Jangle-Rock

It’s so R-Rated, they’ve already made me drop an F-bomb! It’s time for your daily post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Deleter” (Released on January 17th, 2020) (Vinyl copy available from myshopify.co.uk)

I don’t think they take themselves very seriously…! A still-quite-tired Jacob Braybrooke here, getting your new post sorted for another day on the blog. “Free Gloss” is the new track from Progressive Electronic Pop pioneers Holy Fuck (I have to say Holy F on the radio…), who have returned after 4 years with the release of a new LP, “Deleter”, which was released last month via the Last Gang Records independent label. This is the follow-up LP to their comeback album, “Congrats”, which was released in 2016 after the band took a six-year hiatus to focus on their solo careers. Although the band have never crossed over into the mainstream before, they have built their career around their sizeable cult following and their unique live performance set-ups, which have seen the band use improvised instruments like toy lasers and 35mm film synchronizers to loop and splice their own sound effects into the format of their tracks, rather than using laptops or pre-produced backing tracks. They’ve recently been working alongside Nicholas Allbrook, who is the front-man of the Australian psychedelic rock band Pond and he used to go on tour with Tame Impala as their live bassist. Let’s have a listen to the radio edit of “Free Gloss” below.

With the “Deleter” LP also featuring the talents of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor and Liars’ Angus Andrew, it seems to be that the Montreal electronic outfit are carving out a niche themselves in the “Electronic 90’s” style of genre. I feel that “Free Gloss” is sequenced distinctively enough to stand out though, as Pond’s Nicholas Allbrook delivers his faded-out vocals under a pummeling keyboard riff and a flickering guitar rhythm. With an undecipherable line of lyrics, Allbrook delivers the stuttering arrangement of half-crooned, 90’s dance stylized vocals layered above a dramatic template of vibrant, digitally-created melodies which drill against the light-hearted club energy of Allbrook’s vocals to create a push-and-pull effect, balancing an energetic synth bassline with the heavy guitar riffs, which have been mastered below the domineering keyboard effects, to sound futuristic and progressive. At the halfway mark, the complex sequence of electronic riffs drown to a quaint halt for a moment, before the amalgamation of keyboard melodies and drum sequences ascend back to their domineering position on the track, as it fades to a close. It’s ultimately a tricky song to write about due to the complex plethora of effects that it conveys in it’s sound, but I feel it’s ultimately an intriguing and satisfying journey through an experimental sonic soundscape, which reminds me of the Big Beat era of the late 90’s featuring British dance acts like The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx. It would have been nicer to hear the lyrics more clearly, but the sophistication helps it to work.

Pictured: Brian Borcherdt (Lead Vocalist/Sequencing), Graham Walsh (Keyboard/Programming), Matt “Punchy” McQuaid (Bass Guitar/Effects) and Matt Schulz (Drum Kits) (Photo Credit: Fortitude Magazine) (2016)

Thank you for reading this post! Make sure you kick off your weekend with the blog tomorrow, as we’ll be celebrating the release of Tame Impala’s new album “The Slow Rush”, with an in-depth look at “Lost In Yesterday”, whch is the most recent single to be released in support of the record! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

It’s not the end of the world as we know it… but I feel fine! It’s time for your new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Drive To The Ocean” (January 4th, 2020) (Single Release) (Self-Released)

I actually met REM at a small pub, you know, and we even got our picture taken! Look, that’s me in the corner! Alas, I kid. I’m Jacob Braybrooke, as usual, writing about your daily track on the blog. Today’s track is “Drive To The Ocean” by Michael Stipe and just in case you didn’t know, he was the lead singer of the iconic rock-folk band REM. This is his second solo single, following the release of “Your Capricious Soul”, his first, in 2019. However, I haven’t heard that track personally. He’s always been known for his distinct voice, which sounds like home for many after all these years. I’ve always thought of it as a little bit of a cross between Morrissey and Kermit The Frog, with Bono from U2 describing it as “extroadinary” and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke citing Stipe as his favourite lyricist of all time. “Drive To The Ocean” was self-released on January 4th, 2020 as a charity single, with all of the proceeds going towards Pathway To Paris, a climate change advocacy group. It isn’t necessarily breaking new ground for Stipe, as he’s always been an open environmentalist, having released his debut single in aid of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental campaign group who partly inspired Stipe’s return to writing music after he stepped away from the limelight to focus on his career in photography. Let’s have a listen to “Drive To The Ocean” below!

A slow-building track capping just above the four-and-a-half minute mark, it begins with a Hendrix-esque rock vocal monologue of driving through the passages of life, as he chimes: “I’ll drive through the mountains/the crumbling west/I’ll sing like the whales/Before man was a pest”, an intricate vocal refrain that has a noticeable hint of spoken-wordiness to it, reminding me of Nick Cave’s recent output. Stipe’s voice has matured, as he grumbles: “We came to explore/Just look where that got us” as he ponders the human effects of climate change and how it’s negatively affected the environment. At this point, the light rock setting takes a darker turn, with a synthesized backdrop flickering to the rhythm of Stipe’s vocal hooks. The chorus goes: “We’ve been here before, Radio transistor/my friend”, before he repeats: “Radio, love me/Radio, the sand/Radio, the ocean/Radio, the end”, over a wailing combination of mournful whines, with an overall western setting which creates an ominous atmosphere. So, is it any good? Well… To be honest, I personally feel it’s a bit weak and a bit poor. That said, I’ve never been an avid fan of REM personally and so it might be that it just isn’t made for me. Starting off with the good, I think the structure of the track is reasonably well produced as it starts off as an instrumental alternative rock track before it takes a more electronic turn. However, I just find the synth-based sound to feel rather lacklustre as it plods along without really kicking up a notch, and I also find the lyricism to be rather bland and lifeless due to it’s repetition, along with the somber and reflective tones feeling like a bit of a retread in this stage of his career. It’s worth 99p, though, as it supports a good, charitable cause.

Pictured: Michael Stipe attending the “Performance Space New York’s Spring Gala” in New York City (May 4th, 2019) (Photo Credit: John Lamparski/Getty Images)

Thank you for reading this post! I can’t believe we’re nearly halfway through the week already – not long to go! I’m very busy at an SRA Training Day tomorrow, but I’ll be back on the blog tomorrow, as always, with a brief look at a new track from a very well-known American Punk band who’ve just released a song which they’ve wrote about a WWE Women’s Wrestler – who was the first WWE Women’s Wrestler to hold both the WWE Raw Women’s Championship and the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship! 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/

One Track At A Time

Today’s Track: Holy Fuck (feat. Nicholas Allbrook) – “Free Gloss”

Today’s Track: Michael Stipe – “Drive To The Ocean”