Today’s Track: Nia Archives – ’18 & Over’

January 17, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ’18 & Over’ (Single) (Released on November 25th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned into the text of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to dive headfirst into a new week of January with yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 21-year-old musician who was born in Leeds and raised in Manchester, Nia Archives is a London-based singer-songwriter, producer and visual artist who you may remember from the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP that she released last April that we discussed a few times on the blog. Nia Archives is an exciting new artist who fuses a range of Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Drill and Techno, House and Jungle elements into her melting pot of sounds. She is also the founder of the ‘HIJINX’ label, which is also the name of her visual archive of short DIY-style film documentaries which was a side project that she started before producing any music. Her influences includes names like Burial, J Dilla and Roots Manuva. She has recently released the follow-up track to her ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ single that she released last October with a heavier-than-usual dance recording that she implores us, lyrically, was designed for ’18 and Over’. She digs into her Carribean heritage for her new single that samples one of her favourite classic Reggae cuts – ‘Young Lover’ by Cocoa Tea from 1987. The Taliable-directed music video pays homage to London’s sound-system culture and references ‘Yardie’ films like ‘The Harder They Come’ and ‘Babylon’ from the 60’s and 70’s. She comments, “For the ’18 and Over’ video, I knew that the visuals had to be iconic as the song is an absolute banger. Working with Taliable who was the director and editor was super fun, I feel we creatively gelled really well to create this vibrant piece”, in her press statement. Let’s check it out if you are ’18 and Over’ below.

Nia continues, “The actual video was shot in my warehouse yard, I thought it would be sick to use that space as no one has ever shot a music video there – meaning it is unique to me. We kept things even more local by asking Hackney native Mark Solution if he could set up his wicked ‘Solution Soundsystem’ – it was an honour to feature it in my video”, adding, “There are also some references to the original record that I sampled for viewers to spot”, in her press notes. Starting off with chirping bird sounds that remind me of the sweetness of Aphex Twin’s ‘Syro’ from 2014 in the classic Jungle template, paired up to a steady breakbeat instrumental, Nia develops the soundscape further with a driving bass line and some twinkling Synths as she layers her vocals above the main hook of the focused sample of “Now, this one was designed for 18 and over” with a psychedelic Neo-Soul backing as the breakbeats get continually more fragmented throughout the progress of adding her own lyrics. The glistening synths soon augment into a booming bass beat that feels like a nuanced representation of Dub-rooted texture that she playfully gives a UK drum & bass twist as the ethereal mix warps into a Jungle aesthetic, eventually leaving behind a central emphasis on the early 90’s rave melodies that give us a spellbinding symphony of breakbeats, as the lyrics promise to give us. While the ‘Headz Gone West’ EP leaned into her anxieties on entering a relationship and overthinking her intimate emotions, ’18 & Over’ is a purer exploration of the Post-Garage and Jungle-driven feel that has always existed within her sound. It all feels very exciting and gripping as a result, creating very surprising shifts in production and fusing her early sound with a flipside of some traditional Reggae to pay homage to her Jamaican heritage and the country’s creative output. A heavy and engrossing evolution of her artistry that is unique to her.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Headz Gone West’ (EP) (Released on April 29th, 2021) (via HIJINXX)

If you also think that Nia Archives is one of the most engaging new artists to follow in 2022, check out my previous post about ‘Headz Gone West’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/05/03/todays-track-nia-archives-headz-gone-west/

Pictured: Nia Archives in a still from the ‘Headz Gone West’ music video (2021) (Photo by Delphino Productions)

That brings us to a pretty thrilling end to today’s track on the blog. Many blessings for showing your support and I’ll be back tomorrow as we continue to hear some of the most important voices in the industry with the next post that arrives tomorrow. It will come your way by a Harlem-based poet, teacher and founding member of the Spoken Word band The Last Poets, who were widely considered to be the first Hip-Hop group.

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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: Wayward – “Camden Road”

October 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Lawrence Gayle Hayes (Drums/Synths) & Louis Greenwood (Sampling/DJ) (2021) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Wayward is the fast-emerging Experimental Electronic music project of the London-based duo Lawrence Gayle Hayes and Louis Greenwood, who have gained acclaim from Pitchfork, Mixmag and Vice. They have worked as A&R’s for Silver Bear Recordings, and released material through the Australia-based Beasts Of No Nation label and Fort Romeau’s Cin Cin Records label, and they have been in the studio with the likes of Ninja Tune’s Park Hye Jin and Grammy-winning producer Skrillex. In March, the pair of producers released their debut LP, ‘Waiting For The World’, which was influenced by Burial’s ‘Untrue’ and they combined Drum & Bass, House, Breakbeat and Ambient elements into a concise record. Their latest release is ‘Sapphire Eyes’, a four track EP which was self-released on September 29th. It was inspired by the rave experiences they had while growing up in London – an ode to nightclubs and community. Let’s spin ‘Camden Road’ below.

Citing influences like Addison Grove, Machine Drum and Overmono for their latest short form release, the duo shared on their own Bandcamp page in a press statement, “If our debut album showcased the more reflective side of our yearning for clubs, and a softer side of the lockdown experience, this EP is the anger, frustration and urgency coming out”, concluding, “Stuck indoors again just wanting to band it out in a club with the intention of making something completely focused on the dance floor” in the notice. Their fourth track on the record, ‘Camden Road’ sticks out amongst the others for the emotive feelings which it shares, coming across to me as more nostalgic than euphoric. It boasts a similar sound to some early 00’s Hyperdub recordings and more recent Footwork releases, where the Synths and the propulsive basslines feel as vibrant as the mixed multi-cultural community that their hometown, which they are paying tribute to, has become known for in recent developments. Their vocals play with escapism, with Lawrence reciting the likes of “So much life, so much fun” and “Festivals in Hungary with black people” with a slightly muted Spoken Word delivery that doesn’t feel massively poetic, and feels grounded in approach instead, with a soft Hip-Hop rhythm and a mumbled tone of speech which fits the wonky production aspects and the very metropolitan aesthetics of London. The rest of the instrumentation goes down a treat too, with a looped Piano melody and light Synth pads creating a gentle opening, before Wayward flip the switch for the big chorus where they replace the light-hearted beats with a more rugged dance style, using some swooping drums and syncopated vocal chops to hit a BPM of around 130, which feels subversive and unpredictable when the earlier melodies are flipped on their head. Overall, I was very impressed with ‘Camden Road’, a modern dance track that has an ability of conjuring up some feelings and visuals for their listeners, a rare technique that greats like Aphex Twin and Burial have achieved in their career. It feels as fresh and lively as the street it is based on – A sprawling, multi-cultural metropolis.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Sapphire Eyes’ (EP) (Released on September 29th, 2021) (via Self-Released)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for joining me, and I’ll be back tomorrow for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we take an in-depth look at the soon to be released new LP from a US female Funk, Soul and Alternative R&B singer-songwriter who performed a medley of her hits on an episode of major US talk show ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ earlier this year. She completed her studies at USC Thornton School of Music in 2018, and she was also a contestant on ‘American Idol’ in 2014. Her latest album is named after her dog – Juno.

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Today’s Track: DJ Seinfeld (feat. Stella Explorer) – “She Loves Me”

September 27, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: DJ Seinfeld in an official photoshoot for the ‘Galaxy’ EP (2019) (Photo via TicketArena.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as you’ve probably figured out by now, it is time for me to get typing up for another daily track on the blog, since its always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! DJ Seinfeld is the alias of the Swedish House music producer Armand Jakobsson, who now finds himself being based in Germany after rising to prominence a few years ago as a key part of the new wave of Lo-Fi electronic music producers alongside names like Saint Pepsi and Ross From Friends around the time of 2016. He’s been known for releasing his electronic dance material under names like Birds Of Sweden and Rimbaudian, and he is the founder of the Young Ethics indie label. Jakobsson has since played DJ sets on the stages of The Warehouse Project and Sonar By Night, he has curated one of BBC Radio 1’s ‘Essential Mix’ sets, and, to top it all off, none other than the legendary tinkerer Aphex Twin has been known to play Jakobsson’s track ‘Sakura’ in one or two of his live DJ sets. The latest release from Jakobsson is ‘Mirrors’, his first solo album in four years following his 2017 debut, ‘Time Spent Away From U’, which is out now on Ninja Tune. It’s an expansion of the style that he explored on 2019’s ‘Galaxy’ EP and 2020’s ‘Mezcalita’ EP, with the ten-track project being recorded between Berlim and Malmo, and leaning into the realms of Ambient Electronica and late-90’s Dubstep for inspiration. The album is titled ‘Mirrors’ as a reference to how the producer views a reflection of himself in the mirror and how the throes of a nasty breakup in recent times has changed these internal perceptions. He tells us in a press release, “On this album, I wanted to retain a lot of the raw emotionality that brought people to my music in the first place, but I also wanted to become a much better producer. It’s been an arduous process but it’s a real statement of where I’m at as a producer and person right now”. The new LP includes a stunning opening track, ‘She Loves Me, which finds the experimental creative working with the emerging South African-Swedish vocalist Stella Explorer. Check it out below.

Speaking of the collaboration, Stella Explorer said in a press statement, “The fine line between self-affirmation and paranoia is alluring to me, and in music it’s always present. It’s deceptive, and lyrics can change meaning at any time”, before expanding on the duality that she feels in ‘She Loves Me’ by writing, “I think the fewer words you use, the more they shift and by combining that with different intentions like you do when you collaborate with someone (like this), it makes the outcome exciting” for her press notes. For me, as a listener, ‘She Loves Me’ highly reminds me of Burial – not necessarily in the sound itself, but the way that Seinfeld selects a very small snippet of an emotive vocal and twists the context and textures of the piece, and he has a way of saying a lot without really saying anything at all, which is similar to the techniques that Hyperdub legend Burial built his career on using as his niche. ‘She Loves Me’ are the first words that can be heard on the new album, and it sets the stage going forward by exploring diverse, new avenues of his production style. The vocals feel confused and drowsy, with lyrics like “With you, so much time/Still pieces of my mind” and “She loves me/Why does she?” morphing their way around skittering Trap beats and sparkling Synth textures that evoke a little bit of Seinfeld’s Garage roots, but they largely feel focused on a bittersweet melancholy. Lyrics like “She loves me/Yes she does” float seemlessly above a meticulous amount of saturated tape effects that evoke feelings of lost nostalgia, and the more euphoric combination of gentle lo-fi synths and very thick basslines mix the nice energy that runs underneath with an inescapable feeling of change, and a tightrope between longing and reminiscence. Overall, this track was a real suprise, and I find myself to be absolutely loving it whenever I hear it. I wasn’t quite as keen on some of Seinfeld’s other material with the more Big Beat-based Garage sounds, but I love how Seinfeld plays with the meaning of vocals on this track, and the contributing vocals from Stella Explorer adds some even more delightfully clunky emotion to the formation. This one is a real treat.

Pictured: DJ Seinfeld producing an ‘After Party Playlist’ mix for BBC Radio 1 (2018) (via BBC.com)

If you loved what you just heard, you may be pleased to know that some other DJ Seinfeld-related content has been posted on the blog before. Check out what I thought of ‘Electrician’, a single previously released from the ‘Galaxy’ EP here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/28/todays-track-dj-seinfeld-electrician/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Mirrors’ (LP) (Released on September 3rd, 2021) (via Ninja Tune)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest blog post, and I’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same shtick. My next pick comes from one half of one of my favourite rap duo’s in quite a long time, who have released great projects together via Mello Music Group. You may have caught them at Sound City in Ipswich last weekend.

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Today’s Track: Rachel Lime – “Voyager 3”

June 17, 2021 — Leave a comment

Hello – from the children of the planet Earth. Time to get intergalactic for a new post!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “A.U.” (LP) (Released on June 11th, 2021) (via Inside Voices)

Greetings and good evening to you, it’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as per usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We are going cosmic today – with ‘Voyager 3’ from the fresh new Minnesota-based singer-songwriter Rachel Lime, who makes sample-enhanced music in the wheelhouse of Alternative Pop, Chamber-Pop and Electronic Rock, and her PR’s artist biography on Bandcamp and Spotify simply reads as “Music in search of other worlds”. She released her debut solo album, ‘A.U.’, last week through Inside Voices, the new label managed by the Big Bld founder and High Pulp drummer Rob Granfett. It follows a span of her career where she has dropped music on her Soundcloud account quietly for the last decade or so, and her own musical journey began when she decided to learn how to play the Piano at the age of 7. The influences for the record go beyond music, with Lime noting the work of astronomer and author Carl Sagan, especially on his 1985 novel ‘Contact’, as her inspirations. Like The Avalanches have explored on their latest material, Lime also looked to NASA’s Golden Voyager record for her theme, a record put into space in the hopes of extraterrestrial life learning about humanity by unveiling it. Let’s check out Alan De Lean-Taverna’s music video for ‘Voyager 3’ below.

“I wrote this song inspired by the tradition of space disco, and the Voyager golden record, sent into space with Voyager 1 and 2 by NASA”, Rachel Lime told Jasmine Albertson in a recent interview with KEXP, adding, “This interstellar message in a bottle has always really moved me. This idea of humanity trying desperately to communicate itself to Someone Out There, to attempt to connect, to prove that we have created beautiful things”, when expanding on the driving forces behind her process of writing the tune and co-producing the storyboards for the music video. It opens with the iconic sample from the Golden Voyager record, and the greeting of ‘Annyeonghaseyo’ in Korean where Lime has her heritage. A soulful keyboard riff that feels woozy and off-key sets the scene, as lyrics like “I sing a song in a bottle, I give it to the interstellar waves” and “The future’s nice/In the starlight” permeate through the synth-led beats with disorienting vocal effects. The vocals feel almost sensual and flirtatious, or alien and unusual, with interludes which see Congo drums and guitar instrumentals fill the space. The production feels merticulous and tinkered away at, with a slower bridge that finds Lime wishing, “We want to make contact/We gave you a code to break” as the rhythm slowly builds it’s way back to the retro-futurist Keys and the virtuosic Drums that scatter along the undeniably 80’s bassline. It feels paced similarly to a dance track, with different instruments and effects that have their turns, and are each built to gradually. This works really nicely because it gives the total aesthetic a quirky edge, and this makes Lime feel memorable amongst her peers. I’m certain that an alien would love a jive in the kitchen to this. If they ever find it. That is.

Pictured: Rachel Lime in the music video for “Voyager 3” (in 2021) (Photo by Alan De Leon Taverna)

That’s it for today’s trip! Don’t forget to join me again tomorrow where, as it’s Friday, we’ll be looking at one of the most notable new album releases of the weekend. We’ll be giving the opportunity to a 20-year-old singer-songwriter making her own Art-Pop music from the suburb of Little Ferry, New Jersey. Born to a Mexican father and a Dominican mother, her new album is based on her love for 80’s-era Michael Jackson. 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: Elkka – “Burnt Orange”

May 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

Let’s get to the sweetened Pulp of our favourite Welsh Femme Fatale. New post time!

Pictured: Elkka showing off her pandemic studio set-up (2021) (Photo via TheVinylFactory.com)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, just like usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! ‘Burnt Orange’ has been B-listed on BBC Radio 6 Music, and it comes from Elkka – real name Emma Kirby – a DJ and electronic music producer from Cardiff, who is now based in London. Kirby originally grew up wanting to be a pop star, but she found her true calling in 2016, when she founded the Femme Culture with DJ Saint Ludo. Her label’s successes include Octo Octa and Lone, and it has expanded past club nights and fundraising compilations since winning the ‘Breakthrough Label’ nod at DJ Mag’s ‘Best Of British’ Awards in 2018. Her debut solo LP, ‘Every Body is Welcome’, was another success for her, in 2019, with more established names like Caribou, George FitzGerald and Floating Points sharing her music on their pages, and earning features on Crack and Mixmag. ‘Euphoric Melodies’ is her new EP, and it was released over the past weekend via Technicolour Records – an imprint of Ninja Tune. Check out ‘Burnt Orange’ below.

Elkka’s new five-track release is pitched as “Euphoric Melodies started out as an exploration of what pulls me in, what makes me feel those moments of elation when writing music or listening to it or just when living life”, according to her press notes on the new Extended Play. She adds, “The underlying theme seems to be warmth, euphoria and nostalgia… which is what plays out in this EP in different forms. Little did I know that, as the EP came together, nostalgia for euphoria would be so prevalent” to her address. A multi-faceted production, ‘Burnt Orange’ manages to vividly evoke the Acid Techno of 90’s Warp releases and the Funk/Soul fusion of the late-1970’s with charming flair. Starting off with bouncing Drum sequences and wide reverb to give the bass a danceable repetition, the melodies slowly evolve from a cinematic and quietly String-enhanced scope to a more playful and pop-friendly club atmosphere. A whirling, virtuosic Synth sequence paves the way for an entrancing bassline with bright, hypnotic Drum scatterings. It all feels percussive, before a seemingly wordless vocal riff from Elkka enters the fray. It’s almost like she has spontaneously began to mutter along to her own track during it’s post-production stages. It has an improvisational vibe, with a rhythmic stutter that evokes 00’s Garage tunes. The chorus of-sorts features a vocal breakdown that feels very much like a Jazz Scat, as the light humming and the dance-led textures all come together for the third act to convey optimism and happiness. It feels like a tune, overall, that 90’s film character Austin Powers would only describe as “Groovy Baby”. There’s a delicacy to the production that gives it a reflexive quality where it feels we’re breaking the fourth wall between artist and audience a little bit. It’s very enjoyable, overall, with a fairly distinctive style that creates a vibrant fantasy of a warm, night summer rooftop party.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Euphoric Melodies” (EP) (Released on May 21, 2021) (via Technicolour Records)

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ as we mark the release of Moby’s ‘Reprise’ album on May 28th, this weekend, – a new project of re-imagined orchestral and acoustic versions of the most popular recordings over the course of his career – with a throwback to his highest-charting single in the UK from 1999. It got to the #5 spot in the UK Singles Chart, and every single track from it’s respective album was eventually licensed for use in a film, TV or commercial production of some form. 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: CHAI – “Action”

May 22, 2021 — Leave a comment

Stirred in a milky heritage, “Chai” is actually the Hindu word for “Tea”. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “WINK” (LP) (Released on May 21st, 2021) (via Sub-Pop Records)

Good Morning! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for you to read all about your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! I played this one on my Thursday night radio show two weeks ago, and I still can’t get enough of it. ‘Action’ is one of the singles that was taken from CHAI’s new album, ‘Wink’, which is brand new out this weekend. The girls are a 4-piece Alternative Pop or Disco-Punk (It’s hard to pin them down to any one label, really) band from Nagoya, Japan – Who we previously explored on the blog with ‘Maybe Chocolate Chips’ featuring Ric Wilson, who they met at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2019. For Western audiences, you’d probably more likely know CHAI from collaborating with Gorillaz and JPEGMafia on a track from Gorillaz’s ‘Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez’ viral video series and compilation, and they toured with Superorganism as their support act in 2018. Take ‘Action’ by viewing the video below.

“A person who winks at a person is one who lives with a pure heart, who lives with flexibility, who does what they want” is what the CHAI girls of Kana, Mana, Yuuki and Yuna penned in a press statement to explain the at-first-glance random title of ‘Wink’ for their new LP release. They added, “A person who winks is a person who is free. With this album, we’re winking at you. We’re living freely and we hope that when you listen, you can wink an live freely, too”. The band were, although half the world away, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests that took place across the US last June, and so they decided to put their assessments of it into words for ‘Action’. The refrain feels like a nod to Chemical Brothers’ ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’, before CHAI intersect these echoes with lines like “Action is more than words” and “It’s okay, it’s okay, everything is okay/Because I believe in you and me” that get the message across simply, but effectively. The instrumentation is buoyant and charming, as shiny Disco-House motifs and a rolling Electronic breakbeat helps to turn ‘Action’ from a title into a self-affirming mantra. The chorus mixes Asian vocals with a punchy, shimmering Synth riff that replaces the strutting drum machine of the verses, building to an instrumental that encourages you to get your groove on. Shadings of R&B, Hip-Hop and Acid House help CHAI to set the mellower mood, but it’s still undeniably Pop music with a highly electronic, danceable series of beats. The lyrics call for a better future and turn these ideas into a sense of cross-cultural encouragement made with their own irresistibly playful edge where the nods to Acid-House and the huge reverb effects widen the scope of the Synth melodies. It’s message continue to show relevancy as people take to the streets to show solidarity with the situation in Palestine, and, for a variety of reasons, this is one of the best singles that I’ve heard all year. Just absolutely brilliant.

Pictured: KANA (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Yuuki (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), MANA (Keyboard and Yuna (Acoustic Drum Kit) in a promotional image shoot for “WINK” (2021) (via Music.Mxdwn.com)

If you’ve not had enough of CHAI yet, why not take some ‘Action’ on it by checking out what I had to share about ‘Maybe Chocolate Chips’, an earlier single from the new album, where the band sing about changing their perspectives and viewing moles on their faces like the enhancements of your favourite cookie treat. Catch up here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/03/16/todays-track-chai-feat-ric-wilson-maybe-chocolate-chips/

Pictured: CHAI performing at Ameoba, San Francisco (2017) (Photo Credit: Jeff Clayton/YouTube.com)

That’s all for now! However, ‘Scuzz Sundays’ returns tomorrow for an entry that will have any players of the old WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 Xbox 360 video game chomping at the bit. 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: Roy Davis Jr. & Peven Everett – “Gabriel (1997 Live Garage Mix)”

March 10, 2021 — Leave a comment

There’s as many mixers for Rum, as there are mixes for this classic. Let’s go Way Back!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Gabriel” (Need For Mirrors Bootleg Mix) (Released in 1997 & Reissued 2020)

Top ‘O’ The Morning to you, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s that time of day again where I get typing up for your 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! In terms of the sounds of the past that influenced the present, ‘Gabriel’ might seem like an obvious choice as an instantly recognizable and pretty memorable era-defining classic of the House and Garage scenes of the late-1990’s. It is important to remind ourselves sometimes, however, that a certain tune had got so popular that it crossed over to mainstream success. Originally conceived by Roy Davis Jr of the Chicago House scene, XL Recordings re-released the track in the UK with Peven Everett as a featured artist, since the Garage icon put together the Trumpet and Vocal sections of the track. A classic was born, and numerous different mixes were released of the track – like the ‘Need For Mirrors Bootleg Mix’ and the ‘Scroll Mix’ which crossed the borders between 00’s ‘Chillout’ compilations and live DJ set closers with a diverse appeal to audiences. Artists such as Basement Jaxx, R.I.P. Productions and M-Beat got themselves in on the action with remixes and covers too. The ‘Live Garage Mix’, however, is the version of the track which seemed to gain the widest attention across Europe. In fact, the single reached the #22 position in the UK Singles Chart in 1997. Let’s take a listen to it below.

While hardly a rarity by any major press of the imagination, the ‘Live Garage Mix’ of ‘Gabriel’ arguably found it’s largest attention when the single peaked at #5 on the UK Dance Singles Chart, where it remained in the charts for five weeks running. It’s influence on the Deep House and Electronic Jazz genres still seems to continue through to this day, where the Large Records label released a 12″ vinyl reissue of the single, including four of the different versions, back in 2015 – almost 20 years after the original track was unleashed to the world in 1996. With a deep bassline formed by a bass-heavy two step drum beat and a mid-tempo synth beat, the familiar vocals of Peven Everett riffs on love and spirituality with a smooth tone, singing lines like “Once, love was the focus of the true message” and “He had good news, for those dedicating their lives, to the spirit” with a sultry and soulful mood. The next verse feels a little more interactive, with Everett instructing: “Those that stand aside and watch, The soul moving, grooving” and “Clap your hands, be the one to show your love overflowing” as he continually references the mission of the archangel Gabriel. He also makes the music itself part of the involvement, with lyrics like “If you love music, deep in your soul” and “Just release your soul to the love that’s holding you, that’s consoling you” going for more of a straight-up Chicago house root for the track. A set of sweeping Horn parts litter the rest of the instrumentation, with a sparse Jazz influence that also briefly touches on melodic Rapcore and Neo-Soul in places as well. I’ve never really noticed before, in this record, how the religious connotations feel like a natural commentary on the social impacts of music, and how the experience of being in a club with a diverse group of people can nourish your soul. Meanwhile, the track certainly has a clear cross appeal to lots of different groups of people. It’s up-tempo enough to feel like a Dance record, but the instrumentals also feel relatively stripped back and suited for home listening too, with a deeply Soul-oriented style that also feels a little ethereal. Overall, it’s a 90’s hit that manages to hold up, as it feels developed musically and has a clear message to boot. Gabriel Play!

Pictured: Roy Davis Jr. performing a DJ Set in Chicago, Illinois (Date n/a) (Photo by Sean Delahay)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest bog post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as always, as I attempt to clear up some of my backlog with an older, but still pretty recent by all means, track which I perhaps wish that I’d got around to covering a little bit sooner, here on the web. It comes from an infectious Nu-Disco trio who began making music in the sleepy Peak District town of Matlock, and since then, the group have received praise from publications like The Guardian, performed live at the Isle Of Wight Bestival in 2018. They are set to release their debut album, “Power Up”, on March 26th. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

New Album Release Friday: Bicep (feat. Clara La Sun) – “Saku”

January 22, 2021 — Leave a comment

I know it’s January – but let’s not give this one the Cold Shoulder. It’s new post time…

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Isles” (Album/LP) (Released on 22nd January, 2020) (via Ninja Tune)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s now time for me to get typing up about your daily track on the blog, since it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day. It’s New Album Release Friday – which means it’s time for me to lead you into an in-depth look at one of the artists behind this weekend’s new album releases. This week’s selection includes the fourth album from the Canadian R&B outfit RHYE, as well as new outings from UK Grime rapper Bugzy Malone and US cult rockers Moon Taxi – along with the new EP release from Venezuelan Art-Pop enigma, Arca. However, the most high-profile new release in a while has arrived today from Bicep. The duo – which is made up of the Northern Irish electronic dance music producers Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar – have been gaining a lot of traction in the UK Club scene, and rock-solid airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6Music, in recent weeks, has exposed more casual ears to their layer-building sound. Bicep was formed in 2009 as a blog called “Feel My Bicep” where the two DJ’s used to post lost tracks of the Chicago House and Detroit Techno variety, along with forgotten Disco Pop and Italo Disco remixes. “Isles” is the title for the new LP, and it’s just been released via Ninja Tune. It represents a “snapshot in time” for the duo, and the guest list includes Julie Kent, Machina and Clara La Sun. The latter features on the new single “Saku” – and you can check out it’s video below.

So far, the reviews for “Isles” have been rather kind. Bicep said of the hotly anticipated new album, “We aim to pull influences from a broad range of inspiration when we write music, our tracks often go through many iterations and directions before we settle on the final ingredients”. The duo added that “Saku feels like a good example of a hybrid for us” to their press notes. “Saku” feels like an encapsulation of Bicep’s global influences, with 90’s IDM and 00’s Garage sounds creating a textured, dreamy vision. The drum programming evokes a light Hip-Hop breakbeat, while Clara La Sun’s vocals feel melancholic. She sings: “Can’t say the feeling was strong, Know you’re thinking of me” and “I just need to feel what I felt before, Can you help me feel what I’m waiting for?” with a minimalist delivery, as a whispered vocal unfolds below an animated percussion. Subtle layers of timbres and polished production glides above La Sun’s vocals, as she sings: “I just need to feel everything before, Can you help me feel what I’m searching for?” with a vagueness that feels provocative and ethereal. It isn’t immediately danceable, with abstract drum beats and hypnotic sonic loops building layers on layers of synth sounds. The slow-building soundscape builds to a crescendo, where the vocals are cut out, and we’re left with a vigorous backing vocal loop that faints softly in the background. Meanwhile, the sound gets more intimate and synth-driven, with a bright stream of hazy synth effects invoking an emotive atmosphere. The repetitive percussion sounds and the honeyed synth production retains a cinematic element. The vocals evoke a 00’s R&B aesthetic, before the flourishing synths take hold of the pacing. Although I’m a little bit less familiar with Bicep’s work – in comparison to Aphex Twin or The Chemical Brothers – I think that I can see the appeal to them. The layers build up to convey a dream-like aural environment – with polished synth instrumentals and tranquil vocals that hint at a science-fiction soundtrack feel. The idea of a home-listening trance record from the duo is a rather bold move – and I feel the album would have benefited more from the sweeping euphoria of a live summer stage – but I realise that is not viable right now given our current situation with COVID-19. All in all, I think there’s much to enjoy here.

Pictured: Andrew Ferguson (DJ/Producer) and Matthew McBriar (DJ/Synths) (2019) (via Facebook.com)

Ages ago – I posted an in-depth review of one of Bicep’s earlier offerings – “Atlas” – which was released last year. If you want to catch the euphoria of that track, be my guest here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/19/todays-track-bicep-atlas/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Atlas” (Single/EP) (Released on April 3rd, 2020) (via Ninja Tune)

That’s all for today – Don’t forget that we’ve got a new addition to our Scuzz Sundays catalogue dropping in two days time! Before then, why not join me again tomorrow? Unusually for me, I’ll be going a little bit more mainstream tomorrow. We’re going to be taking an in-depth look at the sizzling new single from a US Rock band, which is comprised up of three brothers and their cousin, who have 12 Grammy Award nominations to their name – including 4 wins. You could say, then, that they are “Royalty” of the stadium Rock scene. 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: Raf Rundell – “Monsterpiece”

January 19, 2021 — 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for reading my latest blog post! We’re going “Way Back” tomorrow for the latest post in our weekly Wednesday feature, where we take an in-depth listen back to music pre-dating the 2000’s – influencing each of the different types of sound that we love today. Tomorrow’s track goes down the Ambient Pop and the Space-Rock route, as we rediscover a late-90’s favourite from a French Prog-Rock duo who produced the soundtrack of the same name for “The Virgin Suicides”, a Sofia Coppola-directed drama film that was released in 1999. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/