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Today’s Track: Jordana – ‘Catch My Drift’

February 14, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Face The Wall’ (LP) (Available from May 5th, 2022) (via Grand Jury Music)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I hope that your eardrums are ready for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 20-year-old singer songwriter originally from Wichita, Kansas who I believe is based in Los Angeles, California – Jordana Nye is another in a long line of Bedroom Pop artists that has something unique to offer, and I gave her unanimous praise for her mid-pandemic singles ‘I Guess This Is Life’ and ‘Reason’ on the blog in 2020 when I discovered her. Her musical career began when her father, who was an organist at her local church, encouraged her to learn how to play instruments, and so she started on the Violin before picking up the Guitar, and she also went on to busk on the boardwalk of North Beach, Maryland when she was 13. Later, she released her debut album – ‘Classical Notions Of Self-Happiness’ – in 2019 that she entirely self-released and self-produced in her bedroom, and, in December 2020, she released a combination of two EP’s – ‘Something To Say To You’ – to essentially form up her second album. She has also collaborated with Magdalena Bay, TV Girl, Jordan Woods and producer MELVV and she will be supporting Wallows on tour in May 2020. Currently signed to Grand Jury Music, Jordana is back and she will release her next full-length LP, ‘Face The Wall’, on May 20th. She played every instrument on it by herself and it was co-produced by Cameron Hale (Claud, Khalid, Neon Trees). So far, her music has toed a line between a brevity of genres including Grunge, Lo-Fi Pop, Pop-Punk and Alternative Folk – but it has always been her notably playful personality and her gently philosophical style of songwriting that has stood out for me. On her Bandcamp page, her album’s listing has hinted at veganism, religion, upbringing and sexuality as themes to be explored on the record. “The album title has a few meanings to me”, Nye says in a press release, adding, “Mostly, it’s about not giving up. The wall can be anything in your way. The album is sort of a reminder to myself that I have to face those things, and I can’t take the easy route and turn around”. Check out the latest single – ‘Catch My Drift’ – below.

‘Face The Wall’ is Jordana’s first album to be recorded in a studio instead of her home, and she has solo headline shows planned to take place across the US in June 2022. Along with the music video for ‘Catch My Drift’, she says, “This song is about going back and forth with your feelings for someone when they make you question whether they are even reciprocated. The song is about realizing you shouldn’t be totally dependent on anybody, and that it’s a waste of energy”, in her press release. A natural choice for a single, ‘Catch My Drift’ is a catchy Pop-driven Punk number that, with its music video, transports you back to the mid-00’s where Pop-Punk reigned supreme with female artists like Avril Lavigne and Paramore’s Hayley Williams filling the air with care-free and commercial anthems about reasoned dismissals of ex-lovers, but Jordana doesn’t just pull the nostalgia card and she decorates the throwback with her personal commentary. I also love how she fills the video with a caricature of characters, like the bassist and the drummer, that are played by herself dressed in questionable outfits. It feels almost like Aphex Twin and the ‘Come To Daddy’ video by concept, and it definitely conveys her sense of humor in a fun way. It helps that the frenetic guitar riffs, with a water-tight bridge that reminds me of the 80’s and echoes the likes of Simple Minds or The Cure, are very catchy and fit the fairly light-hearted tone of the melodies. The Synths are fast and furious too, aiding the lyrics where Jordana croons hooks like “I hate to say I told you so/It’s no mistake to be alone” and “Do you catch my drift?/Are you picking up what I’m putting down” with the sense that she’s not holding her breath for wish fulfillment. There’s an excellent mixture of strength and vulnerability in her vocals and the propulsive bass and drums combo of the chorus wraps up her lovesick pain with a feeling of progression and moving forwards in personal matters. I certainly think that, if an act with a more known name or a higher profile released this exact same single tomorrow – like Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo – it would get played all over the likes of BBC Radio 1 or BBC Radio 2. Therefore, it is a pity that she’s not one of them and she doesn’t quite have the same following yet. However, this is still a punchy and effortlessly likeable preview of the upcoming album that we can take pride in keeping to ourselves a little bit, although I really want for people to hear Jordana’s music and get the experience of hearing her voice. Every one of her tracks have been an absolute joy for me to listen to so far and I can’t wait to see how the new album shakes up because I strongly feel that Jordana is a real talent. Retro, accessible and intimate – ‘Catch My Drift’ is incredibly irresistible.

Pictured: Jordana Nye in a photoshoot for the ‘Something To Say To You’ EP (2020) (Photo Credit: Jacob Clark)

If this post has inspired you to check out some of Jordana’s other great material, you can get started on her discography with my post about ‘I Guess This Is Life’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/10/todays-track-jordana-i-guess-this-is-life/. Alternatively, there’s another ‘Reason’ for you to check out her earlier work here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/12/07/todays-track-jordana-reason/.

Pictured: Jordana in an official photoshoot for ‘Something To Say To You’ EP (2020) (Photo by Grand Jury Music)

That brings us to the end of the page for another roughly 24-hour period, and I have little else to say than to thank you for taking some time out of your day to check out this music today. Feel welcome to come back tomorrow, where we will be listening to some fresh music from a South Carolina-born producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer who is usually recognized as one of the pioneers of the Chillwave movement from the 2010’s. He collaborated with Flume during 2020.

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Scuzz Sundays: Razorlight – ‘In The Morning’

February 13, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Razorlight’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on July 17th, 2006) (via Mercury Records)

Good Morning to you – If you have indeed joined me ‘In The Morning’ for yet another edition of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog, the weekly feature where we pay a visit to one of the ghosts of Pop-Punk’s past to see if they still send chills down our spines in 2022, which fits my theme of writing up about a different piece of music every day! An indie rock band from London with more line-up changes than anybody can shake a stick at, Razorlight were a mid-00’s pop/rock group who have gone through several rotations of members with lead vocalist Johnny Borrell tying the connections together as the sole permanent member. They are probably best known for crossover chart hits like ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Wire To Wire’ that reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, along with ‘America’ which was actually a UK #1 hit for them. ‘In The Morning’ was another example of their most well-known material and it peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart as the lead single to be taken their second studio album – a self-titled effort, unusually for a follow-up release – that was released to a mixed reception from critics in 2006. The album did decent business, however, and Razorlight have since gone on to take some awards home from 2007’s Eska Music Awards, 2005’s Silver Chef Awards and the Muso Awards in 2005. Razorlight are still releasing new music today, although quite sporadically, with 2018’s ‘Olympus Sleeping’ being their most recent album release – which was their first in ten years. Let’s revisit ‘In The Morning’ below.

‘In The Morning’ has been certified as Gold in the UK to mark a milestone of over 400,000 copies to get sold commercially, and the associated album went straight to the top of the UK Album Charts, as well as reaching the Top 40 in countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand and more. What doesn’t raise their profile, however, is that it was nominated for ‘Worst Album’ at the NME Awards in 2007, a (dis)honour that went to Robbie Williams’ ‘Rudebox’, and I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that distinction was just a little bit harsh or if it was fair in your own opinion. Back to the task at hand, and it is clear that ‘In The Morning’ sets the tone for a hangover mood after a party that got out of hand, as Borrell croons lyrics like “The songs on the radio sound the same/Everybody just looks the same” that mix a shade of meta commentary while toeing a line between slightly reflective Pop and sultry Garage Rock with the simple mixture of the ramshackle Drum beats and the repetitious lead guitar hooks. Meanwhile, the then-26 year-old wistfully recounts the olden and golden days of young adulthood with the refrains of “Remember when you were young/You’d lose yourself” and “But then last night was so much fun” that he is perhaps a little too young to entirely relate to and make totally convincing, but the fact that the track has a slightly deeper meaning than what’s on the surface is a welcome breath of fresh air. Borrell recites his lyrics with a rock and roll drowse that isn’t far off his peers, with Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park all coming to my mind, and he leads a chant-along verse with “Are you really going to do it this time?” that reaches out to festival crowds as the instrumentation builds upon its tension with a heightened sense of pacing. There’s not a whole lot else to say about ‘In The Morning’, but it’s certainly not a bad song by any stretch of my mind. It’s just a fairly average one, with little depth to the lyricism and nothing that makes them feel like they were doing something different to similar bands like Toploader and Hard-Fi who each scored chart hits at their time with their Pop/Rock hybrid sounds. You get the sense that Borrell is still a bit young for his reflections to come across as undoubtedly mature, but there’s nothing that offensive to it either. ‘In The Morning’ was simply fine overall, with simple and repetitive melodies that connect with mainstream audiences and the basic production is exactly what makes it a reasonably catchy tune that you can whistle along to. Razorlight won’t go down in the history books as a stand-out band, but there’s enough quality – within reason – as to not make it feel too outdated.

Pictured: Johnny Borell (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Piano), Reni Lane (Keyboard/Synths), David Sullivan Kaplan (Drums/Backing Vocals) and David Ellis (Lead Guitar/Bass Guitar) (in 2018) (Photo Credit: Andy Hughes)

That brings us to the end of another weekly installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog as we sleepwalk into another week of winter. Thank you for giving me a moment of your time today, and please catch up with me tomorrow as we kick the week off with an exciting single release from a familiar favourite of 2020 on the blog, who will be releasing her first album to be recorded in a studio in May via Grand Jury Music. She is a young bedroom pop singer-songwriter originally from Wichita, Kansas who will tour with Wallows this year. She has collaborated with TV Girl and Magdalena Bay.

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Today’s Track: Wet Leg – ‘Too Late Now’

February 12, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Rhian Teasdale (Lead Vocals/Guitar) & Heather Chambers (Lead Guitar/Vocals) (Photo by Frances Beach)

Good Morning to you! This is your resident 24-year-old independent music journalist Jacob Braybrooke reporting for duty with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If I quoted ‘Chaise Lounge’ to you in the street, the chances are that it would mean something to you if you already love your music and your radio. It is the name of the track that bought the Isle Of Wight indie rock duo of Wet Leg – Comprised of co-vocalists and co-guitarists Rhian Teasdale and Heather Chambers – to fame, having become a viral hit that earned millions of music video views and staggering streaming figures when it found an audience on the internet last year. The duo became as such when they studied at Isle Of Wight college together and became close friends, with the pair later signing up to Domino Recordings – the same eclectic label that has released material from high profile names like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Ela Minus, Georgia, Blood Orange and more. Nowadays, Wet Leg are being played all over the BBC with playlist rotation on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music, and they have also performed on ‘Later With Jools Hollland’ on BBC Two, in addition to being shortlisted for BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2022’ award. They also began touring the US in late 2021 and the two currently have their debut studio album – a self-titled LP – slated for a full release on April 8th. Let’s check out their single ‘Too Late Now’ below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB3PJwPMHzQ

“It’s about sleepwalking into adulthood”, Teasdale writes about the guitar-oriented track, ‘Too Late Now’, in her press release, explaining, “I never imagined that my adult life would look the way it does and I guess this song reflects on some of the pressures and pulls of life. Sometimes I get really inside my head and everything can feel very overwhelming. I think this song is about accepting that life can feel a bit s**t from time to time. Maybe don’t indulge that thought too much though”, in her own words. I can totally relate to some of the themes discussed in ‘Too Late Now’, with on-point lyricism about social media like “I don’t need no dating app to tell me if I look like crap/To tell me if I’m thin or fat, to tell me should I shave my rat” that are softly sardonic, but they retain honesty and order despite their gentle humor, with the pre-chorus spoken word refrains making some important points about heightening your own expectations when you leave adolescence and life simply goes on instead of truly flourishing. Other refrains like “I don’t need no radio/No MTV, no BBC/I just need a bubble bath/To set me on a higher path” have a broader commentary on influencer or celebrity status, and how simple acts of kindness to yourself can have an impact on your enjoyment of life through the smaller and more profound actions that you make. The chorus is more hook-based, with the rambling sequence of “I’m gonna drive my car into the sea/I’m gonna drive downtown while looking pretty ordinary” going for a somber but uptempo vibe that neatly contrasts the melancholic vocals with some more optimistic melodies. Instrumentally, comparisons to The Maccabees or Porridge Radio are likely to surface as the on-nature lyricism is paired up to the tune of rich, yet raw guitar melodies and muted bass that retains a steady pace throughout the track as the drums gradually kick into a more aggressive gear and there’s a light reverb on the guitar effects that hint towards a more Emo-driven sound without ever entirely traversing into ‘Scuzz Sundays’ gear with the genres that we recall on the blog with each Sunday post, and I liked the new track overall for it’s mix of hazy disorientation and quotable lyricism with commentary that Wet Leg’s peers are clearly connecting with. It remains to be seen whether Wet Leg are truly the ‘next big thing’ or another in a tough line of near-success stories like The Ting Ting’s or The Noisettes during the 00’s. However, there’s certainly potential for their careers to keep taking off because there’s talent in here. Personally, I would say that ‘Too Late Now’ is their strongest yet.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Wet Leg’ (Self-Titled LP) (Available from 8th April, 2022) (via Domino Recordings)

That’s everything that I had lined up for you today. Your support for the site is hugely appreciated, as usual, and ‘Scuzz Sundays’ will be making its natural way to the blog tomorrow as we recall the ghosts of Pop-Punk’s past for another week. This time, we’re listening back to a mid-00’s hit from an English indie rock group who are best known for their UK top ten singles ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘America’, (a #1 hit), from 2006.

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Way Back Wednesdays: The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘Cherub Rock’

February 9, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Billy Corgan (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter/Producer), James Iha (Bass Guitar), Jeff Schroeder (Keyboard/Rhythm Guitar) & Jimmy Chamberlain (Drums/Percussion) in a press shot for ‘Cyr’ (2020) (Photo via PR)

Good Afternoon to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to deliver a ‘Smashing’ new entry into our exhaustive library of weekly ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ posts on the blog as we remember some of the seminal sounds of the past with another daily track on the blog, given how it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! TNA promoter, of all surprising side hustles, Billy Corgan is a 90’s-leaning songwriter with an artistic drive who always puts a great effort into the visual aspects and the guitar effects within his material. Although some of his Smashing Pumpkins work has varied in quality, he is still going today and, as I’ve mentioned on the blog in previous relevant posts, he is never without inherently uninteresting ideas and one of his risks paid off neatly with ‘Cherub Rock’, a 1993 hit that was taken from his band’s second studio album – ‘Siamese Dream’ – that was unveiled to the globe as the first single from the release at the time. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ and it was later covered by Rochester-based indie rock band Roses Are Red in 2005. ‘Cherub Rock’ was one of the last songs to be written for ‘Siamese Dream’ and it peaked at #31 in the UK Singles Chart. The influences and lyrics of ‘Siamese Dream’ stood out among other Alt-Rock releases at the time despite recording sessions fraught with high tensions and some difficulties, and it was regarded as one of the most critically-acclaimed alternative albums of the 90’s by institutions like Rolling Stone. Let’s revisit ‘Cherub Rock’ below.

Although ‘Cherub Rock’ was not as widely marketable or commercially successful as ‘Today’ by critics upon its initial release, it remains to be a fan favourite and it was given a new lease of fresh life during the 00’s when it was included on the playable soundtracks of popular rhythm action video game franchises like ‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘Rocksmith’ available for multiple console platforms. Starting off with marching drums that remind me of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who arrived on the scene a bit later on, that morphs into a prominent set of guitar riffs that have a heavy Grunge aura to them, we thrust defiantly into fuzzy and soft instrumentation that is energetic and driving in its excess of feedback. This glitched delivery has a clear Shoegaze element that also points towards My Bloody Valentine or Ride with the textually thick balance of hypnotic Post-Punk and high-cadence melodic precursor to mid-90’s Brit-Pop. Lyrically, Corgan relates to his own relationship with the ‘Indie’ music community of the 90’s and his perceptions within the larger media, with forceful lyrics like “Doesn’t matter what you believe in/Stay cool” that encourages you to follow your instincts as an artistic matter and “Hipsters unite/Come align for the big fight to rock for you” that carry his determined ethos to bring rag-tag gangs together to enjoy music socially and within a communal environment that is free for you to express yourself in as an artist or audience member, with a bad-tempered hook of “Let me out” that mirror the relationship of a songwriter and a record label getting sour as towering creative differences ware on. Corgan delivers one of his most fiesty vocal performances and the soaring guitar solo is a highlight in showcasing his skills as a guitar player. What is interesting is how he recorded the prominent effect section of his guitar parts by recording the music to two different tapes at simultaneous fashion, and he clearly alters the speed of one of his tapes. What this means is that it makes the effects feel as though they are not really coming from the guitar, leaning into his Shoegaze influences most directly. Overall, ‘Cherub Rock’ still sounds great as the lyrics ring true, the instrumentation is more diverse than it may feel at first glance, and you have a well-informed vocal performance by Corgan who layers his furious songwriting on top of the stellar drums and the distortion-drenched guitar melodies to build up a cascading wall of sound around him as to convey his emotions with a swelling buoyancy. Drifting through Shoegaze, Alternative Rock, Electronica, Psych-Rock, Prog-Punk and Dream Rock through a vicious cycle that is paced coherently, ‘Cherub Rock’ could represent Corgan at his most creative and most visually detailed.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Siamese Dream’ (LP) (Released on July 27th, 1993) (via Virgin/EMI Records)

If you’re looking to smash some more pumpkins, you’ve come to the right place. You can get festive with my write-up of the rare track ‘Christmas Time’ from 1997 here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/12/19/santas-scuzz-sundays-the-smashing-pumpkins-christmas-time/. You can dive into some of Corgan’s latest material with ‘Wyttch’, a promotional single taken from his 2020 album ‘Cyr’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/27/todays-track-the-smashing-pumpkins-wyttch/. Or take a trip to the moon with my older assessment of ‘Tonight, Tonight’ with this post: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/10/27/scuzz-sundays-the-smashing-pumpkins-tonight-tonight/.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Mellan Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ (LP) (Released in 1995) (via Virgin/EMI Records)

Thank you for checking out my latest post, and it is always a pleasure to join you in remembering the creatives who bought the excellently produced LP ‘Mellan Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ to the world in the 90’s. I’ll be back tomorrow, however, with a large emphasis on fresh new music as I introduce you to a very interesting Berlin-based Experimental Rock musician who made a name for themselves as a part of LA’s LGBT community of underground producers. They have performed alongside Charli XCX and Flume, and they’ve received positive support from the likes of Mixmag.

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Today’s Track: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – ‘A Passionate Life’

February 8, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Tom Rees (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Zac White (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Ed Rees (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Ethan Hurst (Drums/Percussion/Unclean Vocals) (2021) (Photo Credit: Lily Brown)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke and you’re tuned into One Track At A Time, as usual, where we are gearing up our ear’s engines for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 4-piece of Welsh Glam Rockers who are in love with the classic rock greats like T-Rex and AC/DC, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are another emerging band who have picked up support from all the usual places – like BBC Radio 6 Music, So Young Magazine, NME and more – over the past handful of years since forming out of lead vocalist Tom Rees’ bedroom in 2016. The band hope to continue finding their breakthrough when their debut studio album – ‘Backhand Deals’ – releases on February 25th via Communion Records. The band will also be performing alongside Sir Tom Jones, Stereophonics and Catfish & The Bottlemen at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in June 2022. Known for critically acclaimed singles like ‘John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ’, ‘New Age Millennial Magic’, ‘You’ and ‘Double Denim Hop’, they have been making a name for themselves on the UK’s live touring circuit and they have, in a funny story that comes courtesy of DIY Mag, named “the re-animated corpse of Bon Scott” as their dream collaborator. Rees said of their impending debut album in September, “Backhand Deals is a practice in subverting the ideology of rock music as something that needs to be ‘brought back from the dead’. Rock should be about enjoying yourself honestly, whether that’s washing the dishes, sweeping the yard, or complaining about whoever got elected. Rock is a sweeping power, and is attributed to anyone who performs art honestly, from Lizzo feeling good as hell to AC/DC riding down a highway to hell. The honesty is the same, and the honesty prevails”. Let’s check out their latest pre-release offering – ‘A Passionate Life’ – below.

The band will be making their debut in the US at SXSW in March, and Rees says, “A Passionate Life was written about striving to be a better friend, and not spending so much time on myself”, about the new single in a press release, adding, “I think the world is always telling you to focus on you, which is the right thing to do a lot of the time, but it’s easy work. I don’t think I’ll ever change, but wanting to change feels like enough for now. We’re all surface level creatures and just the thought of wanting to be a better person makes me feel like I am”, to his notes. Exploring the ideas of principle and authenticity, Rees sings contemplative lyrics like “What am I gonna say, When all of these songs, Just melt away” and “I know that I should call sometime, Ditch this ruse, that I’m towing the line time after time” as he reaches out to some reliable friends for emotional support and good company, while the instrumentation boasts an engaging mixture of plodding Piano stabs and floundering guitar rhythms that play out steadily. The chorus, where Rees mixes a sense of sarcasm and humor to the tune of “Sex appeal, is just a product of fear” and “When am I going to reveal/This phony charm” that untangles the stereotypes behind what it means to be a ‘rock star’ in the mass media and leaves the listener behind to reflect on their own emotions or thoughts. It feels more restrained than previous servings of comforting 70’s-influenced Rock that we’ve heard from the band, but it makes great use of some Elton John-style keyboard melodies that manage to feel a little melancholic and the understated guitar riffs that underscore the integrity of the vocals with a neat sense of production. They also lean into the tropes of the genre to pull the nostalgia card, with a chorus of ‘La-La-La’s’ towards the end that feels like a clear nod to the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks from earlier, and in many ways, simpler times. Overall, it makes great sense for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard to enlist the references of their greatest influences for a track that is solely about the meaning of togetherness, and it absolutely feels like one of those mellow tracks that will help you take things down a peg when you feel like your mind is full of traffic. Strangely sweet and pretty poignant.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Backhand Deals’ (LP) (Available from February 25th, 2022) (via Commuion Records)

Thank you for checking out yet another very unique post on the blog, and we’ll be revisiting some of the most seminal sounds of the past with another weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow. The next pick comes from a 90’s band led by a former promoter of Anthem’s TNA/Impact Wrestling promotion who we’ve covered on the blog previously, and they are still presently active. They brought ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ to our lives in 1995, a record which topped the US Billboard 200 album chart upon release straight away. You could say that they were ‘Smashing’.

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Scuzz Sundays: Boy Kill Boy – ‘Suzie’

February 6, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Civilian’ (LP) (Released on May 22nd, 2006) (via Vertigo Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to pay another visit to one of Pop-Punk’s ghosts of the past with yet another weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the daily music blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! During the heyday of Scuzz TV, many of the most regularly featured bands were American with stateside favourites like Fall Out Boy, Bowling For Soup and Green Day proving popular with the station’s executives, and so we’re spicing things up by looking at one of the British hopefuls to rival The Killers from the time, but it sadly didn’t quite work out that way for Boy Kill Boy – a Leytonshire native rock band led by Chris Peck, who released two albums before splitting up in 2008, citing a host of issues regarding their label and some disappointing sales for their second LP – 2008’s ‘Stars And The Sea’ – as factors to their downfall. It started out promisingly for them, with the band opening the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005 and headlining NME’s New Bands Tour in 2006, as well as getting lots of support slots for Feeder, Maximo Park, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cribs, The Automatic, The Charlatans, The Long Blondes and more throughout the UK, US and internationally. Their debut album – 2005’s ‘Civilian’ – also managed to do decent business despite largely ‘meh’ reviews from critics, with the band developing a cult following and it simply went wrong when their label did not see this band as marketable due to their very classically influenced guitar rock sound – according to Peck in subsequent interviews – but they struck a chord with audiences. Boy Kill Boy’s most well-known single is probably ‘Suzie’ as it is also their highest-charting. It reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart, while other singles like ‘Back Again’ and ‘Civil Sin’ also reached the Top 50. The band also performed ‘Suzie’ on an episode of BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ back at the time. Let’s catch up with ‘Suzie’ below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW5MkbexZsM

Lead vocalist Chris Peck started his own solo project when he teased ‘Riversong’ on YouTube in 2011 and keyboardist Peter Carr went on to play the keyboards in the backing band for Marina and The Diamonds in case you were wondering what happened to some of Boy Kill Boy’s line-up. They also reformed for two gigs at Oslo, Hackney, London in November 2016 to sold out sales and critical acclaim, but it’s unclear what has happened to them all outside of those few details. However, ‘Suzie’ represents the band at their peak period, with dimly dressed vocalist Peck squelching “This is not a movie, Things just ain’t the same as your favourite video” after the Synth-led intro that feels like The Killers. The Synths roll along suggestively, while the hyper guitars and drums boast a fast-paced workout with a feel that isn’t entirely commercial because the buoyancy feels quite ramshackle in delivery, and the vocals boast an unpolished sense of agitation, yet there’s some questionable accents put forth by Peck throughout the song when you listen attentively to his half Scottish and half Irish, somewhat laddish, type of croon at close attention. The structure feels catchy, with quick sections like “They said, don’t let me down again” being repeated a few times, as to wind up a live crowd and get them involved with the sing-along nature of the chorus, where Peck screams “Countdown to the disappointment” with a bitterness in his voice that is counteracted by the more blithe instrumentation where the keyboards are engaging and the Synths have a brightness to them. I enjoyed owning the full album for ‘Civlian’ when I was eight or nine years old – possibly younger – and when you listen back, it doesn’t feel outdated by a terrible amount as such. The issue is more that, at some points, you can hear them trying to recycle the laddish tropes of Kaiser Chiefs or The Ordinary Boys, and at some other times, you can hear Peck having a bash at being Maximo Park with his give-and-take live crowd-oriented delivery, and so you end up with something that feels like a re-hash of the tried-and-true tropes of peer groups from (around about) their contemporary time. That said, there’s a charm to the unpolished production with relatable lyrics about dealing with your own pessimistic spirit and how that shapes a relationship within that environment, as we all go through times like Peck’s issues with ‘Suzie’ where we think that things are going to be better than they really turn out to be. Moreover, there’s an anthemic quality to ‘Suzie’ that I feel, if we were living in a different world, could have put them more firmly on the map. As it stands, while some things aren’t quite as good as you remember them, ‘Suzie’ was certainly not a failure. It was just oddly sweet in knowingly fulfilling the London fashionista trends of 00’s ‘Indie landfill’ as the critics call it, rather than setting the world of guitar-driven rock alight for an extended period of time outside of initial success. It was only a slight disappointment.

Pictured: Chris Peck (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar), Kevin Chase (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Peter Carr (Keyboards/Synths/Backing Vocals) and Shaz Mahmood (Drums/Percussion) (2006) (Photo Credit: NME.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for giving me a moment of your attention today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off a new week’s worth of hyper-active blog posts, in daily succession, with a recent single by a non-binary rapper/producer from Philadelphia, Pensylvania who has been a member of Liberal Art, Third Eye Optiks and Indigold. They released their third studio LP, ‘CANDID’, on Les Fleurs Records last Wednesday.

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Today’s Track: Foals – ‘Wake Me Up’

February 5, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Yannis Phillippakis (Lead Vocalist/Lead Guitarist), Jack Bevan (Drums/Percussion) and Jimmy Smith (Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Synths/Production/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo Credit: Ed Cooke)

Good day to you, and thank you for gearing up for another daily upload on One Track At A Time. I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’ve got another eventful daily track in store for you on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Typically, I only tend to have around 7% of my week’s energy left in me on a Saturday morning like this, and so a new track with the title of ‘Wake Me Up’ could be the caffeine pill that I need to keep me motivated today. It comes from the Oxford-formed rock band Foals, who are commercial heavyweights in the UK, who are led by Greek-born vocalist/guitarist Yannis Phillippakis. Foals won ‘Best Live Act’ at the Q Awards in 2013, as well as ‘Best British Group’ at the BRIT Awards in 2020, and they have toured internationally for over a decade. They also performed a surprise set at Glastonbury in 2019 and their discography includes a staggering number of 27 singles at time of writing. The last time we heard from Foals was when they released ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1’ in March 2019 followed up by ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2′ in October 2019, which was Foals’ first album to reach the top of the UK Albums Chart, and it doesn’t feel like a gap of two years at all. Those bodies of work matched political and ecological themes against daring Dance-Rock and their trademark Indie Rock sound that made heavy albums like 2015’s ‘What Went Down’ hits in the mainstream. Last September, keyboardist Edwin Congreave decided to leave the band to pursue a postgraduate degree in Economics and, now as a trio, the rest of the band have been writing and producing their new album with Dan Carey (Sinead O’Brien, Black Midi) and John Hill (Carly Rae Jepsen, Bleachers) in Peckham, with the album due for a release at an as-of-yet undetermined point during 2022. Our first tease of it – ‘Wake Me Up’ – is below.

Described by frontman Yannis Phillippakis as “Our version of a dance or disco record” with lyrics which “transport oneself out of the oppression of lockdown and the bleakness of last year”, in a press release, ‘Wake Me Up’ is Foals’ first track since they lost a member to find them experimenting with different elements of Psych-Rock and revisiting the interlocking nature of the grooves and the guitars architecturally that have made Foals a household name in recent years, with Phillippakis concluding that, “With ‘Wake Me Up’, I just wanted to write a song about transporting yourself to a better, idyllic situation”, in his lengthy press statement. Kicking off immediately with a shimmering lead guitar riff that is met in the middle by an energetic drum section and some very intense percussion, Phillippakis awakens us with “I’m walking through a dream/I’m walking through the finest place I’ve ever seen” as the opening hook, encouraging the listener to make a swift return to reality after spending ages sitting at home due to the law’s enforcement. Punchy refrains like “I’m kicking down the doors, I’m climbing up the walls of the house that’s yours” keep the fiesty rhythm of the drum’s brisk cadence intact, while a later verse goes for more of a chant-along style with a light call-and-response format that will likely find large summer festival crowds repeating lines like “Deny your own expression, deny the things you now” and “I’m deleting all the codes, no I’m not that man you know” back at the band, with brief lyrical explorations of masculinity that add some nuance to the band’s musings of their experiences during various lockdown periods, with the ideas of independence and seeking your own path back to joy each coming through the most strongly throughout the overall tone of the new single. There’s an 80’s tinge to the Synth-enhanced guitar chords, and the upbeat lyrics are likely to relate to a wide crowd of listeners. Foals’ sound is certainly appealing to a lot of crowds including Radio X’s target demographics, football fans who play FIFA on their favourite gaming consoles, and large festival crowds who gather around for a good time for the weekend’s shows, and so I can understand why they have found popularity by connecting with various communities. Yanis’ voice is as powerful as ever on ‘Wake Me Up’ as he builds up a commanding presence through his vocals that don’t overlap the flexing style of the instrumentation all too much. Overall, I felt that ‘Wake Me Up’ sounds very solid. It’s not something that feels hugely original and it’s not unexpected from Foals, but the joyous vibe of a Disco ball with a flavour of good old rock and roll is welcome and it sounds cheerful, thus putting me in a good mood. I enjoyed the more Synth-driven electronic dance sound that was hidden in prior singles like ‘Exits’, and the 5-minute showcase of ‘In Degrees’ more specifically, quite a deal – but this dance-rock style is simply made more obvious by ‘Wake Me Up’ in my opinion. A fun and immediate comeback that carries their ‘greatest hits’ while feeling (just about) refreshed enough.

Pictured: Foals performing a live set at All Points East Festival, London (2021) (Photo Credit: Emma Swann)

That leaves me with nothing much left to write other than to thank you for checking out my latest blog post as I finally draw my musical musing of the day to a natural conclusion. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is back tomorrow, as always, however – and we’ll be remembering a guitar-oriented rock band from Leytonshire, East London for this week. They only released two albums before splitting up in 2008, but they developed a strong cult following that still praise them to this day and they opened up the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005. Although disappointing second album sales and a lack of label marketing led to a short lifespan, they re-united for two gigs in Oslo, Hackney, London in 2016. They also performed on ‘Top Of The Pops’.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Natasha – ‘I Can’t Hold On’

February 2, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Natasha England in a PR photoshoot for a Penny Black Music interview (2018) (Photo via Facebook.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to take a quick detour from recent releases into my time machine for a throwback instead for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ as we revisit some of the seminal sounds of the past for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you type ‘Natasha Pop Singer’ into your favourite search engine on the internet, you’re likely to only mostly find photos and interviews regarding Natasha Bedingfield from the 2000’s. However, ‘Natasha’ was also the name of a Scottish pop singer who rose to prominence during the 1980’s with recordings like ‘Iko Iko’, a top ten hit in the UK. Known fully as Natasha England, she developed a career in the music industry after winning a dance competition as she worked behind the management chair of high-profile acts like David Bowie, Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart. She also set up the Towerbell record label with Bob England – her ex-husband – which broke names like The Commodores and The Average White Band into relevancy. She decided to work on animal rights issues after leaving the industry behind in the late-80’s, but she briefly fronted a band called ‘Why’ in the early 1990’s, before re-launching her career in the late-2000’s following her diagnosis with breast cancer. Recent releases have included a 2013 cover of T-Rex’s ‘Get It On’ and a collaboration with experimental producer, Robert Logan, known as ‘Album Deeper Into Reality’ that was released in 2010. A new album – ‘Somehow’ – was also made available in 2018. 1982’s ‘Captured’ – meanwhile – is considered by the folk at Cherry Red Records to be one of the most underrated albums of all time. Featuring a mixture of covers and self-penned original material, it not only featured her Top Of The Pops-worthy hit of ‘Iko Iko’, but also the underlooked anthem ‘I Can’t Hold On’, which is considered to be one of the earliest examples of, what would later become more known and hammered to crowds as later in the 80’s – Synth-Pop. Let’s revisit it.

In a similar vein to her fellow 80’s pop star Rick Astley, Natasha England has also enjoyed a commercial career resurgence during the last decade or so, and that is because her most well-known 80’s single ‘Iko Iko’, of course, was licensed by Platform Records to make a prominent sync appearance during the soundtrack of ‘Un Boss In Salotto’, which was the highest-grossing Italian film of 2014 at the box office. Back to the task at hand, we start off ‘I Can’t Hold On’ with a boisterous guitar riff and an immediate Synth riff that echoes Blondie and Eurythmics to my ears, before Natasha delivers the opening refrain of “I saw you standing there, that look was in your eyes/I’ve heard from other girls that you were quite a guy” with a slightly sassy but sensual vibe that mixes vulnerability and bitterness rather tidily. The chorus sees the funk-laden rhythm guitar melodies and the drum machine work-out reach a full crescendo, with the hooks of “Tonight, this feeling’s getting stronger” and “Tonight, I can’t hold on much longer” as our lead narrator takes a fall and enters a relationship that she fears is going to become toxic out of her lust and desire, with the swelling Synths and the sharp Drum beats ramping off of their brisk pace to add a darker underlayer to the vocals. Natasha keeps everything concise as to not overstay her welcome, and it is partly the infectious guitar riff of the track that really adds a lot of personality to it as it creates an atmospheric sheen for her lyrics while the rest of the instrumentation is upbeat and more alike to Prince or Blondie. It definitely sounds like a product of it’s time in one respect, but it was an important pre-cursor for the later acts who would achieve commercial success with a similar template. While it is not greatly original in retrospect, Natasha was simply one of the first to make it work in the way it does. A catchy, well-produced callback to the simpler times of the 1980’s.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Captured’ (LP) (Released In 1982) (via Metronome Records/Towerbell Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you very much for checking out the post that I have just written for your perusal today, and I hope that you join me for another music-related musing on the site tomorrow. We will be looking at an entirely new band from Melbourne, Australia who are known for their Gothic Lo-Fi imagery and they have experienced a 267 day-long Lockdown there. They were initially named Rosary and their debut EP out now via Dalliance was produced with Floodlights’ Archie Shannon.

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Today’s Track: Iraina Mancini – ‘Do It (You Stole The Rhythm)’

February 1, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Do It (U Stole The Rhythm)’ (Single) (Released on September 24, 2021) (via Self-Released)

Good Morning to you! It’s the first of the month, meaning that I have completed my challenge of the month to get through the month, and it’s time to get the next month off to a joyous start with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Taking her inspiration from many sources as varied as French cinema and 60’s Psychedelia, the London-born singer, songwriter, DJ, actress, model and radio presenter Iraina Mancini has only released a handful of solo singles so far, but she has still been doing the rounds of the industry for an impressive number of years. Born into a musical family, her father was Warren Peace, a childhood friend of David Bowie, who provided backing vocals and songwriting assistance while touring with Bowie from 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ through to 1976’s ‘Station To Station’. Iraina began modelling and writing music herself at the age of 15, with her first band being Mancini, an Electronic Pop outfit who appeared on Channel 4’s ‘Mobile Act Unsigned’. Since then, Mancini has been acting in films directed by the likes of Richard Jobson and Duncan Ward, and she went on to become a DJ who has played all over London and some cultural festivals like Glastonbury and The Toronto Film Festival. Mancini presents her own show on Soho Radio and she has also run a monthly event – ‘Soul Box’ – in East London with fashion photographer Dean Chalkley and Acid Jazz Records founder Eddie Piller. Therefore, she has really been busy through a relatively short span of time, and if a new album should be arriving in 2022, then I could definitely see the likes of BBC Radio 1 picking up on her career. Today, we are catching up with her single ‘Do It (You Stole The Rhythm)’ that she released last September. It was co-produced by Jagz Kooner, who has become a top name on the UK’s mash-up scene, where he has produced critically acclaimed music by Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Reverend And The Makers, Kasabian, Garbage and others. Let’s give it a spin.

“I wrote this about that feeling of pure joy when you are surrounded by people you care about and there is music, sunshine, laughter and great energy.”, the former United Agents talent agency member Iraina Mancini has spoken about her BBC Radio 6 Music playlisted track, adding, “There is almost a magic in the air when all those things are combined, an electricity that makes you feel truly alive. I tried to capture that in this song as I thought now more than ever we are craving togetherness and joy”, to her straightforward press release. Drawing from the era where late great DJ Andrew Weatherhall was always at his knob-twiddling best for his legendary records such as 1991’s ‘Screamadelica’ as she mixes classic Soul influences with ruminating Gospel sounds and vintage Psychedelia callbacks. The opening is palpable and light-hearted, as the twinkling waves of eminent Synths and an inviting beat of layered percussion create an enchanting backdrop for Iraina’s iridescently performed vocals to plunge us neatly into her sun-soaked setting of euphoria. The vocals feel a little reminiscent of tracks like George Michael’s ‘Freedom’ and The Avalanches ‘The Divine Chord’ as nostalgic elements of Post-Disco take a controlling hold on the rhythm. The lyrics contribute to the hazy and joyously Psychedelic Pop vibe of the recording by accelerating the happy tone of the instrumentation and creating some false rhyming schemes that give her beats a punchy knack for melody. It also feels a little cinematic, and I truly could envision the track being licensed to get played during a flashback sequence of a care-free romantic comedy movie where the two lead characters are partaking in a fun travelling montage, yet the souffle-light chorus and the late 60’s psychedelia-influenced melodies fill up the background of the setting very nicely. There’s nothing about the lyrics that feel truly memorable, but they still contribute to the overall scene well because they simply fulfill the track’s feelings of untroubled contentment by echoing us back to a more simpler time alongside the funk-laden Gospel influence of the glistening synths and the ruminating keys in the fray. A solid, naturally progressive follow-up to her two previous singles, ‘Deep End’ and ‘Shotgun’.

Pictured: Iraina Mancini in an official promotional photoshoot for ‘Deep End’ (2021) (Photo via Clashmusic.com)

That brings us to the bottom of the page for another day! Thank you for checking out my latest post, and I will be back tomorrow to start up the engine for my throwback time machine as we go ‘Way Back’ for Wednesday once again. On the radar this time is a Scottish 80’s Synth-Pop singer often credited simply as ‘Natasha’ whose popular single of ‘Iko Iko’ experienced a resurgence in popularity when it was notably used during the soundtrack of the highest-grossing Italian film of 2014, ‘Un Boss In Salotto’.

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Today’s Track: Earl Sweatshirt (feat. Armand Hammer) – ‘Tabula Rasa’

January 31, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘SICK’ (LP) (Released on January 14th, 2022) (via Tan Cressida/Warner Records)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned in to One Track At A Time with your regular writer Jacob Braybrooke, and you are right on time for yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We finally move into February shortly, as we complete our various ‘First Month Of The Year’ challenges, but one of the albums that really seemed to strike a chord with critics and audiences alike in January was ‘SICK’, the new 10-track mixtape-style LP offering by Chicago-born and Los Angeles-based Hip Hop artist Earl Sweatshirt, who began his rap career as Sly Tendencies in 2008 and later joined the alternative Hip-Hop collective Odd Futures – led by Tyler, The Creator – to cause a name change in 2009. ‘SICK’ had an enigmatic promotional campaign heading in to release, despite a few singles being unveiled prior to release, and it has garnered an impressive score of 86/100 on Metacritic. Kitty Empire wrote that it was “a musically rich reset” in her four-star review for The Guardian, while a perfect review by Marcus Shorter for Consequence In Sound hails it up with “The rapping is impeccable, and the project doesn’t overstay its welcome” in his rave assessment. Sweatshirt has also recently performed a single taken off the ‘SICK’ LP – ‘2010’ – live on ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ in the US, and so the appeal of the record isn’t incredibly far outside of the mainstream. One of the singles – ‘Tabula Rasa’ – features the critically acclaimed New York-based duo of Armand Hammer (ELUCID & Billy Woods) who wax poetic lyrics while politely taking their turn above the ethereal Piano melody and some fragmented sampling that create a dense backdrop for their individual truths to lethargically spit over their collective public manifesto. It also comes with a uniquely unpolished music video that finds the three producers make their Lo-Fi magic happen in the recording studio, or – in the case of Woods – grilling some ribs, by the look of it.

“Sick is my humble offering of 10 songs recorded in the wake of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns”, Earl Sweatshirt tells the music press, explaining, “Before the virus, I had been working on an album I named after a book I used to read with my mother (‘The People Could Fly’). Once the lockdowns hit, people couldn’t fly anymore. A wise man said art imitates life. People were sick. The People were angry and isolated and restless. I leaned into the chaos ’cause it was apparent that it wasn’t going anywhere. These songs are what happened when I would come up for air”, in his press release for the ‘SICK’ record. In the case of ‘Tabula Rasa’, it is vital to note that this Latin phrase roughly translates to ‘Blank Slate’ in English, and so it is believable that Sweatshirt and his two partners are rapping about how we are all born without any mental knowledge on the ambiguous minimalist rap jam, with the two outfits trading sequences like “This game of telephone massive/I do what I have to with the fragments” that each convey feelings of urgency and calming processes as the rappers reflect on how the dread of the Covid-19 pandemic affected their lyrical musings of truth as the remedy for the problems that arise. Challenging lyrics like “I have to write to find balance” and “I watch re-runs in the dark, fingers and lips glistening” also simplify the matters of mental health issues and how we find our humanity through mundane tasks that we still enjoy doing, like how “I made chicken late night in my boxers/Burning up the kitchen” nearly ends the final verse on a slightly witty note and how the small details of this action convey something more profound about how we treat ourselves to small luxuries when we’re all alone to remind ourselves of how important that we are. While there’s a lot that we could discuss lyrically, the instrumentation is noticeably more restrained and subdued. The sampling is psychedelic and smart, with mere teasers of voice clips and broken-sounding Vinyl cracks that briefly divert the groove away from the scattered, soulful sample of a 70’s Jazz Club performance setting, giving off the effect that we’re listening to a broken record as the audience. The intricate wordplay is the emphasis of the beat, with the three rappers creating some subtle verses with an interchanged dynamic between the three of them where lessons of finding wisdom and ruminating upon remedies with a grit-laced but positively weighty sense of resolution. Overall, while this is a challenging listen, at first, because the structure is created by a few straightforward stream-of-consciousness rap verses instead of a melodic series of hooks, Sweatshirt still manages to pull off a richly rewarding feel with the cerebral style of production because it feels personal and laidback, and he works towards achieving this dense balance of wordsmith lyricism and minimalist instrumentals by leaning into a hypnotic delivery, rather than simply acting as a purveyor of clear tone.

Pictured: Earl Sweatshirt in a recent promotional photoshoot for ‘SICK’ (2021) (Photo Credit: Ryosuke Tanzawa)

That’s all that I currently have lined up for you today, and thank you very much for taking the time to look at an interesting piece of new art with me today. I’ll be back tomorrow to bring some music from 2021 back to your attention, and it comes from a London-born singer-songwriter, DJ, radio presenter, model and actress who has run a popular monthly night called ‘Soul Box’ in East London with fashion photographer Dean Chalkley and the British DJ Eddie Piller, who is the founder of Acid Jazz Records.

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