Post-Disco

Scuzz Sundays: Hard Fi – ‘Hard To Beat’

April 17, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Stars Of CCTV’ (LP) (Released on July 4th, 2005) (via Necessary Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m wishing you a good Easter Sunday with my latest installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog, given how it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! To be 100% transparent, I barely thought about ‘Easter’ this year and since ‘Easter Music’ isn’t really a thing, and it is not inclusive for all cultures and relgions anyway, I thought that I’d simply cover a band who have been in the news lately this week. The band in question is Hard-Fi, who released three albums between the years of 2004 and 2011 which all did decent business, spawning well-remembered hit singles like ‘Cash Machine’ and ‘Living For The Weekend’ in the process, before going on hiatus in 2014. The band received one Mercury Prize and two BRIT Awards nominations for their work, as well as a #1 album in 2007 and a 2x platinum certification for the sales of their debut album. They also dipped their toes into podcasting with their series ‘Hard-Fi: Rockin’ The City’ that was widely available in 2007 and even got nominated for ‘Best Podcast’ at the Digital Music Awards that year. I think that ‘Hard To Beat’ must be their best-known single as it did the rounds on the soundtracks of ‘FIFA 06’ and ‘MLB 06: The Show’ shortly following release and it reached #9 on the UK Singles Chart as well as #34 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks Chart in the US too. If you’ve been following Hard Fi-related news lately – and you would be forgiven if you haven’t honestly due to them not being around for such a long time – they have been teasing a rare fifteenth anniversary show for ‘Stars Of CCTV’ with posters spotted on the London Underground that features a date pointing to a gig in mid-October. Just don’t shout ‘Hard-Fi’ if you see it next to your fellow passengers because they would probably take you for some kind of a mental lunatic. Let’s revisit ‘Hard To Beat’ below.

A series of social media posts relating to ‘Stars Of CCTV’ have been posted gradually by Hard-Fi elsewhere and they have not performed live together since 2014. In April 2020, Richard Archer – the frontman of the Staines-Upon-Thames formed indie rock outfit – told NME that Hard-Fi were considering a return to the stage to mark their unforgotten first album’s 15-year milestone, saying, “That album has defined people’s lives and when they were growing up. We’ll definitely do it at some point, but with new music too so we’re not just trading on past glories”, in an interview. ‘Hard To Beat’ takes obvious cues from Daft Punk’s ironically overplayed 2002 hit track ‘One More Time’ with filtered disco guitar sounds mixing with a more urban twist created by the lightly distorted Synths and Grunge-driven Bass melodies. Lyrics like “You in a short skirt/Shining eyes of deep brown/You had a dirty hook, you caught me on your hook” feel rhythmic and have a catchy twang to them, but the light darkness of the sexually aroused emotions consummates the rather evident marriage between the LCD Soundystem-influenced House genre explorations and the more “ladd-ish” feel of the ruthlessly driving mid-00’s lead guitar riffs. A hint of paranoia comes through, with lyrics like “I said come on, let’s dance/We’ve got to take our chance/You whispered in my ear/You wanna get out of here?” that talk about living in an environment like London, even though the band are much closer to Cornwall. Some obvious shots of Franz Ferdinand and The Clash are in here too, with the danceable Synths drawing out the vocals at the end and gruff Drum melodies riffing against the slightly more expansive electronic effects that create the Disco vibe most vibrantly. There is a light political commentary on surveillance and urban decay within their songwriting in the grander scheme of things beyond ‘Hard To Beat’ as a standalone single, but Archer doesn’t quite have the sharp-pointed vocal dexterity of Maximo Park’s Paul Smith or the socially observational abilities of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner – two comparable indie rock bands that also found fame in a similar timeframe – but there’s an admirable attempt to ground the material in a sense of place that isn’t just tied to London in here, nevertheless. The Disco vibe is damn infectious too, but the lyricism works better when they’re smoothly trying to pick up love interests instead of reciting pains of urban dilapidation. That said, the track is a fun and melodic single that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeves and it simply feels very catchy. It felt a little disposable for the time but, admittedly, it still gets a fair amount of airplay today. It has stood the test of time because it is so memorable and pretty dynamic, if nothing very special. It goes to show that sometimes a simple throwback is, well, hard to beat.

Pictured: Richard Archer (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar), Kai Stephens (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Steve Kemp (Drums/Backing Vocals) and Ross Phillips (Rhythm Guitar/Synths/Backing Vocals) (2006) (Photo via Getty Images)

Thank you for checking out my latest post because your support is absolutely valued every time, and I will be here kicking off the brand new week’s worth of music posts tomorrow with a review for a recent release by an Atlanta-based Hip-Hop duo who are also founding members of the Spillave Village collective. Their well-received second studio album, ‘Ghetto Gods’, was released in February via Dreamville Records.

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New Album Release Fridays: Kae Tempest (feat. Kevin Abstract) – ‘More Pressure’

April 8, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Line Is A Curve’ (LP) (Available from April 8th, 2022) (via Fiction Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to tune our ears to the more club-oriented gears of one of the modern day’s most progressive poets for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ 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! An album about letting go and falling instead of anxiety into surrender, ‘The Line Is A Curve’ has been shaping up to be absolutely ace. This is the newest album from Kae Tempest, a poet from Westminster who has become a prominent name on BBC Radio 6 Music’s playlist throughout the 2010’s. Tempest came out as non-binary in 2020, shedding their former name of “Kate Tempest” and embracing the pronouns of they/them. Since becoming active in 2012, Tempest has been nominated for the Mercury Prize twice and they were nominated for ‘Best Female Solo Artist’ at the BRIT Awards in 2018. Outside of their music, Tempest is also a Sunday Times best-selling author and they won the ‘Breakthrough Author’ award at the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards in 2017. ‘The Line Is A Curve’ looks to repeat the success of these projects, and the BRIT School alumni mastered the record at Abbey Road Studios. It was produced by Dan Carey, which will become fairly obvious to you in a moment, executive produced by Rick Rubin and mixed by Christian Wright. The LP features guest contributions from artists like Lianne La Havas, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, Confucius MC and more. The cover photograph was shot by Wolfgang Tillmans, who worked on Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’. Speaking about the collaborative process of the album in an interview for NME, Tempest says, “For me, this album is about increasing resilience and raising your threshold for tolerance and acceptance and it’s a very beautiful album, because so many people involved in making it are people that I’ve known and loved for a very long time”, and it is out today via Fiction Records. ‘More Pressure’ isn’t the latest pre-release single from the new record, but I chose to write about it because I feel it is a track that really showcases how Tempest can stretch that voice beyond traditional Spoken Word genre boundaries. It features a verse by Kevin Abstract – who you might also know from their music in Brockhampton. Give it a spin.

“Throughout the duration of my creative life, I have been hungry for the spotlight and desperately uncomfortable in it. For the last couple of records, I wanted to disappear completely from the album covers, the videos, the front-facing aspects of this industry”, Tempest tells Brooklyn Vegan, later elaborating, “But this time around, I understand it differently. I want people to feel welcomed into this record, by me, the person who made it, and I have to let go of some of my airier concerns. I feel more grounded in what I’m trying to do, who I am as an artist and as a person and what I have to offer”, about their decision to include an image of themselves on the LP’s cover artwork for the first time. This sense of progression and comfort is replicated by ‘More Pressure’, which is anchored by abstract lyrics like “More pressure, more release, your eyes, your cheeks, your features crease” that communicate ideas of taking the weight of the world away from your shoulders and believing in your own body for reassurance. Lyrics like “One step forwards, two steps backwards/One soul’s epiphany, another soul’s madness” hits you with a more virtuosic nature, as Tempest talks about reach and distance through reflection, resulting in a sense of unsullied intimacy that is delivered in Tempest’s emotive space between music and speech. Abstract, as the featured credit, adds more intimacy to the final verse and trends towards a Hip-Hop direction, as the Synth beats become more liberating behind here. Speaking of the instrumentation, it feels interesting in not being a far cry from Sinead O’Brien’s ‘Kid Stuff’, a cracking tune by the Irish Post-Punk poet, in the similar sense of how the Dance-Rock influences come together through the insulating Synth rhythms. Instead of reaching out as most club-driven music does, however, Tempest looks inward to gain cues for the lyrics and reflect on the weight and stress in a relatively personal way. It certainly feels like some of Kae’s most accessible work, but the almost Disco-tempo melodies and the spacious bass lines still make their vocals stand out amongst the typically mainstream variety of modern music. Ultimately, ‘More Pressure’ is a strong showing that pin-points how Tempest can stretch their voice in fascinating ways to meet their own needs with the more rhythmic structure of the track and the idiosyncratic Dance influences that are still of Tempest’s heavy and reflective mood in prior releases, but the flow is simply much groovier and so it really stands out whenever you hear it on the radio. It is a really euphoric release of tension.

Pictured: Kae Tempest performing ‘People’s Faces’ at Paste Studios, New York (2019) (Photo via Paste Magazine)

That brings us to the end of another daily post! Thank you for giving a moment out of your day to support the blog, and I will be back tomorrow to review some more new music from a recent favourite on the site. This Brighton-formed indie rock band were listed among the Top 40 New Artists of 2018 by The Guardian and their previous studio album – ‘Every Bad’ – was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2020. It also appeared on year-end best lists by Under The Radar, Stereogum, Paste and Pitchfork.

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Today’s Track: Röyksopp (feat. Alison Goldfrapp) – ‘Impossible’

March 22, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Röyksopp (Svein Berge & Torbjørn Brundtland) (DJ’s/Producers) (2022) (Photo via SynthpopFanatic.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to raise our spirits above from the depths of despair 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! Weaving between Progressive Synthpop, Acid Techno and Dark Ambient across the last two decades, the Norwegian electronic dance duo of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland have decided to tear up the rule book in retiring the traditional album release format with their upcoming sixth LP release – ‘Profound Mysteries’ – that hits store shelves on April 29th via Dog Triumph Records. To date, the duo – who were formed in Tromsø in 1998 – have been nominated for two Grammy Awards, won seven Spellemannprisen Awards, performed globally on tours, had four consecutive #1 albums in Norway, and collaborated with huge names like Robyn. Therefore, it’s somewhat strange that, aside from a vague familiarity with their name, they have largely slipped my radar in their time. However, I heard ‘Impossible’ on The Current’s Song Of The Day podcast and its deep, dark grooves were enough for me to keep listening on rather than just hitting the skip button like I sometimes do. ‘Impossible’ features the vocal abilities of Alison Goldfrapp, the lead singer of 00’s commercial euro-disco heavyweights Goldfrapp, and Röyksopp are pitching their imminent full-length new release as “an expanded creative universe and a prodigious conceptual project” in their press release. One of these projects is ‘The Conversation’, a recent short film uploaded to their YouTube channel last month that was directed by Danish filmmaker Martin De Thurah. To give you some more context about what they actually mean, the duo say, “As human beings, what we don’t know vastly overshadows what we do know. As teenagers, we would discuss our own fascination with the infinite and the impossible. The most profound mysteries of life”. Check out the lead single below.

It has been a long time since we’ve heard from the duo since their last LP release – 2014’s ‘The Inevitable End’ – launched almost eight years ago. Commenting on the collaboration for ‘Impossible’, guest vocalist Alison Goldfrapp says, “It’s been great working with the wonderful Svein and Torbjørn from Røyksopp. I’ve been a fan of their music for years and it was a fascinating joy creating ‘Impossible’ together. I truly hope everyone enjoys the track as there’s more to come”, in her press notes. Mimicking the visual of a glittery disco ball slowly fading to a liquid ink black in terms of sound, ‘Impossible’ starts off with a smooth set of Synths that recall a clear Disco influence before slowly growing into a barrage of assaulting textures as the bassline becomes more crunchy in style and the percussive Drum melodies contribute to the shimmering delivery. Goldfrapp’s lyrics feel hypnotic and alluring, with vague and enigmatic, in terms of mood, lyrics like “You’re the world ablaze/You’re the space between/Impossible/The perfect dream” and “I can touch the sky/Hear your lion heart/Feel the inside” that reveal little in the way of clear-cut details, but they carry a sensual yet not overtly sexual tone that floats above the more relentless pace of the instrumental parts to give the thumping concoction of downtempo electronica and progressive disco music an ethereal, polished feel. It builds to a neat closing stretch where the same lyrics are repeated amongst a more silk-like texture of electronic beats, where it feels like high-stakes tension has been relieved in favour of more operatic thrills. It sounds far from overly commercial, but it sounds melodic enough to feel like a natural selection for a single rather than purely an album track, and the vocals from Goldfrapp’s vocalist seem musically upbeat in the vein of their more well-known cuts in the mainstream while retaining an experimental, high-pitched finish. The production feels delicate overall, where a diversity of textures and genre ideas have been put together in a meticulous way that makes them feel coherent together when the sum of each part is added in unison. The spaced-out synths grow a little bit tiresome by the track’s end for me, but the pacing feels sublime and the chemistry between the two acts is excellent too, making the disillusioned grooves feel addictive while rewarding and challenging to keep listening to. Overall, although I feel that ‘Impossible’ is more of a “good track” than a “truly special” one due to it’s tendency to grow just a tad tedious by the end, it features an intriguing array of sounds that indicate subtle hints of different dance-related genres that are whipped together in a blender to conjure up a pretty well-textured smoothie. One for a long night ride home.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Profound Mysteries’ (LP) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Dog Triumph Records)

That brings us to the end of a fairly cryptic new post on the blog today, and I’ll be taking a break from my recent recommendations tomorrow as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’. Thank you for supporting me today, and please feel free to join me again then for a look back at an early 00’s UK Hip-Hop classic by a British rapper and producer who has produced numerous singles and albums for the Big Dada label since 1994. His track in question was memorable for it’s intentionally similar melody to the ‘Doctor Who’ TV theme track and it reached the top spot of the UK Dance chart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Today’s Track: The Halluci Nation (feat. Chippewa Travellers) – ‘It’s Over’

January 6, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Tim Hill (Producer/Engineering) and Ehren Thomas (Mixing/Percussion) (2020) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! You are tuned into the text of Jacob Braybrooke, as we ready ourselves for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Music you may have missed from last year headlines the page today, and it comes your way from an Ottawa-based Canadian experimental electronic dance music duo known for blending Ethnotronica, Moombahton, Reggae and the ‘Brostep’ term of post 2000’s Dubstep with elements of First Nations music, particularly known for their vocal chanting and high-speed drumming – and their name is The Halluci Nation. It wasn’t always that way, however, as the band used to be titled A Tribe Called RED, a homage to the legendary Hip-Hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Last year, however, they decided to scrap their old alias in light of “as we move into this next phase of our evolution, we also find it necessary to remember our past”, in their own words. Now a duo comprised of Tim Hill and Ethren Thomas, their name is a phrase borrowed from activist/artist John Trundell to “describe the vast global community of people who remember at their core what it means to be human”, in Trundell’s quote. The group describe their own style of music as a “Stadium Pow-Wow” sound, which is a style of contemporary club music for urban First Nations (A society of Canadian indigenous people who are classified distinctly from the Metis and Inuit groups). My first experience with The Halluci Nation was hearing their stellar third album, ‘We Are The Halluci Nation’, released in 2016. The follow-up, ‘One More Saturday Night’, was self-released last July, which finds the duo collaborating with the likes of Black Bear, The Beat and Northern Voice – some of which they have frequently recorded material with before. The band’s latest album pays tribute to the Electric Pow-Wow gatherings at Ontario’s Babylon nightclub the group ran between 2007 and 2017. Hear more about their change of identity below and skip to 1:05 to hear the new track ‘It’s Over’ below.

“We wanted to pay homage to the Electric Pow Wow and wrap that whole decade of the experience up and close the cycle, and in doing so give direct co-ordinates of where the future was headed. In a nutshell, that’s what this album is about”, says co-founder Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas in a press release, explaining, “We just wanted to make a party record, as well, one that people could dance to while still having the strong message we are known for”, about the planning and recording behind the record. Going for a more psychedelic take on their older material, Hill and Thomas combine stretched samples of vocal chants performed by Chippewa Travellers with EDM-inflicted Dubstep to explore the memories of the club nights that brought their Canadian community of indigenous people together back in the 2000’s, but the ferocious pace of the brisk Drums also imply a regret concerning the abrupt disbandment of the Babylon nightclub’s scenes. Some fragmented Synth effects are sprinkled throughout the song that evokes the vibrant nostalgia and anti-colonialism surrounding the club nights. Meanwhile, the driving melodies of the instrumentation are there to remind you that it is a positive dance record, as their signature style of moulding Septia-toned vocals from Chippewa Travellers together with visceral drum and bass melodies that set things into motion with a commanding Bassline, while the trickling Trap snares and the some declarative EDM drums that gradually incorporate reverb-drenched Dub and righteous vocal chants into the equation. ‘It’s Over’ suffers from repetition a little, but it does a fantastic job of spreading the message that forms the emotive core of the album that breathes new life into a memory or dream that settler colonialism and its extractive violence have attempted to erase, and ‘It’s Over’ provides a club-heavy but contemplative moment that gives the affirmations and goals of The Halluci Nation a reasonable amount of space to take root, as the band continue to cement themselves as one that needs to exist to serve the social purpose.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘One More Saturday Night’ (Released on July 30th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

I have previously shined a small spotlight on The Halluci Nation before their rebranding, with a detailed post about another track that aims to get more indigenous people represented in the media. Find out more about ‘The OG’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/13/todays-track-a-tribe-called-red-feat-black-bear-the-og/

Pictured: The Halluci Nation performing at the Lost Lake Festival (2017) (Photo Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

That’s everything I’ve got lined up for you today! I’m still working on my year-end Albums list of 2021 and it is coming soon. In the meantime, thanks for checking out my latest post, and I’ll be back tomorrow to get you re-acquainted with a Grammy-nominated Texas-born Jazz artist and a Houston trio who host the ‘AirKhruang’ radio show on Facebook Live and NTS Radio. They will be releasing a direct sequel to their earlier collaborative EP ‘Texas Sun’ on 18th February through the Dead Oceans label.

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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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