Plunderphonics

Way Back Wednesdays: The Beta Band – ‘Squares’

January 26, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Steve Mason (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Richard Greentree (Bass Guitar/Keyboard), John Maclean (DJ/Samples/Producer) and Robin Jones (Drums/Percussion) (Date n/a) (Photo via NME.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to take a break away from the new year of new music releases by revisiting a small sample of the seminal sounds of the past as we go ‘Way Back’ for Wednesday on yet another daily track on the blog, given that it is my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A late-1990’s and early 00’s Alternative Rock group who have been remembered as “The self-destructive pop saboteurs who did it all wrong in all the right ways” by James McMahon, a writer for NME, in 2018 – The Beta Band are the rare case of a band that were, perhaps, a little misunderstood by the contemporary critics of their heyday, and they have only really been seen as highly influential in more modern times. Known for their experimental blend of Folktronica, Trip Hop, Plunderphonics, Psychedelic Rock and Progressive Pop, The Beta Band were praised by Oasis and Radiohead, eventually opening up for their live shows in 2001 and went on to build a healthy cult status with audiences alike. In 2001, in a very strange coincidence, both The Beta Band and Sheffield-based indie pop duo I, Monster decided to add a vocoder and some beats to The Gunter Hallam’s Choir’s ‘Daydream’ to form their own sample-based tracks of ‘Squares’ and ‘Daydream In Blue’, respectively, and the tracks melodies seem similar enough at first glance as to listeners being confused between the two but, upon a further inspection, ‘Squares’ has a more edgy, nightmarish feel in comparison to I, Monster’s more commercially successful adaptation of the 60’s piece. It was taken from The Beta Band’s sophomore album – ‘Hot Shots II’ – which was included in the 2010 edition of the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’ and it also reached #13 on the UK Albums Chart and it was co-produced by Colin Emmanuel. Let’s revisit the music video below.

The Beta Band’s music was memorably featured in a scene of the 2000 Romantic Comedy/Drama hybrid movie ‘High Fidelity’ that was based on the Nick Horny-authored novel of the same title. In an iconic clip from the film, a record store owner portrayed by John Cusack states “I will now sell five copies of The Three EP’s by The Beta Band” and he dances around to a full minute or so of ‘Dry The Rain’, a scene that exposed the cult Scottish group to a wide range of new listeners, especially in the US and internationally, and so there’s a fun slice of trivia for you. Back to the task at hand, we start with the immediately familiar lyrics of “I’ve seen the demons, but they didn’t make a sound” and “They tried to reach me, but I lay upon the ground” that get repeated later on, with Steve Mason sounding positively forlorn as he murmurs about seeing darkness trying to control him. You get the sense right away that things are off, with a very glitched Hip-Hop beat meandering and playing with the pitch of the melodies by itself, and a traditional beat only forms barely until the iconic String loop of the sampled track bursts through. The iconic lyrics of “Daydream, I fell asleep beneath the flowers” and “I saw miles and miles of squares, where’s the feeling there?” are met with Faust-like towered Drum backing beats and a neat Kosmiche guitar solo in the final half, forming an ankle-deep Electronica groove that is disorienting textually, almost as if Mason is simply wending through a humid fog but he is neither cynical or clueless. ‘Squares’ by The Beta Band and, also, ‘Daydream In Blue’ by I-Monster have two nearly identical hooks, but while ‘Daydream In Blue’ came and went a little more after it’s initial impact on pop culture, this revision of the sampled track by The Beta Band feels remembered more often, and I think that it has stuck simply because of a better use of sampling. ‘Daydream In Blue’ was memorable for adding a vocoder and a beat-driven style to the track, but that was largely it. However, ‘Squares’ just has more depth to it when you read between the lines. It features the usual hallmarks of The Beta Band in terms of it’s Radiohead-like experimental rock approach, but it also feels more minimalist in it’s light blending of R&B, Hauntology and Hip-Hop elements that are small, but stand out. The darkly psychedelic sounds feel like they’re playing off what you’ve heard before to give it a more nightmarish context that comes with the alienated fear of an awful acid trip. The risk pays off, and we get a half-remembered track that feels strong for this effect.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Hot Shots II’ (LP) (Released on July 16th, 2001) (via Regal Recordings)

That’s all for today! Thank you for being the companion to my Doctor Who with our throwback post today, and I’ll be back tomorrow with some more music, of the fresh variety, that you’re hopefully going to enjoy. We’re looking at a recent single from the London-born DJ and Writer Chris Menist, who began the project of Awkward Corners when he was living in Islamabad. His releases have since spanned record labels like Boomkat, and early recordings were made with local artists from Thailand & Pakistan.

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Today’s Track: Public Service Broadcasting (feat. EERA) – “People, Let’s Dance”

June 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

Don’t adjust your TV sets – this isn’t British Broadcasting Corporation. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Bright Magic” (LP) (Available from September 24, 2021) (via Play It Again Sam)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s finally time again 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! The oddball London cult band of experimental Art-Rock archival samplers Public Service Broadcasting are back to follow-up on their standout BBC Proms 2019 performance of ‘The Race For Space’ with details of a new album. Having composed music about the Welsh coal mining industry and the White Star Line shipping company on their last two records, ‘Bright Magic’ is a depiction of Berlin as a European metropolis. The band’s J. Willgoose says their new LP record aims to capture the city’s essence, both figuratively and literally, with the use of an electromagnetic receiver on one track to record the pulses of street lamps and electrical cables. It releases on September 24th through Play it Again Sam. A UK tour has also been confirmed for the autumn, starting at Cardiff’s University Great Hall on October 24th and finishing at The Cambridge Corn Exchange on November 11th. Listen to the EERA-featured ‘People, Let’s Dance’ below.

J. Willgoose says that ‘Bright Magic’ is split into three acts of ‘Building A City’, ‘Building A Myth’ and ‘Bright Magic’, and the record even features guest vocals from Einstürzende Neubauten leader Blixa Bargeld on one track. According to J. Willgoose, “I knew the album was going to be about the city, and it’s history and it’s myths, and I was going to move there. So, it’s quite a personal story. It’s become an album about moving to Berlin to write an album about people who move to Berlin to write an album”, in his tongue-twister of a publicity statement. ‘People, Let’s Dance’, the lead single, is a dance-oriented electronic recording that veers it’s head in two directions. For the most part, it calls back fondly to the Motorik synth sounds of Kraftwerk and Visage from the past eras of metropolitan sci-fi music tech. For the second part, however, there are clear echoes to playful 80’s Synthpop and 90’s club anthems, particularly with the lead guitar riff that was sampled from Depeche Mode’s ‘People Are People’. It’s a rare instance for PSB to feature a guest vocalist, but the use of German vocals from Ninja Tune-signee EERA add a perceived sense of authenticity to the multicultural and European-inspired Electronica sound. It’s a surprisingly groovy and deliberately mechanical sound, with the weird absence of archival voice samples for PSB being replaced by more multi-layered instrumentation, where driving Drum melodies and evolving Keyboard patterns gradually adding new layers to the Bass-driven soundscape. EERA’s sections, a mix of Spoken Word lyrics and overlapped singing keep warping themselves around the 80’s guitar interventions and the glacial warmth of the vocals. I could bet you money that a car manufacturer will license the track for an advert in the near-future, and it sounds a lot like The Chemical Brothers in it’s sample work and the guest spot from EERA. It’s an evolution of sound for PSB that takes clear influence from other acts, and that had left me a little lukewarm about it initially. However, I do think that it’s more of a grower, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Five or six listens in, it gets clearer and clearer that PSB know exactly what they are doing. EERA eventually feels like another instrument in their orchestral style, and PSB have admittedly quietly been one of my favourite UK bands because, whatever the topic, they find something interesting to do in how they make their music. Overall, it’s a very effective warm-up for the new body of work that lies ahead.

  • Pictured: J. Willgoose Esq, Wrigglesworth & JF Abraham pictured for ‘Every Valley’ (2017) (via PR)

That’s all for today! Come and dance with me again tomorrow for a new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, as we take a listen back to the Pop-Punk of the past. It’s admittedly a rather obvious choice for this week, as we continue to find hits that we haven’t discussed yet. It comes from a very famous Rap-infused Alternative Rock band who have strayed down the path of Electronic Pop music in recent times. They always received heavy airplay from MTV in the late-90s and during the 2000’s, and, in 2014, Kerrang declared them as “The Biggest Rock Band In The World Right Now”. 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: Joey Pecoraro – “You Never Told Me That”

May 18, 2021 — Leave a comment

A humble fella making Music For Happiness and your Imagination. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Old Time Radio” (LP) (Available from May 21, 2021) (via Alpha Pup)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as you may have probably imagined by now, it’s time for me to get typing up for your track of the day on the blog, as per usual, since it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Aged 26, the Detroit-based independent electronica producer Joey Pecoraro studied Film at The University Of Michigan. That’s where he fell in love with the films and, evidently, the Radio plays of the 1930’s and the 1940’s, and he began to make his own music in his bedroom ever since 2014. His music takes on a Chillwave sound that also incorporates elements of Lo-Fi and Instrumental Hip-Hop music. He also loves to keep his own details very brief, simply describing himself as “Joey is a guy from Michigan who makes music for your emotions” for his biography on Spotify. His new album, ‘Old Time Radio’, follows up 2019’s ‘Deep In A Dream Of You’ EP and 2020’s ‘Sea Monster’ LP, and it releases this Friday via the Los Angeles-based indie label Alpha Pup Records. Check out his new single – ‘You Never Told Me That’ – below.

I first caught wind of Joey Pecoraro’s bedroom productions by hearing ‘Train, Cold, Snow’ on KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune podcast filled of daily samplers that you can download for free, and I’ve been keeping up with the new singles from his new album with keen ears since then. An interview from last year that I found suggests that he’s been listening to a lot of Buerno Pernadas and Westerman since the Lockdown era began last Spring, which have no doubt inspired the sonic direction for his latest body of work, which seemingly sees Pecoraro experimenting with samples from radio dramas he has either filtered or looped to make them sound vintage, or has used clips from authentic radio plays of a bygone era. Either way, it feels unusual and creative, and he certainly seems to be very unique for his age, especially. For ‘You Never Told Me That’, we freefall easily into what sounds like dialogue from a dated radio play scene of the 50’s or a deleted out-take from an old-time Christmas film like ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. It’s not exactly clear what is being said, but it just establishes the tone softly and sweetly. From there, the creative direction goes into a more Instrumental style because the intellectual delivery of the script gets swiftly replaced by the sounds of insects chirping happily, twinkling Keyboard melodies and Classical String sections that seem happy to lurk out of the centre. Wordless vocals are layered above the top with a harmonic progression, as the Synths of the track continue to pave their own way for an arrangement that feels lush, relaxed and soothing. It all feels virtuosic, with seemingly obscure samples that have been tinkered away at and merticulously layered to create an absorbing atmosphere that induces calm and invites for you to have a moment to think as it’s listener. Sure, it never really goes anywhere. However, it doesn’t need to. This one disregards typical traits of Pop and Rock music like catchy hooks or poly-rhythms for the most part, and instead, it dedicates a space to convey a mood and a feeling. It also reminds me of The Avalanches, and he said that he loves them while responding to a YouTube comment from a fan asking him about them in one of his recent single uploads. This music is totally right up my street. Love this one.

  • Pictured: Joey Pecoraro in a Magnetic Magazine press shoot (2020) (Photography by Diana Georgie)

That’s all, folks! Join me again for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow, where we will be revisiting an unlikely UK Top 20 chart success upon it’s re-release in 1984 produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley who have produced records for Madness and Elvis Costello back in the day. The artist was an English stand-up comedian, whose surrealist humor is in the vein of Monty Python or Billy Connolly, who was voted the 18th ‘Greatest Stand-Up Comic Of All-Time’ by the viewers of Channel 4’s ‘100 Greatest Stand Ups’ television one-off programme in 2007. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Way Back Wednesdays: Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”

January 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

As Booker T would have said around that time – Can you dig it, Sucka? New Post time!

  • Pictured: Ishmael Butler, Ladybug Mecca and Craig Irving (2005) (Photo Credit: LasVegasWeekly.com)

Good Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to – you guessed it! – get typing up your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day. Never mind the “Rebirth Of Slick” – it’s the “Birth of a New Era” here on the blog today – because this is my first entry in a brand new weekly feature. “Way Back Wednesdays” (…See what I did there?) is a new weekly entry where, each Wednesday, we take an in-depth look back at an influential cut or a rarity, that was released pre-2000. I feel this is just a decent way to get more broader, classic music thrown into the mix, to go along with all of my new release-based output that runs on the blog throughout a typical week. Digable Planets was the brainchild of Ishmael Butler, Craig Irving and “Ladybug Mecca” Marianna during the 1980’s and 90’s, a trio of Hip-Hop chic who you could label under the umbrella of “Boom Bap” Hip-Hop artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy and Nas, who were emerging in contemporary rap culture of the time. Interestingly, they never set out to be a “Jazz-Rap” group – they simply made use of Jazz-infused samples and using the resources that were available for them to use, being as creative as their composition practices would allow by experimenting with the tools at their disposal. “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” was their first single, and it became the lead single of their debut LP, “Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)”, released in 1993 via Pendulum. The track got to #15 in the US Billboard Hot 100 charts, and it was certified as Gold by the RIAA shortly after, with the sales figure of 500,000 units. Thanks to today’s tech – You can still check out the music video below.

Although the track was never intended to be a “Hit” – It still earned the group the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1994. Sadly, it seems that it was not really meant to last for Digable Planets. Their second album, “Blowout Comb” – released in 1994 – failed to match the success of their original LP effort, leaving the group to follow their own paths and begin their own seperate projects, although there have been a few notable reunions in the decades since. Nonetheless, “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” would have been an impossible development in Experimental Hip-Hop and Sample-Delia at the time, even if Ishmael Butler likes to now record his own left-field Funk music under the alias of “Shabazz Palaces” in these trying times. It was anchored from a sample of the 1979 track “Stretching” by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, whereby the trio interlace fragmented Trumpet breaks and smart, catchy Acid Synth rhythms. Butler raps about childhood and the political awareness of underground hip-hop records in the first verse, while Marianna raps about the feel of unity that it encourages in the second verse, and Irving jumps in with a verse on the expression of ethnicity through hip-hop culture at the end. The “Cool Like Dat” refrain changes to “Chill Like Dat” and “I’m Peace Like Dat” throughout the process, and the combined “We Jazz Like Dat/We Freak Like That” hook at the end sets a table for the trio’s lofty musical ambitions. The sound is confident and polished – with vintage Saxophone riffs and light-hearted dribbles of Acid Synths crafting a satisfying, mid-tempo Jazz-Aura aesthetic, which has been created uniquely through sampled materials. The “Boom Bap” production feels less aggressive on this release, in juxtaposition with their peers of the time. However, it creates an atmosphere of “Slickness” and “Cool” that makes it an enjoyable listen – due to a relaxing Lounge-Jazz vibe, and it still remains to be the chemistry of the three musicians that makes it work – and so it jostles happily through the spectrum of Hip-Hop self-aggrandization.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Time and Space)” (1993) (via Pendulum Records)

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my exciting, new post! As always – you can join me for more of the same tomorrow, where we’ll be taking an in-depth look at a more recent release that you may have missed throughout the last year. We’re going into Electronic/IDM territory tomorrow, with a single from a San Francisco-based producer who is often compared to the likes of Boards Of Canada and Ulrich Schnauss in the ways that he merges natural sounds with synth beats. You may also know him as ISO50 for his graphic design and photography work. 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: Bent – “Friends”

January 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

The Sample-Delia duo who see nothing wrong with bending the rules! New Post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Up In The Air” (Released on November 14th, 2020) (via Godlike & Electric)

Top ‘O’ The Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to fulfill my duties of typing up about your daily track on the blog, because it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! As we see out the last year and enter the new one, it’s nice to look back at some of 2020’s lower-key releases that you might have missed. Unfortunately, Bent’s “Friends” falls under that category, and I don’t mean it lightly – because this one has really grown on me. Bent are the Nottingham-based Sample-Delia duo of Neil Tolliday and Simon Mills, who released “Up In The Air” last November, which marks their first LP release in 14 years – since 2006’s “Intercept”. When I first discovered “Friends”, I sadly did not know very much about the duo, because when you type up “Bent friends” into a Google search, it obviously came up with some questionable results. However, I have now learned that Bent were pioneers of the Chillout music genre, and I have also learned they are very influential to Electronica, and gained critical praise from major publications like NME, The Quietus and Mixmag. Their music has frequently been used in advertising, and they would sell copies of their records in the hundreds of thousands. Collectively, Bent have also become known for their sense of humor, which displays quirky ‘crate-digging’ results on their concept albums, including 2000’s “Programmed To Love”, 2002’s “Everlasting Blink” and 2004’s “Ariels”, and they have remixed artists including Dolly Parton, Hall and Oates, Faithless, and Morcheeba. Let’s stream “Friends” below.

Bent was conceptualized through Neil and Simon’s dis-satisfaction with the state of the electronic dance music genre in 1997, and they felt it wasn’t meeting their expectations. Released in November, “Up In The Air” has a rural, countryside vibe to it – through the transformative sampling production and the incredible promo art – which depicts nature and farm animals. Like a fresh cider on a summer’s day, “Friends” proves to be a slightly more upbeat ending to the chilled, gentle sounds of the rest of the album. Created through a sample of a track that was recorded way back in the 1930’s, the Bent duo manage to put a tropical, breezy spin on the recording. The album was recorded remotely from Neil in his UK studio in Sherwood, and Simon created four of the LP’s tracks in his rural Ireland studio, and I think that the album’s themes of countryside and farm life manages to feel timely and profound, in a time where many of us are isolated. “Friends” feels joyous and cheerful, with an old-fashioned female vocal crooning: “Just friends, we’re not lovers no more/Just friends, not like before” and “To think of all that’s been/Not to love again, It’s like pretending, this is our beginning” over the top of a slowly moving, but comprehensively layered, sequence of gently sweeping String sections and the cinematic, vintage set of Disco instrumentation – with lightly reverberating Synths. Oh yes – and there’s plenty of Bongo drums as well. The chorus is lightly catchy, but it still manages to sound pretty relaxed, opening up the gap for a slightly downtempo, sadly emotive quality to the vocals – While the mid-tempo drum beats and the summer-inspired bass rumbles veer the track just a little into Space Disco territory. I read some negative reviews for the album on places like Album Of The Year, with some users calling it “Spa music” and felt the “Background music” feel of the album was disappointingly dull. At first, it didn’t really quite manage to grip me, because the album is certainly not going to be the most visceral or quick-paced record that you’ll hear all year around, but with the frequent set of re-listens, it’s managed to connect with me. It makes for some greatly thematic listening, and it has an ethos of taking obscure, vintage material – with the clever uses of sampling to extract some more transformative and absorbing moods. It might be that it’s because I’ve spent a lot of life growing up in The Fens myself, and so it has almost been like revisiting my own wilderness. In any case, I definitely feel that it’s worthy of your time and a fair chance.

  • Pictured: BENT (Simon Mills and Neil Tolliday) in a recent press shoot (2020) (Photo via IDMmag.com)

Thank you for checking back with me on the blog today! Tomorrow’s post will be an exciting one – because it’s the first entry of a BRAND NEW weekly feature – right here on the blog! I bet that suprised you, right? This is “Way Back Wednsedays” (See what I did there?) – the time of the week where we dig our music collection for something which made it’s mark before the date of the 2000’s. Our first entry comes from an Alternative Hip-Hop trio originally led by an Experimental Trip-Hop/Funk artist who is now known as “Shabazz Palaces”. 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: Jens Lekman – “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love”

December 22, 2020 — Leave a comment

Oh, You’re So Silent, Jens. Every Little Hair knows your name. It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Jens Lekman performing “A Postcard To Nina” live (in 2008) (Photo via Interface Sessions)

Good Morrow to you, I am Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up about today’s track of the day on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day. Jens Lekman, by far, is one of my favourite Songwriters of all time – and that is because the Swedish songcrafter is also one of the best pure storytellers. Bittersweet, witty and anecdotal – Lekman knows how to tug on your heartstrings with a simple strum of his Acoustic guitar, as much as he knows how to make you smile to a witty rhyme or a quirky bit of sample work. By now, Jens has truly cemented his place as one of the true “Jacob Classics” in my life, and he’s 9-times-out-of-10 the artist who I come running back to whenever I’m going through a difficult time. To be honest with you, I was desperate to see my sister and her fiance this year for Christmas, and given the news in the UK over the weekend that Covid has scrapped the country’s plans for this festive season, I was very cross with the government and I was very disappointed by the events. However – “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love” came to mind. I’m feeling a lot better now, by the way, and I felt this song was a particularly relevant one for the moment, because it’s a track that’s really about putting things into proportion, as you’ll soon see. “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love” was a single released from Jens’ second album, “I Know What Love Isn’t”, which came out to decent critical acclaim in 2012 – through the Secretly Canadian record label. Time for you to check it out below.

“I Know What Love Isn’t” was released five years after his debut LP record, “Night Falls Over Kortdela”, and to give a little bit of background explanation to the development of the follow-up, Lekman posted on his blog: “I believe in Love”, before adding, “I just get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I need to put it into proportion, it’s something that you have to do a lot, when you’re Jens Lekman”, to his description of this track. Yes, Jens is singing about a failed relationship here, but the focus isn’t about how everything ends, it’s on how, as Jens put it in another track from the record – “The World Moves On” – the world just shrugs it’s shoulders and keeps on going. Opening with a sombre Piano line and a swirling electronic sample beat – he settles into a folk-led bass guitar melody and a gradually evolving, sampled Horn melody. In the chorus, Jens croons: “A broken heart, is not the end of the world/’Cause the end of the world/Is bigger than love” over the top of a fluttering rhythm of softly sweeping String melodies and a jovial, upbeat acoustic guitar beat, with some pleasant vocal harmonies being thrown in for some emotive effect. The bridge is a highlight, where Jens lists how much bigger that life is than a relationship with trivialities such as: “And it’s bigger than the Stock market/and the loose change in your pocket” and “And it’s bigger than the Spider floating in your Cider” just to add a little more context to the message behind the vocals of the track, and detail how the latest heartbreak is quite meaningless compared to a literal collapse of the world. The songwriting feels quite emotionally rich and thematically mature, and it’s great to see how Jens has been able to see life past a broken love, and evolved as a person in the mechanics of the wider world. Although there’s nothing about this track that would strike you as particularly experimental, or culturally groundbreaking – It was, and still is, a very worthy addition to Jekman’s canon of weary-eyed and anecdotally driven musings of life and mindset, with melodies that are simply sumptuous and the lyrics are just flat-out nice. I think anybody can benefit from hearing a little bit more of Jens in their life.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “I Know What Love Isn’t” (Released on Sept. 4th, 2012) (via Secretly Canadian)

We previously looked at ““Kanske är Jag kär I Dig” from “Night Falls Over Kortedala”, right at the beginning of the time where I started out by writing this daily blog online. For more of Jens, you can still check it out here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/03/todays-track-jens-lekman-kanske-ar-jag-kar-i-dig/

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Night Falls Over Kortedala” (Released on Sept 5th, 2007) (via Secretly Canadian)

Thank you for checking out my new blog post! I’ve got more Christmas-themed music to show you tomorrow. This will be a track that’s brand new out for this year, and it’s all about spending Christmas in the hard time of the Covid-19 pandemic. It comes from an Indie Rock duo who once wrote a song about the Darts player Richie Burnett. 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: Rich Aucoin – “Dopamine”

September 16, 2020 — Leave a comment

You’d think that Rich has been cycling a marathon… Oh, wait! It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Rich Aucoin publicity shoot in the “Ephemeral” era (in 2014) (Photo via newconstellations.ca)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up about your daily track on the blog, because it’s routinely always my day-to-day pleasure to get typing up about a different piece of music every day! “Dopamine” is a seal of approval for Rich Aucoin, a Canadian Indie Rock singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rich Aucoin is probably best known for his frequent collaborations and guest work on Hyzologists, who are a highly prolific Canadian Instrumental Electronic Rock super-group founded by his older brother, Paul Aucoin. Personally, I know him best for his sublime 2012 LP, “We’re All Dying To Live”. of that I’ve grown to be very fond of over the years. He also has two more Experimental albums, 2014’s “Ephemeral” and 2019’s “Release”, in his portfolio too. “We’re All Dying To Live” was a largely high-concept record as it, lyrically and sonically, explored broad themes of finding optimism through death, and it included guest work from over 500 musicians in total, and was often likened to The Avalanches in it’s virtuosic, sample-based structure. His later work drew some comparisons to Arcade Fire, Daft Punk and The Flaming Lips. In a surprisingly quick turnaround for the intriguing producer, he’s back with another new album just a year removed from his previous. “United States” is set for release on Friday 18th September, via Haven Sounds. Aucoin wrote the album while observing at ground level, as he cycled across twelve states of the USA in a charity event in aid of Mental Health America, and he decided to write and produce a different track for each of these states, and he later decided to compile them together for his next full-length album project. Let’s take an in-depth look at his latest new track, “Dopamine”, below.

Along with being influenced by the photographer Robert Frank, who did a somewhat similar scrapbook of America premise on his literate project “The Americans”, Aucoin was also inspired by the Classic Mellotrons and Rhodes keyboards while recording the track with a voice cast of Kyla Carter, James Baley. Carleigh Aikins, Tarik Henry and Simone Denny at Old Confidence Lodge Studios at Riversport, Canada. Aucoin described to Paste Magazine, “I wrote this while riding each day alone across the country,” elaborating, “It was one that was started in Arizona, but took a while to decide on its lyrics. Riding for eight to 10 hours a day meant a lot of time to reflect which could be both happy and sad and always a returning to the present assured a renewed excitement to be alive.”, and it’s clear to see the very introspective mind-set and the sense of cultural perspective that went into the meticulous production efforts of the new track. “Dopamine” sounds calm and laid-back, with a dream-like quality being created by the curling synthesizers and the orchestral sections, as Aucoin reflects: “Every morning, I have this dream, where I am free from time” and “All of the things that have gone away and faded from my life” throughout the two key verses, over the top of a mostly upbeat and celebratory Drum kit beat and a honeyed, percussive riff from a Maraca section. For the chorus, the cluttering percussion beats swell into a String section, as a choir layers: “All there is right now is clear” and “All we have right now is here” on top of a glitched Synth rhythm and a patterned Viola bass melody that sits on the thorough-line. The melodies here are not particularly exciting, but they feel tonal and sumptuous. I also sense an element of Gospel from the use of a soulful backing choir. When you really concentrate on it, I don’t think it’s massively far off from the celebratory and theatrical style, if positive, emotions which Aucoin has explored on “We’re All Dying To Live” back in 2012. Overall, I think it’s more of the same, to be honest. However, depending on which angle you are coming at it from, this really isn’t a bad thing. A lot of effort has gone into the production values and the qualitative aesthetics. It’s become abundantly clear that Rich Aucoin loves to re-cycle.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “United States” (Available from September 18th, 2020) (via Haven Sounds)

Thank you for reading your latest daily post! As per usual, I’ll be back again tomorrow, for an in-depth look at the brand new single from another indie Canadian artist who are making their return to a full-length album project. This is a Synth-Punk band, in a similar veign to the NYC Synth-Rock sound of LCD Soundsystem, who found their breakthrough in 2013 when they won the Juno Award for Breakthrough Group Of The Year…errmm… that year! 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: The Avalanches (feat. Jamie XX, Neneh Cherry & CLYPSO) – “Wherever You Go”

July 23, 2020 — Leave a comment

E.T. – Phone home! You’re Hype-O-Ray has switched on again. It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Wherever You Go” (Double Single) (Released on July 22nd, 2020) (via Modular Recordings)

We’re continuing to build up to a new album of truly Astronomical proportions! Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’m typing up your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! If you’ve been following the blog since it’s inception last summer, you’ll be very easily aware that I’m a HUGE fan of The Avalanches, a Plunderphonics duo from Australia (A six-piece, at one point) who produced “Since I Left You”, a classic record made from loads of curated samples, which was released in early 2000. “Wildflower”, also an exceptional record in my book, followed up a bizzare 16 years later on. That brings us to 2020, where Robbie Chater and Tony Di Biasi have sporadically released new singles under the name throughout the year to build hype for an upcoming third record, which the duo finished mastering last month. It’s been a bumpy road, with the band debunking rumors of the new album at a few turns, despite us all knowing that it exists. It’s actually been since March that we’ve had a new single, “Running Red Lights” (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu), from the duo. However, it’s probable that the chaos of Covid-19 has bumped their schedule around. It makes sense, as the type of music the duo makes is highly reliant on exciting collaborations with other artists. “Wherever You Go” was released yesterday morning, along with a B-side entitled “Reflecting Light”. The former features big names Jamie XX and Neneh Cherry, with additional work from CLYPSO. The Avalanches’ description reads: “Why do we send music to the stars?” the band’s accompanying statement asks. “Is it because we want our voices to live forever?” and “How else should we become pure spirits, singing forever in the dark?”, with the band also hoping that the anthem will bring hope at the face of “the whole damn world incinerating”. Let’s have a listen to the track below.

To create their own sample-fueled Space odyssey, The Avalanches enlisted the assistance of Mick Jones, of The Clash, to play the piano part in the intro. Moreover, Chater & Di Biasi experimented with samples taken from 1997’s The Voyager Golden Record, a mix-tape used by NASA to contact aliens. This Extra-Terrestrial theme feels enigmatic, and adds deeper exploration to the cosmic ideas that Chater & Di Biasi explored on “We Will Always Love You” and “Running Red Lights”. The intro of the track begins with a man talking about what humans do here on Earth, before a diverse crescendo of synths, made to sound like broken transmissions, fizzles in to get the club melodies rolling. This contrasts the tense feeling of the intro’s atmosphere, before the intensity gradually explodes and layers of voice samples are added into the background. West African chants are next, leading to a heavy synth line and the introduction of Jamie XX’s section, as very dance-laden Acid strobes are pushed to the forefront. Later, Neneh Cherry recites: “So much badness, so much anger, too much war, it’s all so frightening”, ending with the refrain: “On the radio, we can love”, before an interval that harkens back to the soft, gentle piano melodies heard at the beginning of the track. It feels disjointed, deliberately, before we go back to the club-driven, drum-and-bass bulk of the track. At this point, The Avalanches’ production work is impressive, as to be expected, with flickering radio frequency effects and distorted repeats of the different layered sections of the track. The finale bursts with a joyous, meditative backing vocal, with Jamie XX adding: “You go, you go, too” and Neneh Cherry spitting bars: “1, 2, 3, 4, On the dancefloor, that’s where you get yours”, while Sydney-based Troptronica producer CLYPSO adds ethereal and hallucinatory backing vocals, along with tribal chants and subtle Bongo drum sections, to the ongoing track. It’s always a gutsy move to release a dance record at a time where clubs are banned, and it’s a shame that Covid has ruined what they were likely planning. However, I feel The Avalanches have really knocked it out of the park, with this one. The six-minute duration is long and extensive, but the track always feels interesting, thanks to the gradual arrangement of new layers being added throughout the track. Jamie XX adds a profound and psychedelic essence to the sample effects, and Neneh Cherry adds a Gorillaz-esque hip-hop undercurrent to the track, making it sound melodic and intriguing. CLYPSO fits suitably too, with his world-influenced instrumentation blending with the overarching feelings of meditation and space exploration. The production gives a blockbuster feel, with meticulously layered NASA samples that makes it feel fun, with hidden samples and effects that add detail to each corner of the track’s soundscape. There’s a touch of humour here too, with the amusing refrain: “The Whole damn world’s been incinerated” delivered enthusiastically by Cherry at the very end. Combined, all of the collaborations make it feel very psychedelic, groovy and inspired, although it gets to a point where you think: “How many people does it take to make one song”! It’s got more of a Club sound than we usually hear from them. The best of their recent bunch.

  • Pictured: Mural promoting the release of “We Will Always Love You” in Melbourne, Australia (2020) (via Stereogum)

As previously mentioned, I’ve been closely tracking the new releases from The Avalanches as we build to the upcoming third LP. Click here to read my thoughts on “Running Red Lights” (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu) here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/20/todays-track-the-avalanches-feat-rivers-cuomo-pink-siifu-running-red-lights/, and you can also read my review for the comeback single “We Will Always Love You” (feat. Blood Orange) here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/02/21/todays-track-the-avalanches-feat-blood-orange-we-will-always-love-you/

  • Pictured: Robbie Chater (Mixing/Production/Guitar) and Tony Di Biasi (Keyboard/Synths/Bass) (2020) (via press shot)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as promised, with a break from the new music releases to wind the clock back to 2005 for this week’s retro track. The single became a well-known Top 40 chart hit, in the mid-00’s, for an American rock band, formed in New York City, who split up in 2014. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime

Today’s Track: Bentley Rhythm Ace – “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out!”

June 19, 2020 — Leave a comment

If you got a problem with me – Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out! It’s time for a new post!

  • Pictured: Mike Stokes (Turntables/Keyboard/Producer) and Richard March (Bass/Engineering) performing a live set at a reunion show at the 02 Academy in Bournemouth (in December 2016) (Photo Credit: Charlie Raven Photography)

A 90’s dance classic to give you that Friday Feeling! Good Morning to you, my name is Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing about your daily track on the blog, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Bentley Rhythm Ace are an Electronic Dance duo formed in 1996 in Birmingham, consisting of engineer Richard Marsh and producer Mike Stokes. This name is, believed to have been, a reference to the Rhythm Ace line-up of analogue drum machines, which were manufactured by Ace Tone and distributed by Bentley Pianos. The duo built up an underground following, signed to Skint Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1997. The album received widespread critical acclaim and it spawned a few mainstream hits, particularly “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out”, which reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart. The duo switched to Parlophone for a follow-up album “For Your Ears Only” in 2000, but it was nowhere near as successful. Stokes and March disbanded shortly after, but they reunited the act in 2016, starting off with a few low-key shows, before headlining their own shows and playing at a lot of festivals across the UK circuit. The duo played a big role in the “British Big Beat” movement of the 1990’s, which is an era where club music became very popular, pioneered by famous dance artists like The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, Fat Boy Slim and Propellerheads. Let’s have a listen back to “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out” below!

A track which would bring back fond memories for fans of the 1990’s dance crossover mainstream era of “Big Beat”, “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out” is a showcase for the duo’s ability to re-purpose samples, to use instrumental splicing effects and digital sequencing pad FX technology to generate a new sound from an old record, although it does feel like a product of it’s time. It is a mostly ambient track, which March and Stokes revealed in an interview that it originally sprung up from a German album of Striptease Music by the Werner Muller Orchestra. The track begins with a glitched, spaced synth pad sequence created by a Roland JD-8000, a digital piece of old analogue synth software. The next section introduces a winding keyboard/synth riff which, quite literally, bloops along to the settled, mid-tempo groove established in the first third of the track. The final section consists of a light, psychedelic bass hook and a mild Strobe effect created by a Novation BassStation. The pacing is quite aired, with a female backing vocal which heavily breathes “I love you”, a sample which breaks up the three different parts of the track. It may come across as a bit too straight-forward for some, but there are some lovely and well-produced sampling effects in play. The duo seemed to be pulling in a lot of influences from the Sample-Delia and Plunderphonics genres. You will love this if you are a fan of The Avalanches.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Bentley Rhythm Ace” (Album) (Released on 12th May, 1997) (via Skint Records)

Thank you for reading this post! In regards to #BlackLivesMatter, we endorse the peaceful protests on One Track At A Time. Please go and check your local area for good charity causes that help those directly affected by racism and injustice. I’ll be back tomorrow for an in-depth review of the new track from a Brighton 4-piece “Indie” pop/rock band who are signed to Warner Group Records, have cited Weezer as their major influence and worked with U2 and Daughter’s producer, Joylon Thomas, for their self-titled debut LP released in 2017. 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: The Avalanches (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu) – “Running Red Lights”

March 20, 2020 — 1 Comment

What did the traffic light say to the car? Don’t look, I’m changing! It’s new post time…

  • Pictured: Robbie Chater (Mixing/Production/Guitar) and Tony Di Biasi (Keyboard/Synths/Bass) (2020) (via press shot)

Good morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and as always, I’m writing about your daily track on the blog, as it’s my day-to-day pleasure to do so! It has been a pretty miserable week for us all environmentally, but a nice array of light burst out of the tunnel during my week when The Avalanches, an Australian Plunderphonics now-duo, released a new single as they continue to tease a new album or a large scale project of-sorts. For regular readers of my blog – firstly, thank you so much for the support – but, most importantly, you know that it delights me to be a big fan of The Avalanches work, so I’m not going to bore you with the details again. In February, the sample-based duo released “We Will Always Love You” featuring Blood Orange, which felt like a decent little teaser for a much bigger album. This time – they’ve recruited the skills of Rivers Cuomo, the frontman of the well-known pop/punk band Weezer, with additional contributions from Pink Siifu, for “Running Red Lights”, the lead single for their rumored new album – which will be their first in four years! Let’s watch the music video – starring previous America’s Got Talent hopeful Erik Cavanaugh – below!

“Running, running red lights/red lights, red lights/I’ve been running red lights/to get to you” is a catchy vocal refrain which Cuomo chimes in with as The Avalanches address love and loss within the psych-pop driven sound of their new offering. It’s different to the light hip-hop sensibilities that we’ve heard on older Avalanches’ work, as a whimsical male hum and a glistening synth haze introduce us to a beat-driven, soulful pop ballad with a wistful, dream-like production style. Poetically, Cuomo recites: “I’m a thunder cloud/I’m ready to burst, like Schrodinger”, above a two-step drum punch, before later adding: “Hans is looking for Liesel/Living in Union Square”, as a myriad of voices chirp in the corners of the steady pop bassline.. as well as the left and right buds of your headphones! Pink Siifu brings the repetitous sweetness to a halt with: “The light of my life is going out tonight with a pink champagne Corvette/The light of my life is going out tonight without a flicker of regret”, before a pause, following: “Fly out to space/Listen to the music the stars are making”, before Cuomo adds a new hook: “California life is alright with me”, finishing it off with: “We are all we have” – the rumored title of the upcoming album. The track is undeniably pop-oriented, no doubt, and I’d even go as far to say that it’s more of a sample-based record than a totally Plunderphonics one. I wasn’t very keen on the track on my first listen, as I felt Cuomo’s delivery was a bit juvenile for my liking and the progression of the pop influences a lot more commercial than “Wildflower”, but I’ve quickly come to grow into the track… is it really that commercial? I appreciate the child-like qualities of Cuomo’s vocals and I feel the Pink Siifu sample in the second half of the track really picks up the momentum of the “togetherness” lyrical theme of the track, but the highlight is the sumptuous choral harmonies. This is the obvious choice for a single, due to it’s relative accessibility and it’s subtle way of conveying the themes of the new album across to new listeners. I don’t think it’s their strongest, but 2000’s “Since I Left You” isn’t the type of record that you can capture lightning in a bottle twice with, so it’s great to see The Avalanches heading in a different direction instead and I’ll always remember it’s release as a vibrant burst of excitement during a difficult time. The Avalanches have always been one of those “album” bands for me, with the singles sounding a bit less energetic outside of the context of listening to it as part of an album, so I can’t wait to enjoy the track even more when hearing it in a “full album” environment. It’s nice to have an album like this in a troublesome period such as this!

  • Pictured: Mural promoting the release of “We Will Always Love You” in Melbourne, Australia (2020) (via Stereogum)

You can also have a read of my thoughts on “We Will Always Love You”, featuring English R&B and electronic neo-soul producer Blood Orange, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/02/21/todays-track-the-avalanches-feat-blood-orange-we-will-always-love-you/

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for the “Running Red Lights” single release (2020) (Released by Modular Recordings)

Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as always – with my in-depth thoughts on the latest release from a Guildhall-based experimental pop do who are currently signed to Warp Records – an ambient techno label which was home to the likes of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher in the late 1990’s! 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/