Psychedelic Rock

Today’s Track: Ciel – ‘Fine Everything’

May 3, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Michelle Hindriks (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar), Jorge Bella Jimenez (Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Tim Spencer (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo Credit: ReadDork.com/PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for you to perk up your ears in preparation 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! If I told you on the radio that I was going to play you a new track by an artist with a name (Ciel – Pronounced: Ceal) just like that, you’d be forgiven for expecting to hear some kind of 00’s-leaning Pop, R&B and Soul record. However, you’d be confusing them for Seal. On the other hand, Ciel are an emerging indie rock trio led by vocalist-guitarist Michelle Hindriks drawing from diverse influences such as Sheogaze, Dream-Pop, Prog-Rock, 90’s Grunge, Symphonic Rock and Psychedelic Rock. With members hailing from The Netherlands and Spain in addition to the UK, Ciel have recently captured my imagination when ‘Fine Everything’ gained positive reviews from the panel on last week’s episode of Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable on BBC Radio 6 Music. Ciel have also been praised by sites like KEXP, WFW, BBC Introducing, Amazing Radio, Clash Magazine, Earmilk and Under The Radar too. In recent times, Ciel have been preparing for their upcoming EP by working with Steven Ansell (of Blood Red Shoes fame) as their producer and mixer. The trio have also been supporting She Drew The Gun, Sasami and Penelope Isles across sold out live shows in London and Brighton (Where they are currently based) too. I also read that Ciel have been long-listed for this year’s Emerging Talent Competition at Glastonbury Festival as well, which should continue to shine a spotlight on the band as a valuable commodity within the music industry. On that note, let’s check out their fresh new single, ‘Fine Everything’, below.

Talking passionately about the melodic new offering of Shoegaze-inflicted Indie Rock, frontwoman Michelle Hindriks notes, “It’s about coming of age, and not really knowing how to navigate life. The doubts and difficulties that involve life-changing decisions, yet maybe not being ready growing up, when all your friends are. I was thinking of how so many people lost touch with their inner gut feeling and instincts, and how all the possibilities in life can feel so overwhelming sometimes. It’s almost kind of easier to stay oblivious to it instead of digging deep into your mind“, in her own words. The single oozes charisma with an insistent groove created by the fuzzy walls of anthemic guitar sound and driving drums from the get-go, while lyrics like “Ignorant to the shame, It evoked/Threatened by the drought, caught up in doubt” and “Don’t you know, I am longing for/To be told how to live my life” break down the decision making processes that we all face, punctuated by the Shoegaze guitars and the angsty, classic Punk attitude that gives the tempo a more brooding personality. They unleash a fun and chaotic guitar solo towards the end, while the chorus introduces a more accessible Pop sensibility into the mix due to its rhythmic pulse, while the verses feel more gritty and determined in texture. There’s some hook-filled melodies in here, but it retains a sharp Post-Punk feel overall because the Brighton-based band aren’t afraid to hit you with a distorted wall of sound, but they tie it in with a melodic style and some familiar Pop-driven songwriting. It doesn’t feel shrouded in borderline territory between Dream-Pop and Post-Rock, but it instead feels like it has a more direct punch to its sound that makes it feel memorable when it digs into your brain. It works nicely as a companion for the lyrics, which are all about tacking the uncertainty of thoughts that linger in your brain about your future as a young adult and how these unsettling noises in our minds invade our lifestyle, backed by an edgy Garage feel that resonates with the modern indie production clearly. While it is nothing too innovative and I’ve probably heard most of their ideas before, it is still a solid track that is very catchy and noisy, in the best way possible, that still leaves me thirsting for more content from Ciel soon. It is not re-inventing the wheel, but the wheel keeps spinning without fault.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Fine Everything’ (Single) (Released on March 24th, 2022) (via Self-Released)

That’s all for me today, but I hope that your day turns out to go just fine. I’ll be back for a new edition of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow where will be remembering the work of a Lancashire-born R&B and Pop singer who was a member of groups like Shotgun Express, The She Trinity, Sinbad and Gambler in the 1970’s, and she has been described as “undeservedly neglected” by Bruce Eder, a respected writer for AllMusic.

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Today’s Track: Dama Scout – ‘Emails From Suzanne’

April 26, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Eva Liu (Vocals/Lead Guitar), Scot Lucci (Bass Guitar) and Daniel Grant (Drums) (2022) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has almost come for you to delete all of the junk mail in your inbox folder after you’ve finished reading 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! An Indie Punk trio comprised of vocalist/guitarist Eva Liu, bassist Scot Lucci and drummer Daniel Grant, Dama Scout were formed in 2016 and they subsequently spent years self-producing nightmarish soundscapes traversing through Noise-Pop and Industrial Rock in the studio, dividing their time between Glasgow and London. The band’s name derives from a line said by the protagonist of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ to whom Liu has long related, as ‘Dama’ means woman or deer. You can find support for the trio on sources like The Line Of Best Fit, BBC Introducing, NTS Radio, Amazing Radio and DIY. Their debut LP – ‘Gen Wo Lai (Come With Me)’ – was released on April 22nd via Hand In Hive, and it draws from East Asian Pop and Rock influences. An LP project that was assembled internally – with all of the material getting written, recorded, mixed and produced by Dama Scout themselves – and it explores the ethnicity of Eva Liu, who was born in Northern Ireland by two parents from Hong Kong, thus becoming an object of school playground curiosity. Their bold full-length outing is a soundtrack for her journey of attracting unwanted attention in her adolescence to becoming comfortable with her identity as a young adult, told in the form of harsh Dream-Pop backdrops and various genre fluid explorations. Check your crowded inbox for ‘Emails From Suzanne’ below.

Dama Scout says the promotional single pays homage to “the world’s finest vessel of passive aggression, wrought with the sincerest best wishes, high in frequency, low in fidelity – the email” and it is enriched vividly by the visual work of the accompanying music video, which the band pitch as “a short documentary exploring the death of the office, the nature of emerging flexible work environments and the relationship between labor and the millennial condition of perpetual adolescence“, in a press statement. On that note, a disturbing slice of visual imagery is a suitable companion to the thick walls of distortion and push-and-pull pacing on ‘Emails From Suzanne’ as a sharp, piercing ode to the passive aggression of workplace communication through online messaging. The lyrics are decidedly fragmented, with sequences like “How could/I have done it/All before” and “What is her name?, I ask/Is she wanted?, Any background information?” being repeated throughout the track with a collage-style, loose structure. They are evoked by a sense of Liu muttering under her breath, getting light frustrations and underlying anger across as the emerging feel of catharsis slowly makes its way to the forefront of the loud, quirky tune by the time that it reaches the end. The track twists through the grit of 90’s Riot Grrrl in the breathy bite of the vocals and the aggressive character of the backing band’s sections, while turning through more modern explorations of Shoegaze and Hyper Pop in the ear-catching viscerality of the full-blast guitar rhythms and the rather whimsical finale punctuated by the heightened instrumentals which evoke a nightmarish, anxiety-inducing tone. Rather than having a twisted sweetness to it that brings in some unsettling elements, ‘Emails From Suzanne’ is a little more intent on delivering some high-octane Dream Rock and brooding melodies to give the feeling that something is lurking in the dark corners of the underworld. It is not for everybody due to how outright angry that it sounds, but that’s no discredit to the risks that Dama Scout are taking and how they structure their recorded material with their slow builds that replicate the feeling of a live performance. It does not feel massively improvised, but it bears a decent amount of depth to it and there are flashes of a fresh band who are daring to be different even if the thick walls of distortion feel a little bit played out in their genre, a trope they aren’t necessarily subverting. Although the band have a limited discography, cuts like ‘Emails From Suzanne’ are promising in showcasing an emerging act who have the spirit to forge their own roads in a market that is not currently experiencing a dearth of new talent. A welcome invitation to the, sometimes frightening yet often Utopian, world of a 3-piece who are in control of their career’s direction and musical trajectory.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Gen Wo Lai (Come With Me)’ (LP) (Released on April 22nd, 2022) (via Hand In Hive)

Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and I will be back tomorrow as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ with a revisit of a 90’s Hip-Hop classic that any fans of ‘Watch Dogs 2’ are going to love. Praised bu NPR and AllMusic, this duo from Long Island, New York were ranked as #5 on Rolling Stone’s list of ‘The 20 Greatest Duo’s Of All Time’ in 2015 and, unfortunately, their lost material was a victim of the Universal fire which affected hundreds of artists, whose tapes were destroyed in 2008.

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New Album Release Fridays: The Lazy Eyes – ‘Fuzz Jam’

April 22, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Songbook’ (LP/Album) (Released on April 22nd, 2022) (via Self-Released)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has finally arrived for us to take a walk on the psychedelic Gen-Z side of music as I take you through 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! While the new albums from Fontaines DC, The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Poppy Ajudha have each been coming out today and they are all shaping up to be good, nothing has quite sparked the same interest for me as the long-awaited and slightly delayed (as it was originally set to be released in March) debut album by The Lazy Eyes. ‘Songbook’ has been self-released through the Australian Psychedelic Rock band’s channels on this day – a record that, according to the Vinyl’s product description, “is evidence of an edifice slowly being formed, a trepidatious first footstep by the band into the wider world” as they match a 60’s Neo-Psychedelia influence with a kaleidoscopic aesthetic that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. The Lazy Eyes have developed a cult following and earned acclaim for their live sets since forming as a unit in 2015 when they met at Sydney’s Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. Not only have they sold out shows across the Australian east coast, but they are also responsible for the creation of their own live music festival LazyFest. They have also earned praise from numerous sources including KCRW, FBI Radio, BBC Radio 6 Music, Triple J Unearthed and NME. ‘Songbook’ follows the releases of 2020’s ‘EP 1’ and 2021’s ‘EP 2’, and the group’s profile will continue to grow when they support The Strokes on tour next year along with The Chats. Prepare yourself for the unadulterated liveliness of ‘Fuzz Jam’ below.

Matching the dynamic structure of ‘Fuzz Jam’ with a psychedelic monochrome outset for the music video, the band’s vocalist-guitarist Harvey Geraghty has discussed the foundations of the track’s vibrant soundscape, saying, “I wrote ‘Fuzz Jam’ to use this instrument that [guitarist Itay Sasha] bought live. It’s this Hohner Planet T, and we wanted a more hard track to play on it, instead of just singing songy songs”, in a press statement. Ever the humorous bunch, The Lazy Eyes take some influence from the sprawling, cinematic post Neo-Psychedelia of The Flaming Lips and a 60’s Beatles-esque Jangle Pop vibe to conjure up a heightened Noise-Rock collage of effects-filled Synth sounds and delay pedal-dominated guitar riffs that feels almost self-referential to its core influences. This one starts off with a threatening bassline accelerated by the animalistic Drums and seductively sultry lead guitar riffage that creates a very improvisational feel to the instrumentation where the tempo chops and changes throughout the track, endlessly segueing in and out of sparkly Psychedelic Pop and ‘turn up that dial’ good time rock. These grooves mutate and twists, so you never quite know what’s around the corner. Simple lyrics like “I want it all to be ok, I want to stay the same” and “Run for the door, You’ll be okay/Don’t be afraid to say my name” often get repeated, which leans loosely on the heavy and inciting soundscape while occasionally dipping into a sweeter harmony. It can often seem like you are listening to three or four different songs thrown in a blender together here as the overall instrumentation is fairly unpredictable and the rhythms are complex, not to mention the full-blast feel of the saturation effects which turn their Psych-Rock world upside down, but their vocals are played out with some subtle sense of comfort while the incendiary electronic elements penetrate the rhythmic bass grooves to a satisfying cohesion, despite the track having its lofty ambitions. These elements are all major thorough-lines in the track, and so the pacing never feels massively out-of-place as to make the track feel incomprehensible. Overall, this is all playful fun and it seems like the kind of track that really could not have been made 20 years ago, which is a quietly incredible feat. It never shakes off the meditative qualities which have set them apart.

Pictured: Harvey Geraghty (Lead Vocals/Keyboard/Rhythm Guitar), Itay Shachar (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Leon Karagic (Bass Guitar) and Noah Martin (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo Credit: PR)

Thank you for checking out my latest post, and please make sure to follow the blog on Twitter (the links are below) to get notified whenever my daily posts are uploaded and help me to dominate the social media algorithm, eventually allowing me to take over the world. In the meantime, I’ll be back tomorrow to review a recent single by an established Manchester-based Art-Rock band who have a Mercury Prize nomination and five Ivor Novello Awards nominations to their name. They follow in the same tradition of Django Django, Talk Talk and Years & Years in having a double title for their name. Thinking about it – this is actually great material for a Pub Quiz question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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New Album Release Fridays: Warmduscher – ‘Twitchin’ In The Kitchen’

April 1, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘At The Hotspot’ (Digital LP) (Released on April 1st, 2022) (via Bella Union Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and you are tuned into a fairly off-kilter edition of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ as we prepare 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 new music every day! Although you may mistake them for a quirky German pop band at first glance, Warmduscher are actually a London-based Post-Punk band currently signed to Bella Union who are famed for their inside jokes and eccentric live performances, and they have been supported by BBC Radio 6 Music very regularly over the years since their formation in 2014. Warmduscher have collaborated with the likes of Iggy Pop and Kool Keith, and their previous studio album – 2019’s ‘Tainted Lunch’ – received a stunning 9/10 score from The Line Of Best Fit’s review as well as a place on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Albums Of The Year list at #6 in 2019. They have also released a remix EP – 2020’s ‘European Cowboy’ – to coincide with Record Store Day in 2020 featuring contributions from Soulwax, Savage Gary and Decius, and it was strictly limited to just 1000 vinyl copies. Thankfully, their new album is more widely available and it takes the form of their fourth full-length LP, ‘At The Hotspot’, which arrives digitally today before being released on Vinyl on July 1st. Warmduscher have gained so much praise for their originality and humor that they were previously given a shout-out on the blog when I wrote about ‘Disco Peanuts’ in late 2019. The new LP incorporates more influences of Funk and Disco than before, and it was originally going to be produced by Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey, who has also produced countless records for artists like La Roux, Sinead O’Brien, Squid and Black Country, New Road in recent years. However, he fell ill with Covid-19 and the Clash-praised group turned to Hot Chip’s Alex Doyle and Joe Goddard instead. It includes the new single ‘Twitchin’ In The Kitchen’ that comes accompanied by a Brixton-shot and Niall Trask-directed music video, whose previous credits include well-received videos for Fat White Family and Working Men’s Club. Let’s give this pre-release cut a spin below.

Warmduscher played a gig at Cambridge’s The Junction venue on March 26th, which was moved to a larger room due to high demand. They will also be hitting the road for dates in Brighton, Bristol, London, Manchester and Sheffield later in the year, some of which have been sold out already, and a few later dates in European locations like Amsterdam are coming up shortly too. Their frontman, known as Clams Jr, notes, “We’re just really psyched to play this whole thing live now, and it’s a whole revamp – new label, new producers, new logo – new everything”, rather matter-of-factly, in Bella Union’s press release about their new record. ‘Twitchin In The Kitchen’ gives you a good idea of what to expect, establishing a raucous mixture of aggressive Funk and harsh, dissonant Synth melodies that builds up to a screamer of a chorus. The instrumentation sounds unapologetically Post-Punk, while the lyrics complement the spacey, disco vibe of the verses because they sound pretty daft and they find the band putting on a show with their wit and sense of distinctively quirky character, as Clams recites lines like “I can’t take it, here I’m sweating/I’m clucking like a chicken” and “Grab a bowl, scrape it clean/Two-four out the door, sniff it off the kitchen floor” that are pretty silly, but they are sung with a low-pitched croon typical of Clams’ cowboy character. The vocals feel energized and heightened for certain, while the looping arrangement feels industrial and psychedelic through it’s combination of Post-Punk and Progressive Funk beats, before building to a child-like sing-along that makes the final refrains sound like a schoolyard chant-a-long of the chorus. A perfect pick-me-up for kitchen disco lovers all around the UK, Warmduscher have created an infectious Alternative Funk anthem for those who love to do a bit of ‘Twitching In The Kitchen’ with no apologies given in their typical quirky fashion. It may drive you Disco Peanuts.

Pictured: Clams Baker Jr, Jack Everett, Quicksand, Mr. Salt Fingers Lovecraft and Little Whiskers (2019) (via PR)

If you’d like to hear more of what’s in store, you can also check out my previous Warmduscher post that was published in the build-up to ‘Tainted Lunch’ back in 2019.

‘Disco Peanuts’ (2019) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/11/30/todays-track-warmduscher-disco-peanuts/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Tainted Lunch’ (LP) (Released on November 1st, 2019) (via The Leaf Label)

That’s all for now! Thank you for ‘Twitching In The Kitchen’ to this tune with me today, and I’ll be back to guide you through another track on the blog tomorrow, where we’ve got new music coming from an Irish Post-Punk band who, although being mentioned a few times due to their frequent collaborations with Dan Carey as their producer, haven’t been covered for a fully-fledged article on the blog until now. Their second album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, and their debut LP, ‘Dogrel’, was named the ‘Album Of The Year’ by BBC Radio 6 Music.

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Today’s Track: DEHD – ‘Bad Love’

March 29, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Blue Skies’ (LP) (Available from May 27th, 2022) (via Fat Possum Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to invest in another daily track of the blog as we want to experience as many of those as we can before we drop DEHD, and it’s my duty given how it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! DEHD are a Garage Rock trio comprised of vocalist/bassist Emily Kempf, guitarist/vocalist Jason Balla and drummer Eric McGrady who have taken their sound to labels like Maximum Pelt, Infinity Cat Recordings and Fire Talk Records. They have toured across the UK, the Netherlands, France and Germany in support of Twin Peaks, and their latest album was even granted the ‘Best New Music’ designation by Pitchfork. Citing the likes of Broadcast, Roy Orbinson and James Brown as some of their biggest influences, DEHD will be going on a North American Tour throughout the Spring that will find them stopping off at locations such as Boston, Denver, Austin, Toronto and more – with a concluding set at Governors Ball in New York in June. The follow-up LP to their critically acclaimed sophomore album – 2020’s ‘Flower Of Devotion’ – will also hit store shelves in the form of ‘Blue Skies’ on May 27th via Fat Possum Records. The group’s new album was recorded in the same studio as their last long-player effort, and the 13-track project allowed them to work with mastering engineer Heba Kadry and mixing engineer Craig Silvey for the first time. The lead single is ‘Bad Love’, which has been growing on me with recent airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and KEXP’s Song Of The Day podcast as it recalls the Riot Grrrl movement with Mad Max visuals. The video was directed by Kevin Veleska and you can check it out below.

“Bad Love is about recovering from love addiction and making a decision to stop choosing and aligning with people who aren’t your energetic match”, Emily Kempf says about The Jesus & Mary Chain-inspired new single, adding, “I wrote it for myself and for everyone who needed to hear a song about choosing new forms of love. It’s about chasing a relationship with one-self rather than an unhealthy one, one that just doesn’t quite fit, or a co-dependent one”, in a press release. Starting off with a steady drum beat and a twangy lead guitar hook that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Blues or Alternative Folk record, Kempf revs up gradually to more violent pacing with “I was a bad love/Now I can get some/I got a heart full of redemption” before the more propulsive guitar riffs and the faster Drum beats take centre stage of the 00’s blog-rock aesthetic. The twangy energy remains, but lyrics like “Run baby run/Run from the bad love/New love baby, come on honey, give me some” and “Forgive me/Give it to me/Tell me what to do, tell me what to do to keep it” are given a more low-pitched howling that feels more nostalgic of its’ key influences and a propulsive setting, with a voice that howls and wails to the mid-tempo Post-Punk guitar instrumentation. The track gets more catchy and more punchy with subsequent listens, as the simplicity is also the beauty on this one. The track mainly recalls the punk-and-politics chops of the Riot grrrl times of the 90’s, while elements of Industrial music and Baroque Punk are also noticeable due to the variety of metallic, riotous and psychedelic textures throughout. Additional comparisons can also be made to Surf-Rock – as it takes a page out of The Beach Boys’ playbook in it’s mid-tempo pacing – as well as Blues, Desert Rock and Pop-Punk too. Ultimately, ‘Bad Love’ is a moving and effective new single that feels both nostalgic and diverse and it shows that DEHD are a charming trio who have legs, and their sound feels defined. There is no toxicity in this romance.

Pictured: Emily Kempf (Vocals), Jason Balla (Lead Guitar) & Eric McGrady (Drums) (2020) (Photo by Alexa Viscuis)

That brings me to the end of another refreshing post on the blog, and thank you very much for continuing to support the site each day. We’re coming up to ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow, and we’ll be looking at an IDM record from the mid-90’s that, I feel, gets rather underrated. It comes from the British electronic music duo of Garry Cobain and Brian Douglas who have explored genres like Trip Hop, Psychedelia, Dub, Acid Techno, Dark Ambient, Industrial and House music. They are known for records like 1994’s ‘Lifeforms’ that have reached the UK Top 10 Albums Chart. They have also released music under aliases such as Polemical, Aircut and Amorphous Androgynous.

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Today’s Track: The Red Hot Chilli Peppers – ‘Black Summer’

March 26, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Unlimited Love’ (LP/Album) (Available from April 1st, 2022) (via Warner Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to turn up the heat with a brand new single by a scorching California-based rock band 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! Holding the reputation of being one of the most successful bands in contemporary Alternative Rock with sales records on the US Billboard charts for their singles, six Grammy award wins, over 100 million record sales worldwide and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, alongside the band receiving a star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame earlier this year, it’s a pretty big deal that The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are making their first proper comeback in quite a long time, although I have to hold my hands up and admit that I am a little late to the party for this occasion. ‘Unlimited Love’ is the band’s 12th studio album and their upcoming follow-up to 2016’s ‘The Getaway’ and it is currently set to be releasing as soon as April 1st – that is next Friday – on Warner Records. The main draw for this new release is how it is their first album to feature the returning bassist John Frusciante, who originally left the band in 2009 and rejoined in 2019, replacing Josh Klingghoffer. In addition to this, it re-unites the band with longtime producer Rick Rubin for the first time since 2011. The band will also be going on a new world tour to support the album, beginning this June. Check out their comeback single ‘Black Summer’ below.

“Our only goal is to get lost in the music. We spent thousands of hours, collectively and individually, honing our craft and showing up for one another, to make the best album we could”, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers explain about their impending LP, adding, “Our antennae attuned to the divine cosmos, we were just so damn grateful for the opportunity to be in a room together, and, once again, try to get better. Days, weeks and months spent listening to each other, composing, jamming freely, and arranging the fruit of those jams with great care and purpose. The sounds, rhythms, vibrations, words and melodies had us enrapt”, in a press statement. ‘Black Summer’ finds lead vocalist Anthony Kiedis waiting for a period of depression to end, as the title may indicate to you, as he croons somber refrains like “A sailor spoke too soon, and China’s on the dark side of the moon” and “The archers on the run, and no one stands alone behind the sun” that are delivered over the top of some familiar fretwork from guitarist Flea. The track has a naturally uplifting chorus that it transitioned neatly between a tastefully meandering lead guitar solo in the middle of the track, and the fluctuating Drums help to convey the fuzzed-out and psychedelic sounds of classic Chilli Peppers’ music. Lyrics like “Riding on a headless horse to make the trip” dice with death as a brief theme, while the final bridge of “Waiting for another black summer to end” is destined to be sung by festival crowds later in the year. The main vocals have a fairly chilled and a reasonably paled back feel to them, while the ascending guitar solo ensures that we ride a propulsive wave until the duration meets its end. Most notably, it follows the formula of how you would expect a Red Hot Chilli Peppers track to sound while making the sound feel contemporary due to the explorations of mental health that captures the mood of a modern male audience. It is an anthemic single for those who struggle with the exhaustive daily commitments of modern life, but the sound takes obvious cues from nostalgia and the records of The Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s past. Ultimately, I felt this rolled along rather nicely and one of my initial fears was that the band may be a bit too old now to pull off their old lyrical shtick as effectively. On the contrary, the songwriting feels mature enough to bypass that issue and despite feeling a bit predictable, it is crowd pleasing stuff that just sounds like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It was better than I expected, and it feels as relieving as the pandemic-ridden closure of a black summer.

Pictured: Anthony Kledis (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), ‘Flea’ (Bass Guitar/Trumpet/Piano/Backing Vocals), Chad Smith (Drums/Percussion) and John Frusciante (Lead Guitar/Vocals/Keyboard) (2022) (Photo by Gus Van Sant)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post and I hope to see you again tomorrow for ‘Scuzz Sundays’ where I have chosen a simple song about love that would kind-of fit the theme of Mother’s Day too. I was inspired to cover this early 00’s Glam-Rock classic due to the band’s frontman’s recent appearances on both ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ and ‘Rock Till You Drop’ on UK television screens.

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Today’s Track: Sunflower Bean – ‘Who Put You Up To This?’

March 24, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Julia Cumming (Bass/Vocals), Nick Kivlen (Lead Guitar) & Olive Faber (Drums) (2019) (Photo by AFP/Getty)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to bring some warmth into the early going of your day 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! ‘Who Put You Up To This?’ is one of the latest new singles by Sunflower Bean, a Brooklyn-based indie rock trio who will be kicking off their imminent UK tour with a live gig at Cambridge’s The Junction next week on March 30th. Since turning heads with their relentless touring schedule in mid-2010’s New York, as well as their live sets at CMJ Music Marathon in 2014 and South By Southwest in 2015, the Julia Cumming-led Psych-Rock trio have never shied too greatly far away from the mainstream eye by opening for high-profile names like Wolf Alice and Pixies. You may have also seen them supporting fellow Glam Rock-inspired veterans like Cherry Glazerr and Sleigh Bells too. Citing Tame Impala, Nirvana and The Cure as just a handful of their key influences over the years, Sunflower Bean have released their material on labels like Fat Possum Records and Mom + Pop Records since becoming active in 2013. The band’s upcoming third studio album – ‘Headful Of Sugar’ – will be released on May 20th via Lucky Number and it was produced and mixed by Jacob Portrait, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s bassist. To share about their new album’s themes, guitarist Nick Kivlen says, “We wanted to write about the lived experience of late capitalism, how it feels every day, the mundanity of not knowing where every construct is supposed to ultimately lead you. The message is in the title: this is about fast pleasures, the sugar of life, the joy that comes with letting go of everything you thought mattered”, in a general press release. Check out the lead single – ‘Who Put You Up To This?’ – below.

‘Headful Of Sugar’ is the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Twentytwo In Blue’ and they enlisted the talents of Brooklyn-based director Josefine Cardoni to create the music video for comeback single ‘Who Put You Up To This?’, of which Sunflower Bean comments, “Are you satisfied? Who put you up to do things that you do? Was it your own choice? Questioning your life is the first step to taking the agency to change it. Sometimes you have to let go of who you have been so that you can become who you want to be”, in a contemplative press release. ‘Who Put You Up To This’ is more relaxed than other recent singles like ‘Roll The Dice’ and ‘Moment In The Sun’ from the get-go, where it starts off with a whimsical lead guitar hook and a sultry backing vocal that feels laidback and dream-like, before the melodies slowly build to a more melodic sound with atmospheric keyboard riffs and a softer, light bass guitar riff that ticks along to the more dissonant and driving guitar lines. The vocals complement a tone of mixed emotions, where refrains like “If only I could feel so free/To call you now would be a breeze” where a sentiment of sadness hangs in the balance, yet more straightforward lyrics like “I’m burning up all the obligations, and I’m gonna take a permanent vacation” introduce more powerful and furious moments where Cumming conveys a message that is equally about starting a new chapter of your life while simultaneously shedding the skin of your former baggage. The pressure is released by aggrieved hooks like “I’m good enough for the main course, even if I’m the one that’s paying for it” that reflect on our choices of habits that lead to self-analyzing your deepest desires, while relieving sequences like “So tell me when you feel the need/We’re letting go for real” allows Cumming to untie herself from the unhealthy experiences that led to her actions taken in reflection of her experiences in an unhealthy relationship. There’s a tuneful guitar solo thrown into the mix for added texture, and the vaguely stop-and-start pacing is accentuated by a sentimental Horn riff that gives the track its mixture of somber moods and vibrant psychedelic melodies. Overall, ‘Who Put You Up To This?’ is an excellently crafted new single that reminded me of Kate Bush in its narrative-leaning structure and psychedelic concoction of Art Pop and Glam Rock influences. It feels like a break-up track with a difference, wherein the forceful sense of relieving yourself is flipping between the worst moments and the purely divine ones down a stream-of-consciousness route. There’s plenty to like here.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Headful Of Sugar’ (LP) (Released on May 6th, 2022) (via Lucky Number Records)

That brings me to the bottom of the page for another day! Thank you for checking out what I had lined up for your amusement today, as your support always means a lot to me, and we’ll be going down the lane of Techno, IDM and Electronica – three of my top-tier genres – for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ in 24 hours’ time. The record comes to your way by a London-based experimental electronic music producer who has received positive write-up’s from publications like Clash and he has released music on London-based label FIELDS and German label Traum Schallplatten. He has released remixes for Nils Frahm, Hot Chip, Guy Andrews, Sasha, Jim Wallis and countless more.

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New Album Release Fridays: Nilufer Yanya – ‘The Dealer’

March 4, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Painless’ (LP/Album) (Released on March 4th, 2021) (via ATO Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to enjoy an in-depth preview for one of the weekend’s most exciting stand-out’s in an eclectic line-up of exciting new album releases with yet another daily track on the blog, which makes sense because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Painless’ is the second studio album to come from Nilufer Yanya, who is the daughter of two visual artists who have Turkish and Irish-Barbadian heritage, which is releasing today via ATO Records. What makes Yanya very interesting is how, despite growing up listening to traditional Turkish folk music and Classical music, she gravitated to guitar-based rock ‘n’ roll instead, and she learned how to play an instrument when she was just twelve years old. Yanya has spoken out in the press about the talent acquisition model that she experienced when she found fame via SoundCloud in 2014, how people have assumed that she makes R&B music due to her appearance and background, and the lack of diversity in modern music festivals across the UK, most recently, in a firm but fair interview with The Independent. However, Yanya goes for a different sound than you may expect and pushes some boundaries with a sound that I would describe as quite ‘loose’ and ‘restless’, as she incorporates a decent variety of influences including Trip Hop, Blues Rock, Neo-Soul and Progressive Jazz into her repertoire of releases. The 26-year-old West London-based singer-songwriter says, “Painless is a record that forces the listener to sit with the discomfort that accompanies so many of life’s biggest challenges whether it be relationship breakdowns, coping with loneliness, or the search for our inner self. It’s a record about emotion”, in the LP’s product description on the Rough Trade website. The bold and ambitious release is the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Miss Universe’ and a string of EP’s that were compiled to essentially form up her 2021 release ‘Inside Out’. Check out the latest single from it – ‘The Dealer’ – that was attached to the visualizer below.

“When I was writing this song, I was thinking about the transient nature of life and the cyclical nature of the seasons”, Yanya says of her final pre-release single ‘The Dealer’ that follows previously unveiled tracks like ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘Another Life’, and she adds, “I find it interesting how we attach certain memories and feelings to different seasons and tend to revisit them time and time again, yet our lives move in a more linear motion and even when we feel like we are going back we never really get to go back anywhere. Musically speaking, it’s a bit more playful and relaxed”, in her press statement. Establishing a high tempo quickly and right out of the gate with a fuzz-laden series of blurred and dreamy guitar chords that are complemented aggressively by some clattering hip hop-like drum beats, Yanya gets right down to business by crooning “It’s been weighing on my mind/Seems to be with me all the time” and “I thought you were someone to rely on/Does sadness pick you to the bone?” with a lovesick tone as she continually contemplates her cyclical nature of her thought process. The instrumentation is fast, but frequent, as the track develops and the guitar-drum’s combo have a high-speed energy that allows the pounding break-beats and shoegaze-influenced basslines to have a few merticulous time signature changes that can appeal to the most avid fans of Prog Rock structuring while suiting the lushly harmonic and expansive funk-rock style of her vocals and instrumentals. Lyrics like “Patience, there she goes/Cadence, set in stone” show Yanya trying to break out of the self-centric and specific modes of thinking about a relationship, and the more straightforward refrains like “I miss the kind of patience that breaks your heart/Baby, it’s me that is taking us apart” have a rhythmic delivery, but they still cut to the root of the problem that has been plaguing Yanya’s mind throughout the verses. Overall, ‘The Dealer’ has to be one of the strongest singles that I’ve heard from Yanya because she sounds clear and confident, while addressing vulnerability, in her vocals. I also like the adjacent guitar hooks and the angular drum beats that sound cool and casual, while gently veering towards a retro 90’s-disco style in their groove-like repetition. If ‘Painless’ builds upon ‘The Dealer’, a purchase of the LP is a deal that is hard to refuse.

Pictured: Nilufer Yanya in a promotional shoot for her live Latitude Festival set (2017) (Photo via ReadDork.com)

Thank you for reading my latest post, and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the day knowing that your continued support is always highly appreciated from me! Moving forwards, there is a new weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ lined up for you on Sunday, but I’ve got a short and sweet one in the works for tomorrow where we’ll be reviewing the latest single from a Los Angeles native all-female indie rock band known for their 2010 essential track ‘Undertow’. They have supported Harry Styles and Foals on global tours, and their single ‘Lilys’ was featured in the HBO TV series ‘Made For Love’.

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Today’s Track: Young Prisms – ‘Honeydew’

March 1, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Drifter’ (LP) (Available from March 25th, 2022) (via Fire Talk Records)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned into One Track At A Time, and this is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m here to sweeten the deal as we head into Pancake Day 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! The San Francisco-based Shoegazers known as Young Prisms (Whose current line-up includes Stefanie Hodapp, Matt Allen, Giovanni Betteo and Jordan Silbert) have just recently returned from, what their A&R team describe as, a “sabbatical” of an entire decade ahead of the release of a new full-length studio album, ‘Drifter’, which is finally set to see the light of day when it releases on March 25th via Fire Talk Records. Formed back in 2009, in their original run, Young Prisms never quite reached the commercial success of some of the peer acts of the Dream-Rock and Acid-Rock music scenes. However, they gained positive reviews from sources like AllMusic and BUST Magazine, and they toured all over the US and Europe. They released two albums, a few 7″ records and one EP at the time, with their influences ranging from traditional Shoegaze bands like Mazzy Star and Slowdive to more progressive or cult acts including My Bloody Valentine, The Radio Dept and The Jesus & The Mary Chain. Heading into their new era, Young Prisms have enlisted the help of producer Shaun Durkan, a member of Weekend and a frequent collaborator of Soft Cell, to help them bring their imaginations to life. A press-release describes their long-awaited album as an exploration of “the tension and release that comes with bringing your head down from the clouds to make sense of the tangible entanglements that make up everyday existence”, and the lead single of ‘Honeydew’ has been accompanied by an official music video that was filmed in one take and it was directed by the group’s own Betteo and it stars band-mate Holdapp. Check it out.

The sublime music video for ‘Honeydew’ makes it clear that Young Prisms are going to be re-imagining their career trajectory as they re-enter the evolved Shoegaze genre after a ten year hiatus, and Betteo has said, “I always wanted to make a video that was focused on restraint, especially with choreography being key and shock so prevalent”, when talking about the behind-the-scenes stages of his somber video that was created with no cuts at all, and he concluded, “It feels like a bit of a contradiction for someone, who can’t seem to record a song without an excessive number of filters and effects, to make a video that is in black and white and wholly driven by minimalism”, in a press statement. Back to ‘Honeydew’ itself, and we start off with a winding sound as the delay pedal effects of the guitar riffs mimic the pace of a car revving up as the fuzzy guitar work arrangement transitions naturally into view, and Hodapp delves into the hazy Dream-Pop atmosphere as she sings enigmatic lyrics like “Take a turn back to 101/We’ve been here before/A show under the moonlight and stars” as the soundscape continually feels like it could blasting out of a car’s stereo on a sunny 90’s morning as the gauzy, rich vocals and the blissful guitar melodies, that are drenched in a wide array of effects and filters in the traditions of Shoegaze music. “Take my hand before you disappear and walk right out of here” precedes the optimistic and smile-inducing chorus, while the question of “Do you believe? I believe in you, honeydew” leaves us on a hopeful note. As far as Shoegaze goes, it is nice to see Young Prisms keeping their sound simple and they address the evolution of Shoegaze over the years when they were missing in action by retaining the warmth of their influences, as there’s definitely an underlying sense of positivity to the melodies in the soundscape. While treading their toes in retro – more so than progressive – ‘Honeydew’ finds the San Francisco quartet deliver a sturdy yet sentimental little statement about stretching their course further than they had originally run in the 10’s. Overall, ‘Honeydew’ is an engaging Shoegaze single of a classical style for its genre that neatly breathes some liberating energy into a band we thought were gone.

Pictured: Stefanie Hodapp (Lead Vocals/Producer), Matt Allen (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Giovanni Betteo (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Jordan Silbert (Drums/Percussion/Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo by Jared Silbert)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest post on the blog, and please keep in mind that I always highly appreciate your support very much, and so I thank you for spending some time by visiting the site today. Tomorrow, we take a break away from my recent recommendations for a short while as we revisit some of the seminal sounds of the past with ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, Join me then for the second appearance on the blog from a Brit-Pop band who were formed in the West Midlands in the late-80’s and their frontman became one of the UK’s national treasures when he kept us entertained by his Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties in the lockdowns of 2020.

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