Today’s Track: Bolis Pupul – ‘Kowloon’

April 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

A fish not out of water, but thriving in their natural habitat for once. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Letter To Yu’ (LP) (Released on March 8th, 2024) (via DEEWEE)

Good Afternoon to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before my adulthood got right in the way! Attempting to pinpoint the ancestry of today’s artist, Bolis Pupul, may provide enough for a full blog post on its own. Born in Belgium and raised in Ghent by a Belgian cartoonist father and a mother who was born in Hong Kong but lived in China, Pupul lived in a household that kept shlves full of vinyl records. After falling in love with Beck’s weird and wonderful 90’s LP’s such as ‘Mellow Gold’ and ‘Odelay’, he cut his teeth in a Synth-Pop project with his sister and brother-in-law that nurtured his love for eight-track Foxtex recorders and the Japanese Shibuya-key star Cornelius during the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. Fast forward to 2024 and Bolis is best known for releasing the critically-beloved ‘Topical Dancer’ LP which was a joint venture with Charlotte Adigery. As a solo artist, he is now signed to Soulwax’s label Deewee that is also the home of artists like James Righton, Marie Davidson and EMS Synthi 100 who are known for exploring futuristic 70’s Funk-driven Pop sounds. The long road to releasing his first solo full-length ‘Letter To Yu’ was full of pot holes and diversions though, like using a rail replacement bus service to travel from Littleport to Liverpool. The main cause of heartbreak was the loss of his mother, who died in a car accident during June 2008 at age 49. She was a huge inspiration for the LP, which is centered around a trip that Pupul took to Hong Kong in 2008. He visited the street where she was born and he wrote her a letter which became “the coat rack on which the entire record was hung“, as Pupul notes. Sample his sound with ‘Kowloon’ below.

The sounds of frogs, the voice of a doctor that Pupul visited and the sounds of a train platform are all recordings of Pupul’s adventure to Hong Kong that all crop up throughout the 11 tracks and the near 46-minute duration of the aromatic album that paints a picture of the Kowloon urban district that Pupul visited with an intimate touch. In fact, the seventh track on the final product is named after Mau Tau Wei Road in which the maternity clinic that his mother was actually born within. Having read all of this information on Pupul without my description of the sound, you would probably expect ‘Kowloon’ to sound like a spiritual jazz record with steady drones and a larger prioritisation on rhythm instead of melody. However, the element of suprise arrives at full throttle as the East-Asian take on the Kraftwerkian Alt-Pop of the 80’s quckly begins to reveal itself. Nostalgia and celebration are steeped in equal measure on ‘Kowloon’ which begins and ends with a stabbing, highly compressed key sound but he fills the space of sound with a gradually sauntering drum melody that swiftly evolves into a charming dance track akin to a late-90’s French House workout. The technicolour and futuristic aesthetic never dismisses the slow, hypnotic start to the track but embraces the repetition instead by incorporating East Asian touches to the European Motorik sound. There’s a characteristic that is incredibly inviting about finding release on the dancefloor given the very heavy events that set the album’s narrative in motion as well as the sense of ever-present joy that Pupul provokes so enthusiastically. His personality, soul and sense of fun is communicated through the playful composition of the track and the ambience of the vocals that almost sound intelligible, but retain the effect of being in a room with others and not being able to make out the words which happens often in life. It gives this track a sense of place, making us feel like a part of Kowloon as we listen to his martial stomp of a Synth-driven track. Overall, this is a wonderful ode to the widely believed notion that an album should provide a snapshot of the artists’ life. It feels intimate enough to retain some mystique for Pupul personally, but it feels inviting enough to give us a glimpse of his life story. A tour-de-force of euphoria, ancestry and – most importantly – cheer.

Pictured: Bolis Pupul recording a live set for Indie Rock Hit Parade w/Charlotte Adigery (2022) (Photo by WXPN)

That’s all for today! Thank you for joining me on my journey as I find my place in the music industry after a few years of hiatus due to personal issues and please join me again next week as I spotlight another example of the fantastic music which 2024 has provided since beginning 15 weeks ago. I look forward to writing to you again shortly.

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Today’s Track: Mandy, Indiana – ‘Bottle Episode’

January 4, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Valentine Caulfield (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter), Scott Fair (Rhythm Guitar/Producer) and Liam Stewart (Drums/Percussion) (2020)(Photo by Will Shields)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m thrilled that you’re getting invested in 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! Formerly known as ‘Gary, Indiana’ – which is a true story according to Pitch Perfect PR – a bizzare twist of events saw this Manchester-based Alternative Punk project settle on Mandy, Indiana as their current name. Originally a duo comprised up of Valentine Caulfield (Vocals, Lyrics), Scott Fair (Guitar/Producer) and Liam Stewart (Drums/Percussion), the band mesh Noise-Punk with experimental recording methods that have found SFX of cluttering footsteps and muffled piano appearing on their debut EP release – ‘…’ – which was released digitally on November 19th, 2021 and later physically issued on December 10th, 2021 via Fire Talk Records. Their tracks for the EP were recorded in a variety of different places, from the band’s rehearsal spaces and traditional studio set-up to outside locations like a cavernous industrial mill. The band are also known for directing their own music videos that combine found footage clips with a style of macabre film-making craft which the batch of musicians state were influenced by film directors like Leos Carax and Gasper Coe in style and structure. ‘Bottle, Episode’ was recently featured on KEXP’s ‘Song Of The Day’ podcast, and you could also know Stewart from commonly touring with Lonelady. Let’s check out the new single below.

Seeking to capture a tale of conflict between armed forces for ‘Bottle, Episode’ – Caulfield says, “I wanted to build up on the military style of the track, but in a very slow crescendo, and not in a very obvious way”, as she explained in a press statement. Fair added, “The inspiration for the guitar line was based upon a recording of a flood siren in Todmorden. I was going to use the recording as a sample but then I decided to try and recreate it with the guitar”, to the conversation. Seeking to capture a somber and hawkish tone with their intriguing single, the band get off to a riotous start with a ramshackle drum beat that patters along to a brisk pace as Caulfield delivers some foerign language vocals, before a taut guitar melody is introduced to the fray in mimicry of a siren, as Caulfield snaps with her vocal pitch as the sinister pulse of the single violently screeches along with its layered soundscape of carefully programmed snare beats and destructive guitar riffs that, ironically, feels very combative in nature. Lyrically, war is never explicitly being mentioned, but there are clearly bleak themes afloot as Caulfiend’s growling vocals imply that men are all waiting for a massacre of-sorts. Instrumentally, however, it relies a little on a Club-oriented sound as the melodicism rises gradually as to introduce the new elements of the track in coherent ways and the battle between harsh abrasian and lyrical edge owes some debt to the No Wave music of decades past. While not for the faint-hearted, ‘Bottle Episode’ conjures up some disturbing imagery of bullets tearing apart the lives of soldiers in effective ways as it feels similar to a dance-oriented track in it’s layering, but they’ve made sure the chords are dark and dissonant enough and the arrangements are brutal enough to convey the very dark textures of the lyrics to strong effect. Overall, a strangely fun but all the more sinister recording that certainly includes some fascinating production tactics that has a unique selling point for the band and a stark visual reminder of the brutality of military conflict that earns notice.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘…’ (EP) (Released on December 10th, 2021) (via Fire Records)

That’s all for now! After an understandably bleak note on the site today, we’ll be turning up the good times tomorrow as ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ makes its return to the blog as a weekly fixture. We’ll be remembering the third and final single to be taken off a UK top five album from the original Trip-Hop act of 90’s Bristol. The band won a BRIT Award for Best British Dance Act and have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. The trio have won two Q Awards and a pair of MTV Europe Music Awards.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Stereolab – ‘French Disko’

November 10, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Tim Gane (Lead Guitar/Keyboard), Lætitia Sadier (Lead Vocals/Percussion), Andy Ramsay (Drums), Joseph Watson (Synths) and Xavier Muñoz Guimera (Bass) (2021) (Photo by David Cowlard)

Good Afternoon to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to take you back to a much simpler time for another weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A cult favourite and influential band who were one of the first bands to be dubbed as “Post-Rock” in the 1990’s, Stereolab have seen a few line-up modifications in their share of time since they formed between London and France, but they currently tour and record music together as a 5-piece. Known for combining some elements of Kraut-Rock, Lounge Jazz and Motorik music together, and realizing some philosophical and sociopolitical themes of Surrealist and Situationist themes within their lyrics, Stereolab were a key figure for renewing interest in older analogue equipment during the Synth-oriented times of the 90’s. Also drawing from Brazillian and Funk influences in their sound, Stereolab have been regarded as one of the world’s most important bands and have once managed their own record label, Duophonic. Despite achieving relatively little commercial impact in their 90’s heyday, the band have reunited as recently as 2019 and they have hopped between the likes of Warp Records and Elektra Records when releasing their material. 1993’s ‘French Disko’ is one of their most recognizable singles, and it had originally appeared on their EP, ‘Jenny Ondoline’, before finding a second life on their 1995 compilation, ‘Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On, Vol. 2’. As someone who’s been to a handful of gigs before as a young adult in Cambridge and Stoke-On-Trent, I can say that I often see a die-hard in the crowd with a Stereolab shirt. Give them a spin below.

‘French Disko’ has been covered by the likes of Editors, The Raveonettes and Cineplexx since Stereolab’s original release in 1993. Another very interesting fact about the track is that in the UK, due to ‘French Disko’ becoming a surprise commercial success due to unexpected commercial radio airplay, the ‘Jenny Ondioline’ EP had stickers that read “Includes French Disko” on the cover art, and so the EP was being sold on the strength of ‘French Disko’ as an unnofficial single at one point. Stereolab also gained attention with the live performance on TV above, which was broadcast on a programme called ‘The Word’ that was designed to replace ‘The Tube’ in Britain. The track itself, ‘French Disko’, isn’t really the soulful and funky disco tune that you may expect when reading the title, and it instead places an emphasis on driving 60’s Motorik beats and absurdist lyrics that act as a call to arms for action against a dominant socio-political force. Refrains like “Well, I say there are things worth fighting for”, often recited by Lætitia Sadier, feel conversational and catchy, bolstered by a wry delivery that plays on the absurdity of the overall themes of the songwriting. There’s some elements of the Grunge era led by Nirvana in the 90’s with the distorted bass guitar riffs, and there’s some slower sections of the recording that point towards a more Acid Rock-oriented sound. The vocals have an air of 70’s Jangle Rock about them, mainly in their upbeat and quick-witted delivery. Other lyrics, such as “Though this world’s essentially an absurd place to be living in/It doesn’t call for a total withdrawal” and “Acts of rebellious solidarity/Can bring sense in this world”, that play on how we believe the things that we read in the news as humans, and how the media is typically motivated by a secret agenda. Overall, the concise lyrics are touching upon personal freedom and how there’s a path to a better future if you’re going to spend time calling out what clearly isn’t working. These themes still feel relevant today, in a world where we’ve been following instructions on how to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic as a mass society. While Stereolab are dealing with a rich assortment of some complex themes here, the sound of the track itself felt contemporary for it’s time and the formula of Sadier intonely droning above the harsh Synth climax and the noisy, collage-like guitar and drums melodies creates enough of a late-80’s New Wave element to balance a retro and modern style for its time to a point where it feels original and not outdated. The hook of “La Resistance” is a powerful and ominous one, and the track has an overall playful style to it that weaves together the band’s different influences of Kraut-Rock, Prog-Rock, Drone, Noise-Pop and Synth-Rock in a way that feels accessible yet stacked. Therefore, it’s that reason why I would suggest ‘French Disko’ as a good entry point into the rest of Stereolab’s discography if you are not familiar with their music. In conclusion, ‘French Disko’ is a very punchy cocktail of academic influences that still sounds unique today.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Jenny Ondioline’ (EP) (Released in 1993) (via Duophonic/Elektra Records)

That’s all for now – and, as I mentioned yesterday, ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ will be going on a short break until Wednesday 5th January, 2021, because it’s time to begin our ‘Countdown To Christmas 2021’ feature that we’ll be spreading throughout the days of the coming weeks because Santa’s on his way – whether we like it or not. With the goal of adding some Alternative festive options to your playlists, we’ll be mixing some of the latest seasonal releases with older tunes from some of our favourite on-brand names on the blog. Tomorrow is ‘New Album Release Fridays’ and we will be shifting our focus to the new LP from multi-time ARIA award winner Courtney Barnett.

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Today’s Track: Glüme – “Get Low”

July 27, 2021 — Leave a comment

Just like a Tree, this Las Vegas native has been ‘Logging’ in to her PC. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Internet’ (LP) (Released on April 30, 2021) (via Italians Do It Better)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m heading towards your screen with 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! I’ve got a very interesting one today from a Los Angeles native, Glüme Harlow, who has just released her debut solo LP, ‘The Internet’ on Johnny Jewel’s (from Chromatics) label Italians Do It Better. A simple Google search reveals a ton of very fascinating details about her, from playing Shirley Temple on a Broadway stage, to being a professionally trained Tap dancer influenced by Ginger Rogers. She proclaims herself as the “Wal-Mart Marilyn Monroe” and she’s been a part of the Arts industry since a very early age. She was a child star, with credits for the ‘101 Dalmations’ and ‘Kingdom Hearts’ IP’s, and credits for an acting role in one of Japanese anime icon Hayao Mizaki’s films, according to her IMDB profile. Tragically, she has also been diagnosed with Prinzemetal, a rare heart disease where a coronary artery supplying blood and oxygen to the heart goes into Spasm and suddenly narrows. The writing process of her new record saw her confined into a restricted space due to the effects of her illness, and it pairs her intimate experiences at the time with a homage to old-time Italo cinema. Get a taster with ‘Get Low’ below.

“I didn’t like the vision of myself as a sick person. So I went on The Internet”, Harlow told KEXP in a press release when the title track from her new LP was featured on their ‘Song Of The Day’ podcast, adding, “My online presence was my truth even though it was a lie. I have this self at home who is sick, & then this self on the Internet that’s doing amazing. The world wasn’t looking for me. But online, I could live the life I wanted to live”, to her explanation of the album’s idea and concept. On ‘Get Low’, Harlow sings about falling in love, and how this affects your brain chemistry and nervous system, but, since she suffers from a heart condition, lyrics like “You light up my nervous system/Save me from this autonomic prison” come across more literally, with an accessible Avant-Garde arrangement being conveyed through her personal experiences of dating with autonomic dysfunction, and it reflects how her feelings conveyed can be a literal, cascading time for her. It feels wonderfully inventive, with lyrics like “I could drown in your mind/Careful, I’ll undress your mind” feeling both raunchy and sincere in nature, as these harsh observations permeate through the 80’s, New-Wave Synths and the prominent Bass stabs. The arrangement combines melodic digital Drum beats with some vintage, screeching Keyboard riffs, often feeling harsh and cerebral, yet oddly intimate, in reflection. She also goes to the end of the world with her visuals, veering into Art-Pop styles with her organized imagery of an out-of-time tap-dancing misfit, or a Baby Jane-type child star with an unknown maturity, and she uses this gently developed character as a cover for her to speak her mind with an innocence and honesty. Although her real name isn’t exactly a secret, it feels irrelevant to the work at hand because it never feels significant to her image itself. Overall, this is a well-inspired and a thoroughly enjoyable listen, and I’d highly recommend checking out the track ‘What Is A Feeling?’ from the debut record as well.

Pictured: Glüme in a PR shoot for a Q&A interview with Weirdo Music Forever (2021) (Photo via PR)

That’s all I’ve got to share with you for now, but please feel free to join me again for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow, where we revisit one of the sounds of the past that has been influential to the sounds of the present. This week’s pick comes from a 90’s US Hip-Hop duo from Queens, New York who spent six years together before they disbanded in 1995. In that time, they were a credible asset to the ‘Native Tongues’ collective comprised of East Coast Hip-Hop groups A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul & The Jungle Brothers. The rap duo cited creative differences as their reason to split up.

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Today’s Track: Baba Ali – “Black Wagon”

July 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

This house is not a house – It’s just a couple of sticks. Well below Zero. New post time!

Pictured: Baba Ali in a PR shoot for the ‘Rethinking Sexual Pleasue’ EP (2020) (Photo via Twitter.com)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and allow me to be your cool down away from the shining sun for your daily track on the blog, as per usual for this past week, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! A London-via-New York songwriter and producer, Baba Ali is never far away from reliable airplay on Alternative radio stations like BBC Radio 6Music and Cherry Red Radio, and he’s announced that he will be releasing his debut solo album, ‘Memory Device’, on August 27th via Memphis Industries. Ali was previously a member of the Alt-Soul duo Voices Of Black, before he moved to the UK to pursue a solo career and to study a Masters degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, a university in London. He’s since supported acts such as Kele Okereke (The lead vocalist of Bloc Party) and Gold Panda on tour, and he will be adding Leeds Post-Punk breakouts Yard Act to that list later this year. A musing on community and mortality, check out ‘Black Wagon’ below.

Working with Joe Goddard (from Hot Chip) and Al Doyle (from LCD Soundsystem) as producers for ‘Memory Device’, Baba Ali is now striving to get the glittery dancefloors moving again, after the year-plus long spell of the pandemic’s delays, with modern Disco records like ‘Black Wagon’. Ali says of the single, “Where I live in London, my window faces the High Street and I’m not far from a church. In the autumn, there were a lot of funerals, and the horse and carriage procession would often come down the street. It’s quite an arresting image; It feels like it’s from a different era. That’s the “Black Wagon” and the rest of the lyrics are me reminiscing about the feeling of going to raves and coming home at sunrise”, per his press notes. The path of Baba Ali’s ‘Black Wagon’ has taken him from a native home in New Jersey to a winding road in East London’s mixed community. Along the way, he fuses the styles of 90’s New-Age and electric Post-Punk for an effortlessly cool Alt-Disco beat. He opens with “Hopped on the 109/Wiping the cold out of my eyes” as an air of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ hits the ground running as a shimmering bassline and flickering Synth patterns drives the melodic tempo forwards. Some lyrics, like “It’s a winding road/And every corner’s blind” observe paranoid society at a distance, while others, like “We caught the Metro North/We took in all the sights/A long way from home”, discuss the after close experience of a multi-cultural club night. The beats begin as fairly subdued, before the instrumentation pulls elements of Future-Soul and New-Wave into the fold with twisting Synth hooks and warped Keyboard riffs. The chorus goes for a euphoric feel, as Baba Ali sings “Round we go/Where we end, nobody knows” and “Black Wagon roll/Where we land we’ll dig our whole” as the songwriting becomes quite cryptic, but the added reverb to the Synths and the soaring bass guitar brings new energy to the equation. Ali comments on the experiences of changing a life cycle through living in different cities and experiencing different communities in a stimulating and thought-provoking way, but there’s some tension to the slightly distorting Synths and the loud guitar sample in the home stretch. A merticulously produced and elegantly balanced offering, ‘Black Wagon’ rolls along its road at a brisk pace, with plenty of engagement.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Memory Device’ (LP) (Available from August 27, 2021) (via Memphis Industries)

That’s the end of the road for ‘Black Wagon’, but please feel free to join me tomorrow for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ as we go retro once again for an in-depth look back at a mostly forgotten London-based dance music group who peaked within the UK Singles Chart on two occasions during the very early 1990’s. A handful of their tunes also reached the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, including a #1 entry on that specialist chart. The duo worked with musicians like ‘The Red King’ and Mike Spencer.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Inspiral Carpets – “This Is How It Feels”

July 7, 2021 — Leave a comment

In Coventry Market – you could fall in love with a lady who sells rugs. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Life” (LP) (Released on April 23, 1990) (via Cow Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Every Wednesday, we love to revisit a seminal sound of the past that still influences the present, or an oddball rarity that you may have missed. Either way, Inspiral Carpets’ 1990 hit ‘This Is How It Feels’ trends towards the former option because it was the baggy band’s signature hit. A pre-cursor to the Manchester Brit-Pop movement of the later 90’s years, which then saw groups like The Stone Roses and Ocean Colour Scene rise to prominence, the Oldham-formed 5-piece were famous for using Organs and distorted guitars to implement Psych-Rock elements into their craft, and were famously signed to Mute Records – the home of 80’s Synth-Pop megastars like Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and Erasure. Very sadly, we lost Craig Gill (the band’s drummer) in 2016 due to suicide, which was caused by a severe case of Tinnitus that left him with insomnia and anxiety for over 20 years. Memorial services were held to pay tribute, attended by many of his friends and rivals in the pop music industry like Liam Gallagher and The Happy Mondays’ Rowetta over the decades. Let’s revisit their classic favourite below.

Following Gill’s death in 2016, his friends began a social media campaign to make Inspiral Carpets’ 1994 hit ‘Saturn 5’ the UK Christmas No. 1 song in the UK Singles Chart at the end of the year, and ‘This Is How It Feels’ saw similar chart success, becoming beloved by the masses and eventually peaking at the #14 spot. Did you know that it was also a hit in Australia? It reached the very specific spot of #149 in the Australian ARIA Singles Chart there. While the commercial success of a hit track is not always a good indication of it’s quality artistically, it’s also important to remind ourselves that, sometimes, crossover success and popularity happens for a reason. With the melancholic lyrics being likened to The Smiths and the Post-Punk Synth-led melodies being compared to The Doors, ‘This Is How It Feels’ still hits a soft spot between those two bands. Despite a buzzing electronic instrumental and a hopeful ambience, the track is actually about isolation and depression, with the two verses playing out as two different sides of the coin. The chorus of “This is how it feels to be lonely/This is how it feels to be small” talks about the bleak feeling that nobody understands you, how you can get trapped in a box of negative emotions. Lyrics like “Daddy don’t know what he’s done/Kids don’t know what’s wrong with mum” hint towards an affair caused by a husband to his wife, and how this affects the whole family, while the second verse references suicide when Stephen Holt sings “There’s a funeral in town/Seems they found him under the train” in the non-radio version, which is changed from the lyrics that you just heard in the music video. It’s an ace moody track and one that’s destined for “Songs that sound happy but are actually dark” lists on YouTube and the wider internet. It sounds typical of it’s time, with a Jangle-Pop rhythm section and a lighter chorus that really sticks out as an earworm in your head. However, the songwriting still feels relevant today as we continue talking about mental health issues in the media. All things considered, it’s a perfectly engaging reminder of the more vulnerable sides of life, and seeking purpose within it.

Pictured: Graham Lambert (Guitars), Stephen Holt (Vocals) & Clint Boon (Organ/Piano) making a statement in tribute to their drummer at the Phoenix Centre, Heywood (2017) (Photo by Dave Higgens)

There’s your daily dose! Please feel free to rejoin me tomorrow, where we’ll be delving into some brand new music from a Hard Rock duo who I would probably pitch as “Canada’s answer to Royal Blood” in an elevator. The duo have been best friends since the age of 4, and started to explore musical interests since falling in love with AC/DC at the age of 8. Here they are now – releasing their own material on self-release label Nowhere Special Recordings.

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Today’s Track: Raf Rundell – “Monsterpiece”

January 19, 2021 — 1 Comment

I hope that you are not afraid of the Monsters living under your bed… New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “O.M. Days” (LP) (Available from April 9th, 2021) (via Heavenly Recordings)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s now time for me to get writing up on the blog about today’s daily track, because it’s always in routine of my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Rest assured, the 2021 album release calendar is filling up, and it’s not too shabby in the process. A recent addition to the crop is “O.M. Days”, the second solo LP to come from the South London-based singer-songwriter Raf Rundell, and this is his first LP recording with the famous Heavenly Recordings label. The album unleashes the beast to the world on Friday 9th April, and it’s his second solo LP, following the release of 2018’s effort “Stop Lying”. Rundell first made his mark on the world as one half of the experimental pop duo ‘The 2 Bears’, along with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. It later became ‘The 3 Bears’, due to the inclusion of Metronomy’s Joe Mount. “O.M. Days” explores Disco, Soul, Funk, Latin, New-Wave and Post-Punk influences, and it features guest appearances from Chas Jankel, Lias Saoudi, Teri Walker and Man & The Echo. If you want to see him live, you can hopefully see him play gig dates in Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Brighton and Manchester in support of the new album this May, so fingers crossed those could go ahead in some capacity. Check out his “Monsterpiece” below.

“I tried hard to be Ian Dury, But realised I couldn’t. So, I tried my best in a different way, and here we are”, Raf Rundell jokingly explained as he teased the creative direction of the lead single. He even went so far as to pull in Chad Jankel, the former Ian Dury & The Blockheads musician, to add a neat guitar line into the track, for a dream collaboration. Yet, Rundell still manages to capture the essence of Baxter Dury, Ian’s son, and I’d argue that the “Sports Team-meets-Baxter Dury-meets-Gorillaz” style of the New-Wave crossed Disco-Soul influences paints him in his own light. Lyrics like “Fast vibrations, grooving, when you’re moving, when you’re doing what you love” drift over the top of Balearic synth lines and sun-dipped instrumentation, bolstered by funk-inspired guitar riffs and a lithe, idiosyncratic bassline. The Post-Rock vibes creep in when Rundell cheerfully croons “How fly can you fly/In this world so unforgiving” and “How free can you be/To make a life what you make a living” with a spot of sophistication, above the scatterings of synthetic pop sounds. The instrumentation is suitably varied, with a lengthy Flute chorus entering the fray at about the two-thirds mark, and a drop of strobing synths that add a psychedelic house sound. The harmonic Flute break and the nodding to Electro-Soul is commendable, with a strange sense of ‘Party Anthem’ sound adding a new touch to the rather academic, intellectual pop sound of his influences. Although I think this one is a bit of a “One and done” deal rather than something that stores new elements for you to discover on repeated listens, it also has a distinct and unique sound that feels original. By meshing the New-Wave 70’s together with more contemporary synth sounds, you get the fresh marriage of Soul and Punk. It’s not “Monstrously” bad at all.

Pictured: Raf Rundell in an online interview with The AU Review (2015) (Photo via YouTube.com)

Thank you for reading my latest blog post! We’re going “Way Back” tomorrow for the latest post in our weekly Wednesday feature, where we take an in-depth listen back to music pre-dating the 2000’s – influencing each of the different types of sound that we love today. Tomorrow’s track goes down the Ambient Pop and the Space-Rock route, as we rediscover a late-90’s favourite from a French Prog-Rock duo who produced the soundtrack of the same name for “The Virgin Suicides”, a Sofia Coppola-directed drama film that was released in 1999. 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: Pet Shop Boys – “It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas” (2009 Version)

December 14, 2020 — Leave a comment

Everything I’ve ever done. Every place I’ve ever been. Every place I’m going to. A Sin!

Pictured: Neil Tennant (Lead Vocals/Producer) and Chris Lowe (Keyboards/Synths) (2016) (via PR)

Season’s Greetings to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke – and it’s now time for me to fulfill my daily duties of typing up today’s track on the music blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to get writing up all about a different piece of music every day! I have had a lot of fun seeking out some Alternative festive tunes to share with you via my daily means, and I have got a lot more of them in store for you this week as we build up to a very different Christmas. Pet Shop Boys, the English Synth-Pop duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, probably doesn’t need any real introductions to you, but aside from their obvious hits of “West End Girls” and “Go West”, I’m not too sure if you knew they recorded their own Christmas electronic dance track. “It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas” is the title of the tune, and it’s actually been recorded in two versions. The track was first released back in 1997 to their exclusive Fan club at the time, and it was later re-released, and re-recorded, as a new version of the track in 2009, and so the remastered work is still fairly recent. This version appeared on an EP, “Christmas”, which they released in 2009, as the B-side to “All Around The World”, a brand new single. The EP, which bundled the two tracks together, was also available in a Physical format. The cover artwork is nice, since it calls back to the balloon trademark of the Brazillian compilation, “Party”, which the duo also released in 2009. The EP just managed to crack the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart in 2009 – having reached the spot of #40. Let’s watch them perform it at the 02 Arena in London below.

Tennant and Lowe, as Pet Shop Boys, are officially the UK’s best-selling duo in music history… Sorry, Chemical Brothers… and the “Christmas” EP, which they released in 2009, also featured a remix of Madness’ “My Girl”, and a cover version of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”, along with a re-worked version of “All Over The World”. The track in question today, “It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas”, is a sharper and slightly more pessimistic affair, as Tennant sings about the British national identity of Christmas and of taking a well-needed break from the commercial distractions that come along with the festive season. The synth-led instrumentation and properly “Flat” electronic sound of Kraftwerk come across as classic Pet Shop Boys, as Lowe combines vintage keyboard riffs with Choral backing vocals mixed with percussive Sleigh Bell melodies. The vocals border into Scrooge territory, as Tennant sings the likes of: “Christmas is not all it’s cracked up to be” and “Nothing on the TV that you’d want to see”, before a White Christmas lyrical reference, singing: “Bing Crosby, Are you listening to me?” before the chorus kicks in, where Tennant chants: “But, I’ll still have a glow at Christmas/Because I’ll be with you” in a quick, rhythmic fashion. He also sings: “Now, it’s all about shopping and how much things cost”, a small songwriting motif of melancholy that feels briefly profound. The tones are upbeat, and it plays up to the more melodic stance of the ultra-pop Synth dance beats and the social-realist vocals. Overall, it plays out most like you would expect a Christmas-themed Pet Shop Boys track to sound like, with Tennant using a Falsetto to give the perverse pop a more neo-futuristic vibe in light of the unashamedly 80’s style. There’s little new here, but that’s not a bad thing. What you get is two of the all-time greats sticking to their roots, but with all of the trimmings of a Festive theme. I don’t feel it’s quite as fun as 2020’s “Monkey Business” as a result, but it still sees the beloved national treasures making a fair point on the modern Christmas and it feels timely for our circumstance this year.

Pictured: Pet Shop Boys at the London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (2012) (Photo via BBC.com)

It’s quite difficult not to recognize Pet Shop Boys for all they have done for British Pop music, and that means we’ve previously reviewed some of their other tracks right here on the blog. Don’t forget to peruse my feelings on 2016’s “The Pop Kids” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/04/todays-track-the-pet-shop-boys-the-pop-kids/, and 2020’s “Monkey Business”, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/27/todays-track-pet-shop-boys-monkey-business/

Pictured: Cover Art for “Monkey Business” (Single) (Released on January 3, 2020) (via x2 Records)

Thank you for reading my latest Seasonal sprinkling on the blog! We’ll be taking a break from the Christmas music tomorrow as we return back to some usual output on the blog. Tomorrow’s track comes from an British indie folk singer-songwriter, who is currently based in Paris, who released her fifth studio album earlier on in the year. Her band, which she fronts, have once appeared on an episode of BBC One’s “Wanderlust”, with the group playing in a night club where Joy, a character who is played by Toni Colette in the television series, attended. 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: PVA – “Talks”

November 21, 2020 — Leave a comment

Been non-stop listening to a new EP by a band named after Glue… I can’t put it down!

Pictured: Josh Baxter, Ella Harris & Louis Satchell in a recent press shot (2020) (Photo via DIYMag.com)

The very history of Glue is a sticky one…Good Lord! Good Morning to you, I am Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s finally my turn again to get writing up about your daily track on the blog, since it is always my day-to-day pleasure to do so! I’m not actually certain if this new South London-based trio have named themselves after a type of Glue we all used in primary schools, but they are still turning heads nevertheless. Comprised of Josh Baxter, Ella Harris and Louis Satchell, PVA are a new genre-pushing Synth-Punk trio who originally established themselves as an enigmatic force when they started out in 2019. At the time, PVA decided to release just a half-length snippet of one of their tracks onto the wide internet – instead deciding to win over their fans based on the euphoric feel of their live gigs alone. It is an interesting management practice to say the least, especially these days. Yesterday, they released their debut EP, “Toner”, on Big Dada, an imprint of the larger Ninja Tune label, although I originally discovered the lead single, “Talks”, about six weeks ago. Dominic Haley wrote, in an interview feature for the Loud and Quiet website, “Their music mutates around an array of genres”, later adding, “They’re both brutal, and dripping in underground cool, but accessible and totally danceable”. Let’s have a listen to the new single, “Talks”, below.

Filled with 80’s New Wave guitar sweeps which evoke Prefab Sprout and New Order, Balaeric synth work that evokes LCD Soundsystem and Battles, and even a Big Beat-inspired EDM interlude, that evokes Propellerheads and Basement Jaxx, “Talks” is a solid track to get your foot in the door of the diverse music industry with. It feels hard to pinpoint down into a specific term of genre – and I like how it feels quite unconventional and obscure in doing so. The band said, in a press release, that lyrically “Talks is about how we invent games in order to avoid expressing our true feelings or take the risk of being hurt”, explaining, “The song also takes inspiration from real relationships and the fictional relationship between John and Abigail Marston (who are the main characters of video game, Red Dead Redemption). I’m afraid that latter reference hits a blank with me – but I can certainly see some expressive emotions coming through the vocals. Baxter sings, “Even in the furthest reaches, I’ve searched for forgiveness” above the euphoric synth line, which evokes a choppy 80’s rock sound. Baxter croons: “Bound to the heart you gave me” and “Confess about what I thought” in the second verse, duelling over some neat backing vocals from Harris, with an intriguing lyrical wordplay, layered above the New Wave guitar sensibility, which reminds me of Baxter Dury. The hook-led chorus carries along a slick hi-hat rhythm, where off-key Organ patterns evoke Nu-Jazz, and they meet with syncopated drum machine beats reminiscent of Nu-Disco, which even cross paths with warm Post-Punk backing vocals that have an anxious tonal delivery. You end up with a sound that feels quite immediate, and the intricate Funk patterns really end up creating a rather confident formula as the 80’s-leaning Pop sound struts along with the Disco-esque song structure. The vocal delivery feels deadpan too, and this elicits a small touch of humour and Motorik sounds, so I could see some more mainstream eyes looking at this 3-piece for their eclectic style. It all “Sticks” together!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Toner” (EP) (Available to buy from November 20th, 2020) (via Big Dada)

Thank you very much for tuning into the blog for today’s post! Don’t forget that tomorrow, we will be taking an in-depth look at an ancient classic from Pop-Punk past and Emo-Rock history – as part of our new entry in the Scuzz Sundays series – where we will be looking at a popular band led by a female singer-songwriter who has led a famous solo career in recent years, having since collaborated with B.O.B. and CHVRCHES for a few more mainstream radio hits! 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: Hot Chip (feat. Jarvis Cocker) – “Straight To The Morning”

November 14, 2020 — Leave a comment

Forget Endgame – this is the biggest crossover event in media history! New post time!

Pictured: Alexis Taylor (Lead Vocals), Joe Goddard (Synths/Keyboard), Owen Clarke (Lead Guitar), Al Doyle (Bass Guitar/Percussion), and Felix Martin (Drum Machine/Programming) (in 2019) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to have a listen to today’s track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We’re going to round off the week with a slice of Disco-Pop euphoria, which comes courtesy of the new collaboration between the established English Synth-Pop 5-piece band Hot Chip and Pulp’s famous frontman, Jarvis Cocker. The single, “Straight To The Morning”, should appeal to a broad range of tastes. To link themselves up for the collaboration that we didn’t know we needed, Hot Chip had approached Cocker after performing some DJ sets together in Paris because “Somehow he seems an unlikely figure in this all, and we like it that way”, per Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor in a press release. Cocker added: “This was the very last musical session I was involved in before Lockdown.” and commenting that although the track is about going for a night out when you’re not allowed to do so for now, Cocker said: “We danced around in the studio quite a lot in the meantime though. It was fun to be a member of the Straight Through Crew for a day”. You can buy a physical 10″ vinyl copy of the new single from January 29, 2021 via Domino Recordings. It also comes with a Mighty Mouse remix and a deck of playing cards illustrated by Rami Afifi – to keep you busy on a long Winter night. Check it out below.

It’s not quite like Hot Chip and Jarvis Cocker have been out of the public eye for a while, because it has only been one year since Hot Chip released their critically acclaimed LP “A Bath Full Of Ecstasy”, whereas Jarvis Cocker went on a venture into Art-Rock with his critically lauded “Beyond The Pale” LP from his JARV IS project, in July. Starting off with a swooping Violin section, Alexis Taylor sings: “Well, there’s a ringing in my ears/But, there’s a devil in my tongue” over the top of a fluctuating drum machine riff that feels typical to the Electronic 90’s dance sound that we’re used to hearing from them. It gets followed up by a sharp burst of slight distortion vocal effects and very upbeat, melodic Synth patterns in the chorus, as Taylor sings: “Straight to the morning, The fever will never end”, aided by the ongoing Violin chords. The track slows down to a nice, fragmented section of off-kilter Synth lines and deeper, cerebral vocals from Cocker, who croons: ” I feel the heat, let’s cut the lights/It’s a small slice of heaven” to a surprisingly quirky delivery. He lurks in the background throughout the man bulk of the track, giving off a dueling backing vocal to Taylor’s hooks and thus adding a slightly wonky, offbeat effect with his colder, more calculated delivery that feels slightly melodic enough to conjoin to the quick pacing of the track. Lyrically, it’s just about going out and having fun, so there isn’t really a lot of depth here – but I think that themes of nightlife and socializing in dance music are bringing in a light sense of normal life to us at this time. Overall, I like Hot Chip and I like Jarvis Cocker, and so this is a fun tune to dance along in the Kitchen to.

Pictured: Jarvis Cocker at the Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona (2019) (Photo Credit: Adela Loconte)

Thank you for reading my new post! As always, I’ll be back tomorrow for a new weekly addition to our year-long Scuzz Sundays series, where we take a look back at a rather cheesy and trashy Pop-Punk or Emo-Rock classic that was originally released between the late-1990’s and the mid-2000’s, to see if they can hold up to a valuable slice of quality in our current times. 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/