Today’s Track: Gang Of Youths – “The Angel Of 8th Ave.”

August 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Total Serene’ (EP) (Released on July 15, 2021) (via Warner Music UK)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s 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! A 5-piece Desert Rock group formed in Sydney, but now based in Hackney, Gang Of Youths are an indie rock quintet who appear to be a big deal in recent times. Their debut album, 2015’s ‘The Positions’, reached the top five of the ARIA Albums Chart in their native country of Australia, and, their follow-up, 2017’s ‘Go Farther In Lightness’, was nominated for eight ARIA Music Awards in 2017, gaining them wins for ‘Album Of The Year’, ‘Best Rock Album’, ‘Best Group’ and ‘Producer Of The Year’ on the night. On July 16, they released the ‘Total Serene’ EP with no prior notice, marking their first new music since that time four years ago. It also marks their first new music to be released with Tom Hobden, a former member of Noah & The Whale, as their new guitarist and violinist, replacing Joji Malani, who left the band in 2019. The new EP includes two original tracks and a cover version of Elbow’s ‘Asleep In The Back’ from 2002, which frontman Dave Le’Aupepe explained with, “We love Elbow and we thought it was thematically relevant”. Check out the self-produced new lead single, ‘The Angel of 8th Ave.’, below.

Gang Of Youth have also inked a deal with Warner Bros, in 2019, as the formerly fully independent artists continue to raise their profile, and Radio X have also granted ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave.’ national daytime radio airplay in the UK. Dave Le’Aupepe told Zane Lowe, “I started writing this about four years ago and we’ve done 15 versions of it”, adding, “It’s probably the only song that you’ll hear from us now that sounds remotely kind of what we sounded like the previous kind of six to eight years”, in an interview, as he teases a new path of direction for the band in the times to come. ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave’ is a heart-on-its-sleeve acoustic rock tune that promises new hope in it’s light-hearted approach. The track has a tight four-minute duration, with Le’Aupepe singing about the evolution on his love for his wife, Cort, as he reminisces over the past and looks for constancy, glad that he took the risk to find love again after a traumatic split-up with a former partner. Lyrics like “God, it was state of the art/You called each of my sorrows by name” reference a move to a new city as the catalyst for positive change in your relationships, and sings lyrics like “I wanna lay me down/and be lover of the year” with a slightly quirky tone to reflect on the long-standing love that he has found in a very celebratory way. The post-bridge towards the end, where he comments “Ah, there’s heaven in you now”, with Joy Division-leaning Synths intact, is a definite highlight in showing that Le’Aupepe has a defiant muscularity in his voice. To be brutal, a lot of this style of music can be very “take it or leave it” with me, and, in the past with Gang Of Youths, I’ve sometimes took the latter choice. However, I find there to be something irresistible in this mish-mash mix of Bruce Springsteen, The War On Drugs and The National that I really enjoyed. The strings add a cinematic flair to the equation, the drums roll along at a rhythmically speeding pace, and the bass guitar riffs trend towards Prog-Rock in an entertaining way. You can hear the influence of Warner Bros’ producers at some points, especially in the radio-friendly production, but the rest came across with honesty and integrity that was convincing for me. Filled with a varied pallete of influences, a broad style of poetic expression and a lovingly 80’s call-back of moods, ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave’ was a surprising delight for me. A real, excellent highlight of the band’s discography thus far.

Pictured: David Le’Aupepe (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Piano), Jung Kim (Keyboard/Synths/Acoustic Guitar), Max Dunn (Bass Guitar), Tom Hobden (Violin) and Donnie Borzestowski (Drums) (2021) (via PR)

That’s all for now! Thank you very much, as always, for sticking until the bitter end with me. It’s ‘Scuzz Sundays’, as per usual, tomorrow, as we introduce another group of friendly new faces to the blog. Well, kind of. Tomorrow’s pick came from one of Slash’s post Guns ‘N’ Roses projects that was active in the 00’s. Despite having a failed relationship with RCA Records, they gained critical acclaim, they toured with Alice In Chains, and they won the Grammy award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ in 2005.

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New Album Release Friday: Darkside – “The Limit”

July 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

The experimental duo who don’t always look on the bright side of life. New post time!

Pictured: Vinyl Copy of “SPIRAL” (LP) (Released on July 23rd, 2021) (via Matador Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time to take a moment out with 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! Latitude Festival may be the biggest talking point of this mid-July weekend, but, for those of us who couldn’t get ourselves a ticket and need to rely on getting our music fix elsewhere, there is a handful of new records available to fresh ears. Anne-Marie, Joel Culpepper, The Jungle Giants, Emma Jean-Thackray, Leon Bridges and Mercury Prize winner Dave all have new full-length albums hitting store shelves today. My pick for this week has been eight years in the making. ‘Spiral’ arrives this morning through Matador Records from Darkside, the collaborative side-project of the insanely prolific Chilean-American composer Nicolás Jaar and the Brooklyn-based rock multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington, a previous member of indie bands ARMS and Translations. The follow-up to 2013’s ‘Psychic’, the new record was written and recorded in 2018 and six of the tracks were largely made through an extended week-long session during that summer in New Jersey. It has a 79 on Metacritic to show solid reviews, with Charlotte Krol of NME calling it “A gorgeous, filmic record that rewards with each spin”. Check out promo single ‘The Limit’ below.

“From the beginning, Darkside has been our Jam band, something we did on days off”, Jaar spoke of Darkside’s return from hiatus, adding, “When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again”, to the press release. Dave Harrington added, “It felt like it was time again. We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. Darkside is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together”, to the press notes for the hype machine. Down to a tee, ‘The Limit’ is a psychedelic adventure through experimental corridors of patterns and exciting, wildly free-spirited tones that make the steadfast jolt feel like a diverse, atmospheric journey. Beginning with some intriguing Woodwinds-like sounds, Jaar laments a loss of grip on reality of life with contemplative vocals like “Don’t sow what you reap/Submit to the pace” and “The waters erase/Nothing left to see” as we build up to a lengthy instrumental that combines Folk-led guitar riffs with stiff Keyboard frames, with a driving Drum melody that adds a lot of heft to the strength. We reach a breaking point when Jaar refrains “Current with no direction”, as the steely frames take an intrusive turn to something that feels much more harsh and abrasive in setting, as the transcendant Funk beats grind to a squelching, grounded halt with grating guitar sections and propulsive Synth cuts. The finale is also dynamic enough to stay interesting on your repeated listens, as Harrington’s production cascades through jangled rhythms with an Acid rain-like quality, while Jaar’s vocals feel unphased throughout the obscure experiment of the five minutes. It’s a strange but controlled mixture of ambient tapestry overall, with an opening that reminds me of Django Django in it’s 00’s dance flair and Folk-inflicted guitars, but the following sequences of ethereal audio really keeps you on your toes and feels incomparable to much else in terms of it’s dissonant explorations of creaking acoustics. On the whole, it expertly walks the line of bizzare and frantic like a tightrope circus act, yet it never loses it’s footing to fall off the said tightrope in the analogy. It never feels like pure chaos, since the eclectic instrumentals have a coherent narrative of-sorts and the key changes never stray from the path of consistency too aggressively. It’s certainly not mainstream, but it’s good to remember that Darkside’s records are being aimed more towards an avid fanbase, as opposed to those who will just take whatever formulaic dance track the pop charts throw at them. The tune is a very cool record, with an ever-changing dymamic in sound that mixes Jaar’s virtuosic skill as an experienced classical composer with Harrington’s ear for psychedelic influences that he honed on the US DIY indie electronica scene. You can revel in it’s Jaaring nature. See what I did?

Pictured: Nicolas Jaar & Dave Harrington (2013) (Photo Credit: Jim Carroll/The Irish Times)

We’ve reached your destination – which is the end of the page for today! I’ll be back to do it all over again tomorrow, however, with an in-depth look into some brand new music from a popular cult UK lo-fi independent Prog-Rock duo – a married couple – who are making their second appearance on the blog with a new single that features the British godfather of Punk himself, Iggy Pop, to confirm their new set of tour dates.

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Today’s Track: Squirrel Flower – “Hurt A Fly”

June 24, 2021 — Leave a comment

The American folk songstress who isn’t flowering above her language. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Planet (I)” (Available from June 25th, 2021) (via Polyvinyl Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s a warm day, so I’m here to equally warm your ears with another daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! New music comes from Squirrel Flower today – the alias of the Arlington-raised alternative Folk singer-songwriter Ella Williams, who gave herself her own nickname of her musical pseudonym when she was a child. Now living in Iowa, Williams has generated critical acclaim and positive buzz in the UK and overseas and, on Friday, she releases her second solo LP, ‘Planet (I)’, on Polyvinyl Records. It’s the follow-up to last year’s debut, ‘I Was Born Swimming’, a hazy effort, which she produced with Gabe Wax. The album earned unanimous praise from publications like Paste and NPR Music, and she was also named as Rolling Stone’s ‘Artist You Need To Know’ and The Guardian’s ‘One To Watch’ upon it’s highly anticipated release. She loves to be a visual artist too, and you can purchase the new album in a bundle with a 42-page notebook of photos and drafts, in full colour, chronicling the development of her record on her Bandcamp page if that interests you too. For now, let’s get a sampler of her stuff with ‘Hurt A Fly’.

Williams penned of the track’s concept, “Hurt A Fly is me embodying a persona of gaslighting, narcissistic soft boy type s**t”, adding, “It’s an angry and unhinged song, and for the video I wanted to be inside a bubble writhing around and trying to get out. A stranger filmed me practicing choreography at a public park, submitted it to a meme page making fun of ‘influencers’ and the video got 1,000,000 views, which, in my mind, is perfect thematically”, to her press release. I feel that Williams displays her character with plenty of energy on ‘Hurt A Fly’, with her low-pitched croon overlapping a slow, Grunge-driven set of deep angular guitar riffs. Lyrics like “Took it too far again/I thought you were my friend” and “Thought that I told you the storm ended/And I’m never wrong” are given a rich rhythm. The tone is smearing, but not violent, and I can hear the clear influences of Radiohead coming through in the meek vocals and the determined moods of the bass, which mimics her lyrical fury. The chorus unleashes a path of revenge where Williams questions: “Have you never made a mistake?” and “Have you never wound up kicking yourself in the face?”, as she takes things a step further in aggression. The outroduction finds Williams gradually grating to a measured stop, as she croons “But I just got the wrong idea in the morning, And I’m never wrong” as her voice glides over the instrumentation in a more soothing and sentimental manner than before, while the pulsating Drums become less hate-filled and the intensity of the percussion eventually winds down. The vocals from Williams are very strong and sturdy throughout, and I really enjoyed how she plays around with distortion in ‘Hurt A Fly’ because it conveys the perspective of gaslighting, of which she says the new track was written from, in an effective manner, as the overall sound builds it’s intensity. There’s nothing here that feels wildly unique or original, but the mismatch of Folk and Grunge is mixed in a way that feels organic and topical, and it’s still a memorable showing for Williams. Overall, it’s as solid as a squirrel’s nut.

Pictured: Squirrel Flower (Ella Williams) at World Cafe Live (2020) (Photo by Jamie Stow/WXPN)

That’s it for today! I’ll be here again tomorrow for our official ‘New Album Release Fridays’ feature as we delve deeper into one of the biggest weekly album releases. There’s stiff competition this week, but I’m really excited about this new band who I’ve covered on the blog once before, a group of former college friends who play with their musical moods and were born from the self-described ‘sleepy’ town of Fleet, Hampshire. I’m crossing my fingers that they may stop off at my city of Cambridge soon. Their debut album comes out tomorrow on Fiction Records – so please join me for more on that tomorrow. 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: Villagers – “The First Day”

June 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

Cudillero. Maribor. Shirakawa. Beautifal villages which nobody knows. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Fever Dreams” (LP) (Available from August 20, 2021) (via Domino Recordings)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for you to read your daily track on the blog, as always, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! I’ve got some brand new music to share with you, and this one reminded me of Sigur Ros and Fleet Foxes. ‘The First Day’ is the new single from Villagers – an Irish indie folk band from Dublin who, although I’m not massively familiar with them besides from ‘Trick Of The Light’, have been critically acclaimed over the years. Their resume includes Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello Awards, Q Awards, Choice Music Awards and Digital Socket Awards wins and nominations. They have also been on the touring circuit with Tracy Chapman, Grizzly Bear and Elbow. Their fifth studio album, ‘Fever Dreams’, has been added to the album release schedule, with a confirmed release date of August 20th for the Domino-signed new release. It follows the 2018 effort, ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’, and Villagers will be taking themselves on a UK tour to locations like Brighton, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, and Cambridge in October. Check out ‘The First Day’ below.

“I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself”, the band’s leading vocalist Conor O’Brien said on the escape and journey themes of the new record, adding, “Sometimes, the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams”, to his press release. Villagers also worked with director Daniel Brereton on the music video for ‘The First Day’, who were able to shoot the video with him on-set with casting and styling. The video is a great compliment to the track, with a black-and-grey filter matched by a disorienting mix of jumbled vocals soon paving the way for a ray of sunshine and light as soon as the warmer tones begin to emerge. The melodies are absorbing and kind, with a reflective Falsetto effect that gives the vocals a hand-painted quality. O’Brien is singing about “It’s like falling in love, on the first day of the rest of your life” as the cheerful hook is delivered over the top of a floating Brass instrumental and a choral backing vocal, after a pre-bridge that lets twinkling keyboard riffs and romanticized moods to carry the mood along. The verses are more psychedelic, with lines like “Feels like soft rain/feels like a sweet rhyme” and “Feels like a riverboat as it takes you to the sea/Feels like floating on the essence of a dream” that are delivered poetically, and with gentle chords, with a mix of Strings, and even an IDM-like synth line that crackles beneath the arrangement at spaced points, with an overall Folk-rooted song structure that keeps the band’s main genre explorations intact. Considering that I hadn’t heard much of Villagers before, I found myself very pleasantly suprised by this. The overall context and meaning is joyful, but vague, and so it’s easy for listeners to associate the bright emotions in different personal lights – like a wedding day, a graduation, or the jolly end of a tiresome pandemic, to name a few ideas. In any case, it’s lovely. The instrumentation is varied enough to keep the repetition of the hooks interesting, and it’s a brightly coloured adventure that celebrates the joys of living through a cinematic lens. It reminds me of American Authors ‘Best Day Of My Life’, but less one-note and more sonically developed. As Jim Carrey would say, its B-E-A-utifal.

Pictured: Conor O’Brien (Lead Vocals), Tommy McLaughlin (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Danny Snow (Bass Guitar), Cormac Curran (Keyboard) and James Byrne (Drums) (2013) (Photo by Rich Gilligan)

That’s all for now! Feel free to join me tomorrow as we delve deep into one of the weekend’s most notable new album releases. Head of the pack this time comes from a UK student radio favourite who makes her latest appearance on the blog to co-incide with the release day of her long-awaited new album. The self-described ‘Psychedelic R&B’ progressor who recently made her television debut in an episode of ‘Later… With Jools Holland’ on BBC Two. 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: Lord Huron – “Long Lost”

May 21, 2021 — Leave a comment

What do you name a Cowboy with an untidy bedroom? Messy James! New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Long Lost” (LP) (Released on May 21st, 2021) (via Inertia Music)

Good Afternoon to you! I hope that you’ve just had a lovely Lunch, because now it’s time for you to get ‘Long Lost’ into today’s track on the blog. I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! There’s two other albums I’m insterested in hearing this week: One from CHAI (More on that later) and the latest from Joey Pecoraro (Refer back to my Tuesday blog post for a taste of that). However, the new album from BBC Radio 1 playlisted Country/Folk singer-songwriter Billie Marten and the new LP offering from the former Super Furry Animals lead Gruff Rhys, among new EP’s from Biig Piig and Elkkar, are worthy of your time too. We’ve also got a new album from Michigan Alt-Folk outfit Lord Huron hitting store shelves too. The band are perhaps best known for ‘The Night We Met’, a track that has been streamed over 735 million times online. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Vide Noir’, which was their first release on a major label, in the form of Republic Records. ‘Long Lost’ has been teased through the group’s ‘Alive From Whispering Pines’ series that has seen them perform their previous tracks and debut new singles through ticketed livestream performances online, hosted by the enigmatic fictional figure, Mr. Tubbs Tarbell. Lord Huron also performed the first single, ‘Not Dead Yet’, on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show in the US. Get your ears lost into the LP’s title single below.

A letter from Mr. Tubbs Tarbell accompanied the press release for ‘Long Lost’ as a single, saying: “The new tune hinges on cinematic strings, dusty tambourine, and soft acoustic guitar before transmitting a dreamy vocal. It nods to Spaghetti Western soundtracks and 50’s pop in equal measure, as though Roy Orbinson and Ennio Morricone finally got around to collaborating”, concluding, “Meanwhile, the accompanying video further opens the window onto the expanding world of the album” in the text. That does my job for me, then. What strikes me about ‘Long Lost’ is that it manages to echo modern Folk bands that I enjoy, like The Mountain Goats or Fleet Foxes, but it also feels very old. The pacing isn’t terribly upbeat, but the hooks are somehow still catchy, with a lush soundscape of strings and tangy guitar licks that manages to give the single an absorbing atmosphere that feels cinematic and story-driven. Lyrically, the lead vocalist, Ben Schneider sings about a protagonist entering the wilderness to heal. Lyrics like “For a while I was held by the myth of the lost highway/In the spell of the night and the lights of the great white way” play on feeling a blissful disconnection to the outside world, and later lyrics like “Leave me where the moonbeams carve through the leaves like blades, Lay me in the tall-grown grass in a shallow grave” embrace nature despite a light melancholy. Eventually, the steady percussion and the trickling moods swoop in for a more triumphant chorus where Schneider sings “Send me to the mountains, Let me go free forever” and “I’ll be running in the forest/Dancing in the fields like this” to capture how it feels to live freely and enjoy the small circumstances of life. At this point, it’s easy to imagine some damaged figure reveling alongside a Stray dog for company in a Western movie dessert, perfectly content by just what he has. The concept feels imaginative and intriguing, and the backing vocals are particularly good on this. Lord Huron are a bit of a weird one where I had one friend who really got me into their previous album, however, I stopped listening after an initial week or so, and I’m not quite sure why. Apart from that, I’ve never known anyone else in the UK who has heard of them and I’ve never heard them being played once on BBC Radio 1, 2 – or even 6Music. I’m hoping the new album has a bit more replay value for me, however, for whatever reason that was. On a side note – they seem pretty popular in the US seems they got a spot on a mainstream talk show, but if you’re a fan here in the UK reading this, just give me a nudge in the comments section to let me know. Overall, though, I think this is brilliant. Atmospheric, original, inspired thoroughly in it’s style and it’s substance, and there are plenty of sumptuous melodies to get ‘Long Lost’ into. Very good indeed.

Pictured: Ben Schneider (Lead Vocals/Acoustic Guitar/Harmonica), Tom Renaud (Lead Guitar), Miguel Briseño (Bass Guitar/Keyboard/Theremin) & Mark Barry (Drums) (2018) (Photo via Jambase.com)

If you’re finding yourself getting ‘Long Lost’ into the sound of this – Make sure to explore what I had to share about the promotional single, ‘Not Dead Yet’, right here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/02/22/todays-track-lord-huron-not-dead-yet/

Pictured: Cover Art for “Not Dead Yet” (Single) (Released on Feb 19, 2021) (via Whispering Pines Studios)

That’s all, folks! Make sure to reconvene with me tomorrow for an in-depth look at another of the weekend’s new album releases, as we dive into the equally superb sounds of a Japanese Alt-Pop quartet signed to Sub-Pop Records who are making their second appearance on the blog. As I said the first time – they have become known for supporting Superorganism on tour in 2018, and last year, they collaborated on a tune with Gorillaz & JPEGMafia for the ‘Song Machine: Season One’ album and viral video series. 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: St. Vincent – “The Melting Of The Sun”

May 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Big Daddy Cool is finally home for his dollop of Daddie’s Ketchup. It’s new post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Daddy’s Home” (LP) (Released on May 14, 2021) (via Loma Vista Recordings)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to read your daily track on the blog, as per usual, and that’s because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You could say I’ve gone for the obvious choice for our pseudo Album Of The Week choice this time – but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right one. ‘Daddy’s Home’ is the sixth album to come from St. Vincent – also known as Oklahoman Singer-Songwriter Annie Clark – who has continually established herself as a modern icon of Alternative music, including a win for ‘Best Alternative Album’ at the Grammy’s in 2015 that, rather shockingly, made her the first solo female artist to win in that category in two decades. It’s the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s ‘Masseducation’, a record which continued to cement her as a highly valued talent, and it once again sees her co-producing it with Jack Antonoff, who worked with Clark on her prior release. Other than St. Vincent – this week, the actually-rather-good Jorja Smith provides some competition with her in the charts, mid-90’s Trip-Hop/Soul staples Morcheeba are back for another go-around which I might actually check out, The Black Keys are back for another timely summer release of theirs (I know my Uncle is a huge fan of them), and rapper J. Cole drops his swiftly announced latest. I’ve certainly been on the bandwagon for the hype towards Annie Clark’s latest, and we took an in-depth look into her work as part of our International Women’s Day post on the blog a few months ago. She appeared on ‘Saturday Night Live’ to perform ‘The Melting Of The Sun’ – a sampler for the LP – Check it out below.

It’s been well-documented in the press campaign for ‘Daddy’s Home’ that St. Vincent was inspired to create her latest body of work by the events of her father’s release from prison two years ago, for white-collar crime, as well as his Vinyl collection that she grew up hearing in the 1970’s, as Clark teased to NME, “One of the things about ‘Daddy’s Home’ is that there is a literal and autobiographical element to it, but also, I’m daddy now”, adding, “It’s hard for me to parcel out what is what. I just make the world. I don’t think too much about compartmentalizing it”, when referring to the New York City aesthetics of the early 1970’s that she built up the visual groundwork for her new record around. Clark is very much a visual artist, and she’s known for playing around with her image in subsequent releases, a trend that feels contextualized through her parallels to Prince and her Bowie-like reinvention on tracks like ‘The Melting Of The Sun’. It has a title which implies a chilled out and blissful tone. It’s a psychedelic wonder – with distorted vocals that stand out. Lyrically, she references cultural figures like Marilyn Monroe and Joni Mitchell, as she pays homage to female creatives who fought in a hostile or challenging environment, ultimately achieving some success by respecting their own core principles, despite meeting grizzly ends, with the sour in the sweetness being depicted in Clark’s song by trippy effects and long harmonies. The instrumentation blends soulful backing vocals and subdued Piano work with curved, warping Synth sequences and slow Electronic melodies that give the track a crooked, experimental feel. Overall, a kaleidoscopic and dream-like atmosphere is created, one which balances the nightmarish subtleties of the quiet, yet tense String sections and the deliberately perfectionist Drum beats that reveal a mysteriously blissful, yet relaxed angle to the narrative that Clark is continually shaping to meet her own ends of her artistry. There’s an excellent closing stretch to the single, and it feels paced out naturally, where the vintage Gospel influences begin to really shine through and the shout-out’s to her female icons finally comes across in a more celebratory light. I think it’s slightly stronger than her previous single – ‘Play Your Way In Pain’ – in the ways that it feels complex – yet human, and the discussions of female experience in the Golden age of the 70’s and the very different sound to the ‘Indie’ capabilities of her peers continue to single her out as a true artist of her craft. You can tell very easily from her live SNL performance that she loves embodying a character, and I can see many parallels between Clark and the likes of Kate Bush or Bjork in the ways that Clark simply makes music to express an honest creativity, and is never afraid to experiment with her musicality or her image to achieve her goals. It’s beautifully tireless, and I have nothing but positive things to say about Clark and her work at this point in her career. Sumptuous to a tee.

Pictured: St. Vincent at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards (2020) (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

As aforementioned, St. Vincent was the featured artist of our International Women’s Day celebration post previously on the blog for this year, and if you missed the boat on that piece, why not take a minute to enjoy it? Follow the link here to read it: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/03/08/international-womens-day-2021-special-st-vincent-digital-witness-2014/

Pictured: Cover Art for “St. Vincent” (LP) (Released on Feb 24th, 2014) (via Loma Vista Recordings)

That’s enough rave reviewing for one day! If you want more content, however, meet me back here tomorrow for an in-depth introduction to a duo of Chicago funky house producers who have known each other since the age of three, a nostalgic realization of childhood that feels reflected very well in their debut LP, which was released a few weeks ago on the Foreign Family Collective label. 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: Ohtis (feat. Stef Chura) – “Schatze”

March 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

Disassembling the self-absorption of the typical anti-social social guy. New post time!

Pictured: Sam Swinson, Adam Pressley and Nate Hahn (in 2019) (Photo via TheLineOfBestFit.com)

Good Afternoon to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’ve got tonight’s radio show queued up on Myriad, and so it’s time for me to jump onto the blog to concisely type up this text about your track of the day, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A little bit like Cee Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’ – I get the sense that the uncensored edit of Ohtis’ ‘Schatze’ is largely different to the proper version. Based variously in Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago – the oddball Alternative Country-Rock trio have enlisted the help of Stef Chura for a new single, which is the latest entry in the ‘Document’ series of rarity releases from their label, Saddle Creek Records. A Vinyl release for the single is also available too, although you can stream this track for free on streaming platforms as well. I haven’t heard much about Ohtis before I heard this track, which stood out to me on a recent episode of BBC Radio 6 Music recommends with Steve Lamacq, but I’ve read that their 2019 album, ‘Curve On Earth’, was received very positively, and the title’s subject matter was based on vocalist Sam Swinson’s early experiences of being raised among a cult. On that interesting note – check out the music video for their new single below.

‘Schatze’ finds the mischievous musical trio of Otis linking up with Detroit DIY-based songwriter Stef Chura, with the latter saying “I’ve always loved Ohtis and Curve of Earth is one of my favorite recent releases to come out. Sam is a rare songwriter. He speaks from an honest and dark place with a sincerity that I think is refreshing and deeply relatable. Adam is an old friend who was living down the street from me in Detroit at the time this collaboration came to be tossed around. I think someone on my Instagram kept asking me about doing a song with them… So I made a poll as a joke which led to the inevitable. When they showed me the song and the call and response format I was instantly in love with it.” about the collaboration in a press release. Built on a witty call-and-response format of the male vocals and the female vocals, the artists tackle modern themes of anti-social males to amusing results. The track probably has more F-bombs than the ‘Deadpool’ movies, with rhymes like “You had to get clean, you were getting drunk and being mean, Going to the bar and causing a scene” and “You were f***ing around, Anybody that you found” among the fiery exchange between the two characters. Bold, bright and amusing – the guitar work leans into bouncy Lo-Fi garage and the synths make for a lush 80’s-inspired Post Rock backing. The sense of humor injects a wide sense of personality into the track, with lines like “F**k you very much sir, it’s my pleasure” and “Then you got cancelled on Instagram” making for some laugh-out loud moments. At it’s core, however, is an amusing assessment of social media culture and attitudes towards masculinity in the diversity-driven year of 2021. The comedy is smart, with the effing-and-jeffing and the buoyant sound textures making the track instantly stand out – even if your mileage may vary on all of the swearing. I like it however, and I find it to be charming. A very appealing and edgy piece overall, and after 27 nights and 28 days of listening on-repeat when playing video games, it becomes a Schatze. It’s my treasure – Absolutely.

Pictured: Vinyl copy of “Curve Of Earth” (Released on Mar 29, 2019) (Photo via RoughTrade.com)

We’ve all got busy lives – and that’s all I’ve got time for today! ‘New Album Release Friday’ is on for tomorrow as usual, however, as we take an in-depth look at one of the weekend’s new album releases. This week’s pick is one that I have quickly been getting excited about – and it comes from a Brooklyn-based Experimental Soul musician signed up to the Secretly Canadian who has been co-producing his latest material with Sampha and Lil Silva. 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: Postdata – “Twin Flames”

March 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

It’s like a hard drive filled with sorted data – Information in formation. New post time!

Pictured: POSTDATA (aka Paul Murphy) in a PR shoot (2021) (Photo via GodIsInTheTVZine.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and, once again, it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily music musing on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You might know Paul Murphy better as a part of the Polaris Music Prize-nominated Canadian indie folk outfit Wintersleep, but when he is not busy scraping up the Juno Award – like in 2008 – with that band, You’ll find him working on his own solo side project, POSTDATA. The project features a rotating collective of supporting musicians who work with Murphy on typically Acoustic-oriented tracks, albeit with some vital elements of Electronica music stirred into the mix. His fourth album to be released under the moniker, ‘Twin Flames’ saw the light of day on March 5th via Paper Bag Records. This body of work looks at the weathering of storms – both physically and symbolically – with intricately detailed soundscapes, and it features some guest work from Frightened Rabbit’s Andy Monaghan and Murphy’s Wintersleep bandmate Tim D’Eon, with co-production work from Ali Chant (Perfume Genuis, Portishead). Let’s sample the titular cut down below.

“This was initially an instrumental track”, Murphy said of the single release, before co-producer Ali Chant suggested he slowed it down and added a small bit of Spoken Word vocals over the top to enhance it, and Murphy added: “It’s a love song but also felt really poignant personally during full pandemic lockdown this idea of weathering storms. Enduring them. Inhabiting them. Becoming them.” for more context. In the end, what may have started out as a simple ode to love has been transformed into a carefully layered piece crafted with diverse instrumentation, where Murphy’s vocals are wrapped up in some poetic delivery accompanied by a sumptuous melody that feels sorrowful, but intimate and gentle. Lyrics like “To the blink of a moment, For a fraction of a second” are beautifally matched with samples of children singing about the weather, while lines like “In the motionless night, At the speed of light, We were never really here” feel more romantic. The chorus raises the variety up a notch, as an acidic synth beat gets added to the mix, which symbolizes the strikes of Thunder as the conversation between two partners takes place amidst the stormy night. A brief, introspective set of more verses come in to the frame, where the repeated riff of “Until there was nothing left, to say or be afraid of, Only love and death” reflects the feel of navigating the complexity of an obtrusive, overwhelming situation. It goes for a whimsical quality, as the Folk-led vocals dip in and out of the fragmented Spoken Word delivery. The brief Brass section at the end is a stand-out, while the main bulk of the track feels softer, as various sequences of layered instrumentals slowly build the tension of the track. Overall, it makes for an interesting listen, where the vocals feel internal and expressive, with the instrumentation working to create a narrative for the proverbial storm, which is weighed down by tonal shifts. A stillness after the Thunder.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Twin Flames” (LP) (Released on March 5th, 2021) (via Paper Bag Records)

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post – But that’s all I have time for today! We’re going to be dialing back the time machine tomorrow, however, for a new entry in our weekly ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature. The track comes from one of the centerpieces of English Electronic music, who used to be the flagship act for the Manchester-based indie label Factory Records and the North Western club The Hacienda, and the band are also known for their collaborations with long-term graphic designer Peter Saville over the decades. I’ve got some ‘True Faith’ in this lesser-known single for the group to deliver the goods. 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: William Doyle – “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Fine)”

March 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Sometimes it’s like an hourglass with no sand in it. It’s a waist of time. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Great Spans Of Muddy Time” (Released on March 19, 2021) (via XL Recordings)

Top ‘O’ The Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up right here for your daily track on the blog, because, just like always, it is routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s time for us to grab a sample of one of this week’s new album releases. The new crop includes the new offering from Americana mega-star Lana Del Rey, the fourth album from Oscar-nominated South African singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou, the debut album from the hotly tipped indie rock band Middle Kids, and there’s a debut EP from the emotive Dream-Rock band Bleach Lab. Since William Doyle – formerly known as East India Youth – was listed at the top of Deep Cuts’ Best Albums Of The 2010’s list for 2019’s ‘Your Wilderness Revisited’, which got some ecstatic reviews, I felt that his new album would be a great choice for us this week. Despite only being 30, Doyle seems something of a perfectionist, with ambient and instrumental side-projects, and a stint as the lead vocalist of Doyle and The Fourtfathers, to his name. He’s got plenty of experience, and so there is solid potential for ‘Great Spans Of Muddy Time’ – which arrives today via Tough Love Records – to shine this year. It’s been a rocky road to release, since he dealt with a hard-drive failure, leaving Doyle with only cassette recordings of each track on the record. This left a direct impact on the sonic direction and audio quality of the new record, which is named after a quote that he took from the memoirs of the BBC presenter Monty Don. He describes it to the press as a theme of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the UK’s verdant rural pastures looking to make some sense. Let’s stream ‘And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)’ below.

Even just the front cover of the album’s artwork is a looker. I feel that this creates a contrast of vibrancy that juxtaposes with the mundanity of the lyrics exploring the standstill of the life cycle in ‘And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)’, which Doyle has told the press that “Like other favorite songs of mine, this arrived when I least expected it, almost fully formed. It’s partly a reaction to the complexity and excess of my last album. I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts.” in his notes. Starting with a folk-led, acoustic guitar backing – Doyle deconstructs his Art-Rock roots to their very core. The analog synth work creates a washing wave of ambience, before Doyle softly sings lines like “As time rolled in from the East, The love stopped it’s happening” and “As though it had been agreed, Like wind blowing off the leaves” as distorted bass guitar chords and vocal harmonies pop in for a brief moment. The next section is pretty striking, as off-kilter guitar solo’s and a reverb effect on his voice adds some changes and shifts to the instrumentation and the tone of the package itself. Most notably, I think there’s something about the track which feels right for the time that we’re living in right now. With the synth work feeling analog-based and expansive, and the darker shades of the sonic production in the final section of the track, it is an effective reflection of the restrictions that we’ve been living under – for what feels like forever – currently. It ultimately brings a lack of excitement to our day-to-day lives, and Doyle seems to depict this accurately as he comments on the blurred lines between habit and instinct. The instrumentation, such as the loosely packed synths towards the end, and the meticulous guitar patterns that split up during the chorus, and the basic lines like “I’m always dimming the light switch” also make a point of the necessity in our believing in intuition, while persevering in the most difficult of situations. It feels like perhaps the most obvious choice for a single from the new long-player, due to it’s accessibility – with relatable lyrics and fairly stripped-down production – but it feels articulate and it still makes some noteworthy commentary on how the pandemic has stripped us down to our basic instincts. Overall, the effort put into this can really be heard because I think it succeeds very well. More moving than it seems at first glance.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Your Wilderness Revisited” (Released on November 1, 2019) (via XL Recordings)

That’s all I’ve got time for today! Scuzz Sundays returns in two days time, and so you’ve got that weekly entry to look forwards to. In the meantime, however, I’ve got some new music to share with you tomorrow – which features the mainstream-friendly names of KT Tunstall and Peaches as featured vocalists. The main artists, however, are a US Garage-Rock duo based in Los Angeles who have opened for Blondie and Garbage in their ‘Rage and Rapture’ tour of 2017. They also released a collaborative album with The Flaming Lips two years later. 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: Julien Baker – “Hardline”

February 26, 2021 — Leave a comment

Could this Baker’s dozen have done with a bit more time in the oven? New Post Time!

Pictured: Julien Baker performing in an Isol-Aid livestream (2020) (Photo via TheLineOfBestFit.com)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, as it’s routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! It’s New Release Friday – and this week’s line-up looks pretty stacked. On paper, we’ve got the return of underrated Geordie’s Maximo Park (More on that tomorrow!), the first new album release in a decade from Instrumental Jazz ensemble Menahan Street Band, a bright new EP from Deap Vally, a neat new collection from Acoustic Singer-Songwriter Lucy Spraggan, and a few others. To many music lovers, however, the most anticipated new LP release this week comes from the Tennessee-born Alternative Folk singer-songwriter Julien Baker, whose third studio record, “Little Oblivions”, is out today via Matador Records. This 12-track production has been absolutely hyped to the hills since “Hardline” was released as the lead single by the internet music community, and Baker is really tipped to be one of 2021’s biggest break-out artists after showing promise in her earlier material – similarly to the way that Phoebe Bridgers found huge success with “Punisher” last year, which may be no coincidence seeing that Baker and Bridgers, along with Lucy Dacus, used to be a part of the trio Boygenuis. The stop-motion video for “Hardline” was directed by Joe Baughman. Let’s see what the fuss is about below.

An LGBT artist, Baker is known for her somber and emotional work, which has been informed by her run-in’s with Christianity in the time of her upbringing, and the new album deals with themes of spirituality, addiction, mental health and human interaction. It is also her first album to have a full “backing bound” sound, with Baker touching on the inspirations behind the “Hardline” and it’s video by noting: “I don’t know why I have the impulse to write songs or make tiny sculptures out of plane tickets. But here it is anyway: A bunch of things I’ve collected and carried with me that I’ve re-organized into a new shape” in the earlier press notes for the track. These ideas of re-shaping an experience into something more useful is a common thread for “Hardline” to bounce off, as the bass-led opening feels violent to a point, before the track feels more soothed when Baker’s vocals enter the fray. The lyrics are very plentiful, with long verses that frequently touch on questioning yourself and contemplating the trust you have for others. The most striking lyric, for me, is when Baker croons: “For all the future things I will destroy” under a light bed of electronics, before the arrival of a more restrained bridge, leading into “Til then I split the difference/Between medicine and poison” until the tempo increases and the crackling Synth melodies begin to monitor a sound reminiscent of a heart monitor in a hospital. “I can see where this is going, But I can’t find the brake” seems to be the cue point for the heavy instrumentals to become more aggressive, before we slowly build to the end where Baker sings “Took it farther/Draw a hardline/When I cross it/It’s the third time” as the softer and more acoustic guitar instrumentation trades places with the crying qualities of the synths. It becomes quite a stressful experience to listen to at times, with hard subject matter of intoxicating themes of alcohol complementing the avalanche nature of the drums and the rumbling of the Organ-like instrumentals. It never really feels like these elements are battling for control, however, as the lyrics feel expansive and internalized, and I think it’s good overall. This is really one of my first experiences with Baker, but I think she connects with modern LGBT culture in a way that feels authentic. Although it sounds very cliche to write, it is very powerful. The production feels expressive and unsullied by auto-tune. Maybe a bit intense for some, but there’s a chance it may really grow on me over time.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Little Oblivions” (Released on February 26th, 2021) (via Matador Records)

Well, that’s the end of another week! “Scuzz Sunday” takes place in a mere 48 hours or so, but, before then, as hinted towards earlier in the post, we’re going to be taking a look at some brand new stuff from Maximo Park’s new album tomorrow. The Geordie Alternative Rock band were nominated for the Mercury Prize with their debut album, “A Certain Trigger”, in 2005. Since then, the now-trio have recorded six more albums – two of which have achieved Gold certified sales here in the UK. 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/