Today’s Track: Calva Louise – ‘Euphoric’

December 28, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘EUPHORIC’ (LP) (Released on August 20, 2021) (via FRKST Records/300 Entertainment)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and thanks for joining me today as we fill up the awkward post-Christmas and pre New Year’s slot with some music that got a little underrated during 2021 with yet another daily track on the blog, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Formed in 2016, Calva Louise are a Manchester-based indie punk and post-grunge band who take their influence from many variations of Noise-Rock and Synth-Punk between both UK and US outfits, while also getting in touch with their Latin Rock heritage throughout the two albums to their name so far. Fronted by the bold creative vision of vocalist/guitarist Jess Allanic – the trio have supported the likes of Razorlight, Highly Suspect and Albert Hammond Jr in their time together. Earlier in the year, they released the ambitious multi-media project of ‘EUPHORIC’, which was fronted by a concept album about the duality of being human and the different perceptions of reality. The band have stated that the lyrics detail episodes of the dreamer’s experiences in the form of an inner conversation with his other self – the counterpart of the human being – that seeks to experience freedom and have an encounter with the unknown. The sophomore album was produced and mixed by Bobby Bentham of Strange Bones fame. Moreover, the album was accompanied by a 45-minute Animation short film that was entirely created by Jess Allanic, who used software like After Effects and Blender to bring the Graphic Novel-inspired visuals of her band’s creative record to life. For now, let’s have a sample of the title track below.

Released digitally in late August and finally manufactured on physical vinyl copies in December by Blood Records, Calva Louise collectively say, “Our passion for audiovisual production is constantly intertwined with the concept of the album and that is why each new step to take becomes a new challenge, it is as if each completed experience gradually reveals the signs that guide us on our way”, noting, “The perception we have of this adventure shows us horizons that seem to be beyond our rational understanding as artists, and in order to see clearly we try to express these experiences through visual effects, as a complement to the music and the lyrics of the songs”, to their LP’s product description. ‘EUPHORIC’ feels like an expository title for the project, bolstered by a title track that is filled with meaty hooks and soaring melodies that hints about how you may feel after completely listening to the album in a single bingeable session. With eruptive drumming and partially processed vocal peaks, lyrics like “I wait in line, Your head is on fire, Ahead we cry in a simple way” and “When you and me are nothing, Only one of us will be euphoric” that set a fiery temper for the underground feel of the track, Allanic powerfully backs her vocals to some thrashing electronic melodies – including some gradually bubbling Synth riffs in the opening that become more acidic throughout the first verse – and some old-school Punk personality that complements the moody tone of the lyrics. The vocals are partially screamed at different intersections, but the pacing is fairly even, as Allanic uses some slower guitar notes towards the end to give the vocals just a little space to breathe. Meanwhile, the electronic production of the single goes heavy and hard by trading some twinkling keyboard riffs for a hefty amount of grit instead, with plenty of glitchy bass riffs that sweep in for a futuristic tone and Allanic concentrates hard on making her ferocious vocals feel as knife-edge as she can, and she even recites some non-English language lyrics towards the latter half to remind us of her Venezuelan upbringing, and the heavy dancehall influence of this particular touch reminds me of Arca in a few ways, especially with the audio-visual medium of the project hanging in the balance. Overall, while the more Noise-Rock based riffs get a little repetitive at times there is no doubt that Calva Louise explore decent ideas on this project altogether. It is very interesting to see the band expressing their ideas with intriguing ways by leaning into the sci-fi themes that audio-visual side projects can enhance for them. As well as giving them a unique selling point, it gives them more space to create their art, and I certainly like how there is more than just music to this. The sound, meanwhile, is an energetic one that becomes very unrelenting and combines qualities from Nu Metal and Prog Rock with dramatic results. Overall, this is an exciting band and a fresh project that, while not perfect, are certainly worth a look.

Pictured: Jess Eastwood (Vocals/Guitar), Alizon Taho (Bass Guitar) and Ben Parker (Drums) (2021) (Photo via PR)

That’s all for now – and thank you for reading about the euphoric melodies highlighted in today’s post. I’ll be back tomorrow with more content that concerns an operatic Conneticut-based indie rock band with one of the longest names in the business. Their discography includes a key collaboration with the Spoken Word artist Christopher Zizzamia – and their influences include Battles and Explosions In The Sky.

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New Album Release Fridays: Helado Negro – “Outside The Outside”

October 22, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Far In’ (LP) (Released on October 22nd, 2021) (via 4AD)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘New Album Release Fridays’ is the time of the week where we unbox one of the most exciting new LP releases of the weekend, and this week’s line-up includes plenty of options to choose from. The likes of Elton John, Self Esteem, HONNE, JPEGMafia, Parquet Courts, Biffy Clyro and Don Broco are all releasing new albums today, but, for me, the Miami-born and New York-based Nu-Disco producer Helado Negro (the main alias of Roberto Carlos Lange) is the little artist who could. You may recognize his voice from ‘Close’, the closing track of Colombian electronic music producer Ela Minus’ album ‘Acts Of Rebellion’, which he was featured on last year. As a solo artist, Lange won the United States Artists’ Fellow In Music in 2019 and he was later the recipient of the 2019 Grants To Artists Award from the Foundation For Contemporary Arts. He was also the winner of the Joyce Foundation in 2015, so there’s plenty of critical acclaim under his belt. Lange has been producing a significant amount of musical and visual art work since he first became active in 2009 through various aliases, and he’s known for his non-conventional approaches to Avant-Pop while also expressing his Latinx identity and his pluralistic sensibilities. 2021’s ‘Far In’ is his seventh full-length solo album, and it is the follow-up to 2019’s ‘This Is How You Smile’ and 2016’s ‘Private Energy’, as well as his first record to be issued on the 4AD label. Born to Ecuadorian immigrants, the record explores his childhood anxieties of feeling like an outsider in his family’s community, and his road to finding a sense of belonging. Lange simply said, “Escape is never out there, you have to look inward”, in a press release. The notable single ‘Outside The Outside’ is married beautifully to a music video consisting of camcorder footage of his family’s South Florida house parties of the 1980’s, so let’s give it a listen.

“This is a song about intimate partnerships and long-loving friendships. To be loyal freaks and an outsider amongst outsiders”, he says about the standout single ‘Outside The Outside’, while adding, about the video, “My family came to this country as outsiders looking for and finding community. People would come to our house and bond through music, family and dancing. They usually began at 8 PM and lasted until 5 AM”, he says of the guests who would stay up all night to dance the Salsa or Merengue, before he concluded, “I used to wake up and it would be 7 AM in the morning and people would still be downstairs drinking”, with a laugh in a recent interview. I think it’s fair to say that this particular concept is alien to us Brits, and so ‘Outside The Outside’ does a great job of creating a late-night vibe with an infectious groove and calling to mind the alienation that Lange struggled handling when he was being raised as a South Florida native despite his rich descent. Lyrics like “There we were/Up all night/Terrified, kissing you twice” and “They were mine/Changed my life, I forgot to show you why” feel hushed and intoned, while the electronic Synths warping around these words feel Lo-Fi and Minimalist in production. The chorus is a simple one, while a touch of introspection touches the other lyrics, as if Lange is reminiscing over the innocence that he also used to feel at the parties while growing up, as he uses lyrics like “Because my world only opens/When your world comes in” to demonstrate these emotions, and discuss how a group of lost souls coming together has formed close relationships. While the lyrics are well-written and inspired enough, it’s also the instrumentation and production that makes the track come together so strongly like it does. The track has a dance music feel, yet it goes for a more reflective and nostalgic tone instead of a swooping and euphoric one, not relying on dancefloor-ready builds and festival-friendly basslines, and instead going for something more subdued and hushed. It feels like a nice platform for Lange’s crooning vocals to create a variety of moods from, while the glistening Disco melodies and the spiraling percussion feels melodic enough to dance along to, whether as a casual listener or a hardcore fan of his work. Overall, ‘Outside The Outside’ is a cracking single that confidently captures the feelings of fostering an environment that feels supportive and comfortable that have shaped the inspiration of Lange’s new album, and the only light we see is that of a dangling Disco ball on the house’s ceiling.

Pictured: Helado Negro performing for GRAMMY’s ‘Press Play At Home’ series (2021) (Photo via PR)

That is all for today! Thank you very much for joining me, and I’ll be back for more musical musings tomorrow. We’ll be listening to the latest single from the quirky indie New Zealand Psych-Pop group Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who have teamed up with the puppeteer of The Muppets and Sesame Street to produce their latest music video.

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Today’s Track: Bardo Martinez – “Patterns Of Being”

October 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Everywhere Reminds Me Of Space’ (LP) (Released on July 23, 2021) (via Yemaya Sol Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and I’m reaching out to you on the day that ‘Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania’ gets released for yet another 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! A week earlier to this day, we took an in-depth look at the new solo LP record – ‘South Sinner Street’ – from Marlowe’s Solemn Brigham, one half of one of my favourite Hip-Hop acts in recent times. This week, we are adapting that formula for Bardo Martinez, who is the frontman of the Latin American Prog-Rock outfit Chicano Batman, who have also garnered praise on the blog beforehand. The band have always drawn from a mix of genres including Psych-Soul, Neo-Rock, Funk and Indie music, which the 4-piece have taken to the stages of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and Ruido Fest over the course of the past few years. This July, Bardo quietly released ‘Everywhere Reminds Me Of Space’ on his own label Yemayá Sol Records – a self-produced little collection of 11 tracks that have allowed him to experiment more freely with some of the solo material which he has been compiling together for a few years on his own, with the global state of the Covid-19 lockdowns giving him ample time to explore his early Hip-Hop influences with a heavily beat-focused approach. One of the singles that Bardo finally had a decent amount of time to finally nurture was ‘Patterns Of Being’, the lead single from the album. Bardo began writing the lyrics and the chords for the track in 2015, before he recorded the music in 2019 and he got around to finishing it last year. Give the psychedelic trip a spin below.

Bardo aimed to dip into the same bold originality that makes Chicano Batman work so effectively for the vibrant, rhythmic-driven release, and he told GrimyGoods.com in an interview about the album, “With this record, I wanted to showcase the beats and spoken word cinematic vision quests along with some tunes I had stashed away in the vault”, adding up to his notes, “A little Casio keyboard, a Maestro Echoplex, and my monophonic Synths were tracked all over the record in order to keep it together. Many artists delve into the ether with existential quandaries about life, love and nature, I am no exception”, in his press statement. ‘Patterns Of Being’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 2020’s ‘Invisible People’ with his comrades from Chicano Batman, with Bardo reciting eccentric lyrics about self-gratitude and acceptance with a touch of gently philosophical musing. Catchy refrains like “Everybody’s everything and everything is everybody” and “We’re like lava pouring on the floor/Anything just comes out to its core” feel sharp and tease some conceptual thinking about humanity running parallel to geographical nature. The chorus focuses more squarely on the rhythmic delivery, as Bardo sings “Every time you’ve lost your mind/You’ve always managed to remember those/Patterns of being that makes you you” in a lush and free-form tone. The instrumentation feels deliberately playful too and even child-like at points. The Casio keys are joyous and tinny, while the Synth melodies feel harsh and wonky at times. This technique gives the track its sonic, psychedelic identity that isn’t a far cry from the engaging material that he produces with Chicano Batman. The wah-wah guitars and the extra electronic keys add some more upbeat beats and soft distortion which are influenced by his love of soul-oriented rap music. On the whole, ‘Patterns Of Being’ is dead good, and it reminds me of how leading musicians of wider bands sometimes flourish from having a solo platform to experiment more freely, with Box Car Racer and Iggy Pop standing out as key examples of this. It sounds like Chicano Batman in some aspects, but it has more of a DIY and an intimate feel to it subsequently. A dizzying array of sounds that seem out of this world, while grounded.

Pictured: Bardo with Carlos Arévalo, Eduardo Arenas & Gabriel Villa (2020) (Photo via ATO Records)

Pictured: Chicano Batman in a Tiny Desk Concert gig for NPR Music (2017) (Photo via YouTube.com)

That’s all that I’ve got for today – but we will be taking a break from the recent music recommendations for a new entry in our ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ library tomorrow. This week’s pick is a celebration of an iconic 1982 Hip-Hop track that became known as one of the genre’s first outings to be written about the poverty of inner city living, thus introducing the ideas of social commentary to conscious Hip-Hop music, written as a stark response to the 1980 New York City transit strike, as mentioned in the lyrics.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Gilberto Gil – “Aquele Abraço”

May 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

“Gil is Tropicalia’s rude essence” – Sasha Frere-Jones, 2020. Finally, let’s go Way Back!

Pictured: Gilberto Gil in Valencia, Spain (2021) (Photo by Gérard Giaume/Berklee College Of Music)

Good Morning to you! It’s a beautifal day outside, and so I’m here to sweeten it up with your daily track on the blog, as it’s still my day-to-day pleasure. First of all, my apologies for disappearing from the face of the Earth for the last couple of days. I ended up getting a small extension for my Masters work because my project wasn’t quite ready yet, and it’s been a busy road of traffic up in the head lately. I’m perfectly fine now, so don’t you worry. I’ve always set up this blog as a place of pleasure and enjoyment, and so I never wanted for it to feel like an obligation or a chore, so I just needed a minute to focus on the stress personally and the tasks at hand. It’s all good!

With those modules submitted, let me introduce you to our pick for today. For my project, I was researching ‘World Music’ and whether this term holds discriminatory context. One of the genres that I explored was Tropicalia, a movement that saw it’s artists – the likes of Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and Bahian graphic designer Rogerio Duarte, express political protest through eclectic music styles and promote messages of defiance against the ruling military coup which took over Brazil in 1964. It was a moment, rather than a movement, with the protests winding down from around 1968 onwards. It was a very busy time for the likes of Gilberto Gil, however, who was also very much a key creative figure in the revolution. Gil and Veloso were threats to the military. They were imprisoned for two months, then deported, moving to London for a little bit. He returned to Bahia in 1972, and he’s continued to work as a musician, politician and environmental advocate. He also served as Brazil’s Minister Of Culture between 2003 to 2008. “Aquele Abraço” was issued in 1969 by Universal, but Gil would perform the track during marching protests during the time of Tropicalia. The title roughly translates to “The Hug” in English. Let’s reflect on the busy time for Gil below.

‘Aquele Abraço’ was written during a time of house arrest, where Gil developed the melodies and lyrics, before putting together the instrumentation for it’s recording. It became a major hit in the charts of Brazil during 1969, and it was performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games by Marisa Monte and Seu Jorge of the Bossa Nova corporation, MPB. Reaching iconic status in his home turf, Gil’s lyrics invoke themes of neighborhoods, Samba schools, national landmarks, and the popular musicians of Rio De Janeiro. I’m not entirely familiar with how the music was made, since it was well before my time, and I cannot understand the actual lyrics. However, it’s clear enough that it’s Latin-flavored Samba with a gentle guitar rhythm. The rest of the instrumentation is very percussive, with shuffling Maraca beats and a shimmering Cuica rhythm that creates a sultry, sentimental and celebratory tone. Gil whoops and hollers his way through soft, lounge Jazz influences and psychedelically driven drum parts that get some effects going within the backdrop. It mostly feels like a love letter to his nationality and his peers, and expresses a sound that overall feels ‘exotic’ or very ‘distant’ in it’s experimentation – where sentiments of Rock ‘N’ Roll and the use of electric guitars make the rhythms feel progressive for the time. On the whole, it’s an impressive combination of relaxed and joyful, and it was too edgy to be seen as lawful by the government. That’s a pretty big thing. I have probably got a different stance on it as a Western listener with a white British ethnicity compared to the purpose of the track for the society it was aimed at, and it’s worth considering that I’m only reviewing it in hindsight. However, it’s still evident that Gil is music at it’s core – expressing to the public of Brazil that arts and culture had a role in developing Brazil as a nation during his commercial peak and soaring to the heights of Tropicalia.

Pictured: Gilberto Gil in a PR image for NN North Sea Jazz Festival on July 12, 2019 (Photo via NSJ)

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow as we pick up right where we left off with some brand new music. Tomorrow’s talent is a gender fluid rapper, producer and visual street artist who is also the founder of the NiNE8 Collective in London, and they share an eerily similar stage name to a certain under-rated star who scored a huge UK and US hit with ‘Bulletproof’ in 2007. 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/

Scuzz Sundays: Cypress Hill – “(Rock) Superstar”

March 28, 2021 — Leave a comment

The spiritual “Black Goat” of the Latin American Rap-Metal picture. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

Pictured: DJ Muggs, Louis “B-Real” Freese & Eric “Eric Bobbo” Corea (Date n/a) (Photo via Medium.com)

Good Afternoon to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, yet again, it’s time for our weekly throw back to the relics of the Emo era world from between the late-1990’s and the mid-2000’s, to see if the ‘classics’ hold up to that moniker, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Fronted by “The Black Goat” DJ Muggs (who has just put out some more solo material with a new album, for the record) – Cypress Hill, although technically still active, were California-based cornerstones of the Scuzz TV era. They sometimes got polarizing reviews from audiences and critics in a Nickelback or Imagine Dragons sort-of way, but they are still largely seen as the main pioneers of West Coast Hip-Hop from the 90’s, and the group have still sold their way to over 20 million units globally. In 2019, they became the first ever Latin-American rap group to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. ‘(Rock) Superstar’ was a UK Top 20 single taken from their fifth studio album, ‘Skull & Bones’, released in 2000. It closely resembles the preceding single, ‘(Rap) Superstar’ in it’s duology subject matter, where the album was even divided into two sections on seperate discs – one exploring Rap-Rock and the other exploring Nu-Metal, by way of comparing and contrasting the band’s experiences with these two sub-genres. Check out the music video, with a cameo from Coal Chamber’s bassist Nadja Peulen, below.

If you are less familiar with Cypress Hill – each of the group’s members have always notably advocated for medical and recreational use of Cannabis in the States, which is a crucial stage of their mythos. Collaborations is another – with the 2000 release of ‘Skull & Bones’ alone seeing guest musicians like Chino Moren from Deftones, Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine, Dino Cazares from Fear Factory, and even the ‘Rap God’ himself – Eminem – pulling in some appearances. Back to the matter at hand, however, we can see some blurring of the lines between melodic Hip-Hop and commercial Metal on ‘(Rock) Superstar’. The track paints it’s dark tonal picture with the spoken word into by Chino Moreno of Deftones, before a tense violin string and slowly building drum beats gives the track a downbeat vibe. Lines like “I remember the days when I was a young kid growing up/Looking in the mirror dreamin’ bout blowing up” and “I wish it was all fun and games, but the price is high” look back at the dark edges of our childhood dreams. Sen Dogg recites a slightly more involved verse later on, following from the ballad-style narrative that B-Real delivers, rapping the likes of “You wanna look shanty in the Bentley/Be a snob and never act friendly” and “I heard that some never give full to the fullest/That’s while fools end up dining on the bullet” as the string section intensifies. The chorus sees DJ Muggs lay down a Trap beat, as “So you wanna be a rock superstar, And live large, a big house, 5 cars, you’re in charge” and “Comin’ up in the world don’t trust nobody, Gotta look over your shoulder constantly” permeate through the dramatic instrumentation and the harsh synth tones. I get an overall Hamilton vibe from this track – a strikingly similar one, as a matter of fact, while rich String instrumentation and heavily Rap-inspired Spoken Word sections tell the narrative with an intensely cinematic and character-driven style. The subject matter of the track isn’t particularly interesting, but the feel of Paranoia is easy to identify with, as a listener, and the beats remain mostly the same, although there is some decent guitar work going on here, with some distorted sounds and delayed pedal effects contributing to the atmosphere. The vocals feel slightly out-of-place with the Hip-Hop influences, but the drums on the hook make for some palpable aggression. To sum it up, I feel that it works. While there’s nothing here that truly blows me away, it feels different to the type of music that was around elsewhere in the day, and some effort clearly went into building the atmosphere here. An odd sense of commercial roots bogs it down a little and the pure singing abilities aren’t the best and feel a little ‘amateur dramatics’ overall, but the hooks are pretty enjoyable and the Hamiltion-style rapping is fun too. All in all – I’ll give it a thumbs up.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Skull & Bones” (Released on April 25th, 2000) (via Columbia Records)

Thank you for reading my latest blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow to do it all over again – with a new post that features a rising star Indie Rock 4-piece band who have been playing all over the UK and Ireland since they formed in 2015, but they are from West Lothian, Scotland. The band’s material has been used in a national advertising campaign for Strongbow cider. Their new single was released in support of the Scottish Refugee Council, with the quartet donating the budget for the video to the charity. 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/

Boxing Day Special: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic – “Christmas At Ground Zero”

December 26, 2020 — Leave a comment

Believe it or not – I will be in Tiers by the time that this is all over with. It’s Boxing Day!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Greatest Hits Volume II” (Released on October 25, 1994) (via Scotti Brothers)

Stuffed yourself with all of the trimmings yet? Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s time for me to get writing up about your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day! That means… Boxing day, since there is no rest for the weary-eyed. “Christmas At Ground Zero” is a rather bizzare and obscure Christmas-themed track from 1986. It was written and performed by the Comedy Rock singer “Weird Al” Yankovic – who was one of the original viral favourites. A track that is essentially about Nuclear Omnicide, the title of “Ground Zero” refers to the area where the Twin Towers stood, prior to the terrifying events of 9/11, once in New York City. Before this, however, it was a reference to the spot where a Nuclear Missle was targeted to hit, and since it was recorded in 1986, that’s what Yankovic is playing around with here. He wrote it in a parody style of a Phil Spector-produced Christmas track – so just think about The Ronnetes, Darlene Love and The Crystals – and you’re there. It’s pretty mind-bending to think about just how successful that Yankovic has been for a Comedy artist writing music about niche subject areas. He’s been going since 1976 and since that time, he’s managed to sell over 12 million albums, performed more than 1,000 live shows, and he’s also won 5 Grammy Awards, along with a further 11 award nominations. In more recent years – Yankovic has written two children’s books. Let’s stream the track below.

With his trusty Accordion at hand – Yankovic has managed to perform many viral hits in Comedy parodies for the likes of Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Coolio, Madonna, The Backstreet Boys, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana and loads more, mostly within his signature Polka style. “Christmas At Ground Zero” is no different for hitting the consistent running gags and eliciting some belly laughs in the process. Juxtaposing uplifting Sleigh bells to shots of disastrous nuclear explosions from the music video, Yankovic sets up the scene with: “It’s Christmas at Ground Zero/There’s music in the air” over the top of typically melodic Saxophone samples, before he adds: “The sleigh bells are ringing/The carolers are singing/While the air-raid sirens blare” as the tone shifts. Festive Trumpet melodies contrast with Macabre scenarios as Yankovic happily sings daft lyrics like: “We can dodge debris while we trim the tree, Underneath the Mushroom cloud” and “Just seconds left to go, I’ll duck and cover with my Yuletide lover” above the saccharine, 50’s sounds of Jazz instrumentation that conveys a jolly yet psychotic beat, while a subtle pair of Air Raid sirens sound blare quietly in the background. It’s the bridge at the end that spells it out for us, as Yankovic sends us off with: “What a crazy fluke, we’re gonna get nuked” as the depressing reminder that it’s the Ground Zero settlement that we’re dealing with springs to mind once again. It feels very child-like and silly, yet it struck a chord with audiences. I think that’s because Yankovic manages to subvert the standard Christmas track in terms of the musicality and lyrics with the darker, but still comedic and quirky, undercurrents. It’s a fun alternative to your bog-standard Band Aid or your obvious Cliff Richard fare, albeit probably not one that is suitable for the whole family. How very festive indeed.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Polka Party!” (Released on October 21, 1996) (via Scotti Brothers)

That’s it for Boxing Day! On another note – join me again tomorrow for a festive edition of our Scuzz Sundays feature – where we take a look back at one of the Pop-Punk or Emo-Rock ghosts of Christmas past to see if they can still deliver the goods to us in the present times… and this next one was a collaboration for the ages! 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 Post: Khruangbin – “Pelota”

June 26, 2020 — Leave a comment

Does it live up to the hype or should it go in the Khruang-Bin? It’s time for a new post!

Pictured: Laura Lee (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar), Mark Speer (Lead Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Donald “DJ” Johnson (Drums/Percussion) in a press shoot for the “Con Todo El Mundo” debut album era (2018) (via Echoes.org)

At last, it’s big release time! Good Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing about your daily track on the blog because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! I’m glad the scorching hot weather has calmed down a bit, aren’t you? But, imagine the feeling of partying on a pleasantly warm beach in Croatia while you hear a DJ busting out the Earthly, Dub-inflicted Funk sounds of Khruangbin! It would be perfection, and it’s a tranquil feeling that the Houston trio of Laura Lee, Mark Speer and Donald “DJ” Johnson are hoping to capture on the new album, “Mortdechai”, which is the follow-up to 2018’s “Con Todo El Mundo” and it’s 2019 dub remix album “Hasta El Cielo”. They also released “Texas Sun”, a collaborative 4-track EP with Leon Bridges, in January of this year. So, they’ve been all over the shop – both sonically and geographically. I was very impressed with “Time (You and I)” and “So We Won’t Forget”, the previous two singles from the brand new album, although they don’t switch up the familiar formula of Khruangbin from their previous releases very much. “Mortdechai” releases today on the Dead Oceans label. It’s up to “Pelota”, the new single to be released by the band in support of the new album, to carry the hype train along. Let’s have a listen to it below.

A music video that is loosely based upon an animated Japanese film which has not been named by the band, Khruangbin’s “Pelota” sees director Hugo Rodríguez pair images of a Japanese Anime-style character morph through spherical shapes as the guitar-driven motifs of “Pelota” warp around a Latin American Pop style, full of Polyrhythmic drum beats and hand-clapped Jazz intervals. Khruangbin’s new album is their first to feature prominent vocals on every track, deviating from their predominantly instrumental style prior, but I was even more surprised to hear vocalist/bassist Laura Lee sing in Spanish on the new track, “Pelota”. The core lyric hook, “Ahorita Yo Puedo Ser Uno Pelota”, is a rough translation to the irreverent chorus “Right now, I can be the ball” in Spanish – an undercurrent to the track’s hidden meaning of the band exploring and observing the world by envisioning themselves as rubber balls. Silly as it may sound, it works well. This is because the band retain their dub-based, Funk and World aura with bass guitar riffs that feel familiar to their existing work, pleasing their built-in fanbase. “Pelota” has a more grounded feel to the previous two singles, “Time (You and I)” and “So We Won’t Forget”, due to the tempo being slightly raised by the lead vocals, and a lesser focus on their psychedelic trip. The instrumentation feels quite percussive, with an energetic lead guitar melody and jolting Steel Drum melodies rippling throughout. Although it’s a mostly abstract outing, it manages to negate my light concerns of the new album not sounding different enough to their prior releases to stand out amongst them. The proof will be in the pudding, however, and judging by the quality of all three singles from the new album, it’s shaping up to be one of, and potentially even, their best. I absolutely can’t wait to stream it later today once my jobs are done.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Mortdechai” (Released on June 26th, 2020) (via Dead Oceans)

As I mentioned, I am a huge fan of Khruangbin so I have covered multiple tracks from them in the past. Have a listen to “Time (You and I)” and “So We Won’t Forget”, the other two singles from their new album, “Mortdechai”, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/02/todays-track-khruangbin-time-you-and-i/ and here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/20/todays-track-khruangbin-so-we-wont-forget/, respectively. Check out my thoughts on “Texas Sun”, the titular track of their collaborative EP with Leon Bridges, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/06/todays-track-khruangbin-feat-leon-bridges-texas-sun/. Finally, you can check out the festive hit “Christmas Time Is Here” below: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/12/13/todays-track-khruangbin-christmas-time-is-here/

Pictured: Khruangbin outside of the BBC Radio 6Music studios (2018) (via BBC Music)

Thank you for reading this post! In regards to #BlackLivesMatter, we endorse the peaceful protests on One Track At A Time. Please go and check your local area for good charity causes that help those directly affected by racism and injustice. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at a track from a South-London based drums player who was one half of the sax-and-drums duo Binker & Moses, and he also fronted his own indie rock band, Exodus. 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