New Album Release Fridays: 박혜진 Park Hye Jin – “I Need You”

September 10, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Before I Die’ (LP) (Released on September 10th, 2021) (via Ninja Tune)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is finally time for me to whet your appetite up for one of the weekend’s biggest new album releases, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! ‘New Album Release Fridays’ is the feature that really does what it says on the tin, and this week’s helping of new long-players include fresh servings from the likes of modern West London-based modern Rock ‘N’ Roll unit shifters The Vaccines, Welsh legends Manic Street Preachers, the Montreal-based Experimental R&B producer Homeshake (I’ve got more on that one coming up shortly on the blog), quirky Melbourne-based Pub Punk revivalists Amyl & The Sniffers, and Margate’s 80’s-inspired Lo-Fi Pop crooner Art School Girlfriend (Refer back to Tuesday on the site for more on that one). However, my personal pick for this week’s iteration of the feature comes from Park Hye Jin, a Seoul-born DJ from South Korea who now spends her time between Los Angeles and Australia, who you may remember as a familiar face on the blog in the past, since she appeared on my ‘Best EP’s Of The Year’ list with her second EP release – ‘How Can I’ – released last June on the excellent and forward-thinking Ninja Tune record label. I was not alone in handing her that praise because Billboard and The Guardian also included that release on their year-end best lists, and Park Hye Jin has continued to earn decent reviews from publications like Rolling Stone, Exclaim and Hypebeast, and she has been played on the radio by stations like KEXP, KCRW and SiriusXMU. Her first full-length album recording, ‘Before I Die’, has been released via Ninja Tune today. Check out her latest single – ‘I Need You’ – below.

A fan-pleasing Experimental House record from Park Hye Jin, ‘Before I Die’ builds on her pre-existing sonic palette, as she draws on a range of Ambient, Downtempo Hip-Hop and Chillstep influences that she has pulled into an ambitious 15-track release that was entirely self-written and self-produced by her, and it includes some guest spots from the likes of Blood Orange, Nosaj Thing, Clams Casino and Take A Daytrip. A soothing single that leaves the typical slow-winding melodious chimes of Park Hye Jin’s low-pitched vocals for a more intimate space of a softer and low-lit delivery, ‘I Need You’ feels more akin to a West Coast 90’s Hip-Hop artist with House influences than having a chillout atmosphere that thrives on sustained chords and ethereal percussion. She uses a rather direct form of emotional expression, simply delivering the line of “I Need You” in both English and Korean vocabulary throughout the tight three minute duration of the new track, with a sense of longing in her voice that allows for her to fully conjure up a mood, which, in essence, totally plays up to her strengths. Her lyricism feels ‘grounded’ enough, but they never feel too dark or foreboding to put your mind at much unrest, and the skittering breakbeat dressing gives the main melody a sense of propulsive, melodic percussion for Jin’s delivery to bounce off. It’s always been a balancing act for Hye Jin’s music, where she has a sense of aggression that feels moody enough but the synth tones have a more upbeat quality to ensure that her beats never feel too rigid in character for her own good, and so there’s a decent level of tenderness to be enjoyed on ‘I Need You’, although determining whether this style feels suitable for an extended album listen may feel questionable at times, since her simple formula runs the risk of being a bit tedious at times. ‘I Need You’ really works as a standalone single, however, and so this may not be something to feel greatly concerned about. There’s a soulful approach to her songwriting that calls back to Little Dragon or RHYE, and the airy electronic sounds dabble in a sensual manner that’s often reserved for Bedroom Pop, and so there is enough variety to keep things moving. A plentiful exercise in digital tightrope walking.

Pictured:박혜진 Park Hye Jin performing at a live DJ set (2019) (Photo Credit: The VinylFactory.com)

As mentioned earlier, Park Hye Jin is no real stranger to the site, and I initially caught up on her steam in the industry with ‘Like This’ last July. Find out more here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/07/10/todays-track-%EB%B0%95%ED%98%9C%EC%A7%84-park-hye-jin-like-this/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “How Can I” (EP) (Released on June 26th, 2020) (via Ninja Tune)

That’s all for now! Thank you for reaching the end of the page with me, and I’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same fresh content, as we turn our attention to one of the most high-profile recent Hip-Hop releases from a bigger name, and this release comes from a legendary 90’s New York-born rapper who has released seven Platinum-certified albums over the course of a career that spans over 25 years, and he used to record demos for Large Professor. Last year, he won the Grammy award for ‘Best Rap Album’ and he’s recently released a direct sequel to that record through his own label.

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Today’s Track: Mochipet – “Godzilla League Of Legends”

August 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Godzilla Resurgence’ (EP) (Released on May 11, 2021) (via Daly City Records)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the text of Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come around again for me to get typing up for your 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! You’ve probably read the title of today’s track, and it looks pretty absurd, but this is a little EP release that I genuinely felt was pretty cool. My mother reads the blog every single day, and so this one’s also a not-so discreet nod and a wink at her, since we’ve been having a few little jokes about the ‘Godzilla’ franchise lately. She was very thrilled to see the latest one was added to Prime video. This one comes to you from the Taiwanese-American electronic house/EDM producer David Wang, who uses his own musical alias of Mochipet, which was based upon his long-term obsession with dinosaurs. As Mochipet, he has released music for several different labels – including Peace Off, Violent Turd and Death $ucker, and he is also the founder of the Daly City Records indie label. Wang’s latest EP, ‘Godzilla Resurgence’, was released in May as a tribute to his late father, who passed away as the project was nearing its completion. It is, of course, named after the mythical Kaiju who has starred in many films since the 1950’s. Proceeds are going towards his dad’s burial costs. Give it a Kaiju breath below.

“I saw my first ‘Godzilla’ movie when I was around 10 years old in Taiwan”, Wang told MixMag Asia late last year, later adding, “I actually didn’t like it at first. I didn’t understand why Godzilla was destroying Japan and I didn’t like that it was in black and white. It was not till later in my life, I began to appreciate Godzilla for its representation of human need for control and the Atomic Bomb that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki and destroyed many lives during World War II”, Wang spoke of how Godzilla’s symbol of death and destruction due to mankind’s quest for power has become an influence for his heavy blend of psychedelic EDM and no-nonsense ‘Brostep’ style of electronic production. On ‘Godzilla League Of Legends’, Wang really doesn’t pull back any of his skills for another day, and he instead mimics the fire-breathing giants of the EP’s namesake through the variety of weighty Bass sounds. The slower fade out at the beginning sets the tone for a cinematic affair, before the instrumentation comes in and displays a much more fiery side by putting the harsh distortion and the thick basslines into full throttle. The gears are changed slightly, in intervals, by a whimsical female backing vocal that goes for a little ethereality, and I felt this part of the equation was a nice touch since it was textured more gently than the core drum and bass melodies. The tune, in its entirety, is a solid evocation of Japanese manga animation series or action-heavy video game soundtracks, with a sonic palette that feels packed with rather aggressive melodies and it creates a very Animated feel to the heightened atmosphere overall. There’s plenty of tension found in the segmented decrease of the overall tempo, while the synths feel pretty playful at times. The drums feel smooth, and the long fade-out brings a cooling energy to the tune when it nears its conclusion. It may drag on just a little bit, but I rather enjoyed the unique style that it goes for and the subject matter feels pretty original, as this is not a single about typical topics like a break-up or a night out, and so it demands some attention to get the most out of. If you enjoy the heavier stuff, this one’s for you.

Pictured: Mochipet (aka David Wang) at a monster’s tea party (2019) (Photo via aaronswartzday.org)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day, and many thanks again for sticking with me until this point. If you’re looking for some exciting new releases to get a hold of tomorrow, please look no further than the blog as we delve into ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow. This week’s pick comes from a Dublin-formed indie folk band who will be performing at The Junction in Cambridge in October. They have been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize twice, and won the Choice Music prize in 2010.

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Today’s Track: 파란노을 (Parannoul) – “아름다운 세상 (Beautiful World)”

August 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: VHS tape for ‘To See The Next Part Of The Dream’ (February 23, 2021) (via Bandcamp.com)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – and the time has come for me to deliver your 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! We’ve certainly been familiarizing ourselves, musically, with a good variety of different cultures this week, and my latest recommendation takes you to South Korea for cryptic Shoegaze sounds. ‘Beautiful World’ comes from Parannoul, a very enigmatic young adult musician who describes themselves as “just a student writing music in my bedroom” and, as of May 2021, the brains behind the operation remains anonymous. We do not know their name, age, their history, relationship status or whether their music is created with anyone else’s involvement. He has released another album, 2020’s ‘Let’s Walk On The Path Of A Blue Cat’, but 2021’s ‘To See The Next Part Of The Dream’ has been his true breakout. He previously gained a cult following on websites like Reddit and RateYourMusic, with his latest album earning positive reviews from publications like Pitchfork, Stereogum and Consequence Of Sound when it was self-released in February, before it later arrived on streaming services in April. Pitchfork.com’s Ian Cohen wrote, “The lo-fi Shoegaze project from the Seoul musician is a rare find. The ambitious and alluring music expertly captures the feeling of a sound so uncannily familiar that it truly feels like a dream” in his 8/10. In my own experience, the record has eventually grown to become one of my top favourite albums of the year so far. Telling the plot of a down-on-his-luck 21-year-old aspiring musician with the creative mind of a wide-eyed child, but no real ability to play instruments, the record is a homage to the push and pull of youth – the desire to become something greater than you are, but feeling like this success is perpetually out of your reach. Just go ahead – and give ‘Beautiful World’ a spin below.

The text accompanying Parannoul’s new release on Bandcamp finds them describing themselves as an “active loser”, “below average in height, appearance and everything else”, with “singing skills [that] are f***ing awful”, among other harsh self-judgments, and the artist is never afraid to pull from anime culture for the odd reference, like ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’, in his lyrics. Using heavy distortion to manufacture a fantasy world, ‘Beautiful World’ finds him struggling with self-doubt and, in a strangely implicated way, raising a toast to the character’s shortcomings to honor his misery. Lyrics roughly translate to lines like “I wish my young and stupid days to disappear forever/My precious relationships, now they’re just in my memories” that feel bleak and depressive on paper, but the melodicism is almost overwhelming when the frenetic guitars combat against the seemingly spellbinding pedal effects. There’s hints of Emo, Goth and K-Pop music in the Synths aplenty, with invigorating guitar riffs and obscured vocals which add emotional depth to the atmosphere through the manifested feelings of nostalgia and outgrowing your location. Lines like “I wish no one had seen my miserable self/I wish no one had seen my numerous failures” take jabs at self-worth and pressure from older adults to succeed in life, while other lyrics, like “I go to a sense of a sense/Let’s block two eyes and two ears again” take shots at embracing your individuality and seeking pleasure in how your unique mind may work very differently to your peers, harnessing these skills and talents for a larger purpose. This encapsulation of adolescent angst is complemented, perfectly, with the vicious Math-Rock drum patterns towards the end. These clashing, aggressive sounds build a sense of both melancholy and melodrama, feeling every bit as powerful or disorienting as they should, given the very specific subject matter of the vocals. The vocals also wisely take cues from Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine in the ways they feel tricky to decipher because it builds a higher sense of tension, while also reminding us that the mood is the crucial part of the track, and the words almost struggle to need relevancy to find importance above the tone. On the whole, it is a truly fantastic look at the hopelessness of the modern youth and the systematic obstacles faced by young adults in politics and employment, and this is all captured with spectacularly Shoegaze finesse. The ‘who’ and the ‘how’ simply aren’t necessary.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘To See The Next Part Of The Dream’ (Released on February 23, 2021) (via POCLANOS)

That brings us to the end of the page – and thank you for sticking your neck out with me for another day. Please feel free to reconvene with me again tomorrow, as we delve into one of the weekend’s biggest new album releases. This brings our globe-trotting trip full circle as we return to England for some Americana, Country and Folk-inflicted indie rock from Hexham, Northumberland. The artist is a familiar face on the blog, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter who went to the BRIT’s School in Croydon and won ‘International Breakthrough Artist’ at the AIM Independent Music Awards in 2019.

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Today’s Track: Peggy Gou (feat. OHHYUK) – “Nabi”

August 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Peggy Gou in a recent press shoot (2021) (Photo courtesy of Jungwook Mok/Edm.com)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and now is the right time to cheer yourself up with your daily track on the blog, as per usual, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Her first new solo tune since 2019’s ‘Starry Night’, the South Korean DJ and Producer Peggy Gou has brought her A-game to the global clubs again with ‘Nabi’. We last heard from her on 2020’s ‘Jigoo’, a guest spot on Maurice Fulton’s ‘Earth’ EP. She’s had an interesting career trajectory so far – from releasing her ‘DJ Kicks: Peggy Gou’ mix on !k7 Records, to launching Gudu Records, an independent EDM label of her very own. She has also released her material on Ninja Tune and Phonica, and Gou has even spent her time in London, at 18 years of age, studying for a degree in Fashion at the London College Of Fashion, before graduating and subsequently working as the London Corresponding Editor for Harper’s Bazaar Korea. She is now currently based in Berlin, Germany – where she spends her time tinkering away with downtempo dance anthems like ‘Nabi’. Gou’s new single sees her enlists the help of OHHYUK, from the South Korean rock band Hyukoh, who added, “It’s been a long time since Covid-19 has adapted to the changes it has made in society. It contains the desire to become a butterfly and fly away from the beautiful days before” to Gou’s press release. Give ‘Nabi’ a spin below.

“We’ve all been through so much over the last year and it’s {Nabi} about facing up to the problems and negativity in our lives and learning how to deal with it”, says Gou on her process for creating ‘Nabi’, who added, “When people hear ‘Nabi’, they’ll hopefully feel the same sense of healing – that feeling that everything’s going to be OK – that I feel when I listen to the songs that inspired it”, to her press notes. Starting off with a kick drum sample and Hi-Hat snares, we’re treated to a feel-good 80’s-style dance track with gorgeously plush instrumentation and sultry Korean vocals. Some of these lyrics roughly translate to “Time, amid that emptiness/I’m about to leave now” and “In my silence time/I can only see hatred in the distance” in English, some cryptic and poignant songwriting about the passages of time, and how the natural progression of time can lead to positive change. I loved the 00’s throwback feel of ‘Starry Night’ and also the wonky experimentation on ‘Jigoo’, but I’ve noticed how ‘Nabi’ skews more towards a retro-revivalist aesthetic, with more focus on building an atmosphere with the floaty vocal harmonies and the thudding drum machine riffs. The BPM framework isn’t wildly frenetic, but the subtle Dub influences of the bright Piano rolls and the late-80’s Lounge Jazz feel of the more soulful chorus keep the pace moving quickly due to the refreshing extracts of these influences being pulled from. The spoken word piece from OHHYUK adds another intriguing layer to the sound, while the subdued warmth of the hazy, sunshine sounds of the sparse percussion and the earworm vocal hooks hints towards Gou possibly exploring a more 00’s ChillOut or Chillwave style of electronic production in the future, but the fundamentally nostalgic dressing of the laidback beats keeps the cohesion in balance rather robustly. Overall, this was a very satisfying return from Gou, with an eclectic palette of some varied influences that are embossed neatly into the soundscape, and this would be a great pick for BBC Radio 2.

Pictured: Peggy Gou performing at Dimensions Festival (2018) (Photo via TheVinylFactory.com)

Thank you for sticking with me until the end today, and, if you’re new to the blog and would enjoy more of this style of content, then please feel free to join me again tomorrow for the ‘New Album Release Fridays’ as we shine the spotlight on one of the weekend’s notable new album releases. I know that Kanye West is dominating the headlines tomorrow for the release of ‘DONDA’, but I’m instead going to be writing about something that got delayed to this Friday, in July, that I’ve been very excited to hear. This is a collaborative LP between the frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club and a 28-year-old rapper from East London, who first popped up in 2012 with the ‘BAEP’ EP.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Phyllis Dillon – “Don’t Stay Away”

August 4, 2021 — Leave a comment

Prepare for the warmer summer heat with a sweet soul from Jamaica. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘One Life To Live’ (LP) (Released in 1972) (Reissued by Cherry Red Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and, as we do every week, it’s time to go ‘Way Back’ to the sounds of the past which have been influential to those of the present, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music each day! An OD in Jamaica, Phyllis Dillon was one of the very few vocalists of the late-1960’s Jamaican Rocksteady scene to be female in an otherwise highly male-dominated genre. She recorded a very large number of singles for Duke Reid’s lucrative label, Treasure Isle, during the late-60’s to the mid-1970’s. At the time, the Jamaican music market was nearly entirely driven by recording tracks as standalone singles, and Dillon, like most others, was another vocalist who went for years before joining the album racks in the country. Although she only made a little impact outside of her home market, Dillon was well remembered for recording vintage tunes like 1966’s ‘Don’t Stay Away’, her lucrative first release, which was heralded by Jamaica Gleaner as “perhaps the finest female performance in Jamaican music” in 2014. The self-penned song featured Tommy Cook & The Supersonics as her backing band, and, in 2012, it was sampled by Kes for ‘Tuesday On The Rocks’. After moving to the US and living a double life, Dillon initially quit her recording career in 1978, but she would return to touring and recording in the 1990’s in territories like the UK and Germany, inspired by a rekindled interest in American Ska. ‘Don’t Stay Away’ from Dillon below.

Although she had returned to the recording studio with Lynn Tatt in 1998, she only remained active in creating new projects until an illness eventually took hold of her wellbeing, and, in 2004, she tragically passed away in New York due to her battles with cancer, but she was later awarded the ‘Order Of Distinction’ by the Jamaican government in 2009. Although you probably know exactly what we’re getting here from my descriptions alone, and you would be correct, this track was a pivotal moment in black female music for her domestic market because it was a huge hit in the country. It’s not tricky to see why, as it mostly conformed to the tropes of the Dub scene at the time, but her voice certainly gave her the skill to stand out from the pack, at the same time. The lyrics are a direct and object lesson in telling her lover that he would not keep his distance if he knew how much she loved him. It doesn’t feel as sentimental as most of the similar Reggae cuts of the time, but her upbeat delivery has a great sense of honesty, rather than jealousy or scorn. Her vocals are very clear and need no distortion trickery whatsoever to get the crystal clear sincerity and the general lyrical themes of the single along to the more casual types of listeners nicely enough. The instrumentation is varied enough to prickle your ears up and take good notice too, and I especially like the smoky solo that sounds like a Harmonica towards the home stretch because it feels on-point and distinctive for the time, marking one memorable moment for the otherwise Soul-oriented melodies. The backing band pull in a deceptively simple performance that complements her tone with good cohesion, and the embellishments of Brass and Strings throughout the track give the rhythms a detailed and concise soundscape for Dillon’s pure vocals to work with effectively. On the whole, there are no surprises here, but there doesn’t need to be. A simple master-class in writing and performing easy, steady Reggae music that appeals to everybody.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘This Is Trojan: Rocksteady’ (Compilation LP) (Released in April 2018)

Many thanks to you for not staying away from the blog today, and please feel free to join me again tomorrow as we shift our attention to the potentially seminal sounds of the present! This choice in question marks, surprisingly, the first appearance on the blog from a South Korean DJ who I am a little fond of already. Now based in Berlin, she has started up her own label, Gudu Records, in 2019, and she has toured across the planet, including a time where she had studied at the London College Of Fashion.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Gilberto Gil – “Aquele Abraço”

May 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

“Gil is Tropicalia’s rude essence” – Sasha Frere-Jones, 2020. Finally, let’s go Way Back!

Pictured: Gilberto Gil in Valencia, Spain (2021) (Photo by Gérard Giaume/Berklee College Of Music)

Good Morning to you! It’s a beautifal day outside, and so I’m here to sweeten it up with your daily track on the blog, as it’s still my day-to-day pleasure. First of all, my apologies for disappearing from the face of the Earth for the last couple of days. I ended up getting a small extension for my Masters work because my project wasn’t quite ready yet, and it’s been a busy road of traffic up in the head lately. I’m perfectly fine now, so don’t you worry. I’ve always set up this blog as a place of pleasure and enjoyment, and so I never wanted for it to feel like an obligation or a chore, so I just needed a minute to focus on the stress personally and the tasks at hand. It’s all good!

With those modules submitted, let me introduce you to our pick for today. For my project, I was researching ‘World Music’ and whether this term holds discriminatory context. One of the genres that I explored was Tropicalia, a movement that saw it’s artists – the likes of Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and Bahian graphic designer Rogerio Duarte, express political protest through eclectic music styles and promote messages of defiance against the ruling military coup which took over Brazil in 1964. It was a moment, rather than a movement, with the protests winding down from around 1968 onwards. It was a very busy time for the likes of Gilberto Gil, however, who was also very much a key creative figure in the revolution. Gil and Veloso were threats to the military. They were imprisoned for two months, then deported, moving to London for a little bit. He returned to Bahia in 1972, and he’s continued to work as a musician, politician and environmental advocate. He also served as Brazil’s Minister Of Culture between 2003 to 2008. “Aquele Abraço” was issued in 1969 by Universal, but Gil would perform the track during marching protests during the time of Tropicalia. The title roughly translates to “The Hug” in English. Let’s reflect on the busy time for Gil below.

‘Aquele Abraço’ was written during a time of house arrest, where Gil developed the melodies and lyrics, before putting together the instrumentation for it’s recording. It became a major hit in the charts of Brazil during 1969, and it was performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games by Marisa Monte and Seu Jorge of the Bossa Nova corporation, MPB. Reaching iconic status in his home turf, Gil’s lyrics invoke themes of neighborhoods, Samba schools, national landmarks, and the popular musicians of Rio De Janeiro. I’m not entirely familiar with how the music was made, since it was well before my time, and I cannot understand the actual lyrics. However, it’s clear enough that it’s Latin-flavored Samba with a gentle guitar rhythm. The rest of the instrumentation is very percussive, with shuffling Maraca beats and a shimmering Cuica rhythm that creates a sultry, sentimental and celebratory tone. Gil whoops and hollers his way through soft, lounge Jazz influences and psychedelically driven drum parts that get some effects going within the backdrop. It mostly feels like a love letter to his nationality and his peers, and expresses a sound that overall feels ‘exotic’ or very ‘distant’ in it’s experimentation – where sentiments of Rock ‘N’ Roll and the use of electric guitars make the rhythms feel progressive for the time. On the whole, it’s an impressive combination of relaxed and joyful, and it was too edgy to be seen as lawful by the government. That’s a pretty big thing. I have probably got a different stance on it as a Western listener with a white British ethnicity compared to the purpose of the track for the society it was aimed at, and it’s worth considering that I’m only reviewing it in hindsight. However, it’s still evident that Gil is music at it’s core – expressing to the public of Brazil that arts and culture had a role in developing Brazil as a nation during his commercial peak and soaring to the heights of Tropicalia.

Pictured: Gilberto Gil in a PR image for NN North Sea Jazz Festival on July 12, 2019 (Photo via NSJ)

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow as we pick up right where we left off with some brand new music. Tomorrow’s talent is a gender fluid rapper, producer and visual street artist who is also the founder of the NiNE8 Collective in London, and they share an eerily similar stage name to a certain under-rated star who scored a huge UK and US hit with ‘Bulletproof’ in 2007. 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/

WWE WrestleMania 37 Weekend Special: Peter Gabriel – “Big Time”

April 10, 2021 — 1 Comment

If the Big Ben clock tower fell on your head, it would hurt. Big Time. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “So” (Album/LP) (Released on 19th May, 1986) (via Charisma Records)

Good Morning to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Another year in lockdown has past – and so WrestleMania is “Back In Business” as their marketing tagline tells us. A two-night extravaganza of the ONE TRUE sport gives me perfect reasoning for a two-night spread of wrestling-themed posts on the blog for your entertainment and leisure, and so we start off with WOMAD’s Peter Gabriel with ‘Big Time’ – taken off his fifth album ‘So’ – released in 1986. The track was used as the theme song and marketing slogan of WrestleMania 22 in 2006, which saw John Cena defeat Triple H to win the WWE Championship in the main event. Elsewhere on the card, Rey Mysterio went over Randy Orton and Kurt Angle in a Triple Threat match to begin his first WWE World Heavyweight title run following the tragic death of Eddie Guerrero. The classic Hardcore match which saw Edge famously beat Mick Foley took place, The Boogeyman was booked to go over Booker T & Sharmell in Handicap action, and The Undertaker beat Mark Henry in a Casket Match to keep his then-Streak going. ‘Big Time’ was Gabriel’s second top-ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #8, and it reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. Let’s revisit the official music video below.

This year’s WrestleMania is the 37th annual incarnation of the PPV event, and it takes place at the same site where it was supposed to be held last year before the COVID-19 pandemic tore those plans in half – and that venue is the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. As a result, this is the first time that any WWE programming for the last year will be taking place with a paying live audience in attendance, although to a limited capacity of around 25,000 fans. Tonight will see Sasha Banks defend her WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship against this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair in the headline spot. Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship is also scheduled to happen tonight, along with celebrity Latin hip-hop star Bad Bunny finally putting some in-ring training to good use by battling The Miz & John Morrison with Damien Priest as his partner. Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro, and a Women’s Tag Team Turmoil match to earn a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles on night two makes up the undercard. Back to the matter at hand – ‘Big Time’ was an Art-Pop crossover success that told a narrative about a man from a small town with big dreams of achieving fame, and he grows to become larger-than-life. Paired with percussive bass guitar sounds and Funk-inspired rhythm guitar licks, Gabriel croons lines like “I’ve been stretching my mouth/To let those big words come right out” and “I’ll be a big noise with all the big boys” that form a satirical study on the basic human urge of success. It grows deeper on the chorus contextually, where lines like “I’m on my way, I’m making it” and “So much larger than life, I’m going to watch it growing” are paired with a triumphant female backing vocal and some off-kilter Organ segments. As the track progresses, the theme grows more mildly psychotic, as Gabriel’s voice becomes more highly processed and the groovy bassline gets more frantic, with drum beats that get slightly more rough-edged. This can be read as a social commentary of the economic consumerist boom enjoyed by those who had not been affected detrimentally by the policies of Margaret Thatcher, with a self-referential style of songwriting that gives lines like “When I show them to my house, to my bed/I had it made like a mountain range/With a snow-white pillow for my big fat had” an irreverent sense of humor. Overall, I rather quite like this. Groovy and full of instrumentally boastful attitude, it manages to sound mainstream enough without losing it’s artistic concepts. A ‘Big Time’ 80’s treat for those Synth-loving ears.

Pictured: Peter Gabriel performing in 1996 (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns/RollingStone.com)

That’s all for today – but don’t forget to set a reminder on your phone to tell you that I’ve got more pro wrestling-themed content on the way to your eyes and ears tomorrow, for the second entry in this year’s two-night spread of new posts inspired by the ‘Showcase Of The Immortals’ that is WWE’s WrestleMania. 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/

Way Back Wednesdays: The Sugarcubes – “Birthday”

February 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

I went to Iceland before. I left with a Frozen Pizza and an Indian meal. New Post time!

Pictured: Bjork Guðmundsdóttir (Lead Vocals), Einar Örn Benediktsson (Trumpet), Sigtryggur Baldursson (Drums), Þór Eldon (Guitar) & Margrét Örnólfsdóttir (Keyboard) (1992) (via Pinterest.com)

Wishing you a Good Afternoon – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s time, yet again, for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! I recently made my own audio documentary podcast for my MA degree coursework which explored the socio-economic impacts of Bjork as a contemporary cultural icon, and when I asked my mother and my father if they could recall her early work as the lead singer of The Sugarcubes, both of their faces looked a little too blank. On this note, I thought that “Birthday” would make a great choice for our weekly vintage music appreciation feature – here on the blog. This old Icelandic Post-Punk band were arguably where it all started for Bjork, and “Birthday” is widely considered to be her first international hit. Released as the first single from their debut studio album, “Life’s Too Good”, back in 1998 – “Birthday” is a fitting embodiment of the subversive and slightly playful character of Bjork and The Sugarcubes, and after gaining support from BBC Radio 1 icon John Peel, along with the influence and support from trusted publications like NME and Melody Maker at the time, “Birthday” reached #2 on the UK’s Indie Singles chart, and the band would find success in the US after performing the track on an episode of Saturday Night Live, in October 1998. Check out the (English) video below.

“Life’s Too Good” turned out to be a surprise success for the group of 1980’s Icelandic Punk culture producers, with the band taking elements from the Post-Punk sound that characterized both the Icelandic modernity and long-standing naturalist views of their country of the time, and they blended these old capitalist ideas with a quirky twist on the conventional Pop song structure in their compositional approach. The lyrics find Bjork singing about the character of a child who has strikingly unusual habits for a five-year-old girl. The repetition of the line “Today is her birthday” makes these themes clear, although the vocals are more based around very tight wordplay, as opposed to a clear and straightforward context. Lyrics such as “She has one friend, he lives next door/They’re listening to the weather” and “Collects fly wings in a Jar, Scrubs horse flies, and pinches them on a line” are guided through the off-key melodies created by the fairly industrial New-Wave shrills. The list of weird interests and the jumbled poetry on the imagination of the character rattle along to upbeat keyboard riffs, warm syncopated percussion and the clunking Trumpet melodies, while it never becomes very clear what the small girl is doing. Instead of following the build-up with an evident response, we instead get a very experimental method of singing from Bjork, which some listeners may conceive as yelling – as a refusal to conform to any specific style or format. The cries are guttural and expressive, and while the band follow a typical Pop song structure, there’s a noticeable touch on Dance music elements that gave this single it’s depth to stand out. The drums keep things moving along at a swift pace, and the swooping guitar melodies evoke a Cocteau Twins-like feeling of Shoegaze for me to create a more ethereal and brighter atmosphere. The sound would have been a very forward-thinking one at the time, and it was also very notable for that star-making performance from Bjork, who has a career of such longevity. There’s absolutely no wonder to what she would go on to do.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Life’s Too Good” (Released on April 25th, 1998) (via One Little Indian Records)

Well – there’s some nostalgia that I never could have properly had. Way Back Wednesdays will be back at the same point next week. Before then, I’ll be continuing to champion fresh new tunes on the blog. That’s true for tomorrow – with an in-depth look at a hot-off-the-press artist who has yet to even release a full length LP. We turn to the Contemporary R&B genre for our introduction to a female artist who took the bold decision to drop out of her training at the BRIT’s School, and she’s since supported Rita Ora and Ray BLK on tour. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Common (feat. Black Thought) – “Say Peace”

January 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

Here’s a chum who wants to sleep with the Common people, like you. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Art for “A Beautifal Revolution” (Pt. 1) (LP) (Released on Oct 30, 2020) (via Loma Vista)

Good morning to you – my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s now time for me to, yet again, get typing up about your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to get writing up about a different piece of music every day! Lately, I’ve been continuing to work through my backlog of 2020 releases, and one of the most high-profile names who were left in the pile was the surprise release of “A Beautifal Revolution (Pt. 1)” from the 90’s rap icon Common. You’ll probably know Common from his following through the 1990’s, after he gained mainstream success from his work with The Soulquarians. Since that point, he’s appeared in Hollywood blockbuster films including “Wanted”, “Date Night”, “John Wick: Chapter 2”, “Suicide Squad” and…erm…that crap “New Year’s Eve” film. Nevertheless, he’s done loads of work in the media. Common announced his latest album, which he’s considered to be the first entry of two-part project, just a few days before it was released on October 30th, via Loma Vista Recordings. The lead single was “Say Peace”, a track which saw the Chicago native working with PJ and The Roots’ Black Thought. Check it out below.

Common said he wanted the LP collection to “uplift, heal and inspire listeners dealing with racial injustices as well as other social injustices”, before deducing, “A Beautifal Revolution, Pt. 1 is affirmation. It’s recognition. It’s elevation. It’s music to go with a movement. Because the truth is, there is still so much work to do”, when the album was given a full-fledged physical release to celebrate Black History Month in the United States. This track captures your attention with it’s funky, snare-like rhythm, which feels as unusual as it is upbeat. Paired with a Dub-esque instrumental backing track, Common and his collaborators in PJ & Black Thought manage to flex the different meanings behind Peace, as well as the altering pathways to it. The repeating, earthly guitar sounds have an almost African world feel to them, while bars like “And some find their peace through praisin and shouting/and some find their peace through pulling the shades like Malcom/I found my peace through making these albums” and “If you concentrate/You could find your faith, where the higher conscious takes you, That’s peace” come thick and fast above the African-supported instrumentation. The vocal delivery is at a breakneck pace, and it’s almost difficult to follow the lyrics because of the speedy wordplay. Meanwhile, PJ’s sample of “Say peace, we don’t really want no trouble” and “All they really wanna do is cuff you/They don’t love you” continues to permeate through the tracks, reminding us about the discussions of police brutality and righteous serenity that caused a media storm over the summer, in particular. The vocals of this track are taking these commentaries up to another notch, with Common rapping about the importance that Hip-Hop, as an art form, holds in maintaining a positive Black identity – a genre that can be perceived as reliant of the old cultural stereotypes of Black culture. The bars are characteristically motivational though, with shuffling drums and fragmented Bhangra basslines making for unconventional production work. The sitar interlude off the end. Overall, I really like the activist themes on the record, and it’s a rare example of music set on the purpose to teach. Certainly not stuff of the lowest “Common” denominator.

Pictured: Common at a “Let Love Have The Last Word” book signing (2019) (Photo via Getty Images)

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post – High praise for this track. Don’t forget that we’re taking a turn, for better or worse, with a new entry into our long-running Scuzz Sundays series tomorrow, where we revisit a childhood classic from the Emo-Rock/Pop-Punk era of the late 90’s until the mid 00’s. Tomorrow’s post comes from another pretty big name – a Sacramento-formed Heavy Metal band who have been referred to, by some journalists, as “The Radiohead Of Metal”, for their experimentation. They’ve since gone on to sell over ten million albums worldwide. 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/

Christmas Day Special: Angela Morley – “Snow Ride”

December 25, 2020 — Leave a comment

So – this is Christmas Day. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Pictured: Cover Art for “The Film and TV Music Of Angela Morley” (Released in 2004) (via Vocalion)

Great Tidings I hope to bring – my name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get writing up on the blog all about this year’s especially Festive track – because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write to you about a different piece of music every day! That includes Christmas Day – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading these words right now – would you? I really wanted to do something unique and special for this year’s Christmas Day post, and so we’re going to turn to some classical music to bring some light into a Christmas that’s unusual for us. An idea that may or may not have been suggested by my own mother – I’ll leave that one for you to get worked out. In any case, Angela Morley’s “Snow Ride” is a recording which began life as a Classical music composition for film directors and television producers to use for their suitable backgrounds of an icy winter’s journey, before it was originally lost in 1964 due to the Chappell fire. Although it’s sadly unclear when this composition was first recorded, originally, the track was later digitally restored from it’s original recording by the code of Morley’s webpages. It seems to be cleverly reconstructed – and the fascinating thing about Morley is that she was the first openly Transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award, back in 1976. Morley has also scored works like ‘Watership Down’, ‘The Little Prince’ and ‘The Slipper and The Rose’. Sadly, we lost Morley in 2009, at the age of 84, due to some complications from a heart attack. Her memory lives on from hits with the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey, Robert Farnon and Scott Walker – and my research into her career tells me that she would have been a familiar household name with the BBC in the 50’s. Let’s check out “Snow Ride” below.

The work of “Snow Ride”, by the English – and later Arizona-based classical music composer – was included on Naxos’ compilation album of seasonal classical music entitled “Another Night Before Christmas”, and you can also catch it on the John Wilson Orchestra’s album comprised of reworkings of Angela Morley’s work entitled “The Film & Television Music Of Angela Morley”, which was released in 2009 – as a celebration of her life – via the Vocalion record label. Obviously, there are no singing vocals at all to be analysed here – but the orchestral String sections and the wide-eyed crescendo of Cello melodies mixed with sweeping Horn patterns manage to evoke a very nostalgic and cheerful range of emotions – The childhood excitement of waking up to a tree full of presents and the delightfully frozen, Arctic environments of a Scandinavian winter springs to mind for me. The instrumentation is catchy and melodic, with a jovial sense of percussion blending with a comforting and Traditional range of Brass instrumentation. The pacing is actually quite stop-and-start and push-and-pull – if you read between the lines here – as a sparse Woodwind melody creeps into the frame at the mid-way mark – only to be teased instead – and pushed aside by the main repetition of the theme of the Violin arrangements. It leads to polished Sleigh bell melodies and even an Xylophone beat supplying layers to the theatrical, swooping chorus of climactic, grand String melodies. Most of these instruments convey an exotic expression – but they never really enter the soundscape thereafter. Although the melodies are quickly paced, the laidback moods of each of these phases, if you will, within the track imply to me that there is no particular hurry to the winter’s journey taking place in the narrative framework – but the aim seems to be a fun, exciting time in the cold air. A warm mix of familiarity and powerful layers is the key and although it’s not something that I’d usually go out of my way to seek out – I enjoyed it – as the traditional sounds give me a warm feeling of pure winter joy inside.

Pictured: Angela Morley at an American Society Of Music Arrangers & Composers talk (1999) (Yost.com)

Thank you for taking the time out of your Christmas Day to read my special post. Join me again for Boxing Day tomorrow – as we clear up our trilogy of unique and different seasonal posts with another large stylistic change. Instead of Hip-Hop or Classical music – We’re looking at a fun novelty track from one of the internet’s original favourites. Some of his most famous works have spooked or parodied the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Backstreet Boys, Coolio, and many more. 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/