was announced, arriving in late August on the excellent Ninja Tune label. The album features collaborations with several vocalists including Logan, Flowdan, Nazamba, Manga Saint Hilare and more. This is Martin’s first solo album release since 2014, and he’s pitched it as a spiritual sequel to 2008’s ‘London Zoo’ and 2014’s ‘Angels & Devils’. The record has a scorching hot tone and it explores a range of socio-economic tensions and climate issues. Give the single, ‘Pressure’, a listen below.

“I’m always asking – how can I ramp this up more? How can I get more people out of control? For me, a live show should be unforgettable, should alter your DNA, or scar your life in a good way – that’s always been my goal, to set up shows that are unforgettable”, Martin told us in a press release, adding, “I like friction, fanning the flames with sound, and this album is the most reflective of the live show in terms of intensity and sheer f**k-off attitude of those shows”, he explained. ‘Fire’ is certainly one of Martin’s heaviest releases for a few years, but, as per usual from Martin, this isn’t a record that simply feels like a turn up the dial and shout for the sake of noise, in a Scuzz Sundays guilty pleasure way, but it instead uses Drone sounds and Dark Ambient influences to comment on a diversity of issues that seem to plague the modern world that we’re all a part of today. Working with frequent partner Flowdan on ‘Pressure’, Martin kicks the intensity of the new release into full gear with some anthemic two-step Drum beats and some relentless attacks from a string of reverb-drenched rumblings of Bass. Flowdan’s Hip-Hop vocals show serious flair, with the London-based MC adding a heavy Grime element to the chaotic energy of the tune, spitting thought-provoking lyrics like “Babylon time dun/Yuh sing for the stretcher” and “Wait for the revolution, but the revolution can’t stand” at a breakneck pace, as he conjures up some striking imagery of fleeing refugees and recent events in Alfghanistan that hit at a great speed and with an understandingly strong impact. Martin’s electronic soundscape deserves plenty of credit for the well-developed and uneasy atmosphere too. He kicks off the tune in riotous fashion with a jagged blast of sirens and foghorns, before he complements Flowdan’s hard-hitting vocals that rails against poverty and inequality at the fault of the government with a genuinely post-apocalyptic variety of sounds that shows his considerable experience and doesn’t hide behind the vocals from Flowdan as a literary device. Instead, the two together decide to hit their problems at their core with a passionate energy. On the whole, this is certainly not a mainstream release by any stretch of the imagination, but Kevin Martin and Flowdan do an absolutely brilliant job of unleashing a barrage of pent-up rage with good intelligence and academic creativity. There’s a ton of atmosphere as a result here and it feels undeniably cool. A release which you certainly should not skip.

Pictured: Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin in a studio PR shoot for ‘Fire’ (2021) (Photo via TheVinylFactory.com)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day, and thank you very much for your continued support with my daily project. I will be back tomorrow for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, as we take a break from my recent recommendations to revisit one of the most influential sounds of the past for the present. This week’s pick comes from a female-led band who were one of the greatest Bristol-based pioneers of Trip-Hop in the mid-90’s, and they were named after a nearby town of the same name. The trio sometimes bought a fourth member, Dave McDonald, on board as their own engineer.

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Today’s Track: Nia Archives – “Headz Gone West”

May 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

Headz, Shoulderz, Kneez and Toez…Kneez and Toez. On that note, it’s new post time!

Pictured: Nia Archives in a promotional shoot for The Pit, London (2020) (Article by Ben Tibbits)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as always, since it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Headz Gone West’ is a short-and-sweet single that’s been sneaking it’s way onto my radio show and streaming library over the last week or so. It comes from the London-based (by way of Manchester and Leeds) singer-songwriter and visual graphic designer Nia Archives, who mixes Erykah Badu-inspired Neo-Soul and light Hip-Hop with more DIY-spirited Jungle and Drum & Bass production. There’s also some love for House music and UK Garage included in the pot too. Archives has just released her debut EP, of the same name as her latest track, via HIJINXX – which is also the name of the youth street art project that she also manages. Nia has remixed Lauren Faith, and collaborated with Zeitgeist, and so the stock is rising for this young lady, who claims to work primarily from her bedroom using old and second-hand kit to express herself through her material. Tune in below.

“Making the EP was super fun!”, Nia told Clash Music, elaborating, “I had a little DIY set up in my room, and I would sit up all night making loads of quick beats for fun… some of them I would end up proper vibesing to and kept working on them”, finishing up with, “Overall, the project is massively inspired by my love for breakbeats, jungle and D’n’B – and ‘Headz Gone West’ is the second track I wrote for it straight after ‘Sober Feels'” as she guided us along the process of putting together her first solo release. Her Jamaican heritage seems to have played a role in the intoxicating blend of lo-fi synths and Dub underlayers, paired up with lyrics that talk about independence, difficult relationships with familial figures and alcoholic addiction. The chorus of “My head has gone west, ain’t never getting nowhere, I watch the sunrise and then the sunset, I wanna get high so I can forget” balances a storm within the beauty, while a slightly more subdued verse gives space for lines like “I can’t sleep at night, I have so much on my mind” to address the elephant in the room willingly, despite the tone of the beats feeling danceable, and the subject matter of the lyrics feeling relatable. What I like about what Nia does here is the blending of traits from different genres that feel soulful, yet unwind in an experimental way that holds a personal quality for her. The explorations of late 80’s liquid rave music culture and German Soundsystem Reggae all fit under a similar umbrella and so the pieces all fit together neatly. The cohesion is really nice, yet there’s a feeling of “Summer anthem” to the mildly euphoric style. The lyrics have a darker mood if you read between the lines of the skittering, IDM-like breakbeats, however, and there’s simply a decent deal of interesting fusions to maintain your attention here. There’s a little over-reliance on repetition, but the duration is cut short and sweet, as to not overstay it’s welcome too much. Overall, it’s early days for her, but these results seem solid and very promising.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Headz Gone West” (EP) (Released on April 29, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

That’s all for today – but don’t forget to bring your Headz back over to the blog tomorrow for another review of recent, new music, this time coming from the Hip-Hop side of the pond, as we bring our focus to another emerging artist who was born in Boston, raised in Kenya, and now lives in New York City after graduating from the Berklee College of Music. 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: Andy C & Shimon – “Body Rock” (2001)

September 24, 2020 — Leave a comment

Right. That is it. It’s time for us to quit the ‘Clowning’ around! It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Andy Clarke performing with MC TONN PIPER at Rampage Festival (2019) (via YouTube.com)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and I am writing up about your daily track on the blog, as always, because it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! 2001, in September to be exact, saw the release of a polarizing little club track of the title “Body Rock”, which was a collaboration between Andy Clarke, the co-founder of RAM Records, and his RAM Records signee Shimon. Clarke, best known as Andy C, is a Wasall-based English DJ and electronic producer who was a pioneering staple of the Drum-and-Bass genre of EDM music. He was a part of the RAM three, a circle of artists who raised prestige for the Drum-and-Bass genre through this specialist record label, which also includes Shimon and co-founder Ant Miles. Most popularly, the likes of Chase & Status, Sub Focus and Wilkinson have found chart success through releases on the RAM Records label. “Body Rock” reached #28 on the UK Singles Chart, and it was divisive because of it’s unusual sound, which we’ll get to in a bit. For now, let’s have a listen to it below.

Just in case you hadn’t realized, “Body Rock” divided most of Andy C’s more hardcore fanbase because of the “Clown-ish” sequencing effects used as the sampled hooks, which combines with a swinging pendulum rhythm to form an oddly patterned loop of synthesized melodies. As a matter of fact, some listeners even went so far as to give it a derogatory term of “Clown-Step” as a phrase to describe similar tracks that arrived soon after “Body Rock”, as it was obviously a huge commercial success, so other producers who were just looking for hits were started to follow the sound as a commercial trend. One fun theory that has circulated around the internet is that Andy C and Sub Focus used a sample of Rocky Horror’s “Timewarp” to fit the tune when mixing the track live to form the beat, but it’s unclear whether there is any evidence to prove this to be the truth. In whichever case, “Body Rock” starts off with a swinging triplet rhythm that precedes a few strange vocal parts. It gets more off-kilter and bizzare when the Snare Drum kicks in, and hits on the recurring Synth loops. This is followed up by the introduction of a really Staccato-heavyweight bassline that calls upon Acid Techno and Alternative Jungle influences to create a fluid, fluctuating synth beat which feels acidic and meandering in it’s continous, skittering nature. A brief interlude of odd, slowed ambient wind samples follows up on the main bassline drop, before an eclectic Kick Drum beat and Hi-Hat snare drops make the proceedings a little more percussive and progressive in it’s textures. Overall, it’s certainly rather unusual for an experimentally layered Drum-and-Bass track such as this to reach the mainstream – with single CD/Vinyl sales of 38,000 copies in shops (Yes… Physical Shops!) to boot. However, I believe the most important point to take away from this is that whether different groups of music lovers loved it or not… It gained a strong reaction. For me personally, although I can see where most angles of the nitpicks of criticism were coming from, I think that it’s innovative and a lot of fun. It was something very different at the time, and it still retains a unique ring to it today.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Body Rock” (Single) (Released on 3rd September, 2001) (via RAM Records)

Thank you very much for reading my daily blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow with a switch of gears, as we move from Experimental Drum-and-Bass to a more Alternative form of Post-Punk and Industrial-Rock. Tomorrow’s track comes from a Japanese 4-piece Math-Rock and Noise-Rock group formed in London, England who have performed collaboratively with Savages, Damo Suzuki and Faust. They are currently signed to Stolen Recordings and they are licensed to Sony Music Associated 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/