Today’s Track: Dana Gavanski – ‘Indigo Highway’

April 19, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Dana Gavinski in the official music video for ‘Yesterday Is Gone’ (2020) (Photo Credit: Tess Roby)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to settle my own nerves like a calming pill for a playful addition to my catalogue 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! Inspired by the live performance aspects of David Bowie, Art-Rock singer-songwriter Dana Gavanski – a Canadian-Serbian musician based in London – almost followed in her father’s footsteps for a career in the film industry, but she developed her skills in music for a year and decided to release her first record back in 2017. Following that time, she has received acclaim for her work from sources like Exclaim, Monkeybiz and BBC Radio 6 Music, with the latter naming 2020’s ‘Yesterday Is Gone’ as their album of the week. She has recorded two live sessions for Marc Riley’s show, she has supported Damien Jurado on a tour across Europe and she has worked with Tuung’s Mike Lindsay as her producer. More recently, she recorded a cover version of King Crimson’s ‘I Talk To The Wind’ as a charity single. In the near future, she will be releasing her second full-length studio album – ‘When It Comes’ – as she gears up to add another release to her impressive resume for an artist who’s only been active since 2017. Set to release through Full Time Hobby on April 29th, she describes the release with “In many ways, this record feels like it is my first. When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional trajectory than before. It’s very connected to vocal presence, which extended into an existential questioning of my connection to music. It felt like a battle at times, which I frequently lost”, in her own words. The new LP was recorded between Montreal and Belgrade, finally being mixed at London’s Total Refreshment centre by Mike Lindsay. Check out Dana’s single ‘Indigo Highway’ below.

Gavanski pitches ‘Indigo Highway’ as an unguarded Moog-built track that captures the loss of childhood relationships with sincerity and absurdity in her press release, as she explains, “From the beginning of my interest in songwriting, I’d tried many times to write about this relationship and never could. It felt too fragile, too fraught with experience and distant in many ways. However faraway the time feels, no matter what came next, ‘Indigo Highway’ endeavors to return to what made the relationship special. This song is like a prayer, or a way back, temporarily, to innocence and silliness and sunshine on a field”, in her words. The fun starts off with an idiosyncratic arpeggio groove and a distinctly retro kick drum beat that paves the way for Gavanski’s abstract vocals to find their mark, as lyrics like “I think I’ve found my way back home, Wandering out” and “When you come over and visit me, We’ll sit by the willow tree” offer pastoral and peaceful reflections on plunging yourself back through time to return to your innocence before the times that followed in adolescence. A Piano drops in rather whimsically, at a later point, to a jaunting set of verses where Gavanski passionately projects her voice with lyrics like “I’ll find your face, it’s changing in different ways/And I’m looking around to see” to contemplate the platonic friendships that she has been finding and declining, or naturally progressed away from, during her lifetime. Propelled by an obscure Synth hook and pierced Keyboard melodies that are locked together frenetically by a consistently no-frills drum kit, Gavanski conjures up a presence that feels highly original in the way that she mixes her playful musicality with youthful personality. Her warm crooning feels both familiar and otherworldly when paired to the otherwise percussive arrangement that feels reasonably melodic, but textured by the eccentric instrumentation and the transcendant qualities of her child-like lyricism. There’s shades of Nico and Cate Le Bon in here, as well as more Folk-costumed nods to Aldous Harding or Weyes Blood’s material, and so it should appeal nicely to a decent range of Alt-Folk and Country-Rock fans with it’s bright, yet widescreen brand of quirky atmospherics and whimsical daydreaming although it feels slightly faster in tempo than most of the music by the aforementioned influences. A joyful and cinematic piece that we could all connect to.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘When It Comes’ (LP/Album) (Available from April 29th, 2022) (via Full Time Hobby)

That brings us swiftly round to the end of the Indigo Highway for today! Thank you for coming along for the ride, and I honestly can’t believe how short this week feels because it’s almost time for a fresh new entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ that will be arriving on the site tomorrow. This time, we’re looking back at a very influential Swedish Prog-Pop duo with a cult following who have been celebrating their 20th anniversary with a number of re-issues since 2021. They are also known for wearing Venetian masks in their public appearances, and managing their Rabid Records label.

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New Album Release Fridays: Kurt Vile – ‘Like Exploding Stones’

April 15, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Watch My Moves’ (LP/Album) (Released on April 15th, 2022) (via Verve Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and you’re tuned into One Track At A Time – your daily destination for all things nice and niche – musically – as we gear up for 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! Fresh albums by the likes of 50 Foot Wave, Fozzy and High Pulp are all landing in the shelves of your favourite record shop today, but whenever there’s a new album by the Liberty Bell-award winning Pensylvania-born alternative rock singer-songwriter Kurt Vile joining the equation, it’s always worth a listen. You may know Vile for being the former lead guitarist of The War On Drugs and, in 2017, he recorded ‘Lotta Sea Lice’ with Australian indie rock powerhouse Courtney Barnett as a collaborative LP project. His free-wheeling ninth solo studio album – ‘Watch My Moves’ – is out today via Verve Records, and it is his first album release for that label. This promises to be a surrealistic and psychedelic expansion of Vile’s trippy universe, and it marks his first solo recorded project since 2018’s ‘Bottle It In’ increased his exposure to the world. The main draw of attraction to the new album is that it marks the reunion of The Violators, his dedicated touring and backing band. He will also be touring throughout Europe, the UK, and the US in 2022, with a performance at All Points East Festival in London this summer. On that note – get yourself prepared with the 7-minute ballad, ‘Like Exploding Stones’, below.

Lo-Fi and home-focused, the new album was recorded mostly in his own Mount Airy-based studio of OKV Central to follow in the past footsteps of Waylon Jennings’ DIY recordings in Hillbilly Central, which used to be Tompall Glaser’s studio. He teases, “It’s about songwriting. It’s about lyrics. It’s about being the master of all domains in the music. I’m always thinking about catchy music, even though it’s fried, or sizzled, out. It’s my own version of a classic thing – it’s moving forward and backward at the same time”, in his reflective statement on ‘Watch My Moves’ in a press release. Vile revs up the guitar and vocals from the off-set, laying down a languid sequence of sprawling Synths and a melodic kick drum beat as the very stoner-like guitar riffs simply linger along to his psychedelic vibe and slowly ascending Tempo. Lyrics like “Dreaming of a time where everything rhymed and I was calm, cool and collected” and “Thoughts become pictures, become movies in my mind” paint a vibrant picture of Vile’s mental space, while hooks like “Pain ricochet in my brain, like exploding stones” are set against the backdrop of euphoric Synths and lop-sided guitar lines. His vocals sound plaintive and deadpan, to a point, throughout – yet he comes off as more unburdened and zoned-out than melancholic or miserable by the way that he conjures images of dreaming and travelling without worrying about where they may lead. He references movie marathons, pinball machines and guitar feedback in his lyrics to make him feel self-aware among the highly textured instrumentation. There’s also a neat saxophone solo towards the end recited by James Stewart of Sun Ra Arkestra that blows against the accompaniment of Vile’s running commentary to add more punch to the proceedings. Seven minutes is long for a traditional single release, but Vile manages to justify the length by keeping the elements fresh and paying off the moving parts with his vivid textures and his thoughtful musings on his anxieties. Like Exploding Stones – it goes down naturally and feels like an explosion of concepts.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Lotta Sea Lice’ (LP) (with Courtney Barnett) (Released in 2017) (via Matador Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and I’ll be back tomorrow to review the returning single from one of the world’s most popular virtual Art-Pop bands who were formed as a collective of creatives assembled across the globe, releasing a UK Top 40 album in 2018. They have also contributed a track to the soundtrack of ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part’ that was released back in 2019.

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Today’s Track: Maia Friedman – ‘First To Love’

March 21, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Under The New Light’ (LP) (Released on 11th March 2022) (via Last Gang Records)

Good Morning to you! This is hard-working writer and aspiring radio producer Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has finally come for me to keep your ears entertained by 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! Maia Friedman was already a skilled vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter before she even embarked on a solo career, as you may already know Friedman from her roles in the Brooklyn-based indie rock bands Dirty Projectors and Coco. Growing up in the Sierra national forest region of the Central California area with her father (a film editor) and her mother (a Jungian Psychoanalyst), Friedman began learning how to play instruments at a very young age and she has since become a big part of her local music scenes for her various roles in musical projects including Toebow, Bobby and Uki Ika Ai – as she joked to Melody Maker in an interview, “Collaborating gives me the juice”, a few weeks ago. Her latest full-length album – ‘Under The New Light’ – finds Friedman undertaking the role of a spiritual comforter and a serene healer for the listener, where she tackles the deep contrast between topics such as intimacy and growth, and light and darkness, throughout the duration of the long-awaited solo record. She began working on the material four years ago as she balanced putting the track listing together with her duties of being a music teacher in New York. Dan Molad, her fellow band-mate from Coco, helped her to produce the album. Additional work also came by way of her collaborators Tom Deis and Peter Lalish. Check out the single – ‘First To Love’ – below.

‘First To Love’ is given even deeper meanings by the aid of the Joshua Kilcoyne-directed music video, and Maia Friedman says of the new cut, “It is a humbling privilege to love someone in all their humanness and imperfection, to not only support but celebrate them through their journey of growth and exploration, to be by their side as they evolve into new versions of themselves”, adding that her lyrics roughly translate to, “I will love even the deepest layers of who and what you are. A question I pose to myself is, what if this person were me?”, in her press statement. Her ethereal track starts off with glitched Synths that replicate the sound of a heart monitor of a hospital to my mind, a polished sequence which runs throughout the track, and they are softly set against the backdrop of a warmly acoustic guitar melody and a soft bassline. Lyrics like “Look as the clouds pass overhead/I will count them until the daylight ends” and “Wait as the roots find their way/They’ll grow deeper with each passing day” are softly spoken and they carry the verses with a low-lit and wide-eyed tone. The chorus features more swooping and direct refrains like “Peel away/Keeping me up through the night” and “Escape/Be whatever you like” that position Friedman in a unique sense of directly addressing you as her audience, with the details of her personal situations feeling a little enigmatic in favour of giving you a space of reflection and free-wheeling tranquility as a listener. I feel like these more Folk-inspired sections recalls the cinematic soundtrack style of her work in Coco, but it goes quite far beyond an ‘Expansion Pack’ mentality of that sound as the intriguing electronic textures and the whimsical Classical influences of the serene vocals feel different enough to her material with those other projects. Overall, ‘First To Love’ is a bit of a slow burn, but it builds up to a nice sense of energy and it has a strong emotive core that is filled with wistfully produced Strings and warm Dream-Pop instrumentation that placed an emphasis on the most smallest and profound aspects of what it means to be a human and the details of subjects like sensuality and touch with an in-depth contrast that finds her striking out sturdily, as a relatable songwriter.

Pictured: Maia Friedman in Coco (along with Dan Molad & Oliver Hill) (2021) (Photo Credit: Stella Hartmann)

If you’d like to hear some of the magic that Maia has created in Coco – look no further.

‘Last Of The Loving’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/22/todays-track-coco-last-of-the-loving/

‘Come Along’ (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/12/06/todays-track-coco-come-along/

Pictured: Cover Art for Coco’s ‘Last of The Loving” (Single) (Released on 4th August, 2020) (via FCA Records)

That brings me to the end of the page for another day! I have little else to say, other than to thank you for checking out what I had to share with you for today, as your support is always highly appreciated by me. I’ll be back tomorrow to review one of the promotional singles from an imminent album being put out by a TrumsØ-formed Progressive House and Dark Ambient duo whose achievements include two Grammy Awards nominations, some worldwide tour performances, and a Robyn collaboration.

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New Album Release Fridays: Beach House – ‘Once Twice Melody’

February 18, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Once Twice Melody’ (LP) (Released on February 18th, 2022) (via Sub-Pop Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to give you a sneak peek at one of the weekend’s most exciting new album releases, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! In most typical weeks, my choice for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the blog is a highly anticipated affair that we’ve only got two or three singles from at most prior to the big moment of release, however, in the case of ‘Once Twice Melody’ – you can hear three quarters of it already. The latest LP project from the Baltimore, Maryland duo of Victoria LeGrand and Alex Scally, otherwise known as Beach House, a Chamber Pop duo who have been nominated for a GAFFA Award in Sweden, ‘Once Twice Melody’ is effectively a double album that contains 18 tracks that have all been presented in four chapters of four tracks that have seen staggered releases since November 2021, a risky move that notably finds music contributing to the streaming algorithm more closely than ever before. In aid of supporting the behemoth of a record, Beach House will be touring the UK and Europe in May and June 2022, as well as performing alongside fellow Psychedelic acts like Tame Impala and Lorde at this summer’s Primavera Sound Festival. ‘Part 1’ was released on November 10th, 2021 followed by ‘Part 2’ on December 8th, 2021, followed by ‘Part 3’ on January 19th, 2022 and, finally, the final chapter releases today alongside a full release of the project on Vinyl and Streaming. The duo have also recently provided the soundtrack to ‘Marin’s Dreams’, a short film. With their drawing and expansive sound that has been focused on conveying an abstract reflection of a message that idyllic moments are never quite as fruitful as fantasy, I have a lot of faith in LeGrand and Scally to pull out all of the stops with this mammoth of a release. For a sampler, let’s revisit the title track below.

Self-produced entirely by themselves, the ambitious LP project by Beach House was mixed by Alan Moulder, Dave Fridmann, Caesar Edmunds and Trevor Spencer, and it has been recorded over the past two years in a handful of studios spanning across Los Angeles, Baltimore and Cannon Falls. The lyrics for the title track speak of a girl that is placated by her own eccentric imagination, an unnamed character with an enigmatic narrative that we experience with refrains like “Nights fly by in her mind/All along the boulevard” and “She tries to understand/A never, never land” that find LeGrand focusing on the finer details of her mindset and they play out above a gorgeous sequence of looping synths and live drums on the title track. Guitar arpeggios continue to conjure up a sweeping and decorated soundscape that evoke sinking into the grass or the sand from an hourglass slipping through your fingers while LeGrand croons about the sensual slow pace of a hot, gauzy summer’s day. Lyrics like “Days go by/In her eyes/Belle De Jour in front of me” and “The purple on the vine/The velvet deep tree line” find the prismatic mood of the vocals basking in the far-away lands that have been constructed by our shy character’s wandering mind. It feels lush and vibrant as a complete package, with LeGrand and Scally telling a mysterious yet intriguing tale of the illusion of a crystal clear universe of fiction that are polished carefully with intimate Strings and a symphony of creative backing vocals, and yet the idealizations of our leading lady are never truly filled in. The sound simply takes you back to the very core of Shoegaze and Dream Pop music, which is all about filling a simple few melodies with meticulous details and an atmosphere that is simply designed for you to get lost in – and the kicking drums/synths combo of the vivid instrumentation escalate their own levels of intensity as the sprawling sounds move up to a higher scope. Therefore, I have a lot of faith that despite the sheer length of ‘Once Twice Melody’ as a full release, LeGrand and Scally will give the project plenty of depth and variety as to not grow tiresome and justify the length in creating music that doesn’t lose it’s intimacy over a run time. I concur that Beach House are brilliant!

Pictured: Victoria LeGrand and Alex Scally (2018) (Photo Credit: Robert Johannson/InterviewMagazine.com)

I’m off to visit my sister in Kent today, and so I haven’t got any longer to chat about all things music with you for today, but thank you very much for checking out the blog and your support is highly appreciated! If you deeply love your Dream-Pop and your Shoegaze styles of music, you’re also going to enjoy tomorrow’s post, which is why I decided to cover these two tracks so tightly together. It comes from the main solo project of the French multi-instrumentalist and producer Melody Prochet who got a 9/10 score from Drowned In Sound’s Dom Gourlay for her debut studio album in 2013.

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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: Khraungbin & Leon Bridges – ‘B-Side’

January 7, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Khruangbin (Laura Lee, Mark Speer & Donald Johnson) and Leon Bridges (2019) (Photo via Dead Oceans)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading text by the familiar face of the blog, Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to put your anxieties on pause for a few minutes as we listen to 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! Having spent the past three years as an independent music writer, I have learned in my experiences that music often brings together a magical meeting of the minds to blend together. One pair of acts that have issued some robust material in the past together are the Grammy-nominated contemporary Jazz songwriter Leon Bridges and the Houston-based soulful Psych-Funk trio of Khruangbin who host the ‘AirKhruang’ podcast that you can hear via Apple Music and Facebook Live. I’ve written about the Laura Lee-led outfit, with Mark Speer on guitar and Donald Ray ‘DJ’ Johnson on Drums in tow, several times before on the website since I’m already a huge fan of their 60’s Thai-influenced music. In 2020, Bridges and Khruangbin released the ‘Texas Sun’ EP together, and they will be releasing a direct sequel or companion piece to that mellow record entitled ‘Texas Moon’ on 18th February, 2022 via Dead Oceans in partnership with Night Time Stories and Columbia Records. They decided to combine their efforts once again because, as Khruangbin note, “Without joy, there can be no real perspective on sorrow” and “Without sunlight, all this rain keeps things from growing. How can you have the sun without the moon?” in the EP’s product description. It’s going to be an exciting new year for Bridges and Khruangbin, and the five tracks on the new EP offer our first taste of what’s in store for them both and so I’m excited to hear the full results in a brief handful of weeks’ time. Check out their lead single – ‘B-Side’ – below.

Drawing sonically on the shared location of Texas which Bridges and Khruangbin both call home as an influence, the project aims to redefine “how people perceive Texas music – that beautiful marriage of country and r’n’b – and really paying homage to that”, as Bridges also notes in a press release. Filmed in a re-creation of an 1800’s Western village, the music video denotes this idea exponentially and feels right at home with Khruangbin’s installments of the LateNightTales’ compilation series of records that we’ve been following over the last few years. For pre-existing fans of Khruangbin, you already know there isn’t really any major adjustments being made to their sound on ‘B-Side’ with Bridges, however, it’s another stellar guitar performance from Speer and Lee that meshes beautifully with Johnson’s drums to create a tapestry of warm sounds that feel bright and mellow with a light Disco influence, all being dressed in their typically Psychedelic fashion that makes for their winning formula, and so the slick Funk-inflicted grooves and the pounding Bass and Drums combo, make for classic Khruangbin material which feels excellent, if familiar. Bridges’ vocals, meanwhile, are on-point too as he goes for a lovesick Falsetto croon that allows lyrics like “Deeply miss your love/When I’m far away, in another place” and “When I fly above/Weeks roll into days” to feel radiant while having the room to breathe as the pacing feels neat. His soulful style reminds me a lot of Michael Kiwanuka, while the classic, traditional Jazz template of his involvement with the instrumentation is more reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield and so it feels ‘Golden’ overall in terms of sounding vintage without coming across as outdated in any real way. The chorus really captures what it means to be missing somebody, as opposed to just what it feels like, as a result of the engaging vocal performance that blends cohesively with Khruangbin like a hand fits a glove, and so he just feels like another part of the band here and feels connected to them. Overall, there’s nothing that feels massively new here but, once again, the cool synergy between Bridges and Khruangbin clicks together pretty seamlessly and each of the performances are solid. We all know that we’re in really safe hands with these four musicians, and this is another expansion of the ideas the folks have explored together before that’s been created charismatically.

Pictured: Khruangbin performing at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (2019) (Photo by Frazer Harrison)

If you need a reminder of how ‘Texas Sun’ sounded ahead of the successor, you can check out my post about the title track here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/01/06/todays-track-khruangbin-feat-leon-bridges-texas-sun/. Alternatively, if you want to read more about Khruangbin, then you can check out ‘Pelota’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/26/todays-post-khruangbin-pelota/. There is also ‘So I Won’t Forget’: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/20/todays-track-khruangbin-so-we-wont-forget/, ‘Time (You and I)’: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/02/todays-track-khruangbin-time-you-and-i/ and ‘Christmas Time Is Here’: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/12/13/todays-track-khruangbin-christmas-time-is-here/.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Texas Sun’ (EP) (Released on February 7th, 2020) (via Dead Oceans)

That’s all for now and thank you for continuing to support for the first day or lending a few minutes of your day to it for the first time if you are a new reader. Variety is the splice of life, so we’re going to be looking at some new music from a big name together. Led by Kele Okereke, the 2000’s indie rock band have sold over three million records worldwide and have been known for inflicting their guitar-oriented sound with elements of House music and urban Electronica music. In April 2022, they will be releasing their first new full-length album which will be directly involving the new members of the project who joined up when the original line-up was changed in 2015.

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Today’s Track: Coco – ‘Come Along’

December 6, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Maia Friedman, Dan Molad & Oliver Hill in recent promotional artwork (2021) (Photo by Stella Hartmann)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and its time for me to welcome you into 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! Although they share their name with a Disney Pixar animated film that was actually very good when it was released in 2017, Coco aren’t really the eccentric type like the family-friendly musicals being created and re-made by the House Of Mouse. Instead, the New York-based indie rock trio of Coco are the more mysterious type. The band remained anonymous while releasing critically acclaimed singles like ‘Last Of The Loving’ and ‘One Time Villain’ in the past because they wanted to let the material speak for itself, making music with a whiff of Dream Pop, Soft R&B, Alternative Funk and psychedelic Dub to it that was simply about how the music makes you feel instead of disclosing any details about who made it. However, that etiquette changed late in the summer when Coco revealed their identities as people who we already knew from other projects. Coco are comprised of Maia Friedman from Dirty Projectors & Uni Ika Ai, Dan Molad who played in Lucius and Chimney, and, finally, Oliver Hill who you might recognize from Pavo Pavo and Dustrider. They each share the vocals, writing and production duties between each other. They released their debut self-titled studio album in late October via First City Artists and AWAL Recordings, including the single ‘Come Along’. The band says, “From the beginning, music sprung up between us with a surprising and collaborative ease. We made a conscious effort to foreground our intuitions and trust each other’s instincts – criticism and indecision weren’t part of the process” for their biography. They all invite you to ‘Come Along’ with them below.

“The skeleton of ‘Come Along’ was recorded live, all together, with Oliver on guitar, Maia on drums, and Danny on bass. The underlying chord loop plays throughout as other instruments are weaved in one by one, picking up momentum and rolling forward as everything joins in harmony”, Coco recalled in a shared press statement about the single, adding, “The video mimics the song in this way, portraying our individual days-in-the-life with each of us filming one another on handheld cameras”, in their explanation for the writing and process behind creating the laidback three-way vocal duet. Such an improvisational approach to ‘Come Along’ does make sense when you hear it, as it feels like a stress-free and calm little recording with a mellow, often romantic, spin on the songwriting. Opened by a briefly chiming, windy Bell arrangement that creates a drowsy vibe before intimate lyrics like “We share a simple word/You’ve given me a shirt/I put it on” and “A table and a chair/A memory of home/Carry it all home” kick in during the verses, set against the backdrop of gently strummed Acoustic guitar melodies and some more percussive kick drum snares that create a rich and dream-like atmosphere. The fusion of Psychedelic R&B and soulful Soft-Funk are given another twist when a lightly distorted guitar solo takes the lead during the half-way point. The chorus, counteracting the harmonious vocals and the sonic environment of the verses, comes closer to Pop. More clear-cut lyrics like “Talk to me about anything you need/Just please, come along” and “The company is healing me/So please, come along” take centre stage, for example, as the chilled atmosphere shifts with the enhancement of a rhythmic String section and a dampened bass guitar line. It bathes you, as the listener, in a warm sense of subtlety and euphoria that feels very alluring on the whole. The main vocal hook is a little cheesy, but it is delivered with swirling pure vocals and a sense of delicacy that evokes the mood of the song well enough to keep you engaged. Overall, ‘Come Along’ is a lovely fusion of mellow Soft-Rock and prominent Dub influences that reminds me of Khruangbin in its tone and style, but it reaches out a hand to the slightly more cinematic spectrum of music for my mind. A gorgeous and well-focused arrangement.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Coco’ (LP) (Released on October 29th, 2021) (via Self-Released/Bandcamp.com)

During their anonymous days, Coco gained similar praise with the release of their one-off single ‘Last Of The Loving’, which also earned a place on my October 2020 highlights wrap-up. If you haven’t heard it yet, see what the fuss was about here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/22/todays-track-coco-last-of-the-loving/

Pictured: Cover Art for “Last of The Loving” (Single) (Released on 4th August, 2020) (via FCA Records/Coco Time)

That’s it! Thank you for continuing to read and support the site every day, and I’ll be back tomorrow with another regular upload as we convert over to the experimental electronic dance side of the recent releases spectrum, coming from a Paris-based DJ who was scouted by BRIT Awards nominees Bicep for their Feel My Bicep imprint label. He performed a live DJ set at Sarcus Festival this year, and he has been featured on a ‘Friday Guest Mix’ produced by Bicep for Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 6 Music.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Frightened Rabbit – “It’s Christmas, So We’ll Stop”

November 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for “It’s Christmas, So We’ll Stop” (Released on Dec. 15th, 2008) (via FatCat Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to grab your Gingerbread Latte to sip along with as we continue our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ today, which I’ll be leading because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! A Scottish indie folk band who were formed by Scott Hutchinson, who originally began the group as a solo project, in 2003 – Frightened Rabbit were a band who released five albums, two EP’s, two live albums and ten singles to critical acclaim, which allowed the band to develop a large cult following that is still avid to this day. There is a sadness to the band, however, as Hutchinson fell ill and he went missing on a terrible night in 2018, where his body was later found dead near Port Edgar, South Queensferry. Based in Glasgow from 2004, the band were also known for their frequent collaborations and extensive touring with Aaron Dessner, a multi-instrumentalist from The National. Frightened Rabbit’s work has been released across Fat Cat Records and major label Atlantic Records, and the strongly reviewed 6-piece were also well-liked for their regular charity work with the Invisible Children Inc. music coalition project. Hutchinson, alongside his brother Grant Hutchinson, also worked with Justin Lockey (Editors) and James Lockey (Minor Victories) on their side project Mastersystem. Mainstream-wise, Frightened Rabbit were perhaps best known for 2013’s ‘Pedestrian Verse’, which reached #9 on the UK Albums Chart. However, their final album, 2016’s ‘Painting Of A Panic Attack’, which included the particularly good single ‘Get Out’, was my personal favourite. In 2008, they got into the seasonal spirit with ‘It’s Christmas, So We’ll Stop’. Let’s give it a spin.

Scott Hutchinson released an original mix of ‘It’s Christmas, So We’ll Stop’ as solo material in 2007, before he reworked the track with expanded instrumentation and additional production for a re-release the next year. He said, “It’s Christmas… is about people deciding to be pleasant to one another for about a day, regardless of whether or not they actually get along the rest of the year”, adding, “I feel it’s maybe healtheir to live a little more consistently (not that I do), but often humans need excuses to be nice and giving and loving to one another, and Christmas is one of those times, for better or worse”, to the Vinyl’s product description. At just over five minutes in length, Hutchinson encourages a ceasefire for hatred over the top of some swelling String sections, a melancholic lead guitar hook, some softly psychedelic backing vocals that feel warm in texture, and some gradually building Drum rhythms. Lyrics like “As the rot stops for today, Let the rot stop for just one day” touch on restraining the disillusionment and sensual assault that comes with the excess of the holiday season. Later lyrics, like “‘Cause the wine on our breath puts the love on our tongues”, touch on product overindulgence and throw shade at commercialism a little, while vaguely spotlighting the community of Christmas as the main theme. The final refrain of “The next day, life went back to its bad self” hints towards the hostilities of the wider world being resumed after the big day of December 25th. While treading familiar ground for a Christmas single, in terms of the key material discussing the halting of arguments and the easing of tension that it all brings, Hutchinson manages to polish everything in a neat way. His vocal delivery feels sharp and piercing at times, giving off the idea of the knives being put down for the single day but also suggesting a warmer armistice, and it introduces a raw element of melancholy and a sense of foreboding to the instrumentation. The soundscape, as a result, is full of musical diversity. It is slightly charming and witty in a black comedy format, but it’s also a little sombre and downtempo, all while maintaining an uplifting quality in the spirit of the religious season. It feels very frank, with the blend of orchestral and acoustic instrumentation complementing his variety of tones as the songwriting develops in a way that’s gradual. It is one of the most poignant, yet realistic, festive songs out there.

Pictured: Scott Hutchinson (Lead Vocals/Acoustic Guitar/Writer), Billy Kennedy (Lead Guitar/Keyboard). Andy Monaghan (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals), Simon Liddell (Bass Guitar) and Grant Hutchinson (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (in 2013) (Photo via RedBull.com/Atlantic Records)

That brings us to the end of our trimming of festive output for this week! Please join me again tomorrow for ‘Scuzz Sundays’, as we take a listen to a Pop-Punk anthem from a well-known California-formed rock band who bonded over their love of music on the football pitch and they recorded one of their albums in the Paramour Mansion.

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New Album Release Fridays: Bears In Trees – ‘Little Cellist’

November 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘And Everybody Smiled Back’ (LP) (Released on November 19, 2021) (via Counter Intuitive Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to delve deeply into one of this weekend’s most intriguing new LP releases, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! While Jessy Lanza will be releasing her ‘DJ-Kicks’ compilation this week and Kaytranada will be releasing his ‘Intimated’ EP today, new albums from the likes of Elbow and Deap Vally are likely to get overshadowed this week by the media attention that the week’s heavy-hitter, Adele, will be receiving from the release of her new album ’30’. Therefore, I’ve decided to provide another alternative option for you to explore this weekend. ‘And Everybody Smiles Back’ is the highly anticipated debut studio album from the Croydon-formed indie rock group Bears In Trees, who have been signed to the Boston-based label Counter Intuitive Records. With a large social media following of over 100,000 followers on Instagram and over 20,000 via Twitter, the band are seemingly poised for bigger things in the near future. The project is led by producer George Berry, who graduated from the Academy Of Contemporary Music with a first class honours degree in Professional Music Production. He’s joined by bassist/lead vocalist Ian Gillespie, classically trained flautist Callum Litchfield and songwriter/guitarist Nick Peters, who runs the majority of the band’s social media pages. Having just embarked on their long-delayed debut headline UK tour and supported NOAHFINNCE on a previous tour, Bears In Trees are keeping proceedings fresh by developing their new record as a concept album which tells stories of the day after the best or worst day in a person’s life, and each of the songs featured on the LP tells anecdotes being pulled from the band’s actual lives. Speaking about the unique concept, Nick Peters says, “In films and TV series, the plot line ends on the best or worst days of someone’s life and that we never really get to see the day after”, adding, “I think it’s important because the day after is where the healing and compassion happen”, in a press statement. Let’s check out their recent single, ‘Little Cellist’, below.

Commenting on ‘Little Cellist’, Iain Gillespie says: “This is a story about me and a good friend of mine. She plays Cello. She found me in a god-awful state, which finally began my treatment journey for my mental health”, describing, “I was lying on the floor of the student union building; me finally opening up to her allowed her to open up to me and we became each other’s shoulder to cry on, and she kept me safe during some very hard times”, in Bears In Trees’ press release. Bridging Spoken Word sections and poetry with a more conventional Indie Folk template, ‘Little Cellist’ is a narrative-driven tale about seeking hope and purpose through a common experience, with lyrics like “She often held in her intrusive thoughts for fear/That the weight of her worries was too much for him to hear” that discuss difficulty in speaking your mind truthfully, in the way that Brits do as we say what we don’t mean in terms of dialect. Later refrains, like “She quelled her anxiety to calm her fading friend” and “The ambulance rolled up like his limousine/To take him to a place where he reigned supreme”, mix a sense of whimsicality with more hard-hitting content in terms of narrating the story. The instrumentation is kept rather simple and concise, as floating Piano lines and brief String sections provide a slightly cinematic, uplifted underlayer to the rustic, heartfelt acoustic guitar melodies. The Spoken Word sections feel intriguing, as they provide a dream-like feel to undercut the set-up for the narrative and ensure some more variety to the songwriting. The lyrics are nice and easy, with a clear theme being communicated by a blend of poetry and contemporary Indie Rock production. Later lyrics like “Even Jesus Christ himself needed help to bear his cross/Please feel free to lean on me if the world becomes too much” tend to go darker in tone, recited with a delivery that reminds me of Jarvis Cocker in its mix of sardonic wit and emotional storytelling. When all of these parts are merged together, you get some story-based indie rock that feels crowd-pleasing and accessible, yet feels a little more complex in practice than your average release. Therefore, it feels like a sensible choice for a single. Overall, this was an engaging blend of sardonic storytelling and spoken poetry that carries a similar message to other mental health-based tracks, yet it still sets itself apart well enough because there’s an individual personality behind it.

Pictured: George Berry (Producer/Drums/Percussion), Ian Gillespie (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar), Callum Litchfield (Ukulele/Piano/Backing Vocals) and Nick Peters (Lead Guitar/Chief Songwriter) (2019) (via PR)

That’s everything that I’ve got planned for today on the blog! Thank you very much for your support, and I’ll be back tomorrow to continue leading you through our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series on the site. If you check it out, you’ll be treated to an alternative festive single from a Scottish indie folk band who were active until 2018, where the lead singer was presumed to have sadly lost his life after going missing. However, they were known for their work with the Invisible Children coalition project.

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New Album Release Fridays: Lala Lala – “DIVER”

October 8, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘I Want The Door To Open’ (LP) (Released on October 8, 2021) (via Hardly Art)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for us to enjoy a deeper dive into one of the weekend’s zestiest new album releases, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! October 8th. It also happens to be a Friday, and so that means new albums from the likes of the Canadian Experimental marvels BadBadNotGood, LA-based Bedroom Pop prodigies Magdalena Bay, one half of Warwick-based Alt-Pop duo Cash+David in the form of Liz Lawrence, the criminally underrated Louisa Roach-led Wirral-formed Post-Punk group She Drew The Gun and former Feels member Shannon Lay all hitting the shelves of your nearest record shop today. However, ‘DIVER’ is a gorgeous track that’s been issued as a single from ‘I Want The Door To Open’, the third solo album in the discography of Lala Lala, which is the Indie Rock project of the Chicago-based singer-songwriter Lillie West. She began making music when she attended the School Of The Art Institute in Chicago and became involved in the city’s local music scene after being encouraged by a close friend to buy a guitar from Craigslist, after she was raised up in Los Angeles and London. Since then, West has been heard on ‘Siren 042’, a collaboration with Yoni Wolf, the frontman of the Alternative Hip-Hop band WHY?, and she performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2019. She has also toured the US with Death Cab For Cutie and Better Oblivion Community Center, and she has received praised for her “ability to offset sharp lyricism with shimmering guitar and singalong-worthy vocal refrains” by Adelaide Sandstrom, a respected writer for NPR Music. Her new LP is the follow-up to 2016’s self-released ‘Sleepyheads’ and her critically-acclaimed 2018 follow-up record ‘The Lamb’, with the album’s themes being inspired by a novel ‘Manhattan Beach’ by Jennifer Egan. Take ‘DIVER’ for a spin below.

The new album boasts numerous guests like Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, poet Kara Jackson, Adam Schatz from Landlady, fellow Chicago scene musician Christian Lee Hutson, and a few others, and West has described the project herself as “I Want The Door To Open’s a musical quest undertaken with the knowledge that the titular door may open; but is is through falling in love with the quest itself that one may find the next closest thing”, adding, “It’s a bold exploration of persona and presence from an artist questioning how to be herself fully in a world where the self is in constant negotiation”, in her own words. The sound of ‘DIVER’ certainly fits the glacial warmth of the arctic landscapes of the music video and the icy white visuals of the LP’s cover artwork, with some Baroque instrumentation and the slowly ascending backing vocals that evoke a theatrical, choir-like sound. Lyrics like “I’m Sisyphus/You’re the witness/It’s intimate, the violence/It’s palpable to want it all” feel visual and poetic too, and these sequences are tidily set against the backdrop of a lo-fi distortion and some layered, wide open drumming. There are moments of orchestral and ethereal musicality here, especially in the chorus where she uses lyrics like “Your face distorted in the window/Swimming out towards my new life” to sing about discovering a new era in your life and recognizing the swooping thematic tides of change, but later lyrics like “All my time I have is diamonds/Rolling around my head” acknowledge a struggle of developing yourself to meet your goals as one that never truly ends. It feels like a warm introduction to the rest of the ideas that West has likened to exploring on the new record, with an Avant-Pop air of Kate Bush or Tom Waites to connect the abstract musicality together, and so this is a very nice and easily consumable track overall. It’s not necessarily a criticism of her music itself, but I think that a better stage name than ‘Lala Lala’ would make me a bit more likely to take her as seriously as she would like me to as a musician, as it sounds more like she’s one of the younger siblings of the Teletubbies currently. That nitpick aside, I enjoyed the heartfelt personal reflection and the winter sound of the track and the critics seem to love her, and so I’m sure the new record will make for a fascinating listen – although she cannot stare directly at it.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Lamb’ (LP) (Released on September 28th, 2018) (via Hardly Art)

That brings us to the end of today’s musical musing, and thank you a lot for your continued support with the blog. On a related note, please subscribe to my new podcast – ‘The Subculture Sessions’ – on Spotify for more regular content like this post. I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at a big new collaboration from a 00’s indie pop staple who have remixed the likes of Kate Nash and Sebastien Teller, and a rising star who sings in Spanish and English – and has signed with RCA Records.

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