Let’s get to the sweetened Pulp of our favourite Welsh Femme Fatale. New post time!

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, just like usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! ‘Burnt Orange’ has been B-listed on BBC Radio 6 Music, and it comes from Elkka – real name Emma Kirby – a DJ and electronic music producer from Cardiff, who is now based in London. Kirby originally grew up wanting to be a pop star, but she found her true calling in 2016, when she founded the Femme Culture with DJ Saint Ludo. Her label’s successes include Octo Octa and Lone, and it has expanded past club nights and fundraising compilations since winning the ‘Breakthrough Label’ nod at DJ Mag’s ‘Best Of British’ Awards in 2018. Her debut solo LP, ‘Every Body is Welcome’, was another success for her, in 2019, with more established names like Caribou, George FitzGerald and Floating Points sharing her music on their pages, and earning features on Crack and Mixmag. ‘Euphoric Melodies’ is her new EP, and it was released over the past weekend via Technicolour Records – an imprint of Ninja Tune. Check out ‘Burnt Orange’ below.

Elkka’s new five-track release is pitched as “Euphoric Melodies started out as an exploration of what pulls me in, what makes me feel those moments of elation when writing music or listening to it or just when living life”, according to her press notes on the new Extended Play. She adds, “The underlying theme seems to be warmth, euphoria and nostalgia… which is what plays out in this EP in different forms. Little did I know that, as the EP came together, nostalgia for euphoria would be so prevalent” to her address. A multi-faceted production, ‘Burnt Orange’ manages to vividly evoke the Acid Techno of 90’s Warp releases and the Funk/Soul fusion of the late-1970’s with charming flair. Starting off with bouncing Drum sequences and wide reverb to give the bass a danceable repetition, the melodies slowly evolve from a cinematic and quietly String-enhanced scope to a more playful and pop-friendly club atmosphere. A whirling, virtuosic Synth sequence paves the way for an entrancing bassline with bright, hypnotic Drum scatterings. It all feels percussive, before a seemingly wordless vocal riff from Elkka enters the fray. It’s almost like she has spontaneously began to mutter along to her own track during it’s post-production stages. It has an improvisational vibe, with a rhythmic stutter that evokes 00’s Garage tunes. The chorus of-sorts features a vocal breakdown that feels very much like a Jazz Scat, as the light humming and the dance-led textures all come together for the third act to convey optimism and happiness. It feels like a tune, overall, that 90’s film character Austin Powers would only describe as “Groovy Baby”. There’s a delicacy to the production that gives it a reflexive quality where it feels we’re breaking the fourth wall between artist and audience a little bit. It’s very enjoyable, overall, with a fairly distinctive style that creates a vibrant fantasy of a warm, night summer rooftop party.

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ as we mark the release of Moby’s ‘Reprise’ album on May 28th, this weekend, – a new project of re-imagined orchestral and acoustic versions of the most popular recordings over the course of his career – with a throwback to his highest-charting single in the UK from 1999. It got to the #5 spot in the UK Singles Chart, and every single track from it’s respective album was eventually licensed for use in a film, TV or commercial production of some form. 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/