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Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening – or Whenever you’re reading this, I am Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up your- blah-di-blah-di-bla! You know the drill by now, which is why I thought it would be good to spice things up a bit! Since that writing about a different piece of music every single day is my day-to-day pleasure, it becomes evident that I listen to A LOT of music in preparation for my daily posts on the blog, as I’m dedicated to finding the best or most interesting music to shine a spotlight using this daily resource. However, once that one post on one given day is done, the reality is – How easy is it to just forget about all the great music that I’ve been writing about on the blog? Even I’m guilty of the fact. Therefore, from this month on, I’m going to be writing a highlights post, per month, where we look back at the ten top tracks that I covered on the blog over the month and – just for fun – one or two of the very worst! Just to clarify, this isn’t the best tracks to be released in June 2020 overall, it is objectively the best tracks that I covered on the blog in June 2020, so I won’t hesitate to include a few hidden gems if need be! Without any further ado, here are the top ten highlights of the blog in June 2020… and the wheely bin of trash!

THE BEST

Flume (feat. Toro Y Moi) – “The Difference”

June 8th, 2020 – Early on in the month, we heard the meeting of two minds – as Australian EDM DJ and producer Flume linked up with American Synthpop innovator Toro Y Moi to give us the thoroughly enjoyable electro-pop dance hit “The Difference”. This is a one-off single which sounds accessible for the mainstream, but it doesn’t compromise on the quality with an explosion of colourful bassline loops and vivid use of splicing effects. You get Flume’s glitched drum-and-bass, blended with Toro Y Moi’s melodic and warm synth-pop production, with the two meshing together quite nicely.

GoGo Penguin – “F Maj Pixie”

June 11th, 2020 – I’m not typically one who listens to a lot of classical music if I’m completely honest with you, but for a band with a name as good as GoGo Penguin, this British Jazz trio have a level of appeal which goes far beyond. Compared to the likes of Aphex Twin and Radiohead by some, the trio add a modern lick of paint to the Easy Listening classics of Brian Eno, as they boldly explore the relationship between classically composed instrumentation and organic rock instrumentation on the groove-driven “F Maj Pixie”, a single taken from their self-titled fourth album released on June 19th by Blue Note Records. This is a trio you absolutely need to keep tabs on.

HONNE – “No Song Without You”

June 15th, 2020 – A low-key personal favourite of mine for a half-decade now (quite shockingly), the London duo of HONNE (Andy Clutterback & James Hutcher) deliver a very smooth and delicate blast of bittersweet Neo-Soul with the gorgeously produced “No Song Without You”. Written while on tour in LA in January, and finished off during the Covid-19 quarantine period in their home studio, this track doesn’t sound much different to their back catalog, but an inkling of Vaporwave and the fantastic music video, illustrated by Holly Warburton, help it to stand out amongst their recent library.

Jehnny Beth – “Heroine”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcVIPQiOpU

June 13th, 2020 – The mid-month blues of June during Lockdown were lifted in the online music community by the release of “To Love Is To Live” – the debut solo album from the popular front-woman of Savages, Jehnny Beth. Beth lived up to the lofty anticipation by firing on all cylinders, with “a wide-ranging sonic exploration of love, sex, lust and desire”, as described by The Forty-Five. “Heroine” is a deeply moving and powerfully challenging showcase of Beth’s knowledge in layering smoky electric guitar motifs with a haunting post-punk backing track, which leads to an emotional display of social commentary. The light, fragile synth interlude that strips down the vocals and instrumentation, to contrast the bleak storytelling, is the icing on the cake.

Jockstrap – “The City”

June 17th, 2020 – One of the latest signings for the groundbreaking Warp Records label, Jockstrap – a duo comprised of youngsters Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye – continue to impress with plenty of promise on “The City” from their new EP “Wicked City”. A highly experimental sound which is virtually impossible to nail down to one specific genre, Jockstrap blew my socks off again with this track, where the first half is a soft piano lullaby, and the second takes a surreal spin towards a nightmarish aesthetic with a metallic hip-hop beat, a highly distorted drum-and-bass effect, and a chaotic spoken word delivery. The vocal performance from Ellery is phenomenal, while Skye’s production work is dense and brooding, creating an ostensibly Warp feel. The mainstream would never be able to get it, but why on earth would you want it to?

Khruangbin – “Pelota”

June 26th, 2020 – It’s probably the most predictable result since ITV announced their Classic Bond season of Saturday night TV programming that Khruangbin’s new material has ended up on this list, since anyone who has read my daily posts for the last few months knows that I’m a massive fan of the Houston-based Dubby World Funk trio. Using the Spanish lyrics to tell a quirky story of observing the world through the eyes of a rubber bouncy ball, Khruangbin deliver on their can’t-do-nothing wrong status once again with this globally influenced affair of groovy licked guitar beats and Reggae-like Steel Drum notes, with the vocals raising the tempo slightly enough to make it feel different enough to their usual formula to feel inspired.

Michelle Lally – “Rascal You”

June 10th, 2020 – I would have never known about this track if it wasn’t for David Lyons, a blog reader and songwriter who made a special request for me to cover Michelle Lally’s “Rascal You” as a way to gain feedback. An Irish Jazz musician who has performed for Barack Obama and George W. Bush at The White House on seperate occasions, Lally and Lyons seamlessly create an absorbing 1950’s-Vegas vibe on the track which deals with the internal aftermath of heartbreak. Close your eyes and picture yourself seeing Lally perform at The Cotton Club, with the sumptuous Cuica melodies, and the elegant vocal sections. The old devices can often be the best!

Phoebe Bridgers – “I.C.U.”

June 25th, 2020 – The follow-up to her breakthrough critically acclaimed album “Stranger In The Alps”, Phoebe Bridgers delivers thoughtful and visionary emo-folk on her new album “Punisher”, building on her previous work in two different bands with impressively layered affairs like “I.C.U.”. This track documents the breakup with her drummer in resilient style, commanded by the pulsating drum riffs and the patterned guitar riffs, while a contained, yet fiery, aggression bubbles underneath the post-punk instrumentation, led by minimalist synth work and percussive Mellotron beats. “ICU” demonstrates why Bridgers has quickly become one of the most popular new talents.

Run The Jewels – “Yankee and The Brave (EP. 4)”

June 9th, 2020 – The right artists who seem to be in the right place at the right time, in the best way possible, US Industrial Hip-Hop duo Run The Jewels, EL-P & Killer Mike, brought the release of their new mixtape “RTJ 4” forward and made it digitally available for free in response to #Black Lives Matter. This was no cheap throwaway, it was a bold statement that used the US civil unrest to strong effect, using a diverse range of collaborators to deliver artistically exciting and melodically intoxicating Electronic Hip-Hop, led by two excellent Black musicians, in the time where we needed it the most. “Yankee and The Brave (EP. 4)” uses the background of a fictional TV show and percussive, shattered synth effects to explore the negative impact of police brutality towards black people in the US. Culturally progressive and musically thrilling, the track is more than worthy of a spot on my list. Download the album now!

The Killers – “Caution”

June 1st, 2020 – Finally, right at the very beginning of the month, beloved and widely well-known Las Vegas Desert-Rock 4-piece group The Killers threw “Caution” to the wind (I’m sorry, I know I’ve used that before) with the first single of their summer new album release, “Imploding The Mirage”. It’s not a bold departure in sound of the band’s previous work in any way, but it’s just The Killers doing what they do best, pushing their hugely popular sound of classic Killers to the forefront of the track following the slightly more experimental sound of their previous LP, “Wonderful Wonderful”, from 2017. The stadium-rock sound is crowd-pleasing, and since my Mum has been constantly singing it around the house throughout this month, it gets a spot.

And Now…

The Worst…

Jacob Collier (feat. Mahalia & Ty Dolla $ign) – “All I Need”

June 16th, 2020 – For such a young producer to win 4 Grammy’s at just 25 years of age, you would think Jacob Collier is a fresh face whose owed of a big break. Sadly, the successful Neo-Soul youngster goes mainstream in a lacking R&B affair that feels light on the Soul, in both a stylistic and business point of view. The first verse is ruined by a terribly annoying low-pitched vocal that juxtaposes against a basic keyboard groove that gets too tedious by the end. Mahalia’s vocals are fine, but they’re not very memorable in any ways. The lyrics fail to say anything other than “Hey, I like you”, feeling undercooked and not interesting. There is an element of Neo-Jazz in the chorus, but it sadly feels half-baked under the guise of the horrifically generic, overproduced chorus. Ty Dolla $ign’s section is the deal-breaker, with a completely overly auto-tuned vocal effect that grinds against the ears and flounder along to the meandering chorus with far too much modulation, and a lack of creative direction. If it proves to be a chart hit, the label will be glad and I’m sure you’ll be trying to put up with it in your local re-opened Starbucks, but that sadly isn’t enough to capture my imagination. There are some neat transitions here, but the keyboard-driven groove is boring and the sound is dull and nothingless. I hate to say it – borderline unlistenable.

Reef – “Place Your Hands”

Scuzz Sundays, June 21st – As part of Scuzz Sundays, I take a trip down the memory lane of Emo-Rock or Pop-Punk classics from between the late-1990s to the mid-2000’s, to see if they hold up in modern times. Sadly, Reef’s largely forgotten chart hit “Place Your Hands”, from 1996, had me thinking “Good G-Reef” while it trajected very quickly towards the lowest common denominator. The vocals throughout are almost unintelligible, with a thick accent that sounds like a strange mix of Scottish, Welsh and Irish, but going for neither of those, mixed up with a loud belching and whining that I can only describe as shockingly poor. The lyrics have a tragic backstory, which feel consistently at odds against the happy Piano melodies and the painfully generic pop-driven guitar riffs. The breakdown is vulgar and irritating, and the post-grunge roots of the band are indistinguishable. Unlike Collier (above), it’s totally unlistenable.

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Thank you for reading this post!  If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime

It certainly looks like a new “passion project” is underway! It’s time for a special post!

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I have an announcement to make! I’m confirming that I’m starting a brand new, journalistic music project like One Track At A Time! As part of my FMP on my Film, Television and Radio studies course at Staffordshire University, where I work closely with the music team and fulfill my own duties in the role of Deputy of On-Air Marketing Promotions and Content – I have created my own short, 10-minute podcast on my own terms! I really wanted to create an entertaining, informative and artistic music-related project which also functions as an educational tool for those who are looking to get into more challenging and potentially inaccessible music, which became “5 Tracks To Get You Into…”, a series of short podcasts which pays tribute to the legends of the music business and the artists who have worked to shape, and have had a major influence on, the music that we hear, even in the mainstream world, today! In fact – We’re all at university to learn, so why don’t we learn from the music?

I’m not sure how often the podcasts will go up now, as the semester has ended abruptly for me due to the outbreak of COVID-19, but I’m hoping to work on the series remotely from home over the summer and I aim to have a new episode of the series uploaded on the internet per month. Richard D. James is obviously one of my all-time favourites and the artist who I’m the most passionate about, so I thought that a guide for Aphex Twin would be a great starting-off point for me! I’m planning for the second episode to focus on Bjork – with episodes to follow on the likes of The Chemical Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and Massive Attack at some point in the near future. If you have any requests for artists, why not send them to me with a comment below?

Enough of that chatter! I’m really excited about this new project, so please just go ahead and listen to the podcast below! Here is a link to the first episode, “5 Tracks To Get You Into… Aphex Twin”, on OMG Radio’s Mixcloud account: https://www.mixcloud.com/onemediagroup/5-tracks-to-get-you-into-aphex-twin/

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A monumental night in my ambitions to be a music journalist! It’s time for a new post!

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For someone who bangs on about music so much, it might come as a shock to you that I had never really been to a proper gig… Until now, of course! (I’m not counting my experience of seeing The X-Factor celebrity Chico at Butlins many years ago!) I made the quick-fire decision to see The Orielles at The Sugar Mill on Brunswick Street near my student home in Stoke-On-Trent after a friend of mine, who knows the manager of The Orielles’ label, managed to get me on the guest-list for the evening! Upon hearing the news and knowing there was a very cool band in town, I decided to go along, missing tonight’s WWE PPV, which was airing live, for a new vibe altogether!

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First things first, The Orielles were being supported on the night by an Indie pop-punk 4-piece from Chester – Peaness! Yep, they were great though! I’d caught a few of their songs playing on BBC Radio 6Music over the last week or so, with “Ugly Veg” becoming a highlight of their set, with a dancehall-inspired sound that facilitated an indie rock underlayer to the dream-based effects. The members of the band were very young, but they looked like they were having a real blast on the stage and they managed to interact with the audience very well, telling stories of their visit to Alton Towers, which they joked as the obvious connection to the area. I noticed they were selling their own merchandise at their stand and my friends had encouraged me to go over to them and say hello – so I officially managed to talk bollocks to them for a minute or two. It sunk in that I had never been a part of this world before, so I kept it polite and gave them the compliment that I enjoyed their music. They seemed to remember me, as my friend had also gone over to say hello and that he had come along to the gig with me. The band also told me to enjoy The Orielles – I certainly did!

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The Orielles took to the stage roughly half an hour after and began their set with the recent single “Come Down To Jupiter”, a lo-fi dream-pop tune that balances a hopeful melody with a more troublesome emotion very well. The set included many familiar tunes from their breakthrough LP “Silver Dollar Moment”, which I had streamed a handful of times over the last week or so. The setlist included the likes of “Let Your Dog Tooth Grow”, a garage-rock anthem with a slightly sinister edge to it. The band also played “48 Percent”, an alt-punk jive inspired by the lack of sleep the band achieved while going on tour in Canada. The lead guitarist, Henry Carlyle Wade, joked about the city being well-rested, as a man in Glasgow whooped at the sound of the band’s deprivation at a previous gig. The highlight for me, was the 80’s-pop, euphoric bliss of the new single “Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme)”, I’d streamed the track several times and I’ve even played it on my radio show, so the familiarity of Alex Stevens’ keyboard riffs immediately set the room on fire, with a crowd of dancing gig-goer’s having a boogy as I squeezed my way near-ish to the front of the stage. Sidonie B Hand Halford was fantastic on the drums, particularly in the slight jazz propensity of “I Only Bought It By The Bottle”, which was performed after the band re-entered the stage for an encore. The lead vocalist and bassist, Esmé Dee Hand-Halford, made it a night for all to remember with her soothing and gentle voice, mixed with a pop sensibility that added more energy and colour to her groove. The set was finished off by “Sugar Tastes Like Salt”, a sonic ray of delight which is influenced by neo-psychedelia records of the 1970’s. It was all a bit of a blur and I feel my brain is still attempting to process the sudden realization that my university has made no effort at all to develop it’s own musical culture – as I didn’t feel out-of-place at all, even if I feared that I would. In a time where “indie” bands are being signed to major labels and becoming mainstream pop singers – like The 1975 or Foals, for example – it was very refreshing to see a local music venue providing a platform for The Orielles and Peaness to facilitate their inner creativity. It was an amazing first gig – and I’m wholeheartedly glad that I bought a T-shirt from the merchandise stand, at the end of the night, to mark the huge occasion! It was great Indie rock, with no “indie” bollocks!

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As you’re currently reading this, you might not know, in-person, Who I Am, but one thing you might know, is that I really LOVE my music! It’s time for your new blog post!

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Having previously covered “Sunday Morning Cereal” and “Used To Love” on the blog, Alfie Templeman is one of Chess Club Record’s freshest electro-pop talents, I’ve grown accustomed to his singing-songwriting entities, with each of his subsequent releases increasing in experimentation and expression of individuality, each of them finding a spot on the A-List of my university’s student radio station. In case you haven’t read the blog before or you’re not familiar with him, Templeman is a singer-songwriter from Bedfordshire, who writes, produces and records his own music in his bedroom studio. That may sound commonplace in today’s indie pop scene, but the essential detail is that he is only 16 years old! That’s younger than me! I’m getting old.

“Who I Am”, released alongside a very orange-coloured music video, is the opening track and new single from his latest EP, “Don’t Go Wasting Time”, which was released on November 22nd via the Chess Club Records label. It’s a very heartfelt, The Cure-esque, soft indie-rock hit, which sees Templeman tackle a much slower-paced style than we’ve grown accustomed to hearing from him in recent months. Templeman reflects on the inability to return to an ex-lover who played a big role in his past: “Kept waiting for you so long/now I’m stuck, no escape/my last words caught on tape” and “Funny how a song/takes you back so long” are reflective of simpler, and happier, memories. Templeman combines the lyrical themes of deep self-reflection and disconnection with the past with a vocal hook that is show-stoppingly relatable to a young target audience: “Now my big regret/Is seeing you forget/Who I am”, simple words which ring a bell for all modern teenagers growing up in an Urban location. Musically and tonally, Templeman uses a layer of shiny guitar lines that convey happiness, pairing it with the sadness of a melancholic drum beat that’s given a slight tinge of claustrophobia, as it isn’t given much space to breathe away from the introspective lyricism. Although it sounds like Templeman is a little bit in danger of being butchered for the mainstream masses, it’s a very calm and collected jolt that has an interesting contrast between styles. I think it’s the best Templeman song so far.

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You can read my thoughts on “Sunday Morning Cereal” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/23/todays-track-alfie-templeman-sunday-morning-cereal/ and you can also read my write-up for “Used To Love” here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/10/25/todays-track-alfie-templeman-used-to-love/

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Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, with a look at a track from a late-great master of re-invention who once fell in love with a girl who was wearing a “raspberry beret”! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

It could be that Sharleen Spiteri’s old band may not want a lover, but I would love to receive a like and a follow for the blog from you! It’s finally time for your Monday post!

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A cult classic of 1989, “I Don’t Want A Lover” is the lead single from Texas’ debut LP, “Stateside”, which reached the #8 spot in the UK Singles Chart in it’s original release. There is also a remix version recorded and produced by Stargate and DJ Stonebridge, which was released as a promotional single for the band’s Greatest Hits compilation LP, which became the band’s third album to reach #1 in the UK Albums Chart and it has been certified platinum six times in the UK, having sold over 1,974,890 copies in the UK. It‘s a testament to the huge popularity of the group at the time, especially in the mainstream, as they managed to make their career span throughout the 80’s to the 2010’s. In that lifespan, Texas have gone to sell over 40 million records worldwide!

“I Don’t Want A Lover” is a track with a very old-school blues feel, which is evoked by the throbbing bass guitar sections, which can be heard from the very outset of the track. This builds up to a head-nodding, funky slide guitar melody as Sharleen’s vocals begin to kick in: “I don’t want a lover/I just need a friend”, which are repeated over a wave of synth arrangements and drum textures, which are met with the country-influenced lyrics where Spiteri is contemplating the end of a relationship due to a lack of emotion, as the guy seems empty on compassion and desire to her. Along the way, there are some cheesy bass guitar harmonies and vibraphone effects which reflect the style of mainstream pop music in the late 1980’s. It still goes down as a hit in Texas’ live performances due to the memorability of the guitar riffs and the vocal hooks which are aggressive, yet sympathetic and relatable. It holds up pretty well as a signature track from the band’s 80’s output, even if the accessibility towards the mainstream crowds are easy to see, ahead of the group’s more experimental records in the recent stages of their career. Overall, the track is a good mix of different genres, such as blues and country, fused with pop sensibilities of the time and a fairly curious soft-rock style. It sounds of-it’s-time, yet it has the ability of transcending this notion.

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Thank you for reading this post! I’ll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at a personal favourite of mine, a track from a very niche indie artist from the music scene of Seattle! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/