Modern Prog.

Today’s Track: Nia Archives – “Headz Gone West”

May 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

Headz, Shoulderz, Kneez and Toez…Kneez and Toez. On that note, it’s new post time!

  • Pictured: Nia Archives in a promotional shoot for The Pit, London (2020) (Article by Ben Tibbits)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as always, since it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Headz Gone West’ is a short-and-sweet single that’s been sneaking it’s way onto my radio show and streaming library over the last week or so. It comes from the London-based (by way of Manchester and Leeds) singer-songwriter and visual graphic designer Nia Archives, who mixes Erykah Badu-inspired Neo-Soul and light Hip-Hop with more DIY-spirited Jungle and Drum & Bass production. There’s also some love for House music and UK Garage included in the pot too. Archives has just released her debut EP, of the same name as her latest track, via HIJINXX – which is also the name of the youth street art project that she also manages. Nia has remixed Lauren Faith, and collaborated with Zeitgeist, and so the stock is rising for this young lady, who claims to work primarily from her bedroom using old and second-hand kit to express herself through her material. Tune in below.

“Making the EP was super fun!”, Nia told Clash Music, elaborating, “I had a little DIY set up in my room, and I would sit up all night making loads of quick beats for fun… some of them I would end up proper vibesing to and kept working on them”, finishing up with, “Overall, the project is massively inspired by my love for breakbeats, jungle and D’n’B – and ‘Headz Gone West’ is the second track I wrote for it straight after ‘Sober Feels'” as she guided us along the process of putting together her first solo release. Her Jamaican heritage seems to have played a role in the intoxicating blend of lo-fi synths and Dub underlayers, paired up with lyrics that talk about independence, difficult relationships with familial figures and alcoholic addiction. The chorus of “My head has gone west, ain’t never getting nowhere, I watch the sunrise and then the sunset, I wanna get high so I can forget” balances a storm within the beauty, while a slightly more subdued verse gives space for lines like “I can’t sleep at night, I have so much on my mind” to address the elephant in the room willingly, despite the tone of the beats feeling danceable, and the subject matter of the lyrics feeling relatable. What I like about what Nia does here is the blending of traits from different genres that feel soulful, yet unwind in an experimental way that holds a personal quality for her. The explorations of late 80’s liquid rave music culture and German Soundsystem Reggae all fit under a similar umbrella and so the pieces all fit together neatly. The cohesion is really nice, yet there’s a feeling of “Summer anthem” to the mildly euphoric style. The lyrics have a darker mood if you read between the lines of the skittering, IDM-like breakbeats, however, and there’s simply a decent deal of interesting fusions to maintain your attention here. There’s a little over-reliance on repetition, but the duration is cut short and sweet, as to not overstay it’s welcome too much. Overall, it’s early days for her, but these results seem solid and very promising.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Headz Gone West” (EP) (Released on April 29, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

That’s all for today – but don’t forget to bring your Headz back over to the blog tomorrow for another review of recent, new music, this time coming from the Hip-Hop side of the pond, as we bring our focus to another emerging artist who was born in Boston, raised in Kenya, and now lives in New York City after graduating from the Berklee College of Music. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Fimber Bravo – “Hiyah Man”

April 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

The African experimenter proving he’s not to be just a flash in the Pan. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Lunar Tredd” (Released on March 19th, 2021) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m going to try to lift your spirits with another daily entry on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Currently based in South London, Fimber Bravo is a Trinidad-born composer and producer with his origins set as a Steel Plan player and founder of the Twentieth Century Steel Band. Bravo’s been around since the 70’s, and his music has been sampled in plenty of modern Hip-Hop records, such as tracks from Doug E. Fresh, Soul II Soul, and even Jennifer Lopez, of all people. He has also built a following around his unique collaborations with Western artists, such as the likes of Blur, Morcheeba and also Hot Chip. Hearing ‘Hiyah Man’ being supported on the A-list rotation of BBC Radio 6 Music was my first introduction to his work, and the track is the latest single from his new album, ‘Lunar Tredd’, which is only just over a month old now, and is the follow-up LP to his critically-acclaimed 2013 release, ‘Con-Fusion’ (Do you see what he did there?), releasing on Moshi Moshi Records. You may not have heard anything like it before. Let’s take a listen to it below.

Bravo has been establishing himself as a collaborative creator in the gaps since the years between his solo LP releases and his desire to produce another solo recording came about from the inspiration of the Black Lives Matter protests. When releasing ‘Hiyah Man’, he wrote: “Songs come to you in different ways, Hiyah Man was like a voice from my ancestors guiding me and giving me the power for a deeper celebration of the Pan with percussive rhythms that inspired us all to improvise a live first take in one go”, in his press release, concluding “We all felt so high on it” while referring to his free-spirited practices. Although I can’t claim to know everything regarding the instruments and deeper production of the track, I still think that ‘Hiyah Man’ caught my attention because there is a clear influence of dance music. The opening vocal of “A long time ago” is kept short and sweet, but the low-pitched delivery gives it an edge. It gets accentuated by upbeat, melodic Steel Pan beats which build slowly to the introduction of higher drum signatures and new layers of instrumentation. He continues to build a psychedelic dance beat and a festival setting, as elements of Afrobeat and Prog-Jazz make the cut. A slightly distorted synth beat quietly weaves it’s way through the percussion, and the eclectic bass line comes to the forefront towards the end with more electronic synth beats that have an acidic quality. The tone of the track and it’s mood feels more joyful and celebratory than it’s opening, with lyrical hooks about connecting with your ancestors and modernizing your family’s traditions remaining at the centerpiece of the singing sections. Overall, it’s over six minutes of very colourful and funk-influenced chord progression, with a nicely balanced mix of both African and electronic instrumentation. Although it’s not a track that I’ve repeatedly listened to over time and time again, there’s nothing about it that I can really fault. Despite being quite a newcomer to this style of music, I find it to make me feel refuelled and uplifted. An excellently crafted means of escape.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Con-Fusion” (LP) (Released in January, 2013) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

That’s all for now – But feel free to join me again tomorrow for a new entry in our weekly “Way Back Wednesdays” blog feature, where we revisit the sounds of the past that have influenced the present, or a look at an absurd rarity that shall not be left as forgotten. The former is the case this week, as we recover a beloved single from the Gold-certified debut album of an East Coast Hip-Hop pioneer who serves time as the associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Viagra Boys – “Girls and Boys”

April 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

A billboard said Niagra Falls is the tallest waterfall – Falls advertising. New post time!

  • Pictured: Sebastian Murphy, Benjamin Valle, Oskar Carls, Henrik Hockert, Tor Sjoden and Elias Jungqvist (aka Viagra Boys) at The Great Escape in Brighton, Sussex (2019) (Photo via DIYMag.com)

Good Morning to you! Jacob Braybrooke here, and I’m kicking off the new week with another daily entry on the blog, as always, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Girls & Boys’ is a Swedish cocktail of riotous Post-Punk and harsh Prog-Jazz from the ludicrously witty band Viagra Boys, who formed in Stockholm in 2015, as a collective of members originally from other local bands including Neu-Ronz, Les Big Byrd, Pig Eyes, Nine and Nitad from the local-ish music scene. They released their debut album, ‘Street Worms’ to decent reviews and cult success in 2018, with praise being directed towards the use of black comedy and satire within their lyrics. This long-player earned them IMPALA’s “Album Of The Year Award” in 2019. Fast forward to 2021, and the second full-length effort, ‘Welfare Jazz’, has arrived via their own label, YEAR0001. Lately, the band have also confirmed that a third album is on the way, telling us that it was largely self-produced and that it has already been recorded, according to the bassist Henrik ‘Benke’ Höckert. You can watch a live ‘Shrimp Session’ Viagra Boys recorded for the track, ‘Girls & Boys’, for free on their YouTube channel, but, for now, let’s take a listen to the studio version below.

‘Girls & Boys’ was co-produced by Matt Sweeney (Run The Jewels, Cat Power) and Justin & Jeremiah Raisen (Kim Gordon, Sky Ferreira), with additional work from past collaborators Pelle Gunnerfeldt & Daniel “Fagge” Fagerström (The Knife, The Hives), and you can also catch another track which sees Viagra Boys enlist the aid of Amy Taylor from Amyl & The Sniffers on their new record, entitled ‘In Spite Of Ourselves’, a cover version of the track of the same title by late-great John Prine released in 1999. ‘Girls & Boys’, however, is not a cover version of Blur’s classic, but a surreal and silly, Saxophone-smattered tour of outdated gender roles. It’s also ludicrously silly too, with a call-and-response format that sees a distorted voice sing “Drugs” and “Girls” as vocalist Sebastien Murphy pairs them up with one-liners like “The only way I can boogie down” and “They always wanna tie me down”. “Shrimps” is my favourite, and I believe this is an in-joke the band have with their fans, although I’m not familiar enough with the band to really say. I think the lack of context gives it a lick of abstract art themes, and makes these crazy hooks sound all the more random. The Brass instrumentation is abrasive and incendiary, as the clashing Post-Rock guitar riffs create a strange Disco beat of-sorts. The lyrics are all about partying at their most basic, with Murphy wailing about inability to socially connect, while the strength of the distorted guitar melodies and the overly aggressive qualities of the Jazz elements hint towards something that feels more psychotic and briefly unsettling. Whether this absurdist Noise-Punk disco roller is satirical or silliness is left quite ambiguous, but it certainly isn’t a particularly feel-good single by traditional means, despite the oddly danceable melodicism of the pace. Pure unadulterated mayhem. Chaotically sublime.

  • Pictured: Physical CD copy of ‘Welfare Jazz’ (LP) (Released on January 29th, 2021) (via YEAR001)

That’s all for now – I think we’re all going to need a little breather after that one. Join me again tomorrow, however, as we diversify things up with an in-depth look at a, perhaps less frantic, tune from a Trinidad-born composer and Steel Pan player who has been a founding member of Twentieth Century Steel Band, and has collaborated on projects with Blur and Morcheeba. His latest album has recently been released by Moshi Moshi Records. 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/

Easter Monday 2021 Special: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Jesus Alone” (2016)

April 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for 30 years – this guy is a big deal. New post time!

  • Pictured: Poster for ‘20,000 Days On Earth’ (Dir. Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard) (2014) (Drafthouse Films)

Good Morning to you – It’s Jacob Braybrooke, I’ve got my morning Cappuccino coffee on the side, and that means that it’s also time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wishing you a nice Bank Holiday Monday with another Easter-themed post from a music legend, albeit more loosely than yesterday. A more contemporary track, ‘Jesus Alone’, was the lead single from Australian Garage-Rock icon Nick Cave, for his sixteenth studio album with The Bad Seeds, entitled ‘Skeleton Tree’. The elevator pitch for that record probably sounded a lot like “Cave has always played with Death – and now he confronts it”, with the album being written and recorded about the heartbreaking death of his son. The album earned some absolutely rave reviews, heralded by his fans as a masterpiece of grief and loss. I can’t claim to have fully listened to, or even understood, everything that Cave has released. However, I know that he truly is a fascinating artist and that he’s one of those rare talents that are impossible to imitate – and so I have a lot of respect for the cultural icon. The album was released alongside a documentary film, ‘One More Time with Feeling’, a pseudo-sequel to 2014’s ‘20,000 Days On Earth’, which combined interviews and videos of Cave making the album. Let’s check out ‘Jesus Alone’ below.

‘Skeleton Tree’ was recorded over 18 months and saw Nick Cave experiment with Synth technology, which was a style of production that Cave had always shied away from prior, with the Avant-Garde music techniques and unconventional structures of songwriting leading Cave to say, “What happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that you just change”, on the accidental cliff fall of his 15-year-old son, Arthur. It makes for some gut-wrenching subject matter, and I’ve said that Easter is a loose theme for it’s opening track because it has something of a dual meaning, with Cave juxtaposing a call of goodbye to his Son, with a call for forgiveness and closure to God. Over the top of dissonant drum machine loops and synth-oriented rhythms, Cave cries out “You fell from the Sky, crash-landed in a field near the River” above the rumbling of the bass. It makes for a graphic image, with a tense and eerie atmosphere which draws from the cinematic and the expansive. The repeating bridge of “With my voice, I am calling you” sees a taut Piano melody enter the fray, with the instrumentation sounding fittingly fractured and broken in it’s off-kilter sensibilities. Lines like “You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now” and “You’re a distant memory in the mind of your creator” see Cave move slowly towards a religious plea for help, although he’s hesitant to accept God as his savior because he simply wonders why his son was taken by Death, and not him. The ending, however, see Cave grow slowly, but progressively, into a more impassioned voice-over. “Let us sit together, until the moment comes” seems to be the cue point for this, as swelling Orchestral sections and Baritone musings represent a slow change in instrumentation and an all-important change of tone in the process. Overall, it’s probably not for everybody – with the delivery being a methodical and slowly revealing affair, and the subject matter hitting close to home. However, that makes it seem all the more urgent and all the more intimate, with the songwriting feeling deeply personal for Cave. Yet, we’ve all had the times when we’ve suffered loss, and it’s something that feels very distant for us to talk about, and we often deal with it ourselves and in our own ways. Therefore, Cave’s musing becomes a ghostly and beautiful affair, with the chilling and ethereal sound making for an otherworldly listen. Very personal, yet easy to connect with. You know – It’s simply just really good.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Skeleton Tree” (LP) (Released on 9 September, 2016) (via Bad Seed Ltd.)
  • Pictured: Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave playing on the Pyramid stage on day five of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 30, 2019 in Glastonbury, England (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

That’s all for now – run along and enjoy your day off work. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at some recent music from a Prog-Rock collective of youngsters who have already released one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, earning praise on their way to stardom from publications like The Quietus, The New York Times, and The Guardian, often being compared to the 90’s act Slint. 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/

New Album Release Friday: Serpentwithfeet – “Fellowship”

March 26, 2021 — Leave a comment

A true friend is one who remembers your birthday – and not your age. New post time.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “DEACON” (LP) (Released on March 26, 2021) (via Secretly Canadian)

Good Morning! I’m Jacob Braybrooke – and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It looks like plenty of artists are looking to capitalise on the new Spring-time weather, because there are loads of new releases out there today. Emerging Galway 4-piece NewDad have released their debut EP – and new full-length offerings from the likes of BRIT Awards darling Ben Howard, rising Israeli genre-blurrer Noga Erez, intimate Canadian indie folk singer Tate McRae, Northern Irish Electronic composer Hannah Peel, US Experimental cult favourites Xiu Xiu, intriguing ‘Cinematic Soul’ collective El Michels Affair, and more. However, I’ve been quickly getting excited about ‘DEACON’, the new record from the Balitmore-raised Experimental Soul artist Josiah Wise – aka Serpentwithfeet. I am a big fan of ‘Fellowship’ – the lead single, which I’ve been playing on my own radio show, because it makes me feel fuzzy and wholesome inside. The new LP follows 2018’s debut LP ‘Soil’, but he’s also known for the ‘Blisters’ EP from 2016, and the ‘Apparition’ EP that he put out last year. This album has been getting some very kind reviews, and so I’m really looking forward to starting to stick my teeth into it when I have a moment to. It was also co-produced by Sampha and Lil Silva, who sing the backing vocals on ‘Fellowship’, and so you’ve got three particularly talented creatives working on this. A loving ode to the bonds in that friendship provides – Check out the lead single below.

Much of the inspiration for Serpentwithfeet’s new album came from his R&B roots in black Churches, and speaking on the creative direction for the new LP collection, he wrote: “I wanted to create something that felt calm and restrained.”, he continued, “This was my way of tapping into the energy many deacons possess”, in a press release for the material. He is, of course, referring to the role of ‘Deacon’ within the ministry of Christian office for the album’s title. Starting off with a subtle Afrobeat backing beat made up of ethereal percussion and warm synth tones, Wise croons lines like “Our breezy Sunday afternoons, Christmas films in July with you” and “Our fascination with Prosecco, The silly face you make when I say Hello” to lyrically play on the dialect that we have with our companions, and the quirks that make our bonds feel strong and personal to ourselves. The songwriting gets a little more reflective later on, with nice lines like “This is the blessing of my 30’s, I’m spending less time worrying and more time recounting the love” that talk carefully about maturity and progressing through the cycles of our lives. The chorus is very lush too, with Wise singing “I’m thankful for the love I share with my friends” in unison with Sampha and Lil Silva – as lushly composed Sitar work and tinny, cute steel pan beats aid the scene. Overall, I can really get behind the message of the track – which is about realizing that you may still be in the ‘good times’ rather than having a need to reminisce about them. Paired with some warm Gospel influences and energetic psychedelia, it makes for a pretty absorbing experience, where the meanings are straightforward and the chords do not truly progress a great deal, but remain fresh from the start to the finish because it feels powerful and intimate. Overall, this is the literal definition of “lovely”.

  • Pictured: Josiah Wise (aka Serpentwithfeet) in a photoshoot for “Soil” (2018) (via PitchPerfectPR.com)

We’ve reached the end of another daily musical diary entry! Scuzz Sundays returns in two days time, like it always does, but, in the meantime, we’ve got another 24 hours worth of text to bust through tomorrow first. In that case, I would like to introduce you to another one of my recent favourites – with a track coming from an Australian-based, but originally Ghanian, fresh new Hip-Hop producer who has just released his debut album on his own independent OURNESS label to positive word of mouth earlier in the month. He is also the brother of the two-time ARIA-nominated Canberra rapper Citizen Kay. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Postdata – “Twin Flames”

March 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

It’s like a hard drive filled with sorted data – Information in formation. New post time!

  • Pictured: POSTDATA (aka Paul Murphy) in a PR shoot (2021) (Photo via GodIsInTheTVZine.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and, once again, it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily music musing on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You might know Paul Murphy better as a part of the Polaris Music Prize-nominated Canadian indie folk outfit Wintersleep, but when he is not busy scraping up the Juno Award – like in 2008 – with that band, You’ll find him working on his own solo side project, POSTDATA. The project features a rotating collective of supporting musicians who work with Murphy on typically Acoustic-oriented tracks, albeit with some vital elements of Electronica music stirred into the mix. His fourth album to be released under the moniker, ‘Twin Flames’ saw the light of day on March 5th via Paper Bag Records. This body of work looks at the weathering of storms – both physically and symbolically – with intricately detailed soundscapes, and it features some guest work from Frightened Rabbit’s Andy Monaghan and Murphy’s Wintersleep bandmate Tim D’Eon, with co-production work from Ali Chant (Perfume Genuis, Portishead). Let’s sample the titular cut down below.

“This was initially an instrumental track”, Murphy said of the single release, before co-producer Ali Chant suggested he slowed it down and added a small bit of Spoken Word vocals over the top to enhance it, and Murphy added: “It’s a love song but also felt really poignant personally during full pandemic lockdown this idea of weathering storms. Enduring them. Inhabiting them. Becoming them.” for more context. In the end, what may have started out as a simple ode to love has been transformed into a carefully layered piece crafted with diverse instrumentation, where Murphy’s vocals are wrapped up in some poetic delivery accompanied by a sumptuous melody that feels sorrowful, but intimate and gentle. Lyrics like “To the blink of a moment, For a fraction of a second” are beautifally matched with samples of children singing about the weather, while lines like “In the motionless night, At the speed of light, We were never really here” feel more romantic. The chorus raises the variety up a notch, as an acidic synth beat gets added to the mix, which symbolizes the strikes of Thunder as the conversation between two partners takes place amidst the stormy night. A brief, introspective set of more verses come in to the frame, where the repeated riff of “Until there was nothing left, to say or be afraid of, Only love and death” reflects the feel of navigating the complexity of an obtrusive, overwhelming situation. It goes for a whimsical quality, as the Folk-led vocals dip in and out of the fragmented Spoken Word delivery. The brief Brass section at the end is a stand-out, while the main bulk of the track feels softer, as various sequences of layered instrumentals slowly build the tension of the track. Overall, it makes for an interesting listen, where the vocals feel internal and expressive, with the instrumentation working to create a narrative for the proverbial storm, which is weighed down by tonal shifts. A stillness after the Thunder.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Twin Flames” (LP) (Released on March 5th, 2021) (via Paper Bag Records)

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post – But that’s all I have time for today! We’re going to be dialing back the time machine tomorrow, however, for a new entry in our weekly ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature. The track comes from one of the centerpieces of English Electronic music, who used to be the flagship act for the Manchester-based indie label Factory Records and the North Western club The Hacienda, and the band are also known for their collaborations with long-term graphic designer Peter Saville over the decades. I’ve got some ‘True Faith’ in this lesser-known single for the group to deliver the goods. 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/

New Album Release Friday: William Doyle – “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Fine)”

March 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Sometimes it’s like an hourglass with no sand in it. It’s a waist of time. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Great Spans Of Muddy Time” (Released on March 19, 2021) (via XL Recordings)

Top ‘O’ The Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up right here for your daily track on the blog, because, just like always, it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s time for us to grab a sample of one of this week’s new album releases. The new crop includes the new offering from Americana mega-star Lana Del Rey, the fourth album from Oscar-nominated South African singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou, the debut album from the hotly tipped indie rock band Middle Kids, and there’s a debut EP from the emotive Dream-Rock band Bleach Lab. Since William Doyle – formerly known as East India Youth – was listed at the top of Deep Cuts’ Best Albums Of The 2010’s list for 2019’s ‘Your Wilderness Revisited’, which got some ecstatic reviews, I felt that his new album would be a great choice for us this week. Despite only being 30, Doyle seems something of a perfectionist, with ambient and instrumental side-projects, and a stint as the lead vocalist of Doyle and The Fourtfathers, to his name. He’s got plenty of experience, and so there is solid potential for ‘Great Spans Of Muddy Time’ – which arrives today via Tough Love Records – to shine this year. It’s been a rocky road to release, since he dealt with a hard-drive failure, leaving Doyle with only cassette recordings of each track on the record. This left a direct impact on the sonic direction and audio quality of the new record, which is named after a quote that he took from the memoirs of the BBC presenter Monty Don. He describes it to the press as a theme of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the UK’s verdant rural pastures looking to make some sense. Let’s stream ‘And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)’ below.

Even just the front cover of the album’s artwork is a looker. I feel that this creates a contrast of vibrancy that juxtaposes with the mundanity of the lyrics exploring the standstill of the life cycle in ‘And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)’, which Doyle has told the press that “Like other favorite songs of mine, this arrived when I least expected it, almost fully formed. It’s partly a reaction to the complexity and excess of my last album. I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts.” in his notes. Starting with a folk-led, acoustic guitar backing – Doyle deconstructs his Art-Rock roots to their very core. The analog synth work creates a washing wave of ambience, before Doyle softly sings lines like “As time rolled in from the East, The love stopped it’s happening” and “As though it had been agreed, Like wind blowing off the leaves” as distorted bass guitar chords and vocal harmonies pop in for a brief moment. The next section is pretty striking, as off-kilter guitar solo’s and a reverb effect on his voice adds some changes and shifts to the instrumentation and the tone of the package itself. Most notably, I think there’s something about the track which feels right for the time that we’re living in right now. With the synth work feeling analog-based and expansive, and the darker shades of the sonic production in the final section of the track, it is an effective reflection of the restrictions that we’ve been living under – for what feels like forever – currently. It ultimately brings a lack of excitement to our day-to-day lives, and Doyle seems to depict this accurately as he comments on the blurred lines between habit and instinct. The instrumentation, such as the loosely packed synths towards the end, and the meticulous guitar patterns that split up during the chorus, and the basic lines like “I’m always dimming the light switch” also make a point of the necessity in our believing in intuition, while persevering in the most difficult of situations. It feels like perhaps the most obvious choice for a single from the new long-player, due to it’s accessibility – with relatable lyrics and fairly stripped-down production – but it feels articulate and it still makes some noteworthy commentary on how the pandemic has stripped us down to our basic instincts. Overall, the effort put into this can really be heard because I think it succeeds very well. More moving than it seems at first glance.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Your Wilderness Revisited” (Released on November 1, 2019) (via XL Recordings)

That’s all I’ve got time for today! Scuzz Sundays returns in two days time, and so you’ve got that weekly entry to look forwards to. In the meantime, however, I’ve got some new music to share with you tomorrow – which features the mainstream-friendly names of KT Tunstall and Peaches as featured vocalists. The main artists, however, are a US Garage-Rock duo based in Los Angeles who have opened for Blondie and Garbage in their ‘Rage and Rapture’ tour of 2017. They also released a collaborative album with The Flaming Lips two years later. 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/

International Women’s Day 2021 Special: St. Vincent – “Digital Witness” (2014)

March 8, 2021 — 1 Comment

An alternative ode to just sitting in front of the TV! Happy International Women’s Day!

  • Pictured: St. Vincent performing “Digital Witness” on Later… With Jools Holland (2014) (via BBC.com)

Good Afternoon to you – and wishing very a happy International Women’s Day to all readers on the blog, thanks for continuing to stick with me in these harsh times! Or, if you’ve never been here before, Welcome – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and this is the place where I get writing up about a different piece of music every single day! As noted, it has been declared as the annual International Women’s Day today, and so I thought it would be nice to feature a female artist who inspires me today. I would usually always pivot towards Bjork and I think she’s my favourite female music artist of all time for her socio-economic currency, but I know I’ve talked to death about her on the blog and on the radio, so let’s give someone else a well-deserved celebration instead. St. Vincent is the alias that Oklahoma-born Art-Pop singer songwriter Annie Clark uses to release music under, and she’s become an icon of the Alternative music genre ever since she began her career as a member of The Polyphonic Spree. She is of a similar ilk to Prince or Bowie in the ways that she’s going to release her raw, unedited material whether the industry cares or not, and she always pushes the boundaries and reinvents herself successfully between her releases. She’s currently gearing up to release her next album, “Daddy’s Home” on May 14th, and the internet music community seems to be super excited for that one. However, when I look to the archives, arguably none of her tracks stick out at me quite like “Digital Witness” does, which was released as a single in 2014 from her self-titled fourth album. The album received unanimously strong praise from critics, with publications like The Guardian, Slant and NME naming it their Album Of The Year at the time, along with winning the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album in 2015 – also making Clark the first female artist to win the nod twice. One fun bit of pop culture trivia for you is that she dated supermodel and actress Cara Delevingne between 2014 and 2016. I think Clark was actually quite a bit older than Cara, not that it’s all that relevant, but it’s a solid Showbiz fact still. Nevertheless, St. Vincent is a much beloved female artist who is definitely paving the way for the industry and the ways in which high-caliber female creatives perform on the stage and on screen. Let’s delve into “Digital Witness” below.

St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) has also been very significant for the representation of gender politics in her work, with St. Vincent telling Rolling Stone in a 2014 interview that “I don’t have anything to hide, but I’d rather the emphasis be on the music” when she was asked whether she identified as straight or homosexual, and she’s also worked with high-profile names like David Byrne and Swans, a collaboration of which Byrne commented: “Despite having toured with her for almost a year, I don’t think I know her much better, at least not on a personal level… mystery is not a bad thing for a beautiful, talented young woman (or man) to embrace. And she does it without seeming to be standoffish or distant.” in a profile for Village Voice. Clark just carries an aura of bold, vibrant focus on just her creativity itself, a natural sense of passion and determination that I hold dearest in “Digital Witness”. She immediately instructs us to “Get back to your seats” in the opening line of the track, before she builds her commentary on the social media addiction themes with a funky, squelching trumpet beat. It feels tense and sophisticated, while having a defiantly odd and lovingly strange sound. The Jazz elements feel idiosyncratic, with light Pop hooks like “People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window” and “Digital witnesses, what’s the point of even sleeping?” permeating through the angular grooves. Her vocals are balancing a slightly bitter tone with a more celebratory one, with the chorus lyrics of “If I can’t show it, If you can’t see me/What’s the point of even sleeping?” permeating over the top of a delayed pedal effect where the Synth-adjusted Brass instrumental feels a bit more raw and painful. There’s a sense of flirtation with the dissonance of the guitar work that characterizes the overall sound, as bright and pastoral textures are added to juxtapose the more angry, unsettling sections. The instrumental feels busy, but each of the different elements plays a detailed part, where the themes of viral media consumption and the wider implications of this – a wonky perception of personal image and the risks we pay to attain surveillance, are all hidden between the chords too. It’s really a brilliant tune – with smart wordplay and a layer of surrealist themes that feels as relentlessly likeable as it also feels cautionary. I also love the moments where she adds a “YAH” to the end of the chorus – as well as being purely adorable, it feels cryptic and manages to put you in a train of thought, almost hypnotically as the off-kilter Trumpet section continues raging on. It all feels a bit Prince, but it also feels culturally relevant and distinctively original. A very accomplished piece of truly great music that can never age and may yet evolve with the times. *Readjusts Neck* YAAAH!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “St. Vincent” (LP) (Released on Feb 24th, 2014) (via Loma Vista Recordings)

Time to catch my breath – After I remind you that I’ll be back tomorrow, like always, with an in-depth look at some more music. It’s a brand new tune that I’ve been loving on my radio show tomorrow, as we keep up the positive energy. Indeed, tomorrow’s new track is a great find that comes from the solo project of one half of the sibling Chicago Psych-Rock duo Wild Belle, and the track was also featured on a recent episode of BBC Radio 6Music Recommends with Tom Ravenscroft. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Clipping – “Say The Name”

March 4, 2021 — Leave a comment

…and whatever you do – Don’t fall asleep! It is time for a frightening new blog post…

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Visions Of Bodies Being Burned” (Released on Oct 23rd, 2020) (via Sub-Pop)

Good Afternoon to you – my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, since it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! In retrospect, I think this track may have been a more suitable fit for Halloween. Never mind, though, because it’s a fairly grey, cloudy and grizzly day outside here in Cambridgeshire and so this might prove to be some good “Mood Music” for you, if you’re finding yourself to be in a similar frame of mind today. Clipping are an Experimental Hip-Hop group consisting of rapper Daveed Diggs, and the two producers Jonathan Snipes & William Hutson. They relish in the samples of scary Slasher flicks of old, with a ‘Rapcore’ sound that evokes a cinematic scope and a dark variation of tones that wouldn’t feel out of place in a vintage Wes Craven or John Carpenter Horror soundtrack. It goes without saying the results are pretty disturbing and intriguing, with the band describing their latest album, “Visions Of Bodies Being Burned” as a movie-like sequel to their 2019 release, “There Existed In An Addiction To Blood”. Released back in October, their latest album lifted it’s name from a Scarface line from the Geto Boys’ ancient 1991 single, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me”, and “Say The Name” turns this quote into a hook, and builds a dark fantasy influenced by ‘Candyman’ to it. Let’s get spooked with the results below.

The recent album, “Visions Of Being Burned” was acclaimed by critics when it was released on October 23rd via the ever-reliable Sub-Pop records label – with the record also featuring collaborations with musicians like rap duo Cam & China, the EVP research artist Michael Esposito, the Improvisational Jazz creator Jeff Parker, and a handful of others. As a matter of fact, the closing track “Secret Piece”, is a Spoken Word performance of a text-based “event score” that Yoko Ono wrote back 1953. It really is music for fine artists, and created by serious performers where commercial accessibility seemingly isn’t near the top of their list of priorities. I like that it sounds different to many of the other Alt Hip-Hop groups that have come before though, with stereotypical Jazz-Funk sensibilities being replaced by throbbing basslines and strobing synth melodies. This alternative production is clear on “Say The Name”, where visions of “The hook gon’ be the coldest pimp slap/Coat rack for man skin/Let it air dry” and “Swiss cheesed a brother, already half dead/Brain leaking out a hole in his forehead” are conjured up. These striking and graphic images are evoked by the Industrial clatter of the hip-hop samples, with rustic drum patterns that are integrated with a strong viscerality. The chorus is relatively simplistic in comparison, with “Candlesticks in the dark, Visions of bodies being burned” being repeated above the top of a Synth-heavy outro, matched by the gory sentiments and slightly demonic aesthetics being used throughout the verses. Vibrant, clattering drum machine loops are woven into the fabric of the mature, adult-oriented content with a sense of mystery and a lack of warmth. The concept works well because it feels very unique, although there’s fairly little substance in here for me. Overall, to me, it’s a strong success, however, and although I’d probably need to be in a certain frame of mind to enjoy it fully, it has a decent sense of originality and a well-inspired backstory for me to sink my teeth into, with the 80’s-ish gothic Horror aesthetics being pulled off nicely.

  • Pictured: Daveed Diggs (Rapper/Lyricist), William Hutson (Producer/Keyboard/Samples) and Jonathan Snipes (Multi-Instrumentalist/Producer) (in 2016) (Photo by Katie Falkenberg/The Los Angeles Times)

With that – You can stop hiding your face under the cushion of your sofa now. Can you believe that it’s nearly already time for the weekend again? Join me for an in-depth look at one of this week’s new album releases tomorrow, as we sample one of the new cuts taken from the ninth main addition to the discography of a prolific female singer-songwriter. This Liverpool-based artist owns the record label Bird, and you may know her as a former member of the Brit-Pop girl group Kill Laura, and previously a member of the Folktronica project Misty Dixon too. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Oneohtrix Point Never (feat. The Weeknd) – “No Nightmares”

February 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

The star of 2020’s Super Bowl half-time show makes a 180° point turn. New post time!

  • Pictured: Daniel Lopatin at an MOMA screening of “Good Time” (2017) (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and – like always – it’s time again for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, and that’s because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A veteran of the Experimental Electronic music genre and a mainstay of the iconic Warp Records label since 2013, Oneohtrix Point Never – aka Daniel Lopatin – has been in the game for the long haul. Exploring the vivid styles of kitschy MIDI production and pushing the boundaries of sample-based music cliches, his ninth studio album, “Magic Oneohtrix Point Never”, was released last October, and it draws from the psychedelic aesthetics inspired by the Magic 106.7 radio station. It’s an ambitious project for the well-reviewed Brooklyn-based producer, who has worked with artists such as FKA Twigs, Anonhi and Ishmael Butler previously. One of his most frequent collaborators, however, is the “Man Of The Moment” in the media – The Weeknd. Joining the contributions of Arca and Caroline Polachek for the recent album, The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) and Lopatin’s history goes way back. Lopatin and Tesfaye have traded in the favours for numerous guest spots on each other’s records in the past, and Tesfaye also appeared in 2017’s “Uncut Gems”, a critically acclaimed film that Lopatin scored, and it became the highest-grossing film at the box office for it’s distributor, A24. Paired by a hallucinogenic video, check out “No Nightmares” below.

Lopatin’s latest long-player reached the best-of-year end lists from a breadth of reputable publications, and the cinematic-inspired video was also conceived by Tesfaye and the madcap producer as a trilogy of short clips – The “Midday Suite” – that are influenced by postmodern art and film, and if you hadn’t been sold on their friendship yet, it also turns out that Lopatin was also the musical director of The Weeknd’s huge performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which millions turned in droves to watch on their TV sets just a short while ago. Paired by a fictional universe of CGI monkeys and trippy Avatar visuals of the two musicians, “No Nightmares” sits between the multiverse of retro and futuristic in it’s approach. Opening with highly processed vocals and a thick layer of slowly dissipating synths, the production feels oddly comforting. The gradually dropping drum beats and the thick reverb of the synths give off a soothing feel, which are accompanied by the gradual revealing of the backing vocals and the chirping bird sounds. The vocals are almost unintelligible in most cases, with lines like “I’ve been missing from my own dream” and “It’s what happens so close” feeling artificial and otherworldly. The most recurring line is “Wait, in time, no nightmares”, which glides softly below the unsullied, experimental percussion of the nifty synth work. The arrangement seems suitably animated, with robotic vocal harmonies and long vocal notes from Tesfaye, who also shares a co-production credit for Lopatin’s latest album. His performance is good here, with an intriguing blend of vocal tones that suit the methodical synths and the Psych-Pop feel of the overall package. As far as mainstream artists go, I quite like The Weeknd and I think he’s a good stage presence in the role of his fame. Through his collaborations with Lopatin, such as “No Nightmares”, I think it gives him the platform to show some credibility as a true artist. “No Nightmares” is a decent example of this, with a good synergy between the two artists, where either man doesn’t feel like they are outshining the other. When all is said and done, I dig this track. Not necessarily everyone would “get it” – but it’s a unique spin on the heavy synth sounds of the 80’s, and it feels well-suited for the mantra of Warp Records, and with growth through repeated listens, it could potentially join the essential suite of Lopatin in becoming another of his most innovative productions of electronic work within the past decade.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Magic Oneohtrix Point Never” (Released on Oct 30, 2020) (via Warp Records)

Whew – time for a breather! There’s another day promptly catered for, but I’ll be back tomorrow, to add yet another entry into our long-running “Scuzz Sundays” series of featured posts tomorrow, where I’ll be throwing you back to the stuff of the lost Scuzz TV channel yet again. Tomorrow’s artist is pretty difficult to guess because it was a fairly short-lived burst of fame for it’s Norweigan Rock quartet. However, they still managed to upsell 55,000 albums worldwide for their two LP releases after being formed out of the ashes of two former outfits: Explicit Lyrics and Squid. 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/