Today’s Track: Al Wootton – “Over”

July 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

All bear ‘Witness’ to the underground DJ king of England’s East Coast. New post time!

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, just like always, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Your pick for today is a little more dated than usual, considering how the ‘Witness’ LP actually came out last summer, but it will still feel recent enough. The release in mind comes from the respected Dubstep and Deep House producer Al Wootton, who I heard spotlighted on a recent episode of 6Music Recommends curated by John Ravenscroft, and it caught my interest. I had not heard of him before, but my research tells me that Wootton first arrived on the UK’s club circuit in 2009 under the ‘Deadboy’ alias, and he sported influential recordings like ‘U Cheated’ and ‘If U Want Me’ on the underground dance scene, releasing his material on labels including Well Rounded and Numbers. He is now the owner of Trule, his own label, with signees including the likes of Pugilist, Jubilee and Bash. ‘Witness’ is his first album to be released under his actual name, which he created in his home studio in his town of Ramsgate. Check out ‘Over’ below.

Writing about his process regarding the album release, Al Wootton notes: “I allowed tracks to develop and mutate as I introduced new sounds and textures with a much greater sense of freedom than when I am focusing on making tracks work solely in a club context, but I don’t feel like that dampened the energy of any of the tracks”, adding, “The creation of ‘Witness’ was, for me, one of those rare times when the practical and technical conditions are just right, and creativity flows from some unknown source beyond yourself and all you have to do is get out of your own way”, to the product description of his ‘Witness’ LP on Unearthed Sounds. The free-flowing mentality of his process is exemplified blatantly on ‘Over’, a euphoric and slightly melancholic glide between Acid House and Dark Ambient. The textures are rich, as a tinge of somber darkness mixes with a ghostly scream. These dingy sections remind me of Manchester-based IDM producer Andy Stott, as the Spectogram-like vocal sample distorts itself around a murky aesthetic, mimicking a cry of pain. This points back to some of the work that Aphex Twin explored on ‘I Care Because You Do’ too, most similarly to ‘Ventolin’, as an abrasive pulse playfully develops over the top of the more Garage-like bass rumbles. The journey to the cooling synths are not that neat of a ride, bearing in mind, with it’s harsh mirage of Plump kicks, and the flourishes of Hip-Hop breakbeats that peek in as occasional flurries. The ethereal Synth pads and the tonal changes of the deep ambience, however, are always there to inject a short shower of energy and emotion into the proceedings, however. It feels like a broad sweep of niche electronic dance genres in a single track, with production that feels positively unpredictable and melodies that feel infinitely tinkered with, as these beats naturally develop past the gloomy Burial-style intro at the start. I came away refueled.

Pictured: Al Wootton in a photoshoot to promote a Balamii radio show (2021) (Photo via Twitter.com)

That’s all for now! Please feel free to join me again tomorrow for some more tips of recommended listening. Then, we’ll be delving deep into the latest single from an underground UK rapper who comes from the Peckham district of South London, who fell in love with the art-form of Hip-Hop due to J Dilla and A Tribe Called Quest in the 90’s. He was one half of the ‘Con+Kwake’ duo with drummer Kwake Bass. On tour, he has supported the likes of Public Enemy, Slum Village and Mos Def.

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Today’s Track: Loraine James (feat. Eden Samara) – “Running Like That”

July 1, 2021 — Leave a comment

For the log line – I would usually insert some form of a ‘Running’ gag. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Reflection” (LP) (Released on June 4th, 2021) (via HYPERDUB)

Good Afternoon to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – and it’s time for you to read all about today’s track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! We’re beginning a new month with an artist that you really should be plugging your ears into – Enfield’s Loraine James, who previously received high praise on the blog with ‘Don’t You See It Now’ from 2020’s ‘Nothing’ EP. A year later, we’ve been treated to her third studio album, ‘Reflection’, which is available now with a special Purple Vinyl edition through Kode9’s Hyperdub label. It’s a BRILLIANT new album that finds James reflecting on 2020 and the modern experience of being a queer black woman. BBC Radio 6 Music host John Ravenscroft is also a huge fan, and he says he’s bought the T-shirt. What a fanboy. It’s been a busy few years for her, however, with support slots for Holly Herndon and Jessy Lanza on tour. ‘Running Like That’ allows James to collaborate with the Canadian singer Eden Samara. A few days ago, a music video was released for it, which takes it’s inspiration from the photographer Richard Misrach and the painter Andrew Wyeth. Spin it below.

Speaking about the lyrics, singer Eden Samara writes “I was imagining a car chase between someone and their shadow self”, breaking it down that the elusive themes of ‘Running Like That’ are really about being chased by the voices in your head, adding, “First, you think it looks like hell, then you realise they based hell on places like that”, to the press release about the video’s two influencers. ‘Running Like That’ is a track that, much like the new album as a whole, tests the boundaries of electronic music for an expression of self-knowledge and a vehicle to examine vulnerability, not just for the sake of being experimental in an irreverent way. Throughout, we get an Urban feel littered with skittering Hip-Hop breakbeats, intelligent Jazz influences, a subversive Warp Records feel and a dark Grime vibe. Samara’s vocals add a new dimension to the sounds through the harmonies, adding a soulful garnish to the crackling beats with a subtle air of Pop about it. The lyrics remain vague, with lines like “I’m running from them all endlessly/They know I’m hiding” and “Shut up and just drive for me” peeking out of the background, layered merticulously over the top of the 80’s, trickling Synth riffs. I personally think there’s an air of Kate Bush about it all, and each of the instrumentals are all right at the cutting edge of progressive Dubstep. Despite the cold and calculated production, there’s a hopeful ambience found in the warmth of the background of tranquil noises. It works brilliantly when paired to the clashing intensity of Samara’s Spoken Word sequences, and it genuinely feels like James is primarily making this music for herself, and not necessarily to push any scene or to emphasize political commentary in particular, and for good reason. An absolute treat.

Pictured: Loraine James in a photoshoot for Bandcamp Daily (2021) (Photography by Jase Cooper)

As mentioned, Loraine James previously scored an appearance on the blog with ‘Don’t You See It’, which was taken from the ‘Nothing’ EP released last year. Check it out here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/07/todays-track-loraine-james-feat-jonnine-dont-you-see-it/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Nothing” (EP) (Released on October 2nd, 2020) (via Hyperdub Music)

That’s all for now! It’s ‘New Album Release Friday’ tomorrow, and I’ve got a cracking tune to share with you that comes from the exciting collaboration between a 23-year-old East London rapper who first popped up in 2012 with his ‘BAEP’ EP and the frontman of 00’s UK indie veterans Bombay Bicycle Club.

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Today’s Track: Hannah Peel – “Ecovocative”

April 22, 2021 — Leave a comment

You better not slip over a Banana ‘Peel’ on your way to work after this. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Fir Wave” (LP) (Released on March 26th, 2021) (via My Own Pleasure)

Good Afternoon to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and since I’ve got my radio show for this week queued up (That’s 7pm on OMG Radio if you fancy tuning in), it’s time for me to quickly get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Ecovocative’ comes to you from the Northern Irish electronic composer Hannah Peel, who is known for blending Classical instrumentation with the latest high-tech Synth gear. She has also composed scores and soundtracks for numerous film and TV productions as well as some theater and dance stage shows, including work on a documentary about ‘Game Of Thrones’. Her sixth album is called ‘Fir Wave’ and it looks at the different cyles of life through a sound design lens. She was inspired to create the work by Delia Derbyshire, who lived on until 2001 as a bit of an unsung hero. She deserved more credit for carrying out the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960’s and creating the iconic theme tune for ‘Doctor Who’. The likes of Aphex Twin, The Chemical Brothers and Orbital have all cited her as a major influence during interviews in the past. For her latest record, which was released on March 26th via My Own Pleasure, Peel was allowed the permission to access the database of Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop by the specialist library organisation KPM, allowing Peel to re-interpret the ‘Electrosonic’ work of Derbyshire to create an Experimental Electronic Ambient album that is thematically based around climate change and sustainability. Let’s check out the puntastic track – ‘Ecovocative’ – below.

Hannah said: “I’m finding it harder to express all those huge feelings and lyrics in words like I used to” in an interview for the new album recording, elaborating, “Instrumental Music can conjure so much more with this new track, I wanted to evoke those patterns in nature, celebrate the detail, the changes in light, play with primal shimmering energy, using obscure bells and the bubbling beats of electronic music” when she mentioned her recent single, following up on a stint when she curated BBC Radio 3’s ‘Night Tracks’ programme. While the publicity chatter drums up music influences of 70’s early Ambient and the Hauntology sub-genre, ‘Ecovocative’ brings up imagery of East Asian biomes and outer Tokyo, feudal Japan aesthetics for me. With no lyrics to construct a meaning from, the context radiates from the clicky Bass sounds and the swelling Synth melodies instead for me. While the heavily electronic instrumentation has not been discarded entirely and dubbed over with natural instrumentation, there’s still something that feels almost ritualistic and pure about the sequences of sound. The opening sounds a little unsettling and evokes a theme of paranoia with slowly glimmering depth, but the tone feels like it’s becoming progressively more hopeful, with a rhythmic drum beat which twinkles and forms a chorus of-sorts in the early going. The chord progression continues to change keys slowly, as the low-lit, gurgling undercurrrent lingers in the background beneath the tolling, Bell-like synths. To me, it feels relaxing and it seems visually broad, but the direct meanings feel unexplored and vague. On the whole, it sounds infinitely tinkered with and merticulously layered, but the slow-burning movements pay off with the gradual introduction of new beats. It dances around your ears and radiates with a circling effect, and so it achieves the explorations of life cycles with a nice level of vibrancy. I feel like I might need to be in a certain frame of mind to enjoy the album as a whole, but the three minute duration of the track glides by very smoothly overall.

Pictured: Hannah Peel before a “First Cut Interview” feature (2017) (Photo via MusicTech.net)

The bell tolls for another day – and you can join me again tomorrow for a new entry in our “New Album Release Friday” series, as we shine the spotlight upon one of this week’s most promising new releases. We’re going to be looking at the much-anticipated new album from one of the leading figures behind the young scene of the UK’s Jazz circuit. Signed to Anti- Records, this male producer taught himself to produce beasts in East Ham, London – inspired by his hip-hop sampler heroes Madlib and J Dilla. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: Boards Of Canada – “Seeya Later”

March 17, 2021 — Leave a comment

Ripe for repeated listening, or is it easy to get Board of this instead? Let’s go Way Back!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Twoism” (EP) (Released in August, 1995) (via Music70)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, well – you know the drill by this point – it’s time for me to get typing up for your weekly revisit of the sounds from the past which have influenced those of the present, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If the name of Boards Of Canada seems familiar to you, you’re either already one of the beloved cult followers of the group who possibly paid $800 to obtain your own copy of their debut ‘Twoism’ EP following it’s release in 1995, since the original distribution was scarcely limited to 100 copies before Warp Records gave it a quiet re-issue in 2002, or you read my previous post about them back in October or November time. Whichever route applies to you – the fact remains that Boards Of Canada are, if not the most well-known in terms of mainstream recognition, still one of the most devotedly followed Electronic music acts of our time. Just for the record, the bandwagon for 1998’s ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ is one that I’ve definitely jumped onto, as I think that it is a truly exceptional record. Made up of the Scottish brother DJ duo of Marcus Eoin and Mike Sandison, BOC represent an interesting flipside for electronic music production practice for me, where the tropes of club music being developed in London or Birmingham are turned on their heads by the brothers originally creating their music with vintage synthesizers and dated samples in a rural community in Scotland, where they have since kept very reclusive from the media, with very little interviews or performances existing. I’ve been delving deep into the back catalog of the brothers over the last two months or so, and so it’s been interesting to see where their formula of nature centric themes and nostalgic qualities started for them. In the typical BOC fanbase fashion, you can check out the fan-made video for ‘Seeya Later’ – taken from their debut EP ‘Twoism’ – created for YouTube by Saint Santiago – below.

Eoin and Sandison took their name from the children’s educational films distributed from The National Film Board Of Canada which they grew up watching at a toddler-level age, and they also pulled off the most, if not one of the most, elaborate ‘Easter Egg’ hunts in the marketing campaign building to the release of their most recent release, 2013’s ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’. There really is a lot of fascinating information about them out there, which is too lengthy for just a simple blog post, so I would look them up after you’ve read this if that sounds interesting to you, but, for now, it’s back to the matter at hand. ‘Seeya Later’ was originally released by the duo as part of the ‘Twoism’ EP on their own label, Music70, and it later appeared on their ‘Hi-Scores’ EP in 1996 as well, where you can also find earlier versions of a few tracks that later appeared on their aforementioned breakthrough release, MHTRC. Chris Horne, a since lost third BOC member, also contributed to this release. Although not as commonly talked about as ‘Sixtyniner’, I feel that ‘Seeya Later’ still makes for an effective insight into the core formula of BOC’s initial musical practice. The track has a slightly darker vibe to some of MHTRC’s most popular recordings for me. Although not as haunting as the anti-religion nods of ‘Geogaddi’, it sounds like something that you may expect to hear on Aphex Twin’s ‘I Care Because You Do’ all the same. The bassline lightly throbs among the high percussion sounds, with trickling synths that evoke a somewhat unsettling atmosphere. This instrumentation doesn’t fluctuate very much throughout the track, but it remains interesting enough due to the ghostly textures and the intriguing ambience that hold your interest. The melancholic drum beats and the more downtempo influences, like much of BOC’s work, is housed in a driving Hip-Hop breakbeat dressing, which gives it a sense of memorability and pushes the beats forward. I would say that it feels a little bit unfinished, but I think the BOC brothers primarily used the ‘Twoism’ EP as a demo tape to get interest from labels, and so I can forgive the very direct and singular beats being a little exhausting by the end here. Overall, though, it is still a fascinating companion piece to their later work, with less of a child-like feel, more of a dream-like trance. Although it may feel like a sonically incomplete Boards Of Canada, that can make this all the more appealing to seek out.

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

If you think the BOC are brilliant, you can check out how I initially felt about their music through an early listen of ‘An Eagle Of Your Mind’ from 98’s ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/03/todays-track-boards-of-canada-an-eagle-in-your-mind-1998/

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

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, with an in-depth look at a recent track from an emerging Folk/Blues singer-songwriter who, by day, teaches English in Boyle Heights but, after dark, gets busy writing tunes like ‘Swim Test’, which is based on her father who can’t swim, despite living next to the beach for decades. 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: Avalon Emerson – “Rotting Hills”

February 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

Inspired by Richard Curtis & Hugh Grant… Oh wait, that’s Notting Hill. New post time.

Pictured: Avalon Emerson in a DJ Kicks Mix cover shoot (2020) (Photo by David Black/DazedDigital.com)

Hello, and a Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time again for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because, if you haven’t read the blog before, it’s routinely my day-to-day pleasure to get writing up about a different piece of music every day! A 32-year-old female software designer-turned-electronic music producer, Avalon Emerson has more or less done it all in her explorations of IDM, Techno and Post-Industrial music. She’s now based in Brooklyn, New York – but she’s also spent time in Berlin, where she was a regular at the Berghain nightclub. Emerson has also performed a full set at Coachella festival, and she has put out remixes for the likes of Robyn, Slowdive and Four Tet over the years. She broke out in 2016 with her single, “The Frontier”, which was ranked among Resident Advisor’s Top Ten Tracks Of The Decade that year. Also known for her series of DJ-Kicks mixes, Emerson’s latest formal release was the “043” EP which housed the single, “Rotting Hills”, which dropped on the AD 93 label in December, and it gained a spot on the A-list of BBC Radio 6Music. This projects followed a road trip that she took with her girlfriend from LA to New York last summer, where the two filmed videos that, as Pitchfork describes it, “blurs the line between the ecstatic and the anxious”. Let’s take a listen to it below.

Pre-existing fans of Emerson’s work may find that an earlier mix of “Rotting Hills” appeared on her latest “DJ-Kicks Mix” back in September, and in an interview with Dazed, Emerson explained the inspiration behind the moods and tones of the track as “a study in contrasts, both tonally and emotionally. Mixing feelings of hopelessness, while also trying to enjoy what we have now in the present”, which she further elaborated on in the EP’s press notes. We’re going to move swiftly forwards, however, and we’re going to think about the reflective nature and the child-like qualities of the electronic beds. Starting off with an element of Afrobeat with a joyous Conga beat, the Synths soon come rumbling in and creating a luscious effect with the shimmering synth patterns that end up flickering on and off. A two-step disco beat is briefly noticeable, while the bright 80’s sounds manage to create a very retro and nostalgic emotion when the synths break to reveal an upbeat bassline. The drums veer away from the comforting feel of the synths and contrast the uplifting qualities with some classic Drill ‘N’ Bass production, adding a more aggressive silver lining to the theme. We continue to build to a clean breakdown, where the tempo of the synths increase and the ferocity of the drums remain, and we reach the conclusion of the trickling synth lines introducing the more old-fashioned sound to the fray once again. It’s reminding me of the vintage Warp Records stylings of the 90’s IDM era, with old-school ambient textures and child-like samples heading into the picture, while the slow-building ambient influences of producers like Photay and In Love With A Ghost give it a forward-thinking coat of paint. It is mostly 80’s and retro however, with global influences like Peggy Gou also drawing my mind. I may be biased as this type of music typically really is right down my street, but it’s another lack of disappointment for me. The influences never lose my attention, and the balancing of throwback and experimentation is smooth. It is another solid performance from a talented producer.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “040” (EP) (Released on December 11th. 2020) (via AD 93)

There’s my daily challenge fulfilled for another day. However, it won’t be long until the clock ticks and I’m here again. It’s not just any old post tomorrow, though, because we’ve got our weekly “Way Back Wednesdays” pick to look forward to. We’re going to be taking an in-depth look at what could be, perhaps, one of the lesser-known mixes from one of the most prolific electronic dance music acts to emerge from the 1990’s. I’m suprised that I haven’t actually covered this Kent-ish DJ brother duo on my little website before, with the cover art of three of their albums famously showcasing stylised atomic Orbitals. 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: Daniel Avery – “Lone Swordsman”

November 12, 2020 — 1 Comment

I wish that it was but a flesh wound for the 90’s Black Knight! It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Daniel Avery in an interview photoshoot for Crack Magazine (in 2020) (Photo by Tom Andrews)

Hands up if you got my little reference to Monty Python up there! Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it is time for me to write your daily post, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! “Lone Swordsman” is a different type of charity single – a tribute to the legendary 90’s DJ Andy Weatherhall, who we owe a lot of our music to. He sadly passed away at the age of 56 in February due to a Pulmonary Embolism. This comes from Daniel Avery, a London-based Electronic Ambient Dance musician. The track’s title is taken from one of Weatherhall’s numerous side projects – ‘Two Lone Swordsmen’ – a name which Weatherhall and Keith Tenniswood co-produced a series of albums and EP’s under. The track is the digital B-side to Avery’s “Dusting For Smoke” single, which has been taken from his latest album, “Love + Light”, that Avery put out earlier in the year via Mute Records. Proceeds from “Lone Swordsman” via Bandcamp will be donated to Amnesty International in memory of Andy Weatherhall, so please make sure that you seek it out there. Let’s sample the track with the Greg Hodgson-directed video below.

An improvisational piece, Avery posted on his social media: “I was in my studio the morning I heard about Andrew Weatherhall’s passing. The track ‘Lone Swordsman” is what formed that day”, adding, “Andrew was a hero, a friend and someone who regularly reminded us all how it should be done”, and he was close to Weatherhall personally, having performed some back-to-back live DJ sets together in the past. With no lyrics at all to speak of, the solemn and peaceful beats of “Lone Swordsman” are enough to create a fitting little tribute to Andy Weatherhall with a euphoric sense of innocence and purity that has no need for vocals to add an extra punch to the digital melodicism. It starts off with a percussive, stabbing drum pattern that almost replicates the sound of a Ping-Pong ball to me, creating a theme of childhood and soft nostalgia with the ambient soundscape. A musing sequence of gentle synths creep in, a Celestial sound that adds an element of Space-Pop and old-school 90’s rave tracks with it’s deeply electronic sound. The tempo slightly raises throughout the track as we gently build up to an ambient washing of vivid, colourful Synths and more deeply textured, percussive drum loops. There is a slick bassline that runs throughout, one which doesn’t feel too modern or contemporary, but instead feels analogue-driven and with a contemplative tone that fits the subject matter of the track nicely, and continues to evoke a nostalgic and light-hearted emotion with it’s light sonic steps. The recurring set of synths keep lurking in and out – as if to just slowly massage your ears to the beat of the more percussive layers in the repeating drum beat of the track. Rather than evoking a Dancehall-oriented club sound, it reminds me of the work that legendary DJ and personal favourite Aphex Twin explored on “Xtal” specifically and the general sound of “Selected Ambient Works 85-92” by using the simplicity of the drum sounds to Avery’s advantage. This is not really a heavy dance beat and feels more of an emotive ambient ilk, so you’re not going to find the next big dancefloor-filling club record if you’re looking to find that from this, but it feels perfectly suited for it’s purpose instead and it’s laid out very impressively, with merticulously planned synths which properly reward you with repeated listens to it. Rest in peace, old friend.

Pictured: Cover Art for "Dusting For Smoke" (EP) (Released on September 1, 2020) (via Phantasy Sound) — Pictured: Cover Art for “Dusting For Smoke” (EP) (Released on September 1, 2020) (via Phantasy Sound)

Thank you for reading my new post! As always, please feel free to join me again tomorrow – where will be skewing towards Post-Punk instead. We will be taking an in-depth listen back to cult classic track from 1989, an example of work taken from the early discography of a cult favourite 90’s Post-Punk band who were formed in 1986 by Ian MacKaye in Washington, DC. The band earned critical acclaim and crossover success across the world before starting their indefinite hiatus in 2003. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Boards Of Canada – “An Eagle In Your Mind” (1998)

November 3, 2020 — 1 Comment

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

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

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

Thank you for reading my new post! Please feel free to join me tomorrow – where we’ll be making a change of pace with an in-depth look at the latest album from one of the most legendary African-American Hip-Hop groups of all-time, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Fame in 2013, and critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine named them as “The most influential and radical band of their time” for AllMusic in 2017. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Sneaks – “Do You Want To Go Out Tonight?”

October 13, 2020 — Leave a comment

I’m glad that I have finally found the time to Sneak this one in. It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Sneaks (Eva Moolchan) in a promotional photoshoot (in 2020) (via Sneaks’ official website)

Good Afternoon to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, I’m here to get typing up about your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! “Happy Birthday” is a recent album release that has been gaining popularity on the underground Electronic music scene. The record comes from Sneaks, the alias of Eva Moolchan, who is an emerging Post-Punk and Spoken-Word musician based in Washington, DC. The album was dropped on August 21st, and it marks Moolchan’s third full-length album release for Merge Records. It also follows “Highway Hypnosis”, which only came out a year ago, and so this does mark a quick turn-around period coming from the back of her previous LP effort, although she has previously released her early output via Danger Records, including her 2015 debut LP, “Gymnastics”. To spice proceedings up for her latest album release, she has confidently turned to Carlos Hernandez as her mixing engineer. She’s also been in the studio with the Grammy-winning producer Jacknife Lee (Taylor Swift, REM, U2, Editors). Let’s sample “Do You Want To Go Tonight” below.

Jordan Bassett, a journalist for NME, praised Woolchan: “She favours short, sharp, effortlessly cool compositions that worm their way into your conciousness without breaking a sweat”, and there’s an incredible sense of bold ambition that comes with Woolchan’s work on the syncopated staccato beats and her ambiguous songwriting style on “Do You Want To Go Out Tonight?”, the opening track of the new album. Sneaks’ lyrics are noticeably minimal, apart from the use of the track’s oft-repeated title line of “Do You Want To Go Out Tonight/”, which she delivers with a smoky and direct mode of delivery. After a few repeats of the line, the jittering electronic bassline is juxtaposed by a rolling set of percussive Drum Machine sequences, which begin to favour rolling Bell melodies and No-Wave elements of light riffs. It forms a textual outlier for an incredibly 80’s-influenced sound, with a few comparisons to Liquid Liquid and Shirley Manson coming to my mind. The track poses the risk of the continuous chorus line getting stale by the end of the track with it’s repeated nature… but, for me, it really doesn’t. This seems to be because the variation of the electronic sounds are diversified enough to incorporate light elements of Post-Punk and Math-Rock to the palette at a consistent pace, and the track unexpectedly closes off to the swelling sound of an Orchestral pattern of laidback Violin sounds and intense Cello strings, which also manage to give off a rather cinematic and soundtrack feel to the light grooves of the glitched Synthpop sounds and the clear 80’s influences, all delivered within the setting of an IDM-like production method. Overall, the large emphasis on the towering Synthesizer instrumentation, building to an escalating set of String parts, manages to keep the only line of lyrics interesting enough to suffice the, rather short, however, length of the track, and I think that’s a feat certainly above the average level of musicians who create their music under this 80’s-reminiscent Synthpunk banner. After all of that – I think I would fancy a night out.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Happy Birthday” (Released on August 21st, 2020) (via Merge Records)

Thank you very much for reading my new blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, with an in-depth look at another recent album release, and we are deviating in style as we look towards the Hip-Hop genre. The single will come from a pioneering American rapper and singer-songwriter who was certainly a part of “The Golden Age” of Hip-Hop between the 1970’s and 90’s and he’s released twelve full-length albums, seven of which were certified Platinum and Multi-Platinum in the US. He is the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records, just to give you another clue. 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: Falle Nioke (feat. Ghost Culture) – “Barké”

August 31, 2020 — Leave a comment

If your pet dog likes this music, they will probably Barké at it. It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Outer case for Falle Nioke & Ghost Culture’s “Youkounkoun” EP (Physical CD available from Bandcamp.com)

Yeah… You can tell I struggled a bit to come up with the tagline for this one. Good Afternoon, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, I’m writing about your daily track on the blog, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! “Barké” is a recent release which I sadly didn’t quite get around to taking a spin earlier. It comes from the EP, “Youkounkoun”, a collaborative EP mixed together by Falle Nioke and Ghost Culture. Nioke is a singer-songwriter from Guinea Conakry, West Africa. He sings in both French and English, and in some traditional African languages like Susu, Falani, Malinke and Conagui. He is also a percussionist who plays cultural African instruments like the Gongoma, Bolon and Cassi. The latter, Ghost Culture, is the alias of London-based Electronic composer James Greenwood. He has always been a producer in the UK’s underground dance scene, but he turned heads with the release of his self-titled LP back in 2015, which was named as Rough Trade’s “Record Of The Month” in January 2015. Let’s have a gander to “Barké” below.

Falle Nioke was, reportedly, quickly inspired to link up with Ghost Culture, as his first electronically-focused project, soon after he moved to the UK and signed up with PRAH Recordings. “Barké” was the first sampler they shared from their recent EP, and it’s title roughly translates to “Blessing” in English. The sound of which they craft together comes off as quite intriguing. Nioke recites African chants over a luscious Lute melody, before Greenwood adds a synergistic range of syncopated beat melodies, with a kinetic bassline that melodically whistles over the top of a stuttering, glitched-out strobe rhythm that continually dips and weaves over the top of Nioke’s tribal vocals. These vocals feel upbeat, yet grounded, paired with a sensibility of Drum and Bass that clashes the two musical roots of London and Conkary together, with a decent flow that doesn’t feel too jarring, although it takes some co-operation for you to become accustomed to it. The electronic influences aren’t heavy, with a minimalist drum pattern and a simple, hand-clapped beat that keeps the track feeling poppy and beat-driven enough to access on a first listen. It provides for a good introduction to Nioke’s distinct vocal style, as he bases a large emphasis on high notes and a mid-tempo pitch, before the electronic beats gradually decrease in frequency, and the ongoing groove makes a key change, for a soulful outro that evokes a well-rounded finish. The style feels raw and D.I.Y, with an interesting style of lyricism that probably takes a bit of interaction or perseverance for a casual listener to get the most out of it. I think it makes for some superb diversity, and it’s addictive as a grower. A great palette cleanser for a year where, sadly, nothing has gone to plan.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Youkounkoun” (EP) (Released on July 10th, 2020) (via PRAH Recordings)

Thank you very much for reading this post! Don’t worry, as I will be kicking off the new month tomorrow with a new track from a talented independant artist who has really burst onto the UK Indie Rock scene with her new track, which has been curated for an A-list slot on BBC Radio 6Music, along with a strong airplay from X-Posure, John Kennedy’s evening show, on Radio X. It’s named after a popular lunchtime meal that you would probably enjoy as a comfort food while feeling poorly. 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: Severed Heads – “All Saints Day (2015 USA Tour)”

August 29, 2020 — Leave a comment

Basement Jazz would ask: Where’s Your (Severed) Head At? It’s time for a new post…

Pictured: Tom Ellard (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar/Electronic Percussion) and Stewart Lawler (Synths/Keyboard/Engineer) (Current band lineup) at Unsound Festival 2016 (Photo Credit: Paulius Illius/www.SecretThirteen.org)

Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I am writing about your daily track on the blog because, as like always, it is my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! “All Saints Day” has always gone down as a cult classic, from what I gather. It’s probably because of my age, but I just saw this track listed on the KEXP schedule, and I thought the artwork looked really amusing, but I’ve never actually listened to this record. So, it’s going to be as much as a new experience for you as it will be for me, for today. According to my research, this is one of the most popular tracks to ever be performed by Severed Heads, a cult favourite Australian Experimental Electronic Prog-House group, which has seen several line-up changes throughout the years. This track was taken from their eighth LP record, “Rotund For Success”, released in 1989. As with the bulk of the group’s discography, the album has been reissued several times over the years by different labels, in different formats and versions. This late-80’s iteration of the duo saw Tom Ellard work with Stephen Jones on Synths and Production, but the current line-up sees Jones getting replaced by Stewart Lawler on Engineering and Percussion. In any case, Severed Heads has become known for their off-kilter style of production, experimental pop-driven hooks, and twisted splicing effects. Let’s listen to their 2015 USA Tour dub of the track below.

With the history of Severed Heads in their career seeming almost as strange as the highly experimental, IDM-driven style of their music, “All Saints Day” incorporates a House-laden melodicism into a harsh, although not abrasive, electronic synth bassline and a groovy, but slightly distorted, snare effect. It often feels like some kind of “Wrong” or “Broken” auto-tune machine, with Cymbal samples being looped backwards and delayed pedal effects making the club-rolling dancefloor House beats sounding a little bit sideways. There is enough of a melodic Synthpop element to the track though, with a trendy late-80’s synth-oriented club sound and spoken word vocals that often feel comparable to Pet Shop Boys or Bernard Summer. The smooth synth-rock development replaces a grating percussion sample, sounding like a door loudly creaking, from the opening. The vocals flutter above a Disco-Rock layering, going: “For I am willing to believe/Wishing to be strong, Fighting on your side”, over the top of curiously appealing, monstrous vocal samples and the brassy, prominent Synth-Strobe stabs. An unintelligible female vocal loop, a manipulated jumble of celestial Drum blips, and an ethnological, almost tribal, backing vocal loop compete against each other in the bizzare cloud of experimentation. It’s very off-kilter, but it’s well-paced throughout and feels fairly cohesive, but it’s wonky enough to add a touch of charm and warmth. It somewhat feels like a product of it’s time, with innovative 80’s synth stabs and hefty use of the Analogue synth hardware that was new and exciting in it’s heyday, but it also feels very intentionally off-kilter and appealingly unstable enough to have a timeless effect. If it came out tomorrow, I don’t think that anybody would question it much, but you could point directly to its influence. To conclude, it does have “me” written all over it judging by my own personal tastes, and I think this is a really cool tune. I would love to see a revival of this niche dance scene.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Rotund For Success” (Released on 31st October, 1989) (via Volition Records/Nettwerk)

Thank you very much for reading my daily music blog post! As per usual, I will be back tomorrow with your new weekly edition of Scuzz Sundays, the feature where I pick an Emo-Rock or a Pop-Punk relic from between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s to see if it can hold a candle to modern standards! If you are a fan of Burnout Paradise, the classic racer video game from 2008, you’ll be in for a blast from the past tomorrow, so make sure you don’t miss out on it! 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/