Today’s Track: Lip Filler – ‘Followup’

July 5, 2024 — Leave a comment

You may be hooked as quickly as you can say “Dermatologic Surgery”. New post time!

Pictured: George Tucker (Co-Lead Vocals, Keyboard), Verity Hughes (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Jude Scholefield (Guitar, Percussion), Theodore Pasmore (Bass Guitar) and Nate Wicks (Drums) (2023) (Photo taken by PR)

The summer days are upon us! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it was previously my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before adulthood got in my way, so now I post more sporadically about special sounds. Lip Filler are an exciting, emerging indie rock band from London who weave elements of Electronic music and Post-Punk together like a Bunsen burner and a cylindrical tub of Helium in your school’s chemistry class. The West London-based 5-piece started their project with humble beginnings, having resided in a flat above a chicken shop in Shepherds Bush where their synergy and influences began to boil as hard as an egg in a saucepan. This has led to the evolving reputation of the band as a caustic capital force in London’s live scene to be created and, most importantly, they have now been able to buy a pet tortoise for their flat because why wouldn’t you? They have received some airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music since, along with just finishing up their first UK headline tour run. Having already supported the likes of Pit Pony, Gene Pool, XVOTO, Alfie Templeman and Picture Parlour and worked with producer St Francis Hotel (Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka, Greentea Peng) on their debut single, Lip Filler are focusing their attention on tapping into a vast pool of creative collaborators and tidily transitioning to studio production practices to maintain their arresting momentum. ‘Witchescrew’ is their second EP – out now via Chess Club Records – and ‘Followup’ is the remarkable lead single, despite what its title may imply. Let’s give it a spin below!

Diving deep into their psyche, Lip Filler says, “Time is a precious thing; when we are told to wait for something sometimes we feel as though we’re not making any progress. We push ourselves to ensure we’re occupying our time efficently”, as they expose their emotional vulnerabilities in a press release regarding ‘Followup’, adding, “Taking this to the extreme would mean avoiding sleep altogether, or sleepwalking. I think that’s how this song began to adopt more paranormal themes”, says vocalist George Tucker. Absolute sense is made by Tucker’s comments on time management and relative frustrations because patience shines strongly as a key theme of their shape-shifting song. We start with a glossy yet melodic lead guitar riff that sounds akin to a shiny 90’s Alternative Rock crossover hit by a band like Placebo or The Smashing Pumpkins, as the blatant lyric of “I’m so sad” begins to reverberate throughout the disillusioned tone of the track. At this point, you may expect an Emo track to unfold alike the ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature that we used to own in this blog’s heyday, but a change of direction takes course and the angularity grow sharper. Lyrics like “Motion sickness in your sleep/I’ve been underneath the tyres” are given a rhythmic scheme akin to a Rap-Metal track, while the guitars grow more bitter in substance and the Grunge mentality runs thicker. “You turned oh shit/I get my creature on”, delivered with a static effect, proves to be an imaginative detour that suggests a larger mental health issue at play due to its contorted nature. The band continue to dynamically cut together their influences of Pop-Punk, Nu-Metal and Shoegaze with a cut-and-paste collage effect as stop-start electronic instrumentals with a distorted tone and up-tempo vocal loops continue to add a psychedelic haze to the mix. Overall, while the volume on ‘Followup’ can be high at times, the technical musicianship finds its place to shine as the band continue to subvert expectations throughout the explorational track and stitch together a vibrant library of late 90’s and early 00’s rock sounds at a towering level of creativity. Less so of “I’m so sad” and more like “I’m so excited” about the future in store for this daring, experimental crew.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘witchescrew’ (EP) (Released on May 24th, 2024) (via Chess Club Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me for a few minutes on One Track At A Time today and if you’re always on the look-out for more new music suggestions beyond the mainstream, please follow me on my other channels that you can seek out below.

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Today’s Track: Modern Silent Cinema – ‘A Life Of Constant Abberation’

June 7, 2024 — Leave a comment

Wish to fill your life with good music rather than constant abberation? New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Anemic Music’ (LP) (Available to buy & stream on July 5th, 2024) (Self-released)

Warm greetings to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, a Cambridgeshire-based music lover and radio presenter, and I’m very grateful that you decided to join me for another post on One Track At A Time as we broaden our horizons when it comes to active music discovery. It was previously my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before adulthood got in the way, so now I post sporadically about something special. I’ve got music to share from Modern Silent Cinema today, which is the moniker of Brooklyn-based independent musician Cullen Gallagher. His music encompasses elements of Lo-Fi, Instrumental Rock and Post-Rock developed by a variety of Electro-Acoustic instrumentation and Experimental guitar melodies. This year, he is celebrating a whole two decades of activity with a frequent string of six releases that evoke the history and impact of his alias. Half of these releases are comprised of fresh material while the other half of his issues are compilations of unreleased archival content. Three of these have been released including January’s ‘Passages X-XXI’ (a collection of relaxing solo piano recordings), March’s ‘The Cinema Detective’ (A dystopic sci-fi meets film theory detective study inspired by an essay from Baltimore-based clever clogs Matt Berry) and May’s ‘The Cabinet Of Modern Silent Cinema’, a rich album boasting a 13-track voyage through tracks that went astray over the years only to be revitalised by guitar duets with his brother, unearthed demo tapes and micro-cassette sketches. The next release to drop is July’s ‘Anemic Music’ – out on July 5th – which collates more tracks that are finally seeing the light of day. Give the opener ‘A Life Of Constant Abberation’ a whirl below.

All of these albums have been mastered by Caleb Mulkerin (of Big Blood notability) and Gallagher, under the instrumental guise of Modern Silent Cinema, has recently received airtime on radio stations like WRUW FM91.1 (Cleveland, Ohio) and WFMU (Jersey City, New Jersey) who have all showcased the Bad Channels Records label founder’s innate ability to play a strong diversity of instruments including the piano, lap steel, trombone, trumpet and the drums. “Sometimes there is a feeling this is a lost Fahey or Basho recording, low-fi and a wanderer of tempos and styles“, compliments Lost In A Sea Of Sound about his work. It’s not tricky to see how the comparison has been made since, on the above track, ‘A Life Of Constant Abberation‘, he playfully navigates a consistent set of instrumentation with an edged Rock ‘N’ Roll influence polished with warped Americana vibes and shaded Folk mastery. He creates a vague narrative with elements of rock opera through curved genre constructs modified by instrumental sounds alone. ‘A Life Of Constant Abberation‘ begins with a pure, 7-note guitar riff that is unphased by delay effects or auto-tuned procession with a rumbling sound that feels weighty. The volume is not overly loud, but the evident echo mixed with the simplicity of the guitar skills makes for a dramatic combo, a journey that suggests turmoil and difficulty with no spoken lyrics. The drums are equally steady but robust, this punchy combo being a second verse addition to the thumping guitar melodies. Together, the recoiling drums and the harsh lead guitar hook build up an expansive level of tension heading into the rich chorus that makes it easier for the listeners to fill in the gaps with their own stories that are open to interpretation as the strained moods continue to develop. The settled, yet uneasy groove changes when we reach a fever pitch – an agitated crescendo forms as Gallagher doubles down on the drums and puts some extra activeness on the harsh guitar melodies. However, it all gradually fades into a more calming combination of level-headed Drums marked by some lenient shredding on the bass in the later stages of the song. This dynamism between the heavy push and the retracting pull keeps things interesting, whereby it’s clear that stress is overwhelming our narrator at one point before he starts to see a more serene state of mind further afield. To conclude, ‘A Life Of Constant Abberation’ is not quite as sombre as you may be led to believe in the opening because, as the world often does, the circumstances change around our narrator and a light sense of tranqulity is up ahead with production beautifully built to enhance yet not contradict.

Pictured: Cullen Gallagher who has been inspired by film scores for two decades (Photo via Bandcamp.com)

That’s all I’ve got for now! I want to say a huge thank you for giving me your time and attention today and thank you for giving me hope rather than constant abberation for doing so. Join me in the subsequent weeks on One Track At A Time for more new posts about the music that’s getting my creative soul flowing including tunes by bold, emerging artists like Julia-Sophie, Bad With Phones, Ebbb, Lip Filler and some others.

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Today’s Track: Machinedrum (feat. Mick Jenkins & Jesse Boykins III) – ‘Weary’

June 4, 2024 — Leave a comment

When I had more free time, I posted each day and it never grew weary. New post time!

Pictured: Travis Stewart (aka Machinedrum) in an “Artist Tips” article photoshoot (2019) (Photo via XLR8.com)

A warm welcome to you – music lover – if you are new to One Track At A Time, where we broaden our horizons by streaming songs of all styles and sizes. I am Jacob Braybrooke and it was previously my pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day, but adult responsibilities are now in the way. Fear not, as I still have a small slab of leisure to post something special. Today, I am going to tell you about an excellent new release by a North Carolina-based electronic producer who goes by the name of Machinedrum. This is one of many monikers used by Travis Stewart, who fell in love with IDM and Glitch Hop sounds in the 2000’s. Syndrome and TStewart are two of his other aliases. He is also 1/2 of Sepalcure, 1/2 of JETS and 1/2 of Dream Continuum alongside Om Unit. His list of production credits and guest features are second to none – having worked with (*deep breath*) Flohio, Tkay Maidza, Freddie Gibbs, Sub Focus, Dawn Richard, Mykki Blanco and more. ‘3FOR82’ is his new LP out on Ninja Tune (The home of acts like Bicep, Yaeji and Park Hye Jin). Themed around childhood, Stewart made a unique request to his collaborators by asking them to write their segments as if they were writing to their younger selves. Some of his beats on the 12-track drum ‘n’ bass adventure were even lifted from some of his oldest teenager experiments, resulting in a low-quality fizz that artfully acknowledges the insecurities and inexperience that comes with being younger. One of the most ballsy experiments is the Hip Hop-oriented track ‘Weary’. Let’s give that record a spin below.

Stewart’s follow-up LP to 2020’s critically acclaimed album ‘A View Of U’ was crafted during a pilgrimage to Joshua Tree (a national park in California) and it finds him tapping into his network to recruit eclectic artists like Tinashe, Duckwrth, Topaz Jones, Deem Spencer and Aja Monet into his ranks as guest vocalists on the record. He explains, “I’ve been to Joshua Tree many times and I’ve always felt a great sense of clarity every time I visit“, in a press statement, adding, “and I knew that I should, at some point in my life, go out there to work on something creatively” to further establish the central theme of reconnecting with adolescence and harnessing nostalgia into your adult brand on the album. ‘Weary‘, which features rapper Mick Jenkins and Jamaican-born producer Jesse Boykins III as collaborators, is the perfect example of using childhood influences to kick a boost to a present product because it sounds so reminiscent of melodic and sample-driven 90’s Hip Hop records by artists such as The Jungle Brothers and Missy Elliot while maintaining a soft, futuristic Glitch element. A chopped drum beat kicks us off, reminiscent of a heavy Bhangra beat, before an arrangement containing a stretched vocal sample and a propulsive bass riff elevates the tension to another level. Fast and politically charged lyrics encouraging healing for people of disadvantaged, crime-ridden backgrounds are relentlessly recited at this stage, before a more soulful assortment of tender strings add a more hopeful element in the next verse. The chorus is more akin to a Thundercat or Blood Orange track due to the soulful vocal delivery by Boykins, but the momentum of the Hip Hop backing beat is still prominent due to the pace at which the framework of the melodic bass and the sharp drum rhythms are exposed. The sequencing by Machinedrum is, perhaps, the star of the show in this jam because the chopped element of the drums and samples add a specific seethe to proceedings. The slightly wonky rhythms veer noticeably into Hyper-Pop and Trap territory due to their irregular shaping, but the contorting production style keeps the foot on the gas for the connective tissue of Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul combined with electronic sounds. It all feels consistent enough, overall, without feeling too breezy as to dilute the aggressive edge of its impact. To conclude, ‘Weary‘ is a deeper cut on the album that you might read less coverage pushing as opposed to singles like ‘Rise’, but its a tough textbook example of twisting various elements of your production to meet your own needs while keeping your sound identifiable. A master of bending influences to his will, Machinedrum thrives in bringing the 90’s through the doors to modern clubs and encouraging you to make the past count by bridging the self-doubt of those times into a more motivated future.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘3FOR82’ (LP) (Available to buy or stream from May 24th, 2024) (via Ninja Tune)

That’s all for today! I want to say an enormous thank you for spending your time and attention with me. I will be back in a few days time with another new post regarding a Lo-Fi and Instrumental Rock singer-songwriter from an artist based in Brooklyn who has been releasing various projects throughout 2024 to celebrate his 20th anniversary of his music career since 2004. He was the founder of the Bad Channels Records label.

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Today’s Track: Hinds (feat. Beck) – ‘Boom Boom Back’

May 15, 2024 — Leave a comment

After a few weeks away from you – I’m making a BIG boom back. Time for a new post!

Pictured: Carlotta Cosials (Vocals/Guitar) & Ana García Perrote (Vocals/Guitar) (2024) (Photo by Daria Vazquez)

Get your headphones ready! Feel the crunching beats with me, Jacob Braybrooke, as I return to One Track At A Time once again to bring another recommendation into the life of yours as a fellow music lover. It used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before peak adulthood got right in my way! ‘Boom Boom Back’ ushers in a new era for the Madrid-based indie rock duo Hinds, who have experienced a tumultous time of troubles in the time leading up to their current comeback. Hinds have been around since 2011, originally as a 4-piece of ferocious female creatives, but they now exist as a dynamic duo comprised of original members Ana García Perrote and Carlotta Cosials who share the lead vocal and guitar duties amongst themselves. They have supported The Libertines, The Vaccines and Black Lips on tour in addition to designing their own clothing line in 2017 with Urban Outfitters that was sold alongside an exclusive limited edition 7-inch of their single ‘Holograma’ with 50% of the proceeds going towards an Austin-based not-for-profit organisation – Attendance Records – that provides students at public schools a platform to produce their own music, websites and magazines. Besides the recent single ‘Coffee’, it has been since the pandemic of 2020 that we’ve heard much from Hinds following ‘The Prettiest Curse’ LP being issued that year. A blow has been dealt because they have lost a drummer, a bassist and a management company. However, Perrote and Cosials are carrying the baton of Hinds as a duo, having spent the past decade touring across the globe and sharing their unique fusion of Garage Rock-infused pop with Psychedelic elements with the world. They’ve also gained a friend in Beck, who they met at a film screening in LA by chance. Their fourth studio album – ‘Viva Hinds’ – is now set to release on September 6th on Lucky Number Records. UK tour dates in Brighton’s Prince Albert and London’s The Lower Third are taking place at the end of this month. Check out the raucous new track ‘Boom Boom Back’ below.

Recorded in rural France with Pete Robertson (Beabadoobee, Orla Gartland, Chloe Moriondo) as their producer, Hinds are breaking new ground in light of vowing to continue their passionate Lo-Fi oriented explorations in substance as a pair instead of a quartet by including their first tracks to be entirely sung in Spanish on their new record, which also boasts a collaboration with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten. The playful energy of the music video is matched by the rhythmic aggression of the melodies on ‘Boom Boom Back’, an infectious intro to the upbeat and beautifully braggadocious slab of 80’s-inspired Rock ‘N’ Roll that I can’t wait to hear on the rest of ‘Viva Hinds’ in September. Nonchalant ambience of the girls laughing is followed by a thumping drum riff and a swirling guitar riff, filling the air with stadium-sized rock sounds as we build up to the catchy chorus of “Do you want to fall in love in a bar tonight?/Do you wanna fall in love with a broken heart?” backed by gritty, non auto-tuned vocals sung above crisp, crunchy chords. It’s not very romantic at all, as Hinds settle for sexual pleasure instead and carry their quirky personalities into the rest of the track. Beck hops on for his own verse at one time, joined by lyrics like “Faking laughs, melted ice, throwing dollars and dice/Do you want to step aside a hologram of your life” that showcase his penchant for obscure hooks and mesh tidily with the rebellious attitude of Hinds, who fill the empty space with Spanish vocals and chatty ambience reminiscent of an irresponsible adult’s dream of a youthful teen party at various points yet the alternative rock spirit of the chorus packs a punch and keeps the tone balanced well. The result is a delighfully charming, wonderfully catchy and affectionately 90’s tune that is sure to generate excitement for the long-awaited new album. It feels like the perfect summer anthem, with Hinds delivering an accessible yet specific vocal performance and it’s nice to hear Beck getting to do what he does best after a string of more conventional pop-oriented releases. I don’t need to be in a bar to fall in love with ‘Boom Boom Back’ since hearing it at home offers many thrills.

Pictured: Signed Vinyl Bundle for ‘VIVA Hinds’ (Available to buy from September 6th, 2024) (via Lucky Number)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me for another musical musing today and I want to say a huge thank you for your support at this time where my posts are more sporadic. I will be back soon with another heartfelt recommendation of a new track, this time coming from a North Carolina-based Electronic producer who adds a unique touch of IDM and Glitch Hop to his House music explorations. He has produced tracks for Azaelia Banks and he’s performed a live set at the Sydney Opera House. You may also know him for releasing music under the names of Tstewart and Syndrome. He’s also 1/2 of the experimental duo Dream Continuum alongside Jim Coles aka OM Unit.

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Today’s Track: Mindchatter – ‘Brain Pills’

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

You need some brain pills to fuel your desire to seek new music. Time for a new post!

Pictured: Bryce Connolly (aka Mindchatter) performing at a vibrant live set (2022) (Photo via MusicTech.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke and it always used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day. That’s before my adulthood got right in the way! Somewhere deep in the suburban situation of New York City is where you’ll be able to find Bryce Connolly, a multi-instrumentalist and EDM producer who was recently featured on KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune podcast. That’s how I caught wind of ‘Brain Pills’, a rather silly yet relatable track dripped in irony regarding the current “Ask My GP” crisis that rages across the world. Finding a curious intersection between a genre-less approach to beats and blatant anecdotal lyricism on ‘Brain Pills’, he reflects on the experience of being prescribed his medication by a psychiatrist on an application via video call. Speaking about the humour and irony that he found in the experience, he says, “The whole process is extremely goofy. I was diagnosed by a woman wearing a hoodie… I’m pretty sure I was older than her, too. Anyways, it seems like this has become the new normal because a lot of people are relating to the song”, in a press release. Sample the track – which is taken from his EP ‘This Is A Reminder That You Are Not Behind Your Face’ released in February – below.

The eccentric appeal of Mindchatter’s mental health-themed music stands out for seeing the lighter side of the overwhelming aspects of life that can haunt us. It has taken him to the stages of popular festivals like Coachella, Lightning In A Bottle and Okeechobee as well as leading to support slots with artists like Polo & Pan and SG Lewis. There’s little time for grief and sadness because ‘Brain Pills’ gets to an immediate start by establishing the floaty, bubbling percussion from the opening. “Brain pills, from a doctor, on the internet” repeats as the new layers of more weighty drums and hazy, psychedelic synths progress the chords. The verse reveals more about his perception of his appointment as odd and unbelievable, as he used lyrics like “She asked questions from a PDF/I can see her apartment/It was a mess” to emphasize the careless approach of the online medical help and the fact that his mind wandered down the route of satire at the sight of her apartment seeming messier than Bryce’s own life. Effects add reverb to his vocals, giving the lyrics a trippy vibe to complement the chatter about ADHD medication. The synths have a free-wheeling effect to accentuate the psychedelia-leaning tone too, with “My chakras was not aligned” being repeated at the top of a sturdy drum beat and high frequency-aligned synths during the bridge of the track before the punchy chorus returns to take us through the journey of his imagination as his mind wanders down a different path again. Overall, I love how satire and irony are woven into the fabric of this dance track that emphasises the hillarity of an online meeting with meaningful consequences being hosted by an unprofessionally-behaved authority while feeling serious enough to surpass the stage of novelty. In a world of love songs and vengeful protest jams, it is refreshing to hear the experience of a good old anecdote being replicated in this fearless Electro-Pop track which is sharp enough to match its quirks.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘This Is A Reminder That You Are Not Behind Your Face’ (EP) (Released on February 2nd, 2024) (via Foreign Family Collective)

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Today’s Track: Bolis Pupul – ‘Kowloon’

April 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

A fish not out of water, but thriving in their natural habitat for once. New post time!

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Letter To Yu’ (LP) (Released on March 8th, 2024) (via DEEWEE)

Good Afternoon to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before my adulthood got right in the way! Attempting to pinpoint the ancestry of today’s artist, Bolis Pupul, may provide enough for a full blog post on its own. Born in Belgium and raised in Ghent by a Belgian cartoonist father and a mother who was born in Hong Kong but lived in China, Pupul lived in a household that kept shlves full of vinyl records. After falling in love with Beck’s weird and wonderful 90’s LP’s such as ‘Mellow Gold’ and ‘Odelay’, he cut his teeth in a Synth-Pop project with his sister and brother-in-law that nurtured his love for eight-track Foxtex recorders and the Japanese Shibuya-key star Cornelius during the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. Fast forward to 2024 and Bolis is best known for releasing the critically-beloved ‘Topical Dancer’ LP which was a joint venture with Charlotte Adigery. As a solo artist, he is now signed to Soulwax’s label Deewee that is also the home of artists like James Righton, Marie Davidson and EMS Synthi 100 who are known for exploring futuristic 70’s Funk-driven Pop sounds. The long road to releasing his first solo full-length ‘Letter To Yu’ was full of pot holes and diversions though, like using a rail replacement bus service to travel from Littleport to Liverpool. The main cause of heartbreak was the loss of his mother, who died in a car accident during June 2008 at age 49. She was a huge inspiration for the LP, which is centered around a trip that Pupul took to Hong Kong in 2008. He visited the street where she was born and he wrote her a letter which became “the coat rack on which the entire record was hung“, as Pupul notes. Sample his sound with ‘Kowloon’ below.

The sounds of frogs, the voice of a doctor that Pupul visited and the sounds of a train platform are all recordings of Pupul’s adventure to Hong Kong that all crop up throughout the 11 tracks and the near 46-minute duration of the aromatic album that paints a picture of the Kowloon urban district that Pupul visited with an intimate touch. In fact, the seventh track on the final product is named after Mau Tau Wei Road in which the maternity clinic that his mother was actually born within. Having read all of this information on Pupul without my description of the sound, you would probably expect ‘Kowloon’ to sound like a spiritual jazz record with steady drones and a larger prioritisation on rhythm instead of melody. However, the element of suprise arrives at full throttle as the East-Asian take on the Kraftwerkian Alt-Pop of the 80’s quckly begins to reveal itself. Nostalgia and celebration are steeped in equal measure on ‘Kowloon’ which begins and ends with a stabbing, highly compressed key sound but he fills the space of sound with a gradually sauntering drum melody that swiftly evolves into a charming dance track akin to a late-90’s French House workout. The technicolour and futuristic aesthetic never dismisses the slow, hypnotic start to the track but embraces the repetition instead by incorporating East Asian touches to the European Motorik sound. There’s a characteristic that is incredibly inviting about finding release on the dancefloor given the very heavy events that set the album’s narrative in motion as well as the sense of ever-present joy that Pupul provokes so enthusiastically. His personality, soul and sense of fun is communicated through the playful composition of the track and the ambience of the vocals that almost sound intelligible, but retain the effect of being in a room with others and not being able to make out the words which happens often in life. It gives this track a sense of place, making us feel like a part of Kowloon as we listen to his martial stomp of a Synth-driven track. Overall, this is a wonderful ode to the widely believed notion that an album should provide a snapshot of the artists’ life. It feels intimate enough to retain some mystique for Pupul personally, but it feels inviting enough to give us a glimpse of his life story. A tour-de-force of euphoria, ancestry and – most importantly – cheer.

Pictured: Bolis Pupul recording a live set for Indie Rock Hit Parade w/Charlotte Adigery (2022) (Photo by WXPN)

That’s all for today! Thank you for joining me on my journey as I find my place in the music industry after a few years of hiatus due to personal issues and please join me again next week as I spotlight another example of the fantastic music which 2024 has provided since beginning 15 weeks ago. I look forward to writing to you again shortly.

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Today’s Track: Lime Garden – ‘Pop Star’

March 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

When life gives you limes, make guacamole. I would if I liked avocado. New post time!

Pictured: Chloe Howard (Lead Vocals/Percussion), Leila Deeley (Lead Guitar), Tippi Morgan (Bass Guitar) & Annabel Whittle (Drums) in a recent photoshoot to promote the ‘One More Thing’ album (2024) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it used to be my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day before my adulthood got right in the way! It has been a few weeks since I last found the time to write on the blog so, first of all, thank you once again for waiting for me to return so patiently. Secondly, it allowed the space for plenty of emerging artists to grow and nurture in my favour since the last time that we interacted. One of my favourite bands that I discovered in that meantime was Lime Garden. Not only are they an all-female alternative pop 4-piece from Brighton, but they also specialise in their own brand of “Wonk Pop” which the ladies describe as an exotic combination of Disco, Pop and Surf Rock blended together. I would add that their sound takes me back to the 00’s where bands like Hard-Fi and Caesars scored chart hits with jams that were mainstream indie boom music in essence but they also had a slight urban twist to them where Dance and Psychedelic elements came into the fold rather subtly. Of course, “Wonk Pop” may imply that it’s cheap like Wonky Veg in the supermarket, but I like to think it’s as fresh as the cucumbers that you can buy straight from the greengrocers. Awful analogies aside, check out ‘Pop Star’ before reading my thoughts on the charming track below.

Reading & Leeds, Green Man and Standon Calling are just three of the festivals which Lime Garden have played since forming in 2017 leading to support slots with Yard Act and Sunflower Bean on tour. ‘One More Thing’ is the debut album out recently on So Young Records, which is a really confident first full-length effort. Lyrics reflecting on the modern strong woman stereotypes and the lengths that a creative is willing to go to get noticed are just a few of the core themes that speak to me and I feel that both their musical influences and their honest lyricism come to pass strongly in ‘Pop Star’. The opening synth riff is an interesting sonic choice that sets the scene for the sporadic lifestyle that vocalist Chloe Howard sings about with its upbeat yet slightly imperfect nature in how the pattern is a tad unsettled. The drums rattle on at a percussive, improv Jazz-like pace as Howard lays bare the highs and lows of navigating the music industry as a struggling artist with low name value. “I don’t want to work my job, cause life is short and this is long” during the chorus and “I’m finding it hard to breathe and I’m finding it hard to believe/Is this what its like for you or is this just what its like for me” in the verses details the realities of feeling stuck in a job which the powers that be have laid out for you and the curse of comparison to others on social media, respectively. Although the blind pursuit of an exciting dream that feels destined for depression is a personal reflection on these everyday issues for musicians, I also feel there’s something wider that Howard and pals are getting at here. There’s a thematic sense of rebellion to the record in which they feel defiant against the overexposure of generic music by established names being given all of the airplay and support in the modern media. The last lyric that I mentioned, especially, makes this clear to me in a subtle fashion. Overall, I really like how intelligence and dexterity are quite specific attributes to Lime Garden as a band here that can’t be heard on just any record and they offer a deep conversation on ‘Pop Star’ that, as well as the tune being quite a lively and eccentric one to groove to, there’s an attitude to it that feels totally Punk buried beneath the more obvious influences. I absolutely love the sense of specifity to them and if you haven’t heard of Lime Garden before but you are a fan of bands like Warpaint, The Strokes and The Last Dinner Party, I think that you will find their solid LP as fresh as a lime straight from the most tender source too.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘One More Thing’ (LP) (Released on February 16th, 2024) (via So Young Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for your time today and keep your eyes peeled on the blog because, later in the week, I will be posting about a groovy new track by a funk, Jazz and Afrobeat-inflicted band who have recorded music with Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor and they have performed at KEXP’s World Clash Day back in April 2019.

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