Today’s Track: Ibibio Sound Machine – ‘Got To Be Who U Are’

March 15, 2024 — Leave a comment

Whether you’re reading in Surulere, Isale Eko or Ikoyi to Yaba – its time for a new post!

Pictured: Pictured: Eno Williams (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter/Producer), Scott Baylis (Synths/Trumpet), Max Grunhard (Saxophone/Synths), Alfred Kari Bannerman (Lead Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals), Tony Hayden (Trombone/Synths), Phillip PK Ambrose (Bass Guitar), Anselmo Netto (Percussion) and Joseph Amoako (Drums) performing at the Pool Recording Studio, London (2019) (Photo Credit: Kimberly Junod/WXPN)

Good Morning 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! I’ve got a multi-culturally appealing new release to share with you today from an 8-piece group called Ibibio Sound Machine, a contemporary Jazz project that was formed in 2010 by vocalist Eno Williams alongside producers Max Grunhard, Leon Brichard and Benji Bouton with the idea of fusing elements of 70’s jazz, traditional 80’s Afrobeat and modern Drum ‘N’ Bass together. After the first sessions were in the can, they diverted their attention to successfully completing the line-up by adding live musicians to form their initial live band. Since releasing their debut single on Soundway in 2014, the band have released four albums, performed at events such as KEXP’s commemorative World Clash Day in 2019 and collaborated with Alexis Doyle, the frontman of Hot Chip. Their new album – ‘Pull The Rope’ – has been set for a May 3rd release on Merge Records and a live tour in cities such as Cambridge, Birkenhead, Norwich, Leeds, Dublin, Brighton, London, Edinburgh, Nottingham and others will take place during the rest of the year. Seek identity with ‘Got To Be Who U Are’ below.

One signature element of Ibibio’s Sound Machine is how vocalist Eno Williams often sings in different languages because her mother’s native tongue was Ibibio. While she was born in London, she spent most of her childhood in Nigeria with her family. Her mother, in particular, would recount numerous stories concerning folklore to her and Williams has taken inspiration from these memories by crafting lyrics from these sources to use in her music with a modern twist. ‘Got To Be Who U Are’ gets off to a rapturous start by quickly pacing itself through the steps of emphasising the message of the songwriting to incorporating a percussive African mbira chord to the mix and introducing a more uplifting electronic dance tone to the track as the washing synths establish another groovy element. There’s a breakdown in the middle that gets the nightlife vibe across, before repeating the groove to the point of irresistance from the listener. Lyrics like “Down in London to Africa” and “From Surulere to Isale Eko” revolve around the point of how music connects us regardless of location as a result of a simple hook or a tasty instrumental. These name drops are here for a reason too because Surulere, Isale Eko, Ikoyi and Yaba are areas of Nigeria, thus symbolizing the childhood of Williams again as the band have done so articulately across four albums now. Overall, this is a highly enjoyable new release that truly kicks off the marketing machine for the new LP in fine, fiery style by connecting the dots between the band’s diverse music influences and by symbolizing how musical movements unite people across the world and deliver a fundamental connection between these parties with no concern about where they may be. All of the above and a catchy chorus helps too.

Pictured: Official UK tour poster of Ibibio Sound Machine’s ‘Pull The Rope ’24’ Tour (2024) (via Merge Records)

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Today’s Track: James Righton – ‘Pause’

April 11, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘JIM, I’M STILL HERE’ (LP/Album) (Available from July 8th, 2022) (via DEEWEE)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to get you re-acquainted with some new music from a familiar face with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you remember the Mercury Prize-winning New Wave rock band Klaxons, known for tracks like ‘Golden Skans’ and a cover of Grace’s ‘It’s Not Over Yet’ in the late-00’s, that will be why you’re so sure that you’ve seen Stratford-Upon-Avon’s James Righton before and couldn’t quite put your finger on exactly where. Righton is married to actress Keira Knightley of all people and he also fronted the Shock Machine project that he began in 2016. He also worked on ABBA’s Voyage virtual concert tours in London last year and following from that project, a new solo album has been announced. Produced by Soulwax, ‘JIM, I’M STILL HERE’ is hitting record store shelves in July through DEEWEE. It follows the shiny Synth-Pop single ‘Release Party’ that he released on the same label last year for DEEWEE’s ‘Foundations’ compilation album release. It’s also the follow-up to 2020’s ‘The Performer’, an Alternative Pop record about the distinction between performer and person that he released during the height of the pandemic in March 2020. This was a record that I grew fond of, due to the Baroque instrumentation and the String sections that he played around with. It saw Righton grappling with his own identity, and the upcoming new album plays a somewhat similar role in exploring the family-based serenity that Righton experienced during the promotion of ‘The Performer’ through lockdown in the eyes of an alter-ego named Jim, and the songs were written in Jim’s perspective as an outrageous rock star. The new album features a guest appearance from ABBA’s Benny Andersson, and ‘Pause’ has been unveiled as the first single. It gets accompanied by a music video that was directed by Julian Klincewicz.

“The alter ego of Jim came to me whilst promoting my previous album The Performer during the first week of lockdown. Life shut down and became centered around family and domestic life. At the same time (and this did feel rather strange) I had to promote The Performer. I was asked more and more to live stream concerts through various social media platforms”, Righton says about the creation of his Jim character, adding, “So, I’d put the kids to sleep, head downstairs to my garage studio, put on my Gucci suit and became someone else. The juxtaposition of these lives felt extreme but also interesting to me. I created Jim. Jim would be the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage”, about the exaggerated semi-fictional version of himself in the form of Jim. Prince and Midnite Vultures-era Beck are clear influences the second that you press play on ‘Pause’, with 80’s Synth textures and quirky basslines creating a clear relationship between the sonic juxtapositions of Soulwax’s instrumentation work and Righton’s silky voice, where the eminently danceable Synths and the crunching Drums collide to form a warped take on 90’s Synth-Funk. The lyrics reek of narcissism and sensuality, but there’s a hint of actual romance in the more vulnerable tones of Righton’s voice despite the smooth Synth and keyboard work. A variety of lyrics including “Girl there’s never going to be no other/If I could only be your lover” setting up the stage for this contrast, while the cascading backing vocals and the preening artistry of sequences like “You can’t pause with me for the rest of my life” play with the duality between James’ true personality and the more fanciful aspirations of Jim as his alter ego. It’s an interesting proposition for the new album as the lyricism is not too different to those of 2020’s ‘The Performer’ on the surface level, but the sound is a lot more electronic and the Soulwax blueprints are definitely there. While the sound evolves the palette of The Performer’s sounds, the themes still feel just as intriguing and the explorations of self-identity remain intact. Overall, this was a refreshing and welcome return for Righton.

Pictured: James Righton in an official photoshoot to promote ‘The Performer’ (2020) (Photo Credit: DEEWEE)

If you don’t want to hit ‘Pause’ on James – fast-forward to some of his other cuts here.

‘Release Party’ (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/05/17/todays-track-james-righton-release-party/

‘Edie’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/04/02/todays-track-james-righton-edie/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Performer’ (LP/Album) (Released on March 20th, 2022) (via DEEWEE)

That brings me to the bottom of the page! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and I will be back tomorrow to introduce you to a brand new artist who goes by the name of Junior, a 24-year-old rapper and songwriter based in Bedford – here in the UK. His fantastic new single – ‘Long Way Home’ – was recently spotlighted on a recent episode of BBC Radio 6’s ‘The New Music Fix’ curated by Tom Ravenscroft.

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Today’s Track: Blue Lab Beats (feat. Fela Kuti, Killbeatz, Kaidi Akinnibi & Poppy Daniels) – ‘Motherland Journey’

April 4, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Namali Kwaten (aka NK-OK) and David Mrkapor (aka Mr DM) (2019) (Photo Credit: Blue Note Records)

Good Afternoon to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, as usual, and I’m writing fresh off this marathon of a WWE WrestleMania 38 weekend with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Pitching their sound as “Jazz-Tronica”, Blue Lab Beats are the North London-based experimental electronic music duo of sampler and producer Namali Kwaken (aka NK-OK) and multi-instrumentalist David Mrkaor (aka Mr DM) who have sat in the additional production seats for their work with artists like Ruby Francis and Age Of Luna, and they have remixed A-list pop culture superstars like Dua Lipa and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man. The follow-up to 2021’s ‘We Will Rise’ EP is the Grammy award-winning and MOBO-nominated musicians’ latest full-length studio album ‘Motherland Journey’ which they released in late February on the legendary Blue Note Records label. The new creative project explores a whole suite of Avant-Jazz, Prog-Jazz, Afro-Funk, Trip Hop, Boom Bap, Northern Soul and Contemporary R&B influences, and it has been described as an “extremely special album” to the duo, who say, “This album took us two-and-a-half-years to finish, or longest process to make an album, but it was so worth it. On this album you’ll hear many fusions of genres and inspirations that we gathered throughout that time frame and especially to work on so many of the songs during the first lockdown, it was a test in itself”, about their recent release. The title track samples Afrobeat activist icon Fela Kuti’s 70’s song ‘Everything Scatter’ and they were given permission by the BLB estate themselves to use that sample. It features guest contributions from Kaidi Akinnibi and Poppy Daniels, while they also travelled to Ghana to record it along with Killbeatz as the producer. Let’s give it a spin.

Much like all of the classic Afrobeat music releases of the 70’s and 80’s, ‘Motherland Journey’ is designed to replicate a communal experience where all of the different influences and the guest contributors are welcome as long as the album’s flow is not disrupted, and the duo also comment, “When we got confirmation to have Fela Kuti’s vocals from his publishers in Nigeria we were honestly blown away that he could really feature on our tracks. An absolute dream come true.”, on Kuti’s featured artist credit for the eclectic track. The track gets off to a bright and warm start immediately, with a quickly established groove formed by the percussive African drums and the prominent Amapiano stabs that pulls apart the standard tropes of their favourite genres with the introduction of the electronic music elements and the sparse guitar melodies to give the classic sound a more modern, updated feel. The pair layer up some of the Trumpet samples and the Afrobeat-tinged backing vocals together to blur the contrasted electronic and organic sounds together occasionally, but the rotating instrumentals and the upbeat textures creates the most dominant impression where we’re witnessing something improvisational and organic from a live house band, like the performers who used to visit Kuti’s shrines at the heart of the Afrobeat cultural movement, who are simply taking to center stage and jamming with one another, creating a timeless feeling as opposed to overtly recycling outdated ideas for simply nostalgic effect. It is not necessarily futuristic, but it feels well-built and structured neatly, with new melodies being bought into the mix to keep the grooves from getting a little tiresome. Overall, ‘Motherland Journey’ is a wonderfully encouraging listen that pulls off a fresh re-boot of it’s ideas by blending the organic percussion of the classic Afrobeat days with the progressive electronic production standards that we’re used to hearing more often from the west. The final results feel quite accessible and engaging to a fairly wide audience, without the feeling of commercialism ever truly dominating their sound in a blatant way. It just feels timeless and eminently buoyant.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Motherland Journey’ (LP) (Released on February 25th, 2022) (via Blue Note Records)

That brings us to the end of another uplifting track on the blog, and thank you for continuing to support the site. I’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the new single from an Oxford-born classically trained electronic music producer who has been covered more than once before, since I’m such a huge fan of his work. He’s going to release his first album in a decade this July, and his collaborative single ‘Heartbreak’, which he created with Bonobo, was nominated for this year’s ‘Best Dance/Electronic Recording’ honour at the Grammy awards. The British musician is currently based in Los Angeles.

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Today’s Track: Samm Henshaw – ‘Enough’

March 28, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Samm Henshaw in promotional artwork for ‘Still Broke’ (2021) (Photo via DIYMag.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to grab some Coffee and take just a moment out of your day to chill out with a soulful edition of my daily tracks on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Enough’ is a track that I gravitated towards after catching it on KCRW’s ‘Today’s Top Tune’ web-page recently, and it comes from the contemporary R&B and Neo-Soul singer-songwriter Samm Henshaw, who was raised in South London by Nigerian parents and he studied for a degree in Popular Music Performance at Southampton Solent, a public research-based university. He released his debut album – ‘Untidy Soul’ – on January 28th, 2022 via AWAL Recordings. That was a few months ago, and so this post is perhaps a slightly delayed reaction to the release, but it should feel recent enough for you and, as the sixteen-track project is his debut release, I hope the quiet weeks of January gave him some breathing room to stand out within. Henshaw has gained mainstream radio support from BBC Radio 1 and he has been supporting more well-known names like James Bay, Chance The Rapper and Allen Stone on tour in recent years. His previous single and EP releases have helped him garner over 20 million streams on Spotify. He wrote and performed ‘The World Is Mine’ – a track that became the theme track for the ‘Alex Rider’ TV series that you can find on Amazon Prime Video or IMDB TV. He began writing ‘Untidy Soul’ nearly six years ago, but he went through a change of creative direction when he switched labels before finishing the record in 2020. Produced by Josh Grant, it was mainly influenced by Kirk Franklin and Common, and the final project is a year-long document of self-discovery. Talking more about the title and LP in detail, he says, “The music I make has never felt nice and clean or like conventional Soul music – it’s messy, because I can be quite a scatter-brain and usually have a million different things going through my head at once”, in his press release. Let’s give ‘Enough’ a spin.

‘Untidy Soul’ features guest contributions from Maverick Sabre, Keyon Harrold and Tobe Nwigwe, and to describe the songwriting behind tracks like ‘Enough’, he says, “These songs all tell very different stories, but the overall theme for me is self-growth. You see the main character start in one place at the beginning and get to another place by the end, and hopefully, that inspires people to have some reflection on their own lives, how they treat others, how they treat themselves, because I think most of us are a bit of a mess on the inside. We’re all a work in progress”, in a recent article for New Wave Magazine. ‘Enough’ is his meditation on perfectionism and the lengths that you go to strive for your own satisfaction levels, with inward lyrics like “It’s getting heavy on my brain/Too busy trying to make a name” and “Three dots and no reply/Feeling like a social suicide” in the verses that discuss how your own thoughts can weigh heavily on yourself and how the stresses of modern, 24 hour-style society can affect your mind-set with a distinctively British sense of character too. The chorus hooks of “How rich is rich enough?/How strong is strong enough?” and “How much is too much?/When is enough enough” carries the same idea of answering questions that everybody asks themselves, while the overall track explores how we all, as human beings, through Samm as a study, have a tendency to push ourselves to our furthest limits despite it not being the most efficient thing that we can do to help ourselves. None of this is carried out with a doom and gloom, a woe-is-me or a too self-serious spirit however – as although Henshaw is sanguine and self-questioning with his vocal textures throughout, he comes across as quietly optimistic with his crooning as the self-effacing Funk backdrop mounts it’s comeback below the low-key and wry personality of Henshaw’s voice throughout. The instrumentation has a habit of feeling timeless, where the airy and radiant Trumpet melodies feel vintage and Motown-influenced, but the lyrics comment on contemporary issues to give the classical influences a more modernized spin. There’s also an underlying sense of Gospel to the entire ordeal, with layered female baking vocals giving weight to the signature Soul style. For me, Samm Henshaw feels a little like Britain’s answer to Curtis Harding or Leon Bridges as the instrumentation feels nostalgic but the production feels extant and immediate, alongside a wide sense of accessibility and relatability for casual listeners, thus overcoming the risk of the more nostalgic influences making it feel outdated and, instead, Henshaw carries a sense of the ‘ageless’ with his music. In conclusion, he feels almost like my favourite weatherman (Which is Channel 4’s Liam Dutton, if you were starting to wonder). His presence is simply soothing, with a comforting approach of not fixing anything that isn’t broken.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Untidy Soul’ (LP/Album) (Released on January 28th, 2022) (via AWAL Recordings)

That’s everything for today! Thank you for continually supporting the site, and I’ll be back tomorrow to review an exciting new single by an Emily Kempf-led Post-Punk and Garage Rock band who are originally from Chicago, Illinois. They have toured the UK, the Netherlands, France and Germany supporting Twin Peaks, and their single ‘Wild’ was featured in an episode of The CW’s TV series ‘Charmed’ that began airing in 2018.

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Today’s Track: Toro Y Moi – ‘Postman’

February 15, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Mahal’ (LP) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Dead Oceans)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to virtually hand-deliver yet another daily track on the blog to your letterbox, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We start the day with ‘Postman’ – a track that my mother is bound to enjoy since parcels are her thing. This is the new single from the South Carolina-born producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer Toro Y Moi (aka Chad Bear), who is typically recognized as a figurehead for the Chillwave and Synthwave genres from the 2010’s, but his music also toes the line between a brevity of genres including Noise-Pop, Hip Hop, Post-Disco, Psychedelic Soul, Bedroom Pop, Ambient House and Alternative Rock. He has supported the likes of Ruby Suns, Phoenix and Caribou on tour and he has performed his single ‘Ordinary Pleasure’ on Ellen’s talk show. ‘Postman’ has been released as a double single that also includes ‘Magazine’ which features Salami Rose Joe Louis as the featured credit. These two singles are leading his new album ‘MAHAL’ that explores his Fillipino descent and it will be releasing on April 29th via Dead Oceans – the same label as the likes of Mitski, Shame, Khruangbin and Bright Eyes. The new record is a generous 13-track collection which includes contributions from Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson, Sofie Royer, The Matson 2 and Alan Polomo (of Neon Indian). Let’s pay his ‘Postman’ a visit below.

‘Postman’ and ‘Magazine’ are the follow-up singles to 2019’s ‘Outer Peace’ – Bear’s sixth studio album. He also collaborated with Flume on ‘The Difference’ during May of 2020, a collaborative single that scored a Grammy nomination and it was used in a global Apple AirBuds advertising campaign. Channeling his inner Bootsy Collins with ‘Postman’, Bear lays out some slinky Psych-Soul beats and some low fidelity Funk grooves that are accelerated by some breezy percussion, like the rattling Tambourine melodies, and the more melodic, driving Bass melodies. Aside from some occasional electronic yelps that sound amusing in how comedically processed they are, the vocals are pretty spacious. Lyrics like “Just another bill today/Just another bill to pay” are direct and to the point, while the repetition of questions like “Mr Postman, did I get a letter?/Did I get a postcard” reflect on the good old-fashioned anticipation that you experience while waiting for an inevitable arrival of a piece of post, a time that we’ve all been through. The last verse, however, features a more emotive lyric of “Mama wrote a letter/A Long time ago/Then she hit her head/God bless her soul” that implies that something more dark is occurring beneath the surface, albeit in a playful way when mixed to the slow rhyming scheme of Bear’s vocal delivery, followed by the glitched outro that feels slightly futuristic by heading towards indie computer music in the brief sequence. Bear clearly leans into how post is a little non-existent in our modern day and age to create some fun and give his track a feel that is both nostalgic and a little progressive. We get a strong grower overall that is a little bizzare, but in a good way, because the composition is frisky and the repetition builds on you with a few repeated listens, and it is the kind of track that can annoy you by getting stuck in your head at work all evening – and that’s coming from my personal experience – thus becoming a catchy little ear-worm. I really liked it with subsequent listens, and I’ve enjoyed quite a lot of Toro Y Moi’s music in the past since it has an air of ‘Almost Pop’ to it where he has a knack for structuring catchy chords and writing high-spirited hooks by directing a decent diversity of various influences, yet it is within his Lo-Fi and Minimalist production that really controls the pace. It has also been a long time since we’ve heard some new solo material from him in comparison to most other artists these days, perhaps, too – and so it feels like a welcome breath of fresh air to hear from him again on ‘Postman’. An engaging and quirky letter of revival and return.

Pictured: Toro Y Moi with Flume in a PR photoshoot for ‘The Difference’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Joyce Kim)

If you want to hear how Toro Y Moi’s style meshes with Flume, you can gauge ‘The Difference’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/06/todays-track-flume-feat-toro-y-moi-the-difference/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Difference’ (Single) (Released on April 30th, 2020) (via Future Classic Records)

That’s all that I have time for today, but I hugely appreciate your support by checking out the blog every day, or for the first time today, as you continue to spread the love to the site this Valentine’s Day despite it being finished. ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ is lined up for tomorrow, where we’ll be revisiting a classic of the Hip-Hop genre of the 1990’s by the Alternative Hip-Hop collective who made Charli 2na a household name.

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Today’s Track: Hard Feelings – ‘Sister Infinity’

December 27, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Hard Feelings’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on November 5, 2021) (via Domino Recordings)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke and, it’s just about time to go back to normal after Bank Holiday Monday after 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! For my new year’s week coverage this year, we’re going to be looking at some of the off-the-radar music that you may have missed in a year that was otherwise full of new Adele, ABBA, Ed Sheeran, Sam Fender, The Lathums and Billie Eilish album releases that were all very successful. My year-end list counting down my top 25 favourite albums of the year (Split into a few different parts to keep it more short and sweet than last year) will also be coming up your way as soon as possible. The first of my underappreciated suspects is the new collaborative duo of Joe Goddard and New York-based crooner Amy Douglas, who record music together under the project of HARD Feelings. You may know Goddard as a veteran of Hot Chip fame and as one of the busiest guys in the business, having produced new singles for Ibibio Sound Machine and collaborated with Hayden Thorpe in recent months, and he used to be one half of The 2 Bears alongside Raf Rundell. Meanwhile, Amy Douglas is a prominent name in the New York Post-Disco scene having worked with artists like Treasure Fingers, Horse Meat Disco, Luke Solomon and Juan MacLean. Douglas also wrote the single ‘Something More’ for Roisin Murphy’s latest album – ‘Roisin Machine’ – that was released last autumn. Together, Hard Feelings supported Goddard’s bandmates for their first live show on November 9th. They also released their first full-length album – which was self-titled – on November 7th via Domino Recordings. Described by Goddard and Douglas as “an opera of sad bangers”, the pair say the LP is loosely conceptual and, song by song, it focuses on the unraveling of relationships and their nuanced mystery. On the album’s second single and closing track – ‘Sister Infinity’ – the funky dance duo bring up a Sci-Fi twist to Synth Pop. Let’s give it a spin.

The music video for ‘Sister Infinity’, which features the narrative of Joe Goddard communicating with a quirky AI programme to help him conceive the song itself in a dystopian future, was directed by Tim Wagner and inspired by ‘Weird Science’, and the duo say that it “matches the song itself, a Discotastic pulse racing, HI NRG rollercoaster and HARD FEELINGS at our most futuristic and perhaps insidious version of the mad scientist and his creation scenario” in their press release. Flavours in the mix of ‘Sister Infinity’ include the likes of Kraftwerk, Stereolab, CeCe Peniston, Candi Staton and Kylie Minogue to my ears, and their own cited influences of Chaka Khan and Loose Ends feel particularly present on the retro ballad ‘Sister Infinity’, which brings some propulsive Disco tones and a slightly dark variation of moods to the dancefloor. Douglas murkily sings lyrics like “Write my name up in the sky, Seeing that with my third eye, I know you’re always here with me” and “Break my heart either way/I will bend time, where I want it to go” as she contemplates her own ability to be loved and how that stretches her comfort zone beyond a confident point. Meanwhile, the 70’s-leaning Disco synths provide a nostalgic electro-disco beat that bobs between a heartfelt and a heartbroken emotion, while the powerhouse Pipes and the twinkling Drum Machine loops provide some rhythmic, evocative undertones and some latex-polished production for Douglas’ performance to cohere with. It is a little low budget, but it still manages to feel cinematic and broad with it’s sweeping, euphoric Synth melodies. The sound is a little dated, but it certainly has a slick niche and the early New York Synth-Punk sound that Hard Feelings tap into are relatively unexplored in the modern ages, and so it manages to feel refreshing enough while nodding towards ABBA, Diana Ross and Depeche Mode throughout. The production is also very polished, with seamless segues between the different elements at play, giving ‘Sister Infinity’ an immersive and connected feel with its fusion of many Synth-related sub-genre qualities. Overall, I enjoyed how mature that ‘Sister Infinity’ feels overall, and it’s great that Hard Feelings are gaining some popularity from stations like KEXP and BBC Radio 6 Music as we await new releases in the new year because they feel diverse enough to stand out and they have their USP, for a lack of a better term. A distinctive pair who want to create an experience – as opposed to just music.

Pictured: Amy Douglas (Lead Vocals/Guitar/Keyboard) & Joe Goddard (Synths/Producer) (2021) (Photo via PR)

That’s all for now – so I’ll leave you to simply dance the bank holiday away – or just do whatever else that you choose to do as a past time. I’ll see you tomorrow for more musical action as we highlight another very distinctive Alternative Rock trio from Manchester who have supported Razorlight on tour. Earlier this year, they released a new concept album that was accompanied by a 45 minute animation movie that was created by the punk band’s frontwoman, Jess Allanic, using Blender and After Effects.

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Today’s Track: Nightmares On Wax (feat. OSHUN) – “Breathe In”

November 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’ (Released on October 29th, 2021) (via Warp Records)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to indulge your senses into 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! ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’ is the latest LP to come from the legendary Leeds-born and Ibiza-based electronic Trip Hop producer Nightmares On Wax – the now solo project of George Evelyn that used to be a trio with Kevin Harper and John Halnon up until the early 90’s – who has scored multiple crossover hits like ’70’s/80’s’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Finer’, ‘Know My Name’ and ‘I’m For Real’ in the UK Singles Charts. He is the longest serving signee to the iconic forward-thinking experimental label Warp Records, and the critical acclaim of classic albums such as 2006’s ‘In A Space Outta Sound’, 1995’s ‘Smokers Delight’ and 2008’s ‘Thought So’ have led to his projects being highly anticipated among electronic music fans as some of the genre’s most important offerings. Sadly, he became more like ‘Nightmares No Vax’ in some Twitter posts leading up to the marketing machine of the new record, but, luckily, none of these controversial opinions have really cropped up on-record or became too preachy, and he opted to explore the general themes of freedom and meditation on his new album, and so it’s quite nice to see that he’s supporting freedom of speech without bringing any harm to others, and I could see his perspective as a creative coming from a non-white background. ‘Shout Out To Freedom’ has instead been released to pretty positive reviews, and it features a solid guest list of names including Greentea Peng, King Shabaka Hutchings of The Comet Is Coming fame, Mara TK, Pip Millett, Haile Supreme and others – each of which have been asked by Hill to collaborate on songs exploring what freedom means to them. The only single taken from the record with a music video attached is ‘Breathe In’, a mid-album track which includes vocals from the NYC duo OSHUN. Check it out below.

“I feel like I’ve been set free of something and I am now becoming who I really am”, says Evelyn of Nightmares On Wax fame, adding, “I’ve been gigging non-stop for 10 years, and that experience has been beautiful but it also drained me emotionally. As a creative, you’re always questioning everything. So, having the time and the space has meant that I could do a proper deep dive into this stuff. So it was all about this journey of going back to myself, and realizing being at home with my wife and my daughter that I’ve not really been here properly. It’s like I’ve just woken back up to what I actually have – and it’s already here”, when writing all about his new album – ‘Shout Out! To Freedom’. ‘Breathe In’ still contains the influences of Curtis Mayfield and Quincy Jones that have all shaped his typical concoction of Funk, Soul, Jazz, Downtempo Electronica, Dub and Techno that have kept his project alive for many decades and have characterized his sound, while putting a more modern spin on these styles predominantly within the lyrics, which discuss the simple act of staying off your phone and meditating instead. ‘Breathe In’ takes a slinky and psychedelic groove, embedded with the lyrical themes of nature and mindfulness, and Evelyn arranges some 90’s Trip Hop beats and a playful 90’s ploy on old-fashioned Dancehall melodies that have a weightlessness and an airy sense of production to them, mixing nicely with the deep and spiritual vocals from OSHUN that echo Dub all over the track. Some interesting String samples and subtle Keyboard loops make up the rest of the instrumentation, and there seems to be a lush 70’s Black Exploitation vibe to things where the usual elements of Jazz, Funk and Soul come together from Hill, some genres that he’s well known for exploring. A mix of darker Piano chords and punchier beats differentiate this track from some of his familiar 90’s and 00’s chilled out House offerings, and the more spacious parts of the vocals build to some longer harmonies and some sustained notes in the latter half of the track. While there aren’t any lyrics that specifically stick out to me, it seems like a variety of ideas are being conveyed through the balance of Urban and Nature that OSHUN evoked here. Overall, ‘Breathe In’ was a track which I enjoyed from the new album, which really strikes me as a good headphones-in-bed type of listening experience. While not as essential as other recent Warp Records efforts from the likes of Yves Tumor or Jockstrap, due to some of the melodies feeling as though they meander along a little bit, I still have a pretty positive perception of it. I like how it manages to not quite sound like any other track that I have heard from Evelyn to date, as the tribalistic drum loops and the psychedelic Soul feel manage to sound interesting. Whereas most of his tracks gives me a warm and comforting feel inside, this one feels more urgent in taking action, which is different to the way that most of his other singles make me feel. While there’s a general sense of positivity, it seems slightly more alarming. A great-sounding return.

Pictured: Nightmares On Wax (aka George Evelyn) performing at Wire (2016) (Photo by Justin Gardner)

That’s all for now and thank you for continuing to support the site. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is set for tomorrow, and we’ll be focusing our attention to an English rock band who got their big break in 2006 when their Platinum certified debut album won the ‘Indie Album Of The Year’ gong at the 2006 PLUG Awards and each member of the band have continued to work on their own solo side projects in more recent times. Whilst together, the London band have sold over three million albums worldwide as of 2012.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Patti Labelle – “Music Is My Way Of Life”

October 27, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘It’s Alright With Me’ (LP) (Released on March 2, 1979) (via Epic Records)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! As a diva that is responsible for selling over 50 million records worldwide, an actress who has appeared in productions like ‘Dancing With The Stars’ and ‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’, and an entrepreneur with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, as well as a lifestyle TV host for ‘Living It Up With Patti LaBelle’ and an inductee of the Apollo Theater Hall Of Fame, the question for Patti LaBelle is more clearly: What hasn’t she done? For her musical career, she started singing at church and later formed a vocal group, Patti LaBelle and The Bluebelles, which later became simply known as The LaBelles, and they scored a US #1 single with ‘Lady Marmalade’. As a solo artist, she set the R&B genre alight once again with ‘It’s Alright With Me’ in 1979, her third full-length LP, which she produced alongside the Grammy Award winning mixer Skip Scarborough, and the album enjoyed a sizable run of mainstream radio and chart success, reaching the #33 position of the US R&B charts. ‘Music Is My Way Of Life’, later to be remixed by electronic music producers like Joey Negro and John Luongo, soon became an ultimate R&B/Disco classic of the late 1970s. Follow her philosophy below.

One of the most interesting facts that I’ve read about the Pensylvania-born singer is that, in 2015, she released her own ‘Patti’s Sweet Potato Pie’ to the US supermarket shelves, and, due to a YouTube video praising the product shortly going viral, literally sold like hot cakes, as if they were, and shifted millions of units where, through the result of a 72-hour period, Walmart reportedly sold one pie every second. An 8-minute dance stomper, 1979’s ‘Music Is My Way Of Life’ came around when Disco was huge and hit a commercial peak, although LaBelle mixed things up a little by working with Scarborough, known for producing his romantic ballads, to create arrangements that were more sleak and intricately designed. ‘Music Is My Way Of Life’ isn’t a slow jam however, and it provides a lot of Disco grooves instead. Lyrics like “When I dance they look at me, That’s the one thing you can’t take from me/That’s the music that I feel in my soul” and “When the daylight comes and I’m leaving the dancefloor/By night time, I’ll be back for more” feel exuberant and triumphant, and it is filled up with feel-good instrumentation to boot. The Jazz elements shine through clearly, and there’s plenty of guitar licks that keep proceedings feeling upbeat and light-hearted. The vocal performance is strong, and LaBelle sings about how music shapes her identity and how dance music brings her together with loved ones with a convincing passion. The track is also filled with a floating Piano line of chords that add to the Jazz sound, and the Horn section creates another soulful groove. Overall, ‘Music Is My Way Of Life’ is a classic due to it’s traditional Jazz and Funk grooves, and it’s open-armed embrace of unity and Disco. If that is her philosophy – then It’s Alright With Me.

Pictured: Patti LaBelle at the BET Honors at Warner Theatre, Washington (2016) (Photo by Paras Griffin)

Thank you for checking out my latest throwback track post on the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow for a long-awaited debut appearance on the music blog from an emerging female-led Post Punk band from the Isle Of Wight who will be touring in locations such as Cambridge, Oxford, Guildford and Reading in the winter months. Signed to Chess Club Records – the home of artists like Sinead O’Brien and Phoebe Green – the 4-piece have been praised by UK newspapers like The Observer and The i.

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Today’s Track: Dawn Richard – “Nostalgia”

September 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Dawn Nostalgia in a ‘Second Line’ official press shoot (2021) (Photo by Alexander Le’Jo)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to, yet again, get writing up on the blog for another daily track on the blog, not forgetting that it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A multi-talented Disco producer, Louisiana’s Dawn Richard is a singer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and animator who shot to success when she auditioned for the US TV reality talent series ‘Making The Band 3’ in 2004 as a member of the US girl group Danity Kane, who were officially active from 2005 until 2009. Since that time, Richard joined the duo of Dirty Money with her fellow American singer-songwriter Kalenna Harper, and she began her solo career as DAWN in 2011, before releasing six full-length albums on her own merit. Her latest, ‘Second Line’, was released through Merge Records and Entertainment One to critical acclaim earlier in the year, and the title refers to the parade tradition of the same name that occurs in Richard’s hometown of New Orleans, with the new record exploring the African-American cultural heritage of the practice and fuses elements of R&B, Disco, Hip-Hop and Ambient Pop together as a tribute to, as Richard states in the LP’s product description, “A movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront”. The recent album also follows Richard’s alter ego as King Creole, an “assassin of archetypes, a Black girl from the South at a crossroads in her artistic career”. Sounds good! Her latest single, ‘Nostalgia’, has also seen tremendous support from BBC Radio 6 Music, KCRW and MPR’s The Current. Give it a listen below.

Regarding the album’s themes, Dawn Richard explained when her latest album was announced, “The definition of a Second Line in New Orleans is a celebration of someone’s homecoming. In death and in life, we celebrate the impact of a person’s legacy through dance and music”, adding to her press release, “I’m celebrating the death of old views in the industry. The death of boxes and limits. I’m celebrating the homecoming of the future. The homecoming to the new wave of artists. The emergence of all the King Creoles’ to come. This is our revival”, and so, on that note, it’s not tricky to see why forward-thinking radio stations like 6Music have pushed the track so heavily in recent months. A feel-good dance anthem for the modern society, ‘Nostalgia’ has a retro-revivalist sound that strikes me as Sophie Ellis Bextor goes experimental in terms of its creative direction, with Richard constantly asking rhetorical questions like “What does it mean to Second Line? To give the good footwork with the good work” atop a video game-like soundtrack that mixes twinkling Keys with chilled Lo-Fi House melodies. Later lyrics, like “I’m trying to find purpose/But I’m lost in your circus” are highly processed, and pulsates off the back of flickering bass lines that feel bouncy in texture, and uses spaced-out synths and ad-lib vocal sequences to put a more contemporary twist on the euphoric street dance traditions of the big, colourful parades of 80’s New Orleans. She also repeatedly asks the likes of “Do you love me anymore?” and “Can we work this out?” atop a robotic monotone ad-lib effect towards the end of the track, before declaring “I want those days back” in a stilted tone. The grooving synths and the rhythmic utters, however, thread different elements of Psych-Funk, Prog-Pop, House and R&B together in an effective way by mixing a slightly comical delivery with a nostalgic throwback feel that leans into Soul and engaging Synth-Pop. All in all, this is a well-developed dance track which feels eclectic and varied, and Richard nods to the past while pointing to the future in the way that she re-contextualizes the traditions that inspired the record.

Pictured: Dawn Richard in an official press shot for 21Ninety.com (2021) (Photo by @steviedphotos)

That’s all that I have time for today! Seriously… I have a shift at work coming up right after I’ve published this one. I’ll be back tomorrow, however, as we globe trot outside of my native UK again. My next pick comes from a Brazillian Alternative Folk singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who has enjoyed heavy support from KCRW in recent months. Netflix fans will know him for performing ‘Tuyo’, the theme track for the Netflix original TV series’ ‘Narcos’ and ‘Narcos: Mexico’.

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Today’s Track: Mykki Blanco (feat. Blood Orange) – “It’s Not My Choice”

September 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep’ (Mixtape) (Released on June 18th, 2021) (via Transgressive Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke and, as you’ve probably figured out already by this point, it is time for me to get typing up about yet another track for today’s post on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! An Alternative Hip-Hop and Psych-Soul rapper and solo singer-songwriter – as well as being an activist, poet and visual performance artist – Mykki Blanco has enjoyed a steady ride to fame, having worked with such lucrative mainstream mega stars like Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Blanco was first born in Orange County, California as the daughter of an IT specialist and a Paralegal at the North Carolina Patent and Trademark Office, before Blanco began hormone therapy for her transgender transition in 2019, having used different gender pronouns throughout their career to this point. They also published a manuscript of poems – ‘From The Silence Of Duchamp To The Noise Of Boys’ – in 2011. Having since contributed to works with Teyana Taylor, Blanco is now one of the leading figures in New York City’s LGBT popular culture scene. In June, they released a new mixtape, ‘Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep’ on the Transgressive Records label, the first of two short-form albums that Blanco is set to release this year and, technically, it marks their first proper studio music release since 2016’s ‘Mykki’. The new record sees them join forces with several guests like God Colony, Jamila Woods and Bruno Ribiero, and a physical release of the project is set to hit record shop shelves next month. ‘It’s Not My Choice’ finds Blanco working with the famous Soul mega producer Dev Hynes, who was previously a member of Test Icicles and he has since produced music with artists like Harry Styles, Blondie, Carly Rae Jepsen and Jazmine Sullivan, and he has released several critically acclaimed albums under the moniker of Blood Orange. He’s also directed the music video for this collaboration with Blanco. Give it a listen below.

“Creating with Dev Hynes [Blood Orange] as director of this video was as effortless as creating the song together”, Mykki Blanco said in a press statement, later explaining, “This video was carefree and captured what I feel to be some quintessential summer moments. Being with friends, being in nature, and having a sense of poise no matter your own personal thunderstorm” in their assessment of the collaboration’s process and influences. ‘It’s Not My Choice’ seems to find Blanco pondering the pro’s and con’s against deciding to end a relationship that has become dysfunctional. There are no sour regrets to this one, so to speak, but it finds them torn on whether to keep the romance afloat or to allow a natural change of heart to take precedence. These mournful lyrics are given a clean polish from Hynes’ production that, for my liking, has long taken cues from Prince and Janet Jackson in 80’s Synth-Pop flair. There is a soulful female vocal sample that adds radiant and long harmonies to the forlorn sounds, and Dev Hynes uses the strength of a catchy Piano beat and a smoky Trumpet backbeat to complement the Hip-Hop melodicism of Blanco’s lyrical delivery, as the two provide a tense and punchy soundtrack to the deliberation of a potential break up. The bassline feels understated and a little basic, but it’s given plenty of fresh energy from the explosive Synth pads, the ruminating Keys and the wistful Horn sections, while the more plaintive Percussion gives a more optimistic outlook to the emotional tug of war being evoked by the vocals, which Hynes also adds to with a crooning refrain towards the beginning of the tune, leading to a nice and apologetic vocal section that gives us some closure of the pre-built narrative when we reach the finale of the joint venture. Overall, this was pretty good. One of my minor gripes is how the album itself is only around the 30 minute mark in length, and so I think it could have done with two or three more tracks to flesh out the interesting ideas that Blanco has a little more thoroughly. Their sense of self-awareness mixed with the melodic production of the track is right on the cutting edge of rap-inspired Pop, however, and the contemporary twist gives fresh life to the 80’s influences. There is a bit of a niche here, and I would not say that I’m really the ‘target audience’ for this music, as such, but it does certainly feel like the right time to get some more diverse voices, that are worth hearing, into my ear plugs and Blanco is included in that for the good chemistry they exhibit with Hynes here. A crowd pleasing, infectious Pop record.

Pictured: Mykki Blanco performing at a fashion event (2020) (Photo by Getty Images/Edward Berthelot)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day, and so all that’s left for me to say is thank you for supporting the blog once again. I’ll be back tomorrow for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ as you would expect, and I’m going for a pick that feels more left-field this week, as we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Footwork movement that was developed in 2010’s Chicago. It’s tied in with the new release from a pioneer of the genre, who has released a series of well-reviewed records on Planet Mu Records. In his earlier times, he made mixtapes for the Bud Billiken Parade.

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