New Album Release Fridays: Soccer 96 (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis) – ‘Yesterday Knows Me’

May 6, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Inner Worlds’ (LP/Album) (Released on May 6th, 2022) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has finally arrived for us to enjoy some celestial analog Synths and lumbering Hi-Hat Drums with yet 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! Sharon Van Etten, Belle and Sebastian, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Sunflower Bean, Peaness and – as my mother just informed me earlier this morning – Emeli Sande are all taking advantage of the warm weather (and a gap in the release schedule before Kendrick Lamar unleashes his new cryptic juggernaut next week) with new albums this week. Another LP release worth keeping an eye on is the latest album by the London-based Prog-Jazz duo Soccer96, which is comprised of keyboardist Dan Leavers (Danalogue) and drummer Max Hallett (Betamax) who are also members of The Comet Is Coming. The two musicians like to keep busy in their separate careers as well. Leavers has performed alongside Scratcha DVA and Henry Lu, and he has produced albums for Ibibio Sound Machine, Snapped Ankles and Flamingods. Meanwhile, Hallett is also a member of Hot Head Show and Super Best Friends Club – and he’s also played the live drums with Sons Of Kemet, Yussef Kamal and Melt Yourself Down. They have become a regular addition to my digital library with their ethereal blend of Sci Fi-leaning Electronica, post-apocalyptic Ambient and poly-rhythmic Grime-Jazz. For their live sets, the diverse duo also pride themselves on using no laptops, sequencers or software when they perform, instead opting to play each of their parts in the moment. ‘Inner Worlds’ is the follow-up to last year’s ‘Dopamine’, an ambitious record based loosely on a narrative centered around a corrupt AI system that landed a spot on my very own ‘Top 25 Best Albums Of The Year’ 2021-end list that was published back in January on the blog. It releases today digitally, but it won’t be available to purchase on physical formats until May 27th via Moshi Moshi Records. The leading single – ‘Yesterday Knows Me’ – enlists the aid of Salami Rose Joe Louis, who previously provided the vocals for ‘Sitting On A Satellite’ that was taken off 2021’s ‘Dopamine’. Check out the music video for the single below.

Rozi Plain, Simbad, Tom Herbert and The Colours That Rise also appear on the new release, and Soccer96 pitch it for your pleasure by noting, “We’ve been reflecting on the relationship between our inner worlds and outer worlds, how our minds shape our experience and our experience shapes our mind“, in the LP’s product description on their Bandcamp profile, concluding, “How caring and nurturing our inner worlds can improve our relationship with our outer experiences. We see the creation of music as the bridge between these two worlds“, in their own words. Building off the unorthodox time signatures and Space-Pop synths of ‘Dopamine’, Soccer96 invite us all into the alluring and deliberately mechanical tone of ‘Inner Worlds’ with a typically whimsical arrangement of multi-layered vocals and gently Trip Hop-leaning instrumentals. Their beats feel ‘broken’ and ‘wonky’ to a characteristic degree, and they are tuned well to the sounds of the Soul-tinged vocals by Joe Louis that feel slow-burning and almost robotic in delivery. Instrumentally, it’s all about the texture for Soccer96 as always, as the duo continue to lay out their formula of intense textures and rather meticulous compositions that straddle the line between chaos and order like a well-balanced walk on a tight rope, while giving off the hazy and psychedelic vibes that distort the vocals and loop the drums in a sense of propulsion that slowly ascends and descends gradually. The crunching break-beat plays catch up to the more upbeat keyboard work for the most part, while the sequences bass ostinato provides subtle hints to 70’s Psych-Funk and 90’s New-Age recordings at differing points. Towards the end, there’s also a squelching solo where the electronics are really turned up to eleven and replace the wide-eyed mood of the verses with an extra angle being added between the melee of the drums and keyboard where the cut is more focused on brute sonic impact. Musically, the lead single feels very varied while the barely audible lyrics add another dimension to the light grooves. The cohesion is solid though, and there’s certainly the creativity here to warrant the genre-fluid variety of styles feeling suitable together. It’s not really a major departure in sound for the duo, but it shows the experimental and independent duo doing what they do best and embracing their creative freedom to deliver a fascinating and imaginative tapestry of textures, moods and functions. This is bound to be another Soccer96 record that you should not miss.

Pictured: Dan Leavers (Keyboard/Synths) and Max Hallett (Drums/Percussion) (2021) (Photo Credit: William Barnes)

Looking for more where that came from? Check out my previous Soccer96 post here:

‘Sitting On A Satellite’ (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis) (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/09/24/new-album-release-fridays-soccer96-feat-salami-rose-joe-louis-sitting-on-a-satellite/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Dopamine’ (Released on September 24th, 2021) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

That brings us to the bottom of the page once again, and I thank you very much for your support today and over the years. Remarkably, I have just reached the milestone of 1,000 posts being published on the site, as of yesterday. There will be no new daily post tomorrow in the traditional sense, but please stay tuned to the homepage and the social media profiles for an important announcement arriving in the coming days.

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Today’s Track: Blue Lab Beats (feat. Fela Kuti, Killbeatz, Kaidi Akinnibi & Poppy Daniels) – ‘Motherland Journey’

April 4, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Namali Kwaten (aka NK-OK) and David Mrkapor (aka Mr DM) (2019) (Photo Credit: Blue Note Records)

Good Afternoon to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, as usual, and I’m writing fresh off this marathon of a WWE WrestleMania 38 weekend 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! Pitching their sound as “Jazz-Tronica”, Blue Lab Beats are the North London-based experimental electronic music duo of sampler and producer Namali Kwaken (aka NK-OK) and multi-instrumentalist David Mrkaor (aka Mr DM) who have sat in the additional production seats for their work with artists like Ruby Francis and Age Of Luna, and they have remixed A-list pop culture superstars like Dua Lipa and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man. The follow-up to 2021’s ‘We Will Rise’ EP is the Grammy award-winning and MOBO-nominated musicians’ latest full-length studio album ‘Motherland Journey’ which they released in late February on the legendary Blue Note Records label. The new creative project explores a whole suite of Avant-Jazz, Prog-Jazz, Afro-Funk, Trip Hop, Boom Bap, Northern Soul and Contemporary R&B influences, and it has been described as an “extremely special album” to the duo, who say, “This album took us two-and-a-half-years to finish, or longest process to make an album, but it was so worth it. On this album you’ll hear many fusions of genres and inspirations that we gathered throughout that time frame and especially to work on so many of the songs during the first lockdown, it was a test in itself”, about their recent release. The title track samples Afrobeat activist icon Fela Kuti’s 70’s song ‘Everything Scatter’ and they were given permission by the BLB estate themselves to use that sample. It features guest contributions from Kaidi Akinnibi and Poppy Daniels, while they also travelled to Ghana to record it along with Killbeatz as the producer. Let’s give it a spin.

Much like all of the classic Afrobeat music releases of the 70’s and 80’s, ‘Motherland Journey’ is designed to replicate a communal experience where all of the different influences and the guest contributors are welcome as long as the album’s flow is not disrupted, and the duo also comment, “When we got confirmation to have Fela Kuti’s vocals from his publishers in Nigeria we were honestly blown away that he could really feature on our tracks. An absolute dream come true.”, on Kuti’s featured artist credit for the eclectic track. The track gets off to a bright and warm start immediately, with a quickly established groove formed by the percussive African drums and the prominent Amapiano stabs that pulls apart the standard tropes of their favourite genres with the introduction of the electronic music elements and the sparse guitar melodies to give the classic sound a more modern, updated feel. The pair layer up some of the Trumpet samples and the Afrobeat-tinged backing vocals together to blur the contrasted electronic and organic sounds together occasionally, but the rotating instrumentals and the upbeat textures creates the most dominant impression where we’re witnessing something improvisational and organic from a live house band, like the performers who used to visit Kuti’s shrines at the heart of the Afrobeat cultural movement, who are simply taking to center stage and jamming with one another, creating a timeless feeling as opposed to overtly recycling outdated ideas for simply nostalgic effect. It is not necessarily futuristic, but it feels well-built and structured neatly, with new melodies being bought into the mix to keep the grooves from getting a little tiresome. Overall, ‘Motherland Journey’ is a wonderfully encouraging listen that pulls off a fresh re-boot of it’s ideas by blending the organic percussion of the classic Afrobeat days with the progressive electronic production standards that we’re used to hearing more often from the west. The final results feel quite accessible and engaging to a fairly wide audience, without the feeling of commercialism ever truly dominating their sound in a blatant way. It just feels timeless and eminently buoyant.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Motherland Journey’ (LP) (Released on February 25th, 2022) (via Blue Note Records)

That brings us to the end of another uplifting track on the blog, and thank you for continuing to support the site. I’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the new single from an Oxford-born classically trained electronic music producer who has been covered more than once before, since I’m such a huge fan of his work. He’s going to release his first album in a decade this July, and his collaborative single ‘Heartbreak’, which he created with Bonobo, was nominated for this year’s ‘Best Dance/Electronic Recording’ honour at the Grammy awards. The British musician is currently based in Los Angeles.

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Today’s Track: GoGo Penguin – ‘Ascent’

March 15, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Chris Illingworth (Piano), Nick Blacka (Bass Guitar) & Jon Scott (Drums) (2021) (Photo by Emily Dennison)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to rise to the occasion for yet 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! You can hear the break-beat’s and minimalist ambient Piano section of Aphex Twin’s discography, Electronica-inspired drums that could be right out of Squarepusher’s playbook, the groove-oriented blueprints of the heavyweights of contemporary classical composers like Phillip Glass, and countless more influences like Trip-Hop and Nu-Jazz in the music of the Manchester-formed Progressive Jazz band GoGo Penguin, who we previously covered in time for their self-titled album release in 2020 with the engaging single ‘F Maj Pixie’. Two years later and the Mercury-Prize nominated modern classical composers are back with ‘Ascent’, a deep 4-minute minimalist ambient piece that takes it’s inspiration from the likes of Brian Eno, Massive Attack and Radiohead. The band are currently signed to the French independent label Blue Note Records and are one of the label’s best-selling artists in selling in excess of 300,00 albums. The new track is also their first to feature the new drummer Jon Scott, who has replaced Rob Turner, a departure which was announced via Bands In Town and the group’s other social media platforms last December. If you live in Cambridgeshire, you can catch GoGo Penguin at The Junction on November 9th. Let’s give their newest single a spin.

Jon Scott’s name was the first to come up when the band was looking for a new drummer as bassist Nick Blacka had played some Jazz gigs with him when they started out in Manchester years ago and they have crossed paths several times since, and so the freshly re-established trio retreated to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Real World’ studios in Wiltshire to work on new material late last year, becoming stronger by the pandemic as a result of being unable to tour. Talking about ‘Ascent’ in a press release found on the Terrorbird website, pianist Chris Illingworth says, “The composition takes it’s inspiration from the duality often found in the big events in our lives, moments that can simultaneously make us feel both loved and isolated, fearful but confident, proud and humbled”, adding, “Ascent expresses the journey through these experiences in life, moving forward into the unknown, but with hope not fear”, in the trio’s statement. All things considered on that front, ‘Ascent’ starts off with a peaceful tone as a stuttering drum opening paves the way for a signature minimal Piano beat to create waves of arpeggiated Piano melodies to form the meditative groove for the main bulk of the well-structured and steadily sequenced track. The Piano pattern is repetitious, but it is well-developed because it is supported by a neatly balanced rhythm section and a backdrop of warmth in textures throughout, with elements of roots-flavored Jazz and electronic dance that introduce a morphing set of fresh melodies into the fray frequently enough. The cohesive and percussive drum patterns convey the reflective tone tidily, while the electronic elements and slight club music motifs make the piece feel more modern and contemporary overall. ‘Ascent’ provides for a peaceful and emotionally varied space for escapism, relaxation and enjoyment while being held together by a robust yet reliable rhythm. It definitely reminds me of Richard D. James’ downtempo Piano work, and, as a huge fan of Aphex, I find this particular influence to be appealing. Despite introducing a fresh member to their ranks and rebuilding chemistry – I felt that ‘Ascent’ picked up right where they left off.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘GoGo Penguin’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on June 5th, 2020) (via Blue Note Records)

If you love ‘Ascent’ and want to hear more of this band, you can Go Go here for more:

‘F Maj Pixie’ (2020) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/11/todays-track-gogo-penguin-f-maj-pixie/

Pictured: Chris Illingworth & Nick Blacka with their former member Rob Turner (2020) (Photo Credit: Jon Shard)

That’s all for today! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, I hope that you enjoyed reading it and your support is always highly appreciated! I’ll be back tomorrow as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ on the blog, as we revisit an indie rock favourite from 2006 that KEXP presenter Abbie Gobeli recently reminded me of. The title track of an album with the same name, the dance-rock meets garage revival number has been proclaimed as the unofficial theme track for the popular British 00’s drama ‘Skins’ because it was used a lot on the DVD menu and promotional material for the programme. The associated album reached #1 on the UK Indie chart.

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Today’s Track: Maylee Todd – ‘Show Me’

March 10, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Toronto’s Maylee Todd in a recent photoshoot to promote ‘Maloo’ (2022) (Photo via TheStar.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for me to guide you through yet another exciting daily track on the blog from a very brave and ambitious singer-songwriter, given how it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Brave’ and ‘Ambitious’ are just two words that describe the Toronto-based Art Pop musician Maylee Todd, who is new to this young writer’s eardrums, who has experimented with instruments as obscure as the Paraguayan Harp and the Tenori-on in her career since she began recording material in the 00’s. Todd has played across numerous festivals including the Crossover Jazz Fest and the Billboard Live Stage, she has performed alongside the likes of Janelle Monae, The Budos Band, Aloe Blacc and Thundercat on stage throughout the years, and she contributed her vocals to Bob Wiseman’s collaborative LP release ‘Giuletta Masina At The Oscars Crying’ in 2012. Todd was also the creator of Virtual Womb, a practical art exhibition where the audience walks through an enlarged CGI image of a Vagina and lies on the floor, awaiting the vibrant projections that float across on the ceiling, in 2017. Maylee Todd’s music seems just as visual and provoking, as a wide assortment of Indie Pop, Prog Jazz, Psych Funk, Bossa Nova and more have been incorporated into the sounds of her musical projects. Her latest full-length album – ‘Maloo’ – was released on March 4th via Stones Throw Records – an eclectic Funk, Jazz and Soul specialist label based in Los Angeles, California that has introduced several amazing artists like MNDSGN, John Carroll Kirby and Kiefer to my streaming libraries throughout the last few years of my work. Let’s give ‘Show Me’ a listen below.

To produce her latest artsy-craftsy LP project, Maylee Todd spent a lot of time researching VR throughout the pandemic, which led to some ideas on utopian, futuristic technology. The result is ‘Maloo’, a fictional character that she has designed in virtual reality that she created while working on the story and setting of a prototype VR video game, as she learned the skills of 3D modelling and body tracking to bring her vision to life. Dubbed as ‘The Age Of Energy’, a virtual space where the character is based, the concept album and the ‘Maloo’ avatar are influenced by intimate, personal origins. As Todd writes, “We participate in the digital landscape and our digital life has real-life implications”, in her press statement. Musically, she wrote and recorded ‘Show Me’ as the introductory single with the Yamaha Tenori-on – a discontinued electronic sequencer that was built by Toshio Iwai, a Japanese interactive media and installation artist. Her single begins with some glitched keyboard chords that convey visuals of futuristic cyberspace and post-modern technology immediately. The bass grooves grow deeper as her downtempo vocals become more hypnotic, and she allures you in to ‘Show Me’ with a noticeably Soulful skew that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Sly & The Family Stone or a Toro Y Moi record in it’s nostalgic, but free-form, nature. Lyrics like “Watch the birds, take their form/Icy hands, blood is warm” complement the peaceful and tranquil vibes, while the minimalist chorus of “Show me, your heart” is deep and intimate in it’s Lo-Fi textures. ‘Maloo’ may be conceptually driven and visually influenced at large, but the single is accessible enough to a fairly mainstream because it feels simple yet not simplistic. I also really admire the work that Todd has put into ‘giving the project her all’ by focusing on how the audio-visual aspects of the piece were written in tandem with her vocals. It reminds me of Bjork and St. Vincent, who are undoubtedly driven artists that have similar characteristics of boldness and communicating an idea through all aspects of the media at their disposal. In conclusion, it seems clear that Maylee Todd has a lot more to ‘Show Me’ – and I look forwards to seeing the rest of it.

Pictured: Vinyl Copy of ‘Maloo’ (LP/Album) (Released on March 4th, 2022) (via Stones Throw Records)

(That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you very much for reading what I had to say about Maylee Todd for a few moments today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to guide you through a sneek peek at one of the weekend’s notable and new album releases. This week’s post involves the debut LP release from an emerging Alternative Rock 4-piece Post-Rock band who have been supported by the daytime playlist of BBC Radio 6 Music and they have been praised by NME. If you’re a fan of hard rock outfits such as Coach Party and Kid Kapichi – you’re going to enjoy it!

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Today’s Track: Ibibio Sound Machine – ‘Electricity’

November 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Eno Williams (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter/Producer), Scott Baylis (Synths/Trumpet), Max Grunhard (Saxophone/Synths), Alfred Kari Bannerman (Lead Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals), Tony Hayden (Trombone/Synths), Phillip PK Ambrose (Bass Guitar), Anselmo Netto (Percussion) and Joseph Amoako (Drums) performing at the Pool Recording Studio, London for NPR’s ‘World Cafe’ (2019) (Photo via Kimberly Junod/WXPN)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to take you through yet another eclectic variety of sounds with 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! Led by Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine are a ten-piece Afro Jazz collective that she formed with producers Benji Bouton, Leon Brichard and Max Grunhard in 2013 with their idea of combining the unique vocals of the Ibibio language that she used to speak whilst growing up in Nigeria with both traditional West African and more modern electronic music elements. Although currently based in London, Williams sings her lyrics in both English and the Nigerian tongue of Ibibio, and the group are known for taking their musical inspirations from the golden ages of West African Funk and Dance music, modern Post-Rock and Electro-Pop music. Since forming, the band have been interested in creating music which fuses elements of 1990’s Drum & Bass and 1980’s Afrobeat. The band also notably performed at KEXP’s ‘International Clash Day’ event in January 2019, and they have since linked up with Merge Records to issue 2017’s ‘Uyai’ and 2019’s ‘Doko Mien’ for release, with their self-titled debut album being released on Soundway Records in 2014. Their latest single, ‘Electricity’, was premiered by Lauren Laverne during her breakfast show on BBC Radio 6 Music a pair of weeks ago, and it was recorded in Hot Chip’s studio. The group will also be embarking on a UK tour next March and April, including dates in Bath, Birmingham, Worthing, Newcastle, Manchester, London and Leeds. Let’s give it a spin.

Giving her insight into the direction of the new single ‘Electricity’, frontwoman Eno Williams says, “This one started out as an idea to mix Afrobeat with Giorgio Moroder-style synth vibes”, explaining, “The end section with Alfred’s korogo (Ghanian 2-stringed Folk guitar) solo was already there when we got into the studio, but then we added the big kick drum that happens underneath and Owen from Hot Chip’s crazy drum machine percussion at the end, which gave it a futuristic Afro feel when mixed with the more talking drum parts”, in her press statement. More or less doing my job for me with the press release, ‘Electricity’ is lyrically exploring the connection between different people and the power resource. The instrumentation leans towards an 80’s Synth Pop style, with a buoyant bassline and some tight drum melodies undercut by some more grounded, progressive Synth loops courtesy of the drum machine sequences. The pace builds gradually, starting off with mid-tempo beats and purely Synth-based rhythms before introducing a decent amount of variety with sparse Saxophone melodies and short Horn sections towards the middle. A big crescendo of danceable Synth riffs and more cerebral Jazz production creates a burst of energy in the third fourth of the track, before a longer instrumental section of ritualistic chants and quick, extravagant Horn scatterings rounds off the track before we get a final repeat of the chorus. It brings a somewhat new element to the chorus, where Williams talks about love and speaking from the heart as the simple answer to life’s complexities. An uplifting track with a slightly rougher edge that reminds me of Soccer 96’s ethereal Prog-Jazz production during brief intervals, ‘Electricity’ is a single that is lyrically radiant and evidently listenable. A focused and charming return.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Electricity’ (Single) (Released on October 26, 2021) (via Merge Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading my latest post, and it is ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow, meaning that I’ll be guiding you through one of the weekend’s most notable new album releases. This week’s pick gives you a taste of the new posthumous album by a cult favourite Alabama-born singer-songwriter who sadly left us in March. Encompassing a variety of styles including Blues, Rockabilly and Country – you may know him for opening on-tour for The Hives and The White Stripes in 2007.

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Today’s Track: Hiro Ama – ‘Autumn Colours’

November 9, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Promo for Hiro Ama’s interview on WorldwideFM.Net (2020) (Photo via Artist/Facebook.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to enjoy a stroll in the Autumn along to your daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Autumn, which is more widely known as ‘Fall’ to any Americans reading this for some strange reason, is a month where we all love to reflect. This is clearly very significant for the Japanese-born and now London-based Japanese Ambient composer Hiro Ama, who has just released the seasonal new single, ‘Autumn Colours’, via PRAH Recordings. Dabbling in the Contemporary Classical, Drone and Electronica genres, Ama is perhaps best known for his ‘Uncertainty’ EP that he released in 2020. On that record, Ama mixed tonal references to his Japanese homeland with pared-down House melodies and Pan-Asian instrumentals and it was self-produced within one month in his London flat during lockdown. Keen gig-goers may have noticed that Ama is also the drummer of the British Indie Pop group Teleman, alongside vocalist Thomas Sanders and bassist Pete Cattermoul, whose three studio albums have all reached the Top 75 of the UK Singles Chart and they opened for Belle & Sebastian on a tour in 2016. For his solo work, Ama has taught himself how to play the both Guitar and Piano. He has also remixed the likes of Rozi Plain and Alabastor De Plume. Out now on his Bandcamp page, ‘Autumn Colours’ is the first taste of his upcoming second solo EP, ‘Animal Emotions’, which comes after a rare break from live touring in eight years, will be released at an undetermined point of time. Settle into Ama’s ‘Autumn Colours’ below.

“As the song title says this is a song for Autumn which is my favourite season. Autumn makes me feel nostalgic and melancholic somehow and I like those feelings. Spring is too pretty and Summer is too happy – I feel Autumn represents myself perfectly”, Hiro Ama explains on his Bandcamp page, adding, “I find a bit of sadness or darkness makes music more beautiful, maybe because it’s imperfect or fragile”, to his discussion behind his latest single’s themes and explorations. Opening with an easy-going kick drum beat that rolls along at a joyous pace, ‘Autumn Colours’ bursts into life with a contemplative Piano riff and a scattering Bass line that occasionally crackles along to the upbeat tempo of the instrumental grooves. The floating Piano riff cascades into a variety of colourful guitar licks and spacious Drum grooves, with a reflective tone that keeps the proceedings feeling warm and relatively bright, but gentle and grounded in delivery. The second half of the song is where things get a little more progressive, as a harsh Synth riff introduces a more distorted nature into the track and continues to add some more diversity to the ongoing spiral of pretty, yet a little somber, Piano melodies and the Drums/Bass combo that adds a more melodic quality to the beats. There’s no need for the vocals, as the more downtempo feel of the Classical instrumentation and the more buoyant acoustic instrumentation conjoin together for a relaxing mix of laidback melodies with a darkened, sometimes rougher, undercurrent. The wavering Synth riff, found in the latter half of the track, continues to add more contemplation to the emotive style of the track and blur the lines between the lighter feelings and the more intense sequences. Overall, ‘Autumn Colours’ is a seasonally appropriate mix between an interpretation of surroundings and an internal monologue, with some hazy melodies and an ever so slightly more sinister touch, yet the Easy Listening style and flair of the track and the blissful instrumentation keeps a fairly light-hearted Jazz element in tact, as the jolly feel of seasons past draws to a close and the leaves turn brown in a surprisingly short notice.

Pictured: Hiro Ama with a Vinyl copy of the ‘Uncertainty’ EP (2020) (Photo via Artist/Facebook.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest blog post, and I’ll be back tomorrow for the final entry in our ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ feature of the year, as the series will be taking a short hiatus until very early in the new year. That’s because Chrimbo is a-coming, and so we’ll be beginning our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ where we review some alternative festive anthems, both old and new, that could make your seasonal playlists this December. We’ll be rounding things off with a bang instead of a whimper, as we divert our attention to a cult classic single from a French-English Avant-Pop group who are still one of the most influential bands to reach our shores as they renewed interest in older analogue equipment at a desperate time of need. They combined elements of Kraut-Rock & Lounge Jazz, and founded their Duophonic label.

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New Album Release Fridays: Soccer96 (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis) – ‘Sitting On A Satellite’

September 24, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Dopamine’ (LP) (Released on September 24th, 2021) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It has been a very slow week, and so I’m looking forward to taking it all down a notch with the help of the new highly anticipated album release from the London-based Drum and Synth duo Soccer96. There’s also new albums from Public Service Broadcasting, Wigan local heroes The Lathums, Marlowe’s lyricist Solemn Brigham, Merge Records’ label boss Mac MacCaughan, intriguing World-infused UK Drum & Bass producer Zen Dub, and more hitting both digital and physical storefronts for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ this week. As aforementioned, Soccer 96’s new album is one of the few LP releases that I can childishly say that I’ve been ‘Hyped up’ for in a while, based on the quality of their prior work, the singles taken from the album so far, and the general excitement about this release in Alternative music circles. Soccer96 is the side project of keyboardist Dan Leavers (‘Danalogue’) and drummer Max Hallett (‘Betamax’) from the Prog-Jazz trio The Comet Is Coming who, for those still uninitiated, are a terrific London-based Nu-Jazz trio also involving Shabaka Hutchings (‘King Shabaka’) who were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2016 and were signed to Impulse! Records in 2018. Leavers has produced albums for Ibibio Sound Machine and Snapped Ankles, while Hallett has played the Drums with the likes of Sons Of Kemet and Yussef Kamal, and so the two musicians are very active on the UK’s underground scene. Together, Soccer96 specialise in a really diverse blend of Prog-Jazz, Instrumental Grime, Dark Ambient and Electronica that always feels as fresh and eclectic as ever. Their new album, ‘Dopamine’ – also featuring collaborations with Salami Rose Joe Louis and Nuhu Ruby Ra – is being released digitally today, with a short stint of physical transparent blue/marble brown Vinyl copies set to follow on 15th October, which are limited to just 300 copies on Rough Trade’s website. Check out the latest single below.

‘Dopamine’ is a concept album exploring the narrative of an artificial intelligence programme taking over a human nervous system, a sci-fi vision of a codependency between humans and machines, as the robots only source of dopamine is from people, and vice versa. It began life as a sonic reaction to the graphic novels of Moebius’ Jean Giraud, and the duo displayed one of the revered French artists’ paintings in the middle of their studio when recording the album for inspiration. Hallett told XLR8R, “All musical decisions would centre around this image. It was a depiction of a cosmic traveler gazing across a desert at a sort of crystal city. If the music was resonating with the image then we knew we were on the right path” in an interview. As a single itself, ‘Sitting On A Satellite’ is very obedient to these visual ideas, with the two very talented players conjuring up an Astral set of themes with the Space-Age synths, the hazily atmospheric tones and the pulsating drum rhythms that give the duo the platform to express themselves creatively with no ties to their previous projects, giving them ample creative freedom in their approach. The vocals, meanwhile, are highly processed and they seem to depict the double alter-ego system of an AI gaining human consciousness. Together, everything makes for a very hypnotic and entrancing blend of refreshing keyboard sections, laidback Drum grooves and intoxicated vocals that give off a wonky feel to the eclectic graphical influences. There feels like less of a Grime influence that we heard on The Comet Is Coming, but the London Jazz blueprints are still intact, with a colourful set of ambient instrumentals and broad sweeps of percussion that bring the duo’s niche cyber-imagination of androids to life. All in all, this is an inventive and visually creative twist on Progressive Jazz – with some vibrant experimentation and some Gorillaz-esque vocals that just orbit around the listeners ears with a calm confidence.

Pictured: Dan Leavers (Keyboard/Synths) and Max Hallett (Drums) (2021) (Photo by William Barnes)

As mentioned above, we’re all great fans of The Comet Is Coming on the blog, and, to help them take off, we’ve covered some more of their spacey stuff on the blog. Check out ‘Lifeforce Part II’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/28/todays-track-the-comet-is-coming-lifeforce-part-2/

Pictured: Betamax & Danalogue with King Shabaka Hutchings in The Comet Is Coming (2019) (via PR)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me on the blog, and I’ll be back for more tomorrow. Join me then for something a little more radio-friendly (But still quite cool) single from a Liverpool-formed indie band who have been around since 2003. The band, known for the frontman’s smarky witticisms and realistic depictions of young adult issues, have released music for 14th Floor Records and Bright Antenna Records, and the veteran rockers have sold over one million copies of their albums worldwide.

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New Album Release Friday: Alfa Mist – “Run Outs”

April 23, 2021 — Leave a comment

If you love Jazz, you may end up kicking yourself if you ‘Mist’ this one. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Bring Backs” (LP) (Released on April 23rd, 2021) (via Anti- Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, like always, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to do so! This week’s pack of long-player releases include the new albums from mainstream mega-stars Tom Jones and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, who are both looking to keep troubling the charts, no doubt, along with a new deluxe edition of ‘Isles’ by the Belfast dance breakouts Bicep, and new offerings from underrated Art-Rock collective Field Music, and Grammy-nominated Chapel Hill-based DJ Porter Robinson falling not far behind. This time, we’re going to sample a piece from ‘Bring Backs’, the new LP from the rising London Nu-Jazz star Alfa Mist, which is the much-anticipated solo follow-up to 2017’s ‘Antiphon’ – releasing today via Anti- Records. Mist’s been showered with praise over the years, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about him from the ‘Deep Cuts’ channel on Discord which I spend roughly 30 seconds per day looking at. I just never have much time to look at it properly and I’m a hectically busy guy right now. His genres of Prog-Jazz and Electronic Jazz have been going under a renaissance in recent years, however, with the likes of Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Nubiyan Twist being notable names for these scenes. Mist hails from East Ham, London where he taught himself to produce beats. The pianist wrote and self-produced the new body of work, which he recorded in London with a cast of collaborators including Jamie Houghton, Kaya Thomas-Dyke and Lex Amor. Let’s sample it with a recent single, “Bring Backs”, below.

“Bring Backs” brings together the disparate sounds of it’s guests, and gets topped off by a Spoken Word poem written by Hilary Thomas to tie things together. For Mist, it seems to be a document of who he was and who he has become, as he told the press “Run Outs is a street game I remember playing when I was younger. I used to think of making beats and playing with a band as separate worlds until I realized I was always trying to achieve the same thing”, adding, “Making the music I want to make. With the song Run Outs I’m bringing together the vibe of my earliest beats with where I am today” in his press notes. Another instrumental track to follow up on Hannah Peel’s ‘Ecovocotive’ from yesterday’s blog post – ‘Run Outs’ carries forwards it’s nostalgic qualities and intimate layers with it’s relative simplicity. The opening Piano groove feels light and mildly ethereal, before the off-kilter drumming signatures and the sparse rhythms of a more electronic nature push-and-pull the overall pacing of the track. Together, these elements act out as a continous layer of instrumentation that gradually adds layers of percussion, bass, Brass instrumentation and quiet string sections to the fray, although none of these elements stay in the picture for too long, as to overstay their welcome. It feels like a relaxing track that would sound great as part of the ambience of an Arts-based Coffee Shop or the ‘early doors’ section of a Jazz bar. The sounds are polished and intricate, with a slight touch of distortion that adds some unpredictability to the mix. It sounds like it’s coming from the heart and it’s clear that Mist is really giving everything his all here, and isn’t the kind of artist to walk into a studio and record over a pre-built track. I feel like, perhaps, it could have done with a little bit more ‘oomph’ for the lack of a better term, with more catchy progression to make it a bit more memorable. This is not bland, however, and it’s far from it, with an altogether rich and easy-flowing sound which can accommodate a diverse selection of it’s listeners. At-times stunning, the overall sum of it’s parts makes it seem a nice and enjoyable listen, with each small piece fitting neatly into the jigsaw.

Pictured: Alfa Mist performing live at the SWX in Bristol (in 2020) (Photo by Elliott Simpson)

That’s it for today – ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is penciled in for two days time, but, in the meantime, remember to check back in with me tomorrow for my review of the triumphant return track of a well-liked UK electronic soul/disco now-duo who were shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2014 following the release of their self-titled debut album that year. Their new single has been getting support across the dial, with airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, Radio X, NTS Radio and elsewhere. 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: Fimber Bravo – “Hiyah Man”

April 20, 2021 — Leave a comment

The African experimenter proving he’s not to be just a flash in the Pan. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “Lunar Tredd” (Released on March 19th, 2021) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m going to try to lift your spirits with another daily entry on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Currently based in South London, Fimber Bravo is a Trinidad-born composer and producer with his origins set as a Steel Plan player and founder of the Twentieth Century Steel Band. Bravo’s been around since the 70’s, and his music has been sampled in plenty of modern Hip-Hop records, such as tracks from Doug E. Fresh, Soul II Soul, and even Jennifer Lopez, of all people. He has also built a following around his unique collaborations with Western artists, such as the likes of Blur, Morcheeba and also Hot Chip. Hearing ‘Hiyah Man’ being supported on the A-list rotation of BBC Radio 6 Music was my first introduction to his work, and the track is the latest single from his new album, ‘Lunar Tredd’, which is only just over a month old now, and is the follow-up LP to his critically-acclaimed 2013 release, ‘Con-Fusion’ (Do you see what he did there?), releasing on Moshi Moshi Records. You may not have heard anything like it before. Let’s take a listen to it below.

Bravo has been establishing himself as a collaborative creator in the gaps since the years between his solo LP releases and his desire to produce another solo recording came about from the inspiration of the Black Lives Matter protests. When releasing ‘Hiyah Man’, he wrote: “Songs come to you in different ways, Hiyah Man was like a voice from my ancestors guiding me and giving me the power for a deeper celebration of the Pan with percussive rhythms that inspired us all to improvise a live first take in one go”, in his press release, concluding “We all felt so high on it” while referring to his free-spirited practices. Although I can’t claim to know everything regarding the instruments and deeper production of the track, I still think that ‘Hiyah Man’ caught my attention because there is a clear influence of dance music. The opening vocal of “A long time ago” is kept short and sweet, but the low-pitched delivery gives it an edge. It gets accentuated by upbeat, melodic Steel Pan beats which build slowly to the introduction of higher drum signatures and new layers of instrumentation. He continues to build a psychedelic dance beat and a festival setting, as elements of Afrobeat and Prog-Jazz make the cut. A slightly distorted synth beat quietly weaves it’s way through the percussion, and the eclectic bass line comes to the forefront towards the end with more electronic synth beats that have an acidic quality. The tone of the track and it’s mood feels more joyful and celebratory than it’s opening, with lyrical hooks about connecting with your ancestors and modernizing your family’s traditions remaining at the centerpiece of the singing sections. Overall, it’s over six minutes of very colourful and funk-influenced chord progression, with a nicely balanced mix of both African and electronic instrumentation. Although it’s not a track that I’ve repeatedly listened to over time and time again, there’s nothing about it that I can really fault. Despite being quite a newcomer to this style of music, I find it to make me feel refuelled and uplifted. An excellently crafted means of escape.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Con-Fusion” (LP) (Released in January, 2013) (via Moshi Moshi Records)

That’s all for now – But feel free to join me again tomorrow for a new entry in our weekly “Way Back Wednesdays” blog feature, where we revisit the sounds of the past that have influenced the present, or a look at an absurd rarity that shall not be left as forgotten. The former is the case this week, as we recover a beloved single from the Gold-certified debut album of an East Coast Hip-Hop pioneer who serves time as the associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records. 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: Viagra Boys – “Girls and Boys”

April 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

A billboard said Niagra Falls is the tallest waterfall – Falls advertising. New post time!

Pictured: Sebastian Murphy, Benjamin Valle, Oskar Carls, Henrik Hockert, Tor Sjoden and Elias Jungqvist (aka Viagra Boys) at The Great Escape in Brighton, Sussex (2019) (Photo via DIYMag.com)

Good Morning to you! Jacob Braybrooke here, and I’m kicking off the new week with another daily entry on the blog, as always, because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Girls & Boys’ is a Swedish cocktail of riotous Post-Punk and harsh Prog-Jazz from the ludicrously witty band Viagra Boys, who formed in Stockholm in 2015, as a collective of members originally from other local bands including Neu-Ronz, Les Big Byrd, Pig Eyes, Nine and Nitad from the local-ish music scene. They released their debut album, ‘Street Worms’ to decent reviews and cult success in 2018, with praise being directed towards the use of black comedy and satire within their lyrics. This long-player earned them IMPALA’s “Album Of The Year Award” in 2019. Fast forward to 2021, and the second full-length effort, ‘Welfare Jazz’, has arrived via their own label, YEAR0001. Lately, the band have also confirmed that a third album is on the way, telling us that it was largely self-produced and that it has already been recorded, according to the bassist Henrik ‘Benke’ Höckert. You can watch a live ‘Shrimp Session’ Viagra Boys recorded for the track, ‘Girls & Boys’, for free on their YouTube channel, but, for now, let’s take a listen to the studio version below.

‘Girls & Boys’ was co-produced by Matt Sweeney (Run The Jewels, Cat Power) and Justin & Jeremiah Raisen (Kim Gordon, Sky Ferreira), with additional work from past collaborators Pelle Gunnerfeldt & Daniel “Fagge” Fagerström (The Knife, The Hives), and you can also catch another track which sees Viagra Boys enlist the aid of Amy Taylor from Amyl & The Sniffers on their new record, entitled ‘In Spite Of Ourselves’, a cover version of the track of the same title by late-great John Prine released in 1999. ‘Girls & Boys’, however, is not a cover version of Blur’s classic, but a surreal and silly, Saxophone-smattered tour of outdated gender roles. It’s also ludicrously silly too, with a call-and-response format that sees a distorted voice sing “Drugs” and “Girls” as vocalist Sebastien Murphy pairs them up with one-liners like “The only way I can boogie down” and “They always wanna tie me down”. “Shrimps” is my favourite, and I believe this is an in-joke the band have with their fans, although I’m not familiar enough with the band to really say. I think the lack of context gives it a lick of abstract art themes, and makes these crazy hooks sound all the more random. The Brass instrumentation is abrasive and incendiary, as the clashing Post-Rock guitar riffs create a strange Disco beat of-sorts. The lyrics are all about partying at their most basic, with Murphy wailing about inability to socially connect, while the strength of the distorted guitar melodies and the overly aggressive qualities of the Jazz elements hint towards something that feels more psychotic and briefly unsettling. Whether this absurdist Noise-Punk disco roller is satirical or silliness is left quite ambiguous, but it certainly isn’t a particularly feel-good single by traditional means, despite the oddly danceable melodicism of the pace. Pure unadulterated mayhem. Chaotically sublime.

Pictured: Physical CD copy of ‘Welfare Jazz’ (LP) (Released on January 29th, 2021) (via YEAR001)

That’s all for now – I think we’re all going to need a little breather after that one. Join me again tomorrow, however, as we diversify things up with an in-depth look at a, perhaps less frantic, tune from a Trinidad-born composer and Steel Pan player who has been a founding member of Twentieth Century Steel Band, and has collaborated on projects with Blur and Morcheeba. His latest album has recently been released by Moshi Moshi Records. 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/