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: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – ‘A Passionate Life’

February 8, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Tom Rees (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Zac White (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Ed Rees (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Ethan Hurst (Drums/Percussion/Unclean Vocals) (2021) (Photo Credit: Lily Brown)

Good Morning to you! I am Jacob Braybrooke and you’re tuned into One Track At A Time, as usual, where we are gearing up our ear’s engines 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! A 4-piece of Welsh Glam Rockers who are in love with the classic rock greats like T-Rex and AC/DC, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are another emerging band who have picked up support from all the usual places – like BBC Radio 6 Music, So Young Magazine, NME and more – over the past handful of years since forming out of lead vocalist Tom Rees’ bedroom in 2016. The band hope to continue finding their breakthrough when their debut studio album – ‘Backhand Deals’ – releases on February 25th via Communion Records. The band will also be performing alongside Sir Tom Jones, Stereophonics and Catfish & The Bottlemen at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in June 2022. Known for critically acclaimed singles like ‘John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ’, ‘New Age Millennial Magic’, ‘You’ and ‘Double Denim Hop’, they have been making a name for themselves on the UK’s live touring circuit and they have, in a funny story that comes courtesy of DIY Mag, named “the re-animated corpse of Bon Scott” as their dream collaborator. Rees said of their impending debut album in September, “Backhand Deals is a practice in subverting the ideology of rock music as something that needs to be ‘brought back from the dead’. Rock should be about enjoying yourself honestly, whether that’s washing the dishes, sweeping the yard, or complaining about whoever got elected. Rock is a sweeping power, and is attributed to anyone who performs art honestly, from Lizzo feeling good as hell to AC/DC riding down a highway to hell. The honesty is the same, and the honesty prevails”. Let’s check out their latest pre-release offering – ‘A Passionate Life’ – below.

The band will be making their debut in the US at SXSW in March, and Rees says, “A Passionate Life was written about striving to be a better friend, and not spending so much time on myself”, about the new single in a press release, adding, “I think the world is always telling you to focus on you, which is the right thing to do a lot of the time, but it’s easy work. I don’t think I’ll ever change, but wanting to change feels like enough for now. We’re all surface level creatures and just the thought of wanting to be a better person makes me feel like I am”, to his notes. Exploring the ideas of principle and authenticity, Rees sings contemplative lyrics like “What am I gonna say, When all of these songs, Just melt away” and “I know that I should call sometime, Ditch this ruse, that I’m towing the line time after time” as he reaches out to some reliable friends for emotional support and good company, while the instrumentation boasts an engaging mixture of plodding Piano stabs and floundering guitar rhythms that play out steadily. The chorus, where Rees mixes a sense of sarcasm and humor to the tune of “Sex appeal, is just a product of fear” and “When am I going to reveal/This phony charm” that untangles the stereotypes behind what it means to be a ‘rock star’ in the mass media and leaves the listener behind to reflect on their own emotions or thoughts. It feels more restrained than previous servings of comforting 70’s-influenced Rock that we’ve heard from the band, but it makes great use of some Elton John-style keyboard melodies that manage to feel a little melancholic and the understated guitar riffs that underscore the integrity of the vocals with a neat sense of production. They also lean into the tropes of the genre to pull the nostalgia card, with a chorus of ‘La-La-La’s’ towards the end that feels like a clear nod to the likes of The Beatles and The Kinks from earlier, and in many ways, simpler times. Overall, it makes great sense for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard to enlist the references of their greatest influences for a track that is solely about the meaning of togetherness, and it absolutely feels like one of those mellow tracks that will help you take things down a peg when you feel like your mind is full of traffic. Strangely sweet and pretty poignant.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Backhand Deals’ (LP) (Available from February 25th, 2022) (via Commuion Records)

Thank you for checking out yet another very unique post on the blog, and we’ll be revisiting some of the most seminal sounds of the past with another weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ tomorrow. The next pick comes from a 90’s band led by a former promoter of Anthem’s TNA/Impact Wrestling promotion who we’ve covered on the blog previously, and they are still presently active. They brought ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ to our lives in 1995, a record which topped the US Billboard 200 album chart upon release straight away. You could say that they were ‘Smashing’.

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Today’s Track: Foals – ‘Wake Me Up’

February 5, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Yannis Phillippakis (Lead Vocalist/Lead Guitarist), Jack Bevan (Drums/Percussion) and Jimmy Smith (Rhythm Guitar/Keyboard/Synths/Production/Occasional Backing Vocals) (2022) (Photo Credit: Ed Cooke)

Good day to you, and thank you for gearing up for another daily upload on One Track At A Time. I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’ve got another eventful daily track in store for you on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Typically, I only tend to have around 7% of my week’s energy left in me on a Saturday morning like this, and so a new track with the title of ‘Wake Me Up’ could be the caffeine pill that I need to keep me motivated today. It comes from the Oxford-formed rock band Foals, who are commercial heavyweights in the UK, who are led by Greek-born vocalist/guitarist Yannis Phillippakis. Foals won ‘Best Live Act’ at the Q Awards in 2013, as well as ‘Best British Group’ at the BRIT Awards in 2020, and they have toured internationally for over a decade. They also performed a surprise set at Glastonbury in 2019 and their discography includes a staggering number of 27 singles at time of writing. The last time we heard from Foals was when they released ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1’ in March 2019 followed up by ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2′ in October 2019, which was Foals’ first album to reach the top of the UK Albums Chart, and it doesn’t feel like a gap of two years at all. Those bodies of work matched political and ecological themes against daring Dance-Rock and their trademark Indie Rock sound that made heavy albums like 2015’s ‘What Went Down’ hits in the mainstream. Last September, keyboardist Edwin Congreave decided to leave the band to pursue a postgraduate degree in Economics and, now as a trio, the rest of the band have been writing and producing their new album with Dan Carey (Sinead O’Brien, Black Midi) and John Hill (Carly Rae Jepsen, Bleachers) in Peckham, with the album due for a release at an as-of-yet undetermined point during 2022. Our first tease of it – ‘Wake Me Up’ – is below.

Described by frontman Yannis Phillippakis as “Our version of a dance or disco record” with lyrics which “transport oneself out of the oppression of lockdown and the bleakness of last year”, in a press release, ‘Wake Me Up’ is Foals’ first track since they lost a member to find them experimenting with different elements of Psych-Rock and revisiting the interlocking nature of the grooves and the guitars architecturally that have made Foals a household name in recent years, with Phillippakis concluding that, “With ‘Wake Me Up’, I just wanted to write a song about transporting yourself to a better, idyllic situation”, in his lengthy press statement. Kicking off immediately with a shimmering lead guitar riff that is met in the middle by an energetic drum section and some very intense percussion, Phillippakis awakens us with “I’m walking through a dream/I’m walking through the finest place I’ve ever seen” as the opening hook, encouraging the listener to make a swift return to reality after spending ages sitting at home due to the law’s enforcement. Punchy refrains like “I’m kicking down the doors, I’m climbing up the walls of the house that’s yours” keep the fiesty rhythm of the drum’s brisk cadence intact, while a later verse goes for more of a chant-along style with a light call-and-response format that will likely find large summer festival crowds repeating lines like “Deny your own expression, deny the things you now” and “I’m deleting all the codes, no I’m not that man you know” back at the band, with brief lyrical explorations of masculinity that add some nuance to the band’s musings of their experiences during various lockdown periods, with the ideas of independence and seeking your own path back to joy each coming through the most strongly throughout the overall tone of the new single. There’s an 80’s tinge to the Synth-enhanced guitar chords, and the upbeat lyrics are likely to relate to a wide crowd of listeners. Foals’ sound is certainly appealing to a lot of crowds including Radio X’s target demographics, football fans who play FIFA on their favourite gaming consoles, and large festival crowds who gather around for a good time for the weekend’s shows, and so I can understand why they have found popularity by connecting with various communities. Yanis’ voice is as powerful as ever on ‘Wake Me Up’ as he builds up a commanding presence through his vocals that don’t overlap the flexing style of the instrumentation all too much. Overall, I felt that ‘Wake Me Up’ sounds very solid. It’s not something that feels hugely original and it’s not unexpected from Foals, but the joyous vibe of a Disco ball with a flavour of good old rock and roll is welcome and it sounds cheerful, thus putting me in a good mood. I enjoyed the more Synth-driven electronic dance sound that was hidden in prior singles like ‘Exits’, and the 5-minute showcase of ‘In Degrees’ more specifically, quite a deal – but this dance-rock style is simply made more obvious by ‘Wake Me Up’ in my opinion. A fun and immediate comeback that carries their ‘greatest hits’ while feeling (just about) refreshed enough.

Pictured: Foals performing a live set at All Points East Festival, London (2021) (Photo Credit: Emma Swann)

That leaves me with nothing much left to write other than to thank you for checking out my latest blog post as I finally draw my musical musing of the day to a natural conclusion. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ is back tomorrow, as always, however – and we’ll be remembering a guitar-oriented rock band from Leytonshire, East London for this week. They only released two albums before splitting up in 2008, but they developed a strong cult following that still praise them to this day and they opened up the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005. Although disappointing second album sales and a lack of label marketing led to a short lifespan, they re-united for two gigs in Oslo, Hackney, London in 2016. They also performed on ‘Top Of The Pops’.

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New Album Release Fridays: Dan Sartain – ‘People Throwing Stones In Glass Houses’

November 26, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise’ (LP) (Released on Nov 26th, 2021) (via One Little Independant)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to throw some stones in some glass houses to the beat of yet another daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week’s pick for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ arrives with a dose of sadness because it also means that it’s time for us to say goodbye to a cult favourite singer-songwriter – Dan Sartain – who left us at the young age of just 39 at the end of March 2021. Dan Sartain got an early start by playing in the local hardcore punk band Plate Six in the 1990’s, and the Blues artist from Birmingham, Alabama went on to release eight subsequent solo albums. During his career, Sartain got the chance to be the opening act for The Hives and The White Stripes on tour in 2007 and he notably issued the ‘Bohemian Grove’ single on Jack White’s legendary imprint Third Man Records in 2009. After building traction as an extroverted artist on open mic nights in the US and building his cult following as an unsigned talent, he finally released his first widely commercially available LP record ‘Dan Sartain vs. The Serpientes’ in 2005.

Sartain’s music encompassed a variety of Rockabillly, Blues, Country and DIY Punk music but his sound had a characteristically combative relationship with the genres and their surrounding subculture. He would also promote social causes like the Black Lives Matter Global Network. The cause of his death has never been revealed, but tributes poured in from the likes of James Skelly, Sarah Waters, Jeff Klein, AIM UK and his fanbase when the news of his death was announced by his family and his manager earlier in the year. His final album – ‘Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise’ – was finished a few months before he passed away and it is being released today on his UK-based longtime label One Little Independent as unchanged and how it was intended to be. 100% of the proceeds and royalties will be donated to a trust fund for Sartain’s young daughter as per his family’s request. The only single to be taken from the record is ‘People Throwing Stones In Glass Houses’ – which arrives with the music video below.

Confirming the tragic news via the GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the Center Point-born Garage Rock musician’s funeral expenses earlier this year, Dan’s family wrote, “Dan Sartain left us many memories and music but unfortunately left us way too early”, elaborating, “As wonderful as his legacy is, he had no plans for the unmentionable and, thus, here we are. We aren’t trying to do much, but have a small service for family and friends, and with Dan’s wide range of friends, this should be available. From all of his family, we thank you”, in their statement that is readable on the site. Set against the backdrop of the black and white music video directed by Darryl Jakes, Sartain struts his mature voice for his early age with a hazy, mid-tempo reflection on how we see ourselves and other people through watching our attitudes and those of others. There isn’t a whole lot of production to the track, and the sound is very raw and bitter instead. The track starts off with a beautifully haunting Organ jab, before some searing Surf-Rock melodies created by the rhythm guitar establish the theme of the track. The vocals have a wink-at-the-camera playfulness to their aid, but the twangy guitar riffs and the bitter tone of his lyrics introduce a harsher edge to the beat. I get a classic 60’s Punk vibe from the guitar solo that runs throughout the final stretch, with another solo created by a Horn section introducing a more Gothic rhythm to the instrumental before the final repeat of the chorus. There’s simply no nonsense or filler material here at all and Sartain does everything with his own original purpose. He is not the best singer in the world and the lyrics are lacking a little polish here, but he isn’t necessarily trying hard to be. Instead, he’s following that ethos of a true artist by making the art that he creates as originally intended with his own expression. Crowd pleasing, sharp Alt-Rock from a musician who left us too early.

Pictured: Dan Sartain in an official photoshoot for an in-depth interview for Autre.Love (2016) (Photo via PR)

That’s enough for today! Thank you for checking out the blog and supporting the independent creatives, like Dan Sartain, who are behind the music regularly featured. I’ll be back tomorrow to carry on our unique ‘Countdown To Christmas 2021’ with a track from a legendary 70’s British Glam-Rock band who explored many genres and were led by Marc Bolan. They were inducted in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 2020.

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Scuzz Sundays: Priestess – “Lay Down”

October 10, 2021 — Leave a comment

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to please the ancient gods of Rock with another ‘Scuzz Sundays’ post on the blog, where the revisit the Pop-Punk productions of the past, as it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! It is a busy day of work and visiting family for this aspiring music writer today, and so I’m not going to keep you too long. The long and short of the matter is that ‘Lay Down’ – this week’s pick – was the leading single taken from the debut album of the Canadian Post-Grunge meets Stoner Rock quartet Priestess, which was titled ‘Hello Master’ and was issued by RCA Records in 2005. The project started out as a dedicated “retro rock” project that emulated 70’s classic rock bands like Black Sabbath and AC/DC, before the band jumped into the unfamiliar surroundings of the recording studio with producer Gus Van Go (Arkells, Michael Rault) for their first full-length effort. Luckily for them, it spawned a few successful singles and it received generally positive reviews from critics before the more daring follow-up – ‘Prior To The Fire’ – emerged in 2009 and was disliked by their label for its edgy lyricism and more experimental content. The band are currently on an indefinite hiatus, but 2005’s ‘Lay Down’ is their best known single, and it got a music video directed by Wendy Morgan. Give it a spin down below.

Priestess saw relatively little chart success aside from 2006’s ‘Talk To Her’, which peaked at #33 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, but the profile of the band was raised significantly when ‘Lay Down’ was prominently featured on ‘Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock’ on past gaming platforms, a business-savvy move which Priestess see as a proud achievement, stating in interviews that consumption of the media format amongst young people serves as a great introduction to their classic rock influences and the genre as a whole. ‘Lay Down’ is one of their tunes that notably deals with violent lyrics and mature themes, with frontman Mikey Heppner singing about a mourner – at graveside – who is trying to make the dead corpse peacefully rest in their coffin as our protagonist slowly gets to grips with the loss that has occurred and how it has affected their mental wellbeing. The guitar riffs are punchy, but not overbearingly ferocious, with Heppner singing the sorrowful lyrics over the top of some thumping Drum beats and some soaring guitar chords, although there’s notably no electronic interference in play here either. The lyrics deal with grief and, in a way, love with a familiar ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll edge’ that sees a mid-tempo guitar solo and fetching bass guitar riffs controlling the tempo. Overall, I felt this was a solid three and a half style sort of effort by Priestess. I was ultimately listening late at night on Saturday and I had my headphones sinked into my ears, and it still tested pretty well. The production is fairly average because the vocals sound pretty raw and the instrumentation does not have a great amount of variety to it, but the rhythms are simply catchy and memorable enough for me to remember immediately after hearing the band play. The vocals have a fairly straightforward and typical style for the 70’s influences of the band, but they never feel outdated beyond the style in any way. The lyrics themselves are a little bleak, but the solid guitar riffs drive the beat forward to a good melodic style where it comfortably gallops along the track’s tight duration with a solid flow. On the whole, there’s nothing that feels drastically new or different to their contemporaries here, but the lack of auto-tune is welcome and the band don’t write lyrics about sleazy women or being a rebel in a stereotypical sense for the time and so they manage to stand out from their peers. An engaging slice of vintage Rock.

Pictured: Mikey Heppner (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar), Dan Watchorn (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals), Mike Dyball (Bass Guitar) and Vince Nudo (Drums/Percussion) (2009) (Photo via Priestess.ca/story)

That’s all for now! I hope that you have a pleasant weekend, and please join be back here again tomorrow for an in-depth listen to some new music from a gifted Canadian electronic music producer who landed a spot on my ‘Best Albums Of 2020’ list with his latest LP release ‘Suddenly’. He is signed to Merge Records and he will be touring the US and Europe next year. He is probably best known for the 2010 recording ‘Sun’.

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Today’s Track: Amyl & The Sniffers – “Guided By Angels”

October 7, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Comfort To Me’ (LP) (Released on September 10th, 2021) (via Rough Trade Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and, as you’ve probably figured out by now, it is my time to deliver yet another daily track on the blog to your eye line, since it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Amyl & The Sniffers are an Australian Pub Rock group who aren’t necessarily changing the face of Rock ‘N’ Roll, but they are certainly sticking out a middle finger to the watered down imitations of that genre in the current mainstream Pop/Rock market. Led by vocalist/songwriter Amy Taylor – the band also consists of drummer Bryce Wilson, bassist Fergus Romer and rhythm guitarist Dec Martens – and they have been gaining popularity with Garage Rock and Punk Rock fans since the release of their self-titled debut studio album in 2019, which scooped up the ‘Best Rock Album’ award at the ARIA Music Awards of that year. You might have also heard Amy Taylor on a track – ‘Nudge’ – from Sleaford Mods’ latest album ‘Spare Ribs’ that was released back in January of this year. More commercial and critical success has followed with ‘Comfort To Me’, the band’s follow-up album, which was released on September 10th on ATO Records and Rough Trade Records. It was written while the band were quarantined together during the Covid-19 pandemic and the 13-song track listing was lyrically inspired by Taylor’s Hip-Hop heroes and the countless DIY Post-Punk bands that have existed throughout the decades. It feels like a love letter to old-school Hard Rock, Post Hardcore and Psych-Rock bands, as they build a reputation of becoming Australia’s leading export since AC/DC. Check out ‘Guided By Angels’ below.

Offering her personal insight on Amyl & The Sniffers’ latest album ‘Comfort To Me’, frontwoman Amy Taylor says “The nihilistic, live in the moment, positivity and panel beater rock-meets-shed show punk was still there, but it was better” when telling Stereogum about the pandemic-era production process of the group by churning out some eccentric rhythms for exhilarating new material in the middle of global turmoil, she added, “The whole thing was less spontaneous and more darkly considered”, making it seem evident that recent events forced the 4-piece to really sit and take their time with the new output and focus more on their craft due to the pandemic. It never really sounds like a ‘Quarantine’ themed record, however, and certainly not so on ‘Guided By Angels’, a very propulsive old-school Punk anthem with a ‘No Frills’ personality. Driven by some thunderous guitar riffs and cathartic Drum sections, Taylor chants lyrics like “It’s my currency/I spend, protect my energy, currency” and “I never hold on/To the misery or grief” to a delicately stilted delivery, and there’s certainly a distinct Post-Punk edge to the instrumentation. Some usage of the Wammy Bar on the bass guitar creeps into the late stretch towards the end to add a wonky feel to the rhythms, and the rhythm guitar riffs have a cathartic, amped-up style that sets all of the band’s usual blueprints of a retro Punk Rock aesthetic and an explosive Pub Rock revivalist notion into place, but they seem to be structured a little differently than before because, although Taylor still seems possessed by a familiar sense of whining or longing in her voice, it is instead making a point of self-realization and refining her songwriting more neatly in comparison to the band’s previous releases in the form of LP’s and EP’s. For example, lyrical sequences like “Good energy and bad energy/I’ve got plenty of energy/It’s my currency” implies the idea that all sorts of contrasting emotions, and sometimes undescribed feelings, can all co-exist at once in her mental space. Overall, ‘Guided By Angels’ was a lot of fun as always by Amyl & The Sniffers, and the wise lyricism feels like a natural evolution of the chaotic lyricism the retro-leaning group have previously explored. Good, old-fashioned Punk.

Pictured: Amy Taylor (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter/Rhythm Guitar), Dec Martens (Lead Guitar), Fergus Romer (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Bryce Wilson (Drums) (2019) (Photo by Charles Engelken)

That’s it for now! Don’t forget to check out the first episode of my new podcast, ‘The Subculture Sessions’, on Spotify and thank you for your support with both projects. It is ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow and, this time, we’re browsing the details of a new album from a slightly lesser-known artist, which is the Indie Folk project of a Chicago-based songwriter who opened for Death Cab For Cutie on their summer tour in the US of 2019, and she performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2019. She also collaborated with Yoni Wolf (from the Alternative Hip-Hop group WHY?) on ‘Siren 042’.

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Today’s Track: Art D’Ecco – ‘Head Rush’

October 4, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘In Standard Definition’ (LP) (Released on April 23, 2021) (via Paper Bag Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and – you guessed it! – the time has arrived for me to get typing up on the blog for yet another daily track on the blog, because its always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Art D’Ecco – whose actual birth name has still not been unveiled to the public – is a Canadian Neo-Glam Art-Rocker whose music draws some common comparisons to David Bowie, The Cure and Sparks. After growing up in Victoria and working as a restaurant line chef through his teenage years, he turned to a creative life as a musician when he played the guitar in Jason Corbett’s band Speed To Kill. Fast forward to 2018 and, after producing his first solo LP with nothing but a Piano and an iPhone, he debuted his now-signature look of his colourful bob wig and his androgynous make-up in time for his follow-up LP, ‘Trespasser’, to arrive via Paper Bag Records. His most recent studio album – ‘In Standard Definition’ – was released on 23rd April on the same label and it marks the start of another ambitious chapter in his career. A concept album – Art’s latest record is an exploration of the familiar tropes of a celebrity-fixated society in today’s media industry, an examination of popular culture and its effect on our attitudes with a fresh angle, and it was created on a 50-year-old console through an analog format. Check out the single, ‘Head Rush’, below.

‘Head Rush’ was co-produced with fellow Vancouver-based indie rock musician Colin Stewart (Yukon Blonde, Kathryn Calder), and Art D’Ecco notes, “It’s a song about the head rush of our youth – nostalgia is a powerful drug, it distorts and reframes the past, often reconciling our memories into one place for our easy access and to better suit our current disposition or state of mind”, adding, “I wanted all the hallmarks of a classic Rock song – the kind of music that used to blast from the kitchen radio at the summer jobs I’d worked at as a teen”, to his comments. While others were pondering whether there is Life On Mars, a few of Bowie’s fans could have easily been out partying to ‘Head Rush’ between Ziggy’s album releases if it was being released back in the 70’s. The jazzy hand claps and the smoky backing vocals have a lush air of Queen to them, while the wistful Horn section explodes with an ascending guitar solo that feels Bolan-like in all of its glory. The blueprints of an effective Bowie hit from the 80’s are here too, with some layered harmonization of the vocals and the Synth-less guitar arrangements that feel quite simple and hassle-free in the core production standards. There’s also a small fragment of Glammed-Up Pop that harkens back to Roxy Music when the Saxophone riffs add some more joyful rejoice to the sound of the chorus. The lyrics do the job nicely too, with reminiscent lyrics like “So wild and so free, I’m right back where I wanna be” and “Hit and miss, I reminisce how we drank on the street” that play on the youthful energy that came from everybody knowing who you were on the streets of your town, with Art later proclaiming “All I want is the head rush” to the beat of some extravagant Horn samples and some rumbling Drum melodies. This is a very solid single, overall, with a clear theme and some interesting influences behind it. Although a little forgettable, it feels vibrant and colourful as the diverse instrumentation and the art direction complement the 70’s throwback style of the music, and the vocals are all delivered with a candy-floss shine that makes the sound feel old, and so Art fulfills his goals as the artist. A crowd-pleasing rush of glam.

Pictured: Art D’Ecco in a PR shoot for ‘In Standard Definition’ (2021) (Photo Credit: Mike Pepperdine)

That’s all for today! Thank you, as always, for your continued support for the blog, and I’ll be back for some more of the same tomorrow where, one week on from my assessment of the new solo LP from Marlowe’s Solemn Brigham, we’ll be looking at the new solo album from the leading man of another familiar band, Chicano Batman.

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