Today’s Track: Warpaint – ‘Champion’

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to get typing up for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Warpaint – the Los Angeles, California native indie rock band comprised of Emily Kokal, Stella Mozgawa, Theresa Wayman and Jenny Lee Lindberg – have just announced their first new full-length album in six years, finally confirming ‘Radiate Like This’ as the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s ‘Heads Up’, which they will be releasing through Heirlooms and Virgin Records on May 6th. It has been a long time, but in their original run, they released three critically acclaimed studio albums including 2010’s ‘The Fool’, which included their essential track ‘Undertow’, as well as their 2014 self-titled LP outing. Warpaint supported Harry Styles for some live tour dates in Asia during 2018, and they also supported Foals on tour in Australia during 2019. They have performed at a wide variety of festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Coachella and Reading & Leeds Festival, and the beloved band have also performed at the prestigious Hollywood Bowl amphitheater. You will have also heard their track ‘Lilys’ if you’ve seen the HBO-produced TV series ‘Made For Love’ too. Details for ‘Radiate Like This’ are a little scarce, but given how we are picking up where we left off with ‘Heads Up’ from over a half-decade ago, the results are exciting. Check out the lead single ‘Champion’ below.

‘Champion’ promises that Warpaint will explore the concept of intimacy and energy more passionately than ever before. The new single is about “being a champion to one-self and for others”, according to the 4-piece in a new press release, who explain, “We are all in this together, life is too short not to strive for excellence in all that we do”, together, in their collective statement. A little more Dream Rock-influenced than some of the other material from Warpaint that I’ve heard, ‘Champion’ finds Theresa crooning some poetic lyrics like “I’m a million years old/I’m a champion” and “I’m an ocean/breathing in and out” to the soulful tune of their typically harmony-driven vocal style, which they perfected on rough-edged singles like 2010’s ‘Undertow’, but they are met with a more hypnotic and gloomy style than before, while they also deliver stern lyrics like “I hope you figure out/Everything you’re on about” that feel smooth and quite intuitive. There’s less of an emphasis on a ‘live feel’ and it is more driven towards putting their in-studio techniques to use, as the band retain their moody undercurrents that characterize some of their prior work while drifting towards some richer and more detailed dream-pop production, where the synths are calling across the horizon and the guitars keep stretching beyond the tropes of guitar rock. This reminds me of The XX, but there was a hint of Post-Punk towards the home stretch where the guitar briefly revved up before we abruptly went back to the modulated vocals and the reverb-assisted percussion that had a strange affinity for grooves during the verse. The track sounds well-produced, without feeling like it was over-produced at any point to me. The lyrics tap into inner strength and the faults of high levity, while the electronic enhancements make the instrumentation feel rich and atmospheric. Overall, ‘Champion’ is a well put together and cohesive comeback single that shows some progression and evolution for Warpaint as we move forwards.

That brings us to the end of the page for today! Thank you lots for your continued support, but I’ve got to be off now because I’m hopefully visiting my sister (and leaving the village in the process, which is a fairly rare occasion for me), and so I’ll be catching up with you tomorrow. Join me then for a new entry of the ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature, where we’ll be remembering a Karaoke favourite from a Canadian rock band led by vocalist Chad Kroeger who, despite becoming something of a punching bag for the snobbish ones in the 00’s, have recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of their third full-length LP record ‘Silver Side Up’ that was certified as 8x-Platinum in Canada.

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Today’s Track: Mitski – ‘Love Me More’

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get down to business as we leave the shortest month of the winter for a warmer March as we head into Spring by covering one of the most crucial releases of February for yet another daily track on the blog, given how it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Dubbed as the “best young songwriter” of the US by The Guardian earlier in the past month, the Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer Mitski has been raging up a storm domestically and internationally with her sixth studio album – ‘Laurel Hell’ – which she released to a healthy buzz and a positive reception on February 4th via the Dead Oceans label. Taking its title from a Folk term for being trapped in thickets of Laurel, an English name for common trees and plants of the Laurel family, that grow in the Southern Appalachian Mountains region of North-Eastern America. Her new album peaked in the top ten of the albums charts in the UK, Australia and Ireland, and it was the best-selling album in the US during its first week on sale, meaning that a wide variety of listeners heard Mitski’s dynamic take on nostalgic Disco, Synth-Pop, Indie Pop and Electronic Rock styles. I read a fascinating story that Mitski had to quit music to love it, as the record was originally reportedly going to be a stinker on deliberate purpose so that Mitski could finalise her current record contract and leave music peacefully, but that thankfully, didn’t turn out to be the case, and her vulnerable songwriting regarding topics like insomnia and mental weight went through many iterations over the last three years, with the record originally designed to be some form of an Avant-Garde Industrial Punk album, later becoming a softer Country album, before Mitski experimented with electronic production and the record was conceived in the final form that you can hear now. The final pre-release single was ‘Love Me More’ that you can preview below.

“Love Me More went through the most iterations out of all the songs on the album. It’s been too fast, too slow, and at some point, it was even an old style Country song”, Mitski said of the single, which has been accompanied by an official music video that was directed by Christopher Good, re-uniting Mitski with the creative behind her ‘Nobody’ video from three years ago, and she concludes, “Finally, I think because we had watched The Exorcist, we thought of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ and experimented with floating an ostinato over the chorus. As we steadily evolved the ostinato to fit over the chord progressions, we began to hear how the track was meant to sound”, in her press statement. Starting off with “If I keep myself at home, I won’t make the same mistake/That I made for 15 years” in the opening verse, Mitski begins to croon about her own experiences with finding a fulfilling relationship while embracing a bright stadium-friendly Synth-Pop sound that feels so futuristic yet nostalgic in its tone and delivery, and so a similar collaboration with The Weeknd or La Roux wouldn’t feel out of place for her at some point in the future. A glistening sequence of piercing, self-reflective lyrics like “I wish this would go away/But when I’m done singing this song/I will have to find something else, to do to keep me here” complements a scattered soundscape of early 80’s New Wave synths and skittering up-tempo drum machine melodies that fit the musical ballad style of the lyrics that find Mitski crooning dramatic lyrics like “I could be a new girl/I will be a new girl” and “Here’s my hand, There’s the itch/But I’m not supposed to scratch” as the harshness of the impending Synths see a melodic increase, while never quite exploding into a full-blown club anthem, and so I thought that Mitski paced her instrumentation nicely here. The chorus has a more commanding presence, as she frantically pleads lyrics like “Drown it out/Drown me out” with a demanding atmosphere as the gauzy Synths soundtrack her way to finding nourishment. The end product feels a little scattered to me, but the production is attentively polished for what counts as a fully independent release and she does a great job of valuing her personality above a strive to ‘just have’ a commercial hit, with thoughtful lyrics that maintain the 80’s Pop influences of the track while avoiding the more recycled tropes of the genre. ‘Laurel Heaven’ more like.

That’s all for now! Thank you for tuning into One Track At A Time today, because your support is always very highly appreciated, and I’ll be back tomorrow to guide you through a refreshing single by a group of San Francisco-based shoe-gazers who will release their first new album in a long break of 10 years in March via Fire Talk Records.

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Today’s Track: Metronomy – ‘Things Will Be Fine’

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to add a music-related pleasantry to your weekend with another nice and simple 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! Today, we’re checking with the indie pop veterans Metronomy who have been surviving since the 00’s with a range of electronic recordings that have always been grounded and progressive, and they have made previous appearances on the blog with ‘405’ (feat. Biig Piig) and ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ as they hold the status of being a safe pair of hands. A 5-piece led by Joe Mount, they have remixed countless artists including Kate Nash, Sebastien Teller, Lady GaGa, Gorillaz, Franz Ferdinand and more. You may have also heard several collaborations involving the likes of Robyn, Nicola Roberts, Spill Tab, Brian Nasty and Sorry that Metronomy have co-created over the past two decades. Following 2019’s ‘Metronomy Forever’ and last year’s ‘Posse: Volume 1’ EP – the Rober Awards Music Poll-winning band have just released their seventh studio album – ‘Small World’ – via Because Music. With a positive score of 74/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, Metronomy describe the fresh LP as an exploration of peace, serenity and simple nature. It also features a new collaboration with Porridge Radio, and Joe Mount notes, “I’ve been remembering what it was like as a kid when I’d be sitting in the backseat of my parents’ car and they’d be playing their music and I’d think “this is awful”, but there’d be one or two songs I would like. I thought it would be fun to make that kind of album”, in the press release for the LP. The final pre-release single was ‘Things Will Be Fine’, that was accompanied by a retro-themed music video that was put together by Metronomy themselves and the directors of Thibaut Caesar and Juliet Casella. Let’s give it a spin.

‘Small World’ is a record influenced by the roots of the period of time that it was written and recorded in, meaning 2020 and the rippling effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other news events, and Metronomy will be taking their new tracks on the road during a UK and Ireland tour that begins in April, with the band stopping off at locations in Dublin, Oxford, Torquay, Glasgow, Bristol and each of the normal other places. Plugging into live acoustic instruments and percussion, such as the gliding guitar notes that open up the track and the Bongo drums that add some cheerful melodies to the chorus, for ‘Things Will Be Fine’, the band focus on their hearts instead of their heads for the recent single and they bring the upbeat, quirky arrangement a new-found energy. Lyrics like “The sooner you tell someone, the better you will feel/So please, put your trust in me” touch upon the relief of discussing a complex problem with a loved one and mental health is a definite topic here, in this case. Other refrains such as “Just like the first time in that teenage misery/Yeah, I wish things were as easy” recall the brightness of the past and how life gets more intricate or cumbersome as it progresses, connecting to the overarching themes of the full-length album. It is a fairly basic and happy song in tone, but it plays into the conceit of unfettered hopefulness of seeing things play out when you worry and it’s difficult not to engage yourself in the joyful message, however generalised it may feel, that Metronomy seem intent on communicating when they leans towards nostalgic 80’s Dream-Pop and soft 70’s Disco for rhythmic inspiration, with sultry crooning from Mount as he states that his goal may be to “save the day” or “change the world” as he exclaims in the chorus. It admittedly does feel a little safe for my personal tastes and likely designed to fit squarely into the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist, but there’s a humble heart to the track and some radiant, firm pacing that broadly appeals with it. It feels like a great track to remind us that summer is on the way as we take a few tentative steps outside of the bitter, melancholic mood of the modern winter in the UK. ‘Things Will Be Fine’ retains their core values of the project while skillfully avoiding ‘twee’ categorization and teasing more mature directions for them as their collaborative career moves forwards. A simple and sweet, yet uplifting, single.

Metronomy have been doing the rounds for quite a long while, and so they aren’t necessarily new to the blog. You can also check out how I felt about 2019’s ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/08/26/todays-track-metronomy-salted-caramel-ice-cream/. There’s also a post featuring 2021’s ‘405’ (feat. Bigg Piig) that you can visit here if you want more info about that track: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/10/09/todays-track-metronomy-feat-biig-piig-405/.

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out the latest post on the blog, as your continued support means a great deal to me, and I’ll be back tomorrow to turn to the dark side for another ‘Scuzz Sundays’ post, as we continue to broaden our horizons by mixing in some Post Brit-Pop with the US-based Pop-Punk bands of that specific timeline. We shall be revisiting a former 90’s UK #1 hit by Richard Ashcroft’s old group.

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Today’s Track: Melody’s Echo Chamber – ‘Looking Backward’

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to provide a soothing start to your Saturday with a huge new single by a returning artist for yet another daily track on the blog, given how it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! I hope you enjoyed my post about Beach House yesterday – and if you love your Dream-Pop and your Chamber-Pop music of the Shoegaze-esque style, we’ve also got a new album from Melody’s Echo Chamber to look forwards to. This is the lush solo project from French songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Melody Prochet, who recorded her early work with then-boyfriend Kevin Parker of Tame Impala fame, who recorded her debut album in his makeshift studio in Perth, Australia for a release date in late 2012 – and she supported his band on a European tour in 2010. Another album followed since then – 2018’s ‘Bon Boyage’ – which was delayed by a brain aneurysm and a broken vertebrae following a serious accident, and so it’s amazing that nothing has hindered her ahead of ‘Emotional Eternal’, a new album that she will be releasing on April 29th via Domino Recordings. She has released material on Fat Possum Records previously, and her associated projects include My Bee’s Garden and The Narcoleptic Dancers. She is also known for her frequent collaborations with the Stockholm-based Alternative Rock band Dungen. Her music has gained acclaim by sources like Drowned In Sound, Q Magazine, Uncut and AllMusic, and Prochet has a sublime melting pot of influences including Cocteau Twins, Stereolab and Broadcast. Speaking of her upcoming album, she says, “I made some big and impactful decisions and changes to my life. It took me to where it is peaceful, and I think the record reflects this. It’s more direct”, in a press release. Check out the 3D-animated video by Hyoyon Paik for lead single, ‘Looking Backward’, below.

It is clear that creating ‘Looking Backward’ came from a mind-set of finding clarity after spending some time away from making music and enjoying a regular pace of life – given how the gauzy sounds represent a far more grounded and mindful creative process for Melody Prochet – and she also adds, “I wrote the lyrics on my way to Stockholm, in transit at the airport, there was a man creating light reflections with his watch and playing with light on the floors and walls. It felt like an act coming from a source of pure creativity, it made me happy to catch it and inspired me to write the song”, in her press release about the comeback track. Going straight back to the Psych-Pop and the Synth-based work that has made her a big name in music, Prochet begins with the wide-eyed and gauzy lyrics of “I’m reflecting light/Play it on the wall” and “Did you see me looking?/I’m not interested” that make her intentions clear as multi-layered vocals and a firm backing beat push her melodies forwards, creating a driving arrangement of luxuriating Synths and glistening guitar riffs. Lyrics like “Constellation of love/I know that dream/It can’t be real” and “I need the space of time/And you’re running out of time” bask in the shimmering sounds of the highly psychedelic Synth sequences and the Harp-like sound effects, set against the soothing backdrop that has a light Funk influence to it. Lyrically introspective, Prochet neatly matches some gently playful drums and synths with an intimate arrangement that makes heartfelt lyrics like “No, I didn’t need your light” and “You’re not alone/On this lonesome road” sound that little bit more brutal and, most importantly, human. In conclusion, ‘Looking Backward’ is a very welcome return from a clearly talented artist who is honestly experimenting with the concept of providing a more stripped back response to the dense arrangements of her previous work to explore elements of her own social life and a perception of her actual identity at a brisk pace, yet with careful consideration. This is fantastic work for any fans of MGMT, Tame Impala or Miami Horror – yet it has that vital ability to stand out on it’s own too.

That brings us, swiftly, to the end of another daily post on the blog today. Thank you for spending a few moments of your day to lend me your nifty pair of eyelids and eardrums, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we remember the past of the Pop-Punk genre for another weekly iteration of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the site. We’ll be revisiting a progressive anthem from a well-known Alternative Metal band from Huntington Beach, California who currently boast the former Bad Religion drummer of Brooks Wackerman among their line-up. They will make their debut appearance on the blog.

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

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

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

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

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New Album Release Fridays: Orlando Weeks – ‘Big Skies, Silly Faces’

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for the long-awaited return of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ for the first time since the new year got off to a natural start as we start to celebrate the year’s strongest new releases as they arrive, not forgetting that it is tied in with my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week sees new album releases from the likes of OUTLIER label founder Bonobo (More on that tomorrow), Odd Future collective rapper Earl Sweatshirt, Liverpool indie dancefloor fillers The Wombats, a new album of refreshing covers by Cat Power and more. Our subject for this week, however, is ‘Hop Up’, the brand new album by Orlando Weeks that has been released via PIAS Recordings today, and it has already been gaining a positive reception from critics. You may know that Weeks was the frontman of The Maccabees, a soulful indie rock band that earned a cult following that seemed to grow steadily with each of their releases throughout the mid-2000’s and 2010’s. The Maccabees won the Ivor Novello Award for 2013’s ‘Pelican’ and their 2015 album ‘Marks To Prove It’ went straight to the top of the UK Album charts. He also wrote and published a book, ‘The Gritterman’, in 2017. It has only been two years since the release of ‘A Quickening’, his first full-length solo album release that tackled the emotions and anticipation that he had experienced during imminent parenthood as his first child was born. Weeks notes this weekend’s follow-up LP – ‘Hop Up’ aims to fill in the gaps of where we left off on the previous record as he writes about the anxieties and excitement of his new-found fatherhood. The album also features a hearty stew of good-sounding collaborators, as ‘Hop Up’ was produced by familiar blog favourite Bullion and it features artists like Willie J. Healey and Ben Reed too. Our first taster of the album, ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’, also includes additional vocals from Katy J Pearson. Let’s put on a smile below.

Giving us more context into ‘Hop Up’, Weeks explains about the new LP by penning “It started with the idea of wanting to fill in some of the blanks that I felt I had left with ‘A Quickening’, but quite quickly it turned into something broader. The choice was always to take the more positive and uplifting sounding step. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, but as an approach it felt surprisingly novel to me”, in his press release. After his tour was halted in 2020, Weeks decided to go straight back into the studio and found himself in a reflective mood while co-producing Lo-Fi pop singles like ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’ from the new album in question. Building on the themes that ran through his last LP effort while alleviating the tension that pervaded his last solo release, ‘Big Skies, Happy Faces’ allows us to see the brighter side of parenthood as he ponders lyrics like “No stopping the sky/High as it’s wide” that finds Weeks experiencing new ways to navigate his own way to the light despite the subject matter still feeling a bit cynical and self-loathing to Weeks. Lyrics like “My mind against my better thinking/Know the feeling but wonder why” stretches his voice to optimistic heights as his tale of being self-exultant when the inevitable tensions creep in. Feeling ostensibly late-80’s in the Synth Pop instrumentation and the shimmering keyboard sequences that blend with his vocals, Weeks layers up some elements of Dream-Pop that productively glorify his vocals while he lyrically captures the feelings that he wrote about in the specific time period and complex emotional state with a sense of soulful radiance and moral-driven positivity that still manage to feel ethereal while feeling breezier than Weeks’ previous output. Pearson’s backing vocals are subtle, but they feel warm and contrast the melancholy of Weeks’ slightly eerie pitch quite nicely. While it isn’t super melodic, it manages to feel quite cheerful in tone as the electronic textures feel neatly woven into the fabric of the moods. All in all, it is a positive assessment of burgeoning parenting that acknowledges the anxieties of the scenario while feeling upbeat enough to convey the strong sense of love that Weeks’ felt in the moment. It works better if you have the context of ‘A Quickening’ in your mind, based on my assumptions, but it feels like a natural step-up from the sound he founded on that record. A successful follow-up that denies the dominance of distress.

If you’re looking for high quality with the rule of comparison, then you need to look no further. Look back at my thoughts on ‘Safe In Sound’ from 2020’s ‘A Quickening’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/18/todays-track-orlando-weeks-safe-in-sound/

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for sticking with me on the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow, as aforementioned, to test out a recent single release from the new LP also being released today by Brighton-born electronic trip hop producer Simon Green (Who you may know as Bonobo) who has worked with an exhaustive pack of guest vocalists including RHYE, Nick Murphy and Jamila Woods.

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Today’s Track: Flight Facilities (feat. Channel Tres) – ‘Lights Up’

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and it’s time for me to help you fill up the funky playlist for the disco at your Office Christmas Party at the end of this working week, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Flight Facilities are the Australian Electronic Dance duo of Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell who were formed in Sydney in 2009 and also perform under the name of Hugo & Jimmy. On previous recordings, they have worked with prominent names in the industry including the ‘Princess of Pop’ Kylie Minogue herself – as well as Bishop Nehru, Reggie Watts, Stee Downes and Owl Eyes. Although the seven year gap has not been a complete drought of material for the die-hard Flight Facilities fans out there – it is still testament to the streaming-dominated state of the modern music industry that their second LP record ‘FOREVER’ – released on November 12th via Future Classic – was their first true album release since 2014. It has reached #6 on the Australian Albums chart and it features another array of guest vocalists including Emma Louise, BRUX, BROODS, Jody Felix, Your Smith and DRAMA. In a statement, the AIR Award-winning duo said, “The best way to describe this album is a combination of where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going. As true as it was from our first release, the foundations and glue for all our work has consistently been ‘collaboration’. While our musical journey has always been an intentional exploration of multiple genres, our hearts and roots lie on the dance floor. We applied that same explorative ethos to this record, taking a concerted dive delve into the previously untouched niches and era’s of dance. It’s been a long time coming, and only the same time will tell if it was worth the wait “, in a press release. The new album will also be supported by the ‘FOREVER’ tour that will commence in Perth during March 2022. The lead single, ‘Lights Up’, features the high in demand Compton producer and vocalist Channel Tres. Buckle your seat belt up and mount into it below.

With his low-pitched and sensual vocal delivery, Channel Tres has been a lyricist that everybody in the dance industry has been itching to include on their tracks. In the last few years, Tres has worked with a gigantic list of electronic dance producers including Disclosure, SG Lewis, Tokimonsta, Polo & Pan, Emotional Oranges and many more – so he has been everywhere as if he is the Jimmy Carr, Rosie Jones or Rob Beckett of dance music. ‘Lights Up’ features noticeable influences of Future Garage and Detroit Techno – and Flight Facilities note, “We’ve always loved the sound of the early Detroit House scene that crossed over with the Paradise Garage era. Combined with our love for Channel’s voice, it seemed like a perfect fit”, in their press release. ‘Lights Up’ almost sounds like a track that was being recorded whilst at a secluded street party with industry friends in Chicago, with Tres opening the scene with “Y’all should’ve called me to work on the album earlier/We could have been making something great” over a muffled vocal delivery following a lengthy fade-in to the track. The rest of the vocals mix an informal delivery with a quickly paced Spoken Word spin on gentle Hip-Hop, with Tres splurting out lyrics like “Trying to catch a Bass, and I’ll slide on you” and “I’m a MC, BYOB, bring your own bottles” that he recites with the silky and mildly sexual low-pitched croon that we’ve heard him use to similar effect on Disclosure and T’Challa King feature spots before. It definitely feels like his trademark and although it does not feel unexpected, it works smoothly here and plays to familiar strengths as usual. It establishes a tone of confidence for the rest of the track, which jolts along at an uptempo but not overly heightened pace. An influence of Detroit Techno – from the likes of Joe Smooth – drips from every note of Hugo and James’ production, with some velvet-smooth Synths that reassure us that this flight is going to be a smooth and relaxed ride. The personality of the track is charismatic enough, however, and one particular highlight of the track for me is towards the end where Tres repeats the refrain of “Got the whole city going up” while Horns continually whirr in the backbeat, giving off an impression that Horns are lighting things up in the background, as this section gives the Synths some added momentum to increase the aggression of the instrumentation slightly and drive the melodies forwards. Meanwhile, the two-step drum beats and the fluctuating Bass patterns blend together with Tres’ accentuated vocals nicely during the main bulk of the track. Overall, this was a strong effort from all involved that does ‘Dance Music’ in a modern enough way, while also respecting some of the relatively forgotten sub-genres of House and Techno from the past, giving it a retro-futurist feel. The track originally dates back to April so, although it fits more of a summer vibe than a cold December one, remember that it is summer in Australia.

That’s all for now! Thank you for your smooth sailing with me today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to ‘Light Up’ the eve of Christmas Eve with an affectionate lump of seasonal Silton coming from a Rochford-born Jazz singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter who has famously covered Radiohead’s ‘High and Dry’ to mainstream success in the UK charts.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Billy No Mates – ‘Christmas Is For Lovers, Ghosts & Children’

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for us to pause for reflection over how others handle financial or familial stress over the festive season with yet another entry of our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series of daily posts, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Every year, there’s always a few Christmas songs that have been released for charity that remind us to take care of others during the holiday season, often with a heartfelt message or some novelty value to increase its appeal to casual audiences in the mainstream. One of this year’s suspects turns out to be an Alternative Post-Punk artist who I’m already fond of, which is the New Wave-inspired music of Leicestershire-born singer-songwriter Tor Maries, who releases her indie rock music under the aptly titled project of Billy Nomates. I really enjoy the visceral attitude and the fiery, retro personality of her lyrics that set her apart in a somewhat saturated market, and given her experience of being a part of several side projects in the past and striking out as a solo artist with a no-nonsense spirit, could well become more of an icon for her genre in the next ten of fifteen years. If you’re a fan of Sleaford Mods, you would also know Maries from touring with them and collaborating on their track ‘Mork ‘N’ Mindy’ from their latest album ‘Spare Ribs’ released last January, and she performed it with them on national TV during ‘Later… With Jools Holland’ for BBC Two. Currently based in Bristol and now signed to Invada Records, Maries is also known for her self-titled debut album – which BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Amy Lamé chose as her favourite album of 2020 – as well as the follow-up EP of ‘Emergency Telephone’ that took things to a more 80’s-leaning and characteristically aggressive creative direction in March. Her latest single, ‘Christmas Is For Lovers, Ghosts & Children’, has been released to Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-can basis with the sales going directly to Feed The Homeless Bristol. Let’s check it out.

Launched in 2016, Feed The Homeless has been providing extra care and help for people in Bristol who have needed to eat the most for the past five years by supporting them with nutritious meals distributed through their vans to people who are sleeping rough and are less fortunate than ourselves, and this year, they’re hoping to make Christmas more pleasant for those who can’t afford the essentials, yet alone the luxurious food that luckier people will be tucking into this year and the charity are raising money to keep the organisation’s van of ‘Trevor’ on the road to achieve the mission during the cold winter months that are very difficult for people. For Maries, ‘Christmas Is For Lovers, Ghosts and Children’ is another excellent single that is well meaning and socially significant. Despite the rather agonizing title, this is not an Anti-Christmas single and it doesn’t seek to demonize Christmas in any way. Instead, she is simply encouraging you to spare a thought and give a helping hand to people who really suffer during this exuberant time of the year. With hard-hitting lyrics like “What I’m seeing, what I’m hearing/Doesn’t add up to the season, that I’m feeling”, she highlights a disconnect between the extravagant meals and media representation of the Christmas season that advertisements draw us into and the more isolated reality that most experience at the time of yuletide. Moreover, the chorus of “When the people that you love/Go slowly disappearing/and when you gave your heart, yeah they give it back” encourages a simple recognition that Christmas doesn’t feel the same or mean the same to everyone in our modern society. She still presents Christmas as an enjoyable time, but one that also provokes thoughts and reminds us of the invisibility cloak behind the commercialism. All the hallmarks of a decent Billy Nomates track are here, with gently psychedelic Synth riffs and a danceable Drum Machine riff that bounces along the Euphoric bassline. This also feels suitable for the season, however, with some percussive Jingle Bells and soulful handclaps which complement the overarching request of supporting less fortunate souls during the season nicely, while her vocals are more sentimental, although I wouldn’t say totally vulnerable, than the typical Tor Maries track that you may find on one of her albums or EP’s regularly, but they are still tough and firmly rooted in the old-school Punk philosophy of her production. Overall, the customarily direct lyricism and the starkly honest style of the track make it a stand-out of this year’s Holiday-themed releases. I also like that it’s a charity single with some credibility and quality to it, as opposed to the likes of LadBaby whose novelty Sausage Rolls-themed offerings are waring thin on me, as it was only really funny the first time and not the fourth. A kind-hearted and well-produced charity single which is certainly worth a little change from your pocket.

If you’ve just been converted into the Billy Nomates fan club, why not also join the ‘Hippy Elite’ here?: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/09/08/todays-track-billy-no-mates-hippy-elite/

That’s all for now! Don’t forget to spare a thought for those who need it this Christmas, and I’ll be back tomorrow to pitch a dance track as an addition to your disco playlist at your office Christmas party on Friday night before we go all in on the cheese for Christmas with something jazzy on Thursday the 23rd. It comes your way from an Australian Electronic Dance music duo who have just released their first album in seven years on Future Classic and it has reached #6 in the Australian Albums Chart. They have worked with none other than Kylie Minogue – as well as including vocalists like Channel Tres, Bishop Nehru, Owl Eyes and Reggie Watts on their music.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Beck – ‘The Little Drum Machine Boy’

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to pre-heat the oven and bake some Christmas Cookies as we continue our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ for the year with another daily upload on the blog, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It has been a little while since we heard from Beck Hansen on the blog, but we have explored several snippets of his material on the site before. The 90’s Alternative Pop and Rock music icon has always been known for his exhaustive list of collaborations with fellow pop culture legends like Paul McCartney, Air and The Lonely Island, as well as his obscure and oblique lyricism, along with his wealth of eccentric recordings in the 90’s and 00’s that have found Beck scoring several Grammy Awards wins and a four-time platinum certification for his album sales, with some of his most popular albums being 1996’s ‘Odelay’ and 2002’s ‘Sea Change’, both of which were highly influential and earned spots on Rolling Stone’s list of ‘The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time’ that was last revised in 2020. Although some of my favourites include 1999’s ‘Midnite Vultures’ and 2019’s ‘Hyperspace’, his rare Christmas track known as ‘The Little Drum Machine Boy’ came immediately off the back of ‘Odelay’ and ‘Mutations’, where Beck was very confident in his ability to pull together his absurdities on top of sly, freeform Hip-Hop beats. The single first appeared on KROQ’s annual Christmas tape in Los Angeles during 1996, before appearing on his label’s charity compilation titled ‘Just Say Noel’, and it can also be found on Kevin & Bean’s ‘Christmas Time In The LBC’ compilation released that same year. Beck recalled in an interview during 2008 that he actually recorded it during the summer time and nowhere near to the holidays in a studio found in Rochester, New York when he finished touring one year and that it was inspired by Outkast and Busta Rhymes’ early records. Even by Beck’s lofty experimental standards, this single is pretty bizzare. Give into the insanity below.

‘The Little Drum Machine Boy’ is a pretty obscure recording when all things have been considered, but two edits of Beck’s kooky festive anthem exist. The example above is the full-length seven minute recording which is drum machine-based, but there is also a three minute radio edit out there without the lengthy ending sequence. The problem is, with the latter version, you’re missing out on a lot of the humor and the twists on the Christmas-themed production formula. Beck was largely known for his quirky sample-based flair and his post-modern Pop Art collages of noise throughout the 90’s, and ‘The Little Drum Machine’ boy recalls this era of his discography with logical sense – building up some meticulous layers of soft-funk, wobbling bass and psychedelic guitar rhythms full of trippy and rhythmically deranged sounds with a wonky structure. It’s hard to even find a place to start with the lyrics, which rarely make any sense of a typically coherent fashion, as you’re likely to expect from the weird and wonderful palette of mid-90’s Beck. Hansen starts off with the words taken from the ancient christmas carol that his track’s title bears a clear resemblance to, before proclaiming to drop some ‘Hanukkah’ science to the mix and adds a robotic vocal to the mixture. The robotic samples act as a through-line for the wacky sonic palette, as he continues to twist and morph the tone of the universally known carol to be about the Jewish holiday of Hannukah and modernizes the melodies with the help of some eccentric synths and the consistent Drum Machine programming. The vocals feel hazy and hallucinogenic, but there’s a rhyme and a reason to a few of the lines sprinkled in here, as Beck’s near-indecipherable robot voice is actually reciting a Jewish blessing and he continues to slur some Jewish prayers throughout the song with his awkward vocals. The crazy concoction of his vocals and instrumentation bend and break the conventional Christmas tropes by transforming the vocals into being an ode to Hanukkah instead of our global end-of-the-year season. It contains some of the most abstract, on-the-nose and topically obscure Christmas lyrics ever to be issued, but Beck achieves his goal of dropping some “robot Hanukkah science” that he clearly states at the intro of the strange single, and so the ensuing collage of quirky music isn’t as hard to make out as it may first appear when you really think about it. The ending is festive and funny, while the playful lyrics throughout are dipping between hooks of different Christmas classics that you would recognize and his affection for the Jewish holiday that he depicts as equivalent. Overall, this is a strange and straight-up abnormal tune that only be 90’s Beck, and only he could only get away with making it work because he manages to make it supple enough to hold together and the unique, individual rhyme schemes of his musical blueprint saved it from diving into the pure novelty status it risks. Bonkers brilliance from the best Beck.

Several sporadic entries regarding Beck have been made on the blog before, and so there’s plenty to keep you busy content-wise on this humble site if you’re an avid fan of his output. You can read all about 1999’s ‘Hollywood Freaks’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/09/02/22nd-birthday-special-edition-beck-hollywood-freaks/. There’s also my thoughts on ‘Uneventful Days’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/10/29/todays-track-beck-uneventful-days/ and you can see more of ‘Hyperspace’ with my review of ‘See Through’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/28/todays-track-beck-see-through/, and one of my earliest posts was written about ‘Tropicalia’ from ‘Mutations’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/08/20/todays-track-beck-tropicalia/

It’s time for me to take a deep breath and leave you to enjoy the rest of your day! The festivities will keep going tomorrow, however, with another new installment in our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ for 2021. The next pick is much more recent and it comes from a 25-year-old Tennessae-born indie rock singer songwriter who was a member of the ‘Boygenius’ trio alongside similarly young solo breakouts Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Her latest LP, ‘Little Oblivions’, was released to great reviews in February.

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New Album Release Fridays: Arca (feat. Planningtorock) – ‘Queer’

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke and, for the final time until 2022 rolls around, it is time for us to take a deep dive into one of this weekend’s biggest new album releases, since it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It all comes down to this. As the curtain draws the year of exceptional new music to a close, we are left with a final notable release. Or two. Or three. Or – in the case of Venezeulan experimental pop producer Arca – four. Last summer, she released ‘Kick i’ to an interesting reception and this week, she has completed the ‘Kick’ quintet with the release of ‘Kick ii’, ‘Kick iii’, ‘Kick iiii’ and ‘Kick iiiii’ all on the same day via XL Recordings, boasting a total of 43 tracks of wild Glitch Pop experimentation. I loved her track ‘Time’ on the blog last year, but a follow-up single – ‘Mequetrefe’ – received a more negative reception from me, so it will be interesting to see where ‘Queer’ from ‘Kick iiii’ (featuring the Estonia-based English DJ Planningtorock) lands with me. The critics seem to be liking the ambitious bible of projects, however, with The Guardian writing, “A wild ride to the dark, daring side of Pop” in their four-star write up. The Times added, “Pop that’s a pleasure to be confused by” in their appraisal. I mostly know Arca, also a transgender icon, for her friendship and a few collaborations with the Icelandic role model Bjork. However, Arca has also produced work for Kanye West, Rosalia and FKA Twigs (Who famously used to date Robert Pattinson for quite a while, I believe). ‘Kick iiii’ also features Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Oliver Coates & No Bra. Give ‘Queer’ a whirl below.

Pitching the fourth part of her ‘Kick’ series of augmented records as “an entry in the sensual charge in the cycle; my own faith made into song, a posthuman celestial sparkle, psychosexual pulsewidth modulation, queering the void, abyss alchemically transmuted into a deconstruction of what is beautiful” in her partial LP’s product description, Arca continues to explore the themes of alienation from the inside and a bursting apart of old skin with the glitch-driven lead single from her ‘Kick iiii’ album – ‘Queer’. Built up to be an anthem that is celebrating courage in the face of prejudice and encouraging queer romance in all of its forms, this is a dramatically exploratory single that establishes Arca in the ilk of a ‘true artist’ like Kate Bush or David Bowie where commercial accessibility is primarily not a target and expression with an almost ‘alien’ quality, where traditionally catchy genre traits are simply disregarded in favour of a creative approach. Therefore, I can definitely see why this track may not play ever so well to casual listeners and it, even for me, was a little bit overwhelming to fully grasp on a first listen. It has a vague resemblance to the Eurovision flavour of Pop, however, that gives us somewhere to start with her. Set against the backdrop of a Witch House trap beat that has an air of Latin Hip-Hop about it, calling to my mind names like 100 Gecs and Bad Bunny anyways, Arca and Planningtorock (her actual name is Jam Rostram) exchange a series of Spanish and English lyrics between each other in a trade, with anthemic lyrics like “Tears will shower in my time/Like a queer life/Queer fire” as the Synthpop textures and the science fiction soundtrack feel of the music dives along at a brisk pace that doesn’t ever quite let up entirely. Full of processed vocals and some more interchangeable genre influences that are buried underneath the broad instrumentals, ‘Queer’ finds itself preoccupied with swelling Synth arrangements and rattling percussive arrangements that each function as a mimicry of non-heterosexual forms of love in their diverse nature. The opening of the track is a highlight for me, where a screeching sequence of samples almost act as haunting strings that get the beats off to an unrelented start. Overall, while I can certainly agree that ‘Queer’ is a lot to take in at once and it takes some hard work to get the most out of, I felt rewarded by the emotive soundscape that becomes more vibrant and expansive in scope with my repeated listening. I can also appreciate the thought that goes into the visual aspects of her art too. A tsunami of seismic material.

As aforementioned, Arca has gained a little bit of attention from my blog before. If you found ‘Queer’ to be interesting, you can see what I made of ‘Time’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/05/28/todays-track-arca-time/. You can also gain your own opinion of ‘Mequetrefe’ by visiting my take on it here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/06/30/todays-track-arca-mequetrefe/

That’s all for now! Thank you for finding out what music that I had to share with you today, and we will be going back to our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ in glorious style tomorrow. Join me then for an in-depth look at a new holiday-themed album release by an American Acapella group from Arlington, Texas who won the third season of NBC’s ‘The Sing-Off’ in 2011 and they have won three Grammy awards following that time. If you are a fan of the three ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies, you may find it Aca-awesome.

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