Track Of The Week
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Track Of The Week (14/06/22): New Positions by Family Time (2022)
In 2018, Oscar and Max of Family Time left London and headed to the island of Mallorca, created their own studio, and wrote a collection of songs that would compile their first album; The Great Abismo. Prior to independently releasing their debut album in 2019, Family Time began their music career by posing as a cover band to get gigs at all-inclusive resorts. The pair would surprise unsuspecting holidaymakers with their setlist of unique and creative music; what they have described as a conceptual pop opera.
Their romantic, cinematic aesthetic is developed further in Family Time’s latest album, The Golden Years, released in May this year.
New Positions is a smooth blend of indie and jazz. There is an atmospheric subtlety to all aspects of the track; a gentle groove on the bass, woozy licks on saxophone, thoughtful synth textures, romantic piano trills and laid back drums. Everything feels balanced and considered. The poetic instrumental paired with Oscar’s honest vocals that contemplate the ‘mathematics of intimacy’, make it unsurprising that this beautifully written track has earned its name as their most streamed track from the album.
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Track of the Week (09/06/22): The Hidden Camera by Photek (1997)
Back in the 90’s, Drum and Bass was heavily associated with two names; Goldie and Photek. Rupert Parkes, or Photek, was a pioneer in the scene. By the time his debut album was released in 1997, Photek had already built a catalogue of nearly 100 tracks, making Modus Operandi one of the most highly anticipated underground albums at the time.
Photek’s creative production is unparalleled on Modus Operandi. Although it was his first full album signed to a label (Virgin Records), Modus Operandi is an uncompromising album, demonstrating influences from jazz to Detroit techno, to ambient, to DnB, with alterations in tempos throughout - defying the commercial pressure to stick with a style and carry it. Choosing to name the album after the most down tempo track on the record, to the murky dark artwork were statements in themselves.
The Hidden Camera is Modus Operandi’s opening track. Bare, jazz-style chords paired with slow sweeping synth pads add an eire ambience to the persistent baseline and intricate, precisely placed drum beats. The beat is both stuttery and controlled; a texture of polyrhythms that almost are a nod to broken-beat. It’s an impressive beat regardless of the limits of technology during the time. In keeping with much of the album, Photek creates a disjointed atmosphere on The Hidden Camera; unmistakably melancholy, whilst also being danceable. The track feels like a sonic reflection of a city landscape; gritty but mysterious, eire but busy, familiar but uncomfortable.
Also DEFINITELY go check out Richard Spaven playing The Hidden Camera on youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5X6K36vHQ. Photek’s influence can no doubt be heard in Spaven’s immaculate sound.
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Track of the Week (30/05/22): Knifey by Amyl and the Sniffers (2021)
All I ever wanted was to walk by the park
All I ever wanted was to walk by the river after dark
Please, because I ain’t that tough
Out comes the night, out comes my knifey
This is how I get home nightly
I turn around and backtrack
Because I ain’t that tough
But you still fuck with us.’
From their 2021 album Comfort To Me, Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers vocalises a chilling plea to attackers from a female perspective in Knifey.
In comparison to the rest of the album - perhaps their heaviest collection of tracks to date - the band winds down their tempo, using bare chords with a gritty, dark baseline to allow space for the lyrics to resonate.
Taylor’s lyrics are distressing and fiercely honest; from her repeated raspy ‘Please!’, to stark truths like; ‘Because I ain’t that tough/But you still fuck me up.’ There’s an amiable innocence in her lyrics - all she wants is to walk by the river, see the stars, get home nicely.
As the song progresses, the perspective powerfully evolves from “I” to “we”, rallying a collective resilience in all women. Yet the song finishes on ‘'Cause we’re just not that tough’, drawing back to the reality of female vulnerability and the fear of having to use self-defence. Taylor never gives the “attacker” tangible characteristics, instead only using the words ‘Out comes the night’, perhaps hinting at the cyclical regularity of this threat.
Taylor doesn’t embellish anything, nor does she specify gender at any point; the feminist tone is not brash, but darkly sincere. It’s so much more captivating to hear a punk musician shouting heartfelt words instead of words to provoke a reaction.
The Australian band just played Wide Awake festival on Saturday, and are playing O2 Academy Brixton on Wednesday. I really recommend going to see them!
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Track Of The Week (27.04.22): Track of the Week: Little Sunflower by Dorothy Ashby (1968)
As one of few jazz harpists in history, Dorothy Ashby was most certainly a pioneer in the harp’s place in jazz music, particularly as a lead instrument.
Born in Detroit in 1932, Ashby started out playing jazz piano, however took an interest in the harp whilst studying at Cass Tech. She began to transfer her knowledge of jazz and piano into her harp playing.
Ashby faced multiple obstacles whilst building her career; as a black, female musician in a male dominated scene, and playing a more conventionally classical instrument, her journey wasn’t easy. The harp in jazz was met with much skepticism, with a lot of clubs refusing to even give her an audition. By the late 1950’s however, her reputation had grown sufficiently and she was signed to Prestige Records.
Afro-Harping was released in 1968 under Cadet Records. The album doesn’t quite display Ashby’s true improvisational skill as much as her previous records. However the groovy, psychedelic sound of Afro-Harping seems to perfectly embody the coolness of the 1960’s.
Little Sunflower is a cover of jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s 1967 original. Ashby replaces Hubbard’s warm trumpet melodies with a slick sound from the harp and flute that compliment the tranquil Bossa nova rhythm section. The sound is enticing, romantic and most notably mystical.
“Dorothy Ashby may not be the first jazz harpist or the first female jazz harpist, but her feeling for time and ability to construct melodic guitar-like lines mark her as the most accomplished modern jazz harpist.” (Ira Gitler, 1961)
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Track Of The Week (15/04/22): Carry It Mongo Man by Kaidi Tatham (2021)
Kaidi Tatham is the incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist and producer who has earned his reputation as a principle architect in the U.K’s broken beat scene, that grew from west London during the late 1990’s.
Released just over a year ago under First Word Records, An Insight To All Minds is Kaidi’s latest album; a joyful masterpiece brimming with broken beat, funk and jazz. The high energy of Carry It Mongo Man is sustained by Kaidi’s exceptional percussion that propels the dynamic groove. Latin style riffs on the keys remain the backbone with the bass, whilst the percussion and rhodes solos dip and dive, finding all the spaces in between.
Carry It Mongo Man emanates a sound that could almost be found in a video game. Firstly, the bright, playful melody on the rhodes feels like something out of Mario Kart. Then in the rhythmic break sections, the glistening sustained synth pads that glide over the rhythms give me a retro-galactic energy.
Broken beat, a term coined by IG Culture, is identifiable by its heavily syncopated rhythms. Since the 90’s, the fragmented rhythms of broken beat - or Bruk - are alive and well in abundance in modern music. Bruk takes its influences from any rhythm focused sound; latin, jazz, funk, afrobeat etc. I feel It’s ability to overlap with so many styles has contributed to it’s growth and reach in music today.
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Track of the Week (06/04/2022): El Alacrán by Ariwo (2019)
Spanish for ‘The Scorpion’, El Alacrán is Ariwo’s most widely played track from their debut album ‘Quasi’, released under MANANA Records in 2019.
Where Cuban rhythm, electronic sound and Iranian mysticism intersect, Ariwo have created a genre defying, cultural blend that could be described as a kind of Electro-Cuban, Afro-Acid Jazz.
The Cuban/Iranian band chose the name ‘Ariwo’, meaning ‘noise’ in the West-African language Yorùbá. The Yorùbá religion was brought to Cuba during the transatlantic slave trade in the 1800s, and is believed to have had a profound influence on Cuba’s musical development.
Yorùbá music is defined by extremely advanced drumming, traditionally played on Dundun or Batá drums, and has religion rooted at its core - often played in devotion to the Orisha (spirits). In worship, these drums are used to “talk” by altering the tonality.
This idea of communication though complex rhythms as a form worship, resonates in Ariwo’s mesmeric, mystical sound. The percussion in El Alacrán, played by the Latin Grammy winning Hammadi Valdes, is at the forefront of this track. Valdes’ rhythms weave and dance through the bassy 4-to-the-floor techno beat, while the latin-style melody on trumpet soars above the lattice of polyrhythms.
Combined with the trance-like sounds and effects of multiple synths from Ariwo’s Iranian electronic composer Pouya Ehsaei, El Alacrán is sonically powerful and totally encapsulating; it is hypnotic in the way it commands you to feel the music within your body. I cannot help but move to this song.
If you’re interested in experiencing this music live, Ariwo are playing at Werhaus on 24th April as part of the Brick Lane Jazz Festival.
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Track of the Week (31/08/21): Keisha Billip by Ebi Soda (2020)
Released in 2020, Ebi Soda’s Keisha Billip is the 6th of 10 tracks from their album ‘Ugh’.
The first half of this track introduces gentle dreamlike keys, a lazy muted trumpet over a unison of brass (@vv_illhelm on trombone), some serious funk in the bass and a hip hop focused beat with the occasional tidy quick ticks on hi-hat adding detail around the laid back punch of the snare.
Where the trumpet then slips down a gear into a darker key, and the heavy (understatement) bass drops for the second half of the track, the beat reveals a style it was previously only hinting at - grime.
The muted trumpet pulls out a more classically-jazz aesthetic next to the grime inspired low end, whilst the brass repeats the familiar progression from the opening section. Ebi Soda’s cosmic dub style is still maintained in this genre-traversing track, and yet the difference between the two sections, the transition, the balance between the styles in the bass, brass and beat radiate an energy that to my ears is something totally new. Modern Jazz using acoustic instruments with clear influences from production-heavy music genres is something I will always have time for.
Ebi Soda are a collective from Brighton who are rapidly gaining a name for themselves as one of Brighton’s best, alongside Vels Trio. ‘Ugh’ is comprised of the bands first professionally recorded sessions, providing promise for the exciting direction this band in heading in.
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Sample Evolution (29/07/21): Show Me What You Got (feat. Jordan Rakei) by Richard Spaven (2018)
Richard Spaven’s Show Me What You Got is a modified cover of the original by Busta Rhymes from his album Anarchy (2000), on which J Dilla sampled Come And Play In The Milky Night by Stereolab (1999). It's interesting to see just how far this song has been stretched; the sombre mood of this alternative rock track has been maintained but personalised throughout all its lifecycles.
What might have attracted J Dilla’s acute ear for sample potential is the overlapping cyclical phrasing of Come And Play In The Milky Night. With the 4/4 time signature focused in the drums, and an emphasised, steady 2 and 4 on the snare that hints at a hip hop beat, it is the instrument phrasing that make this track rhythmically interesting. The three chords move every bar and half creating a continuous, unresolving feel, accompanied by the unique bass part that even in its rising and falling melody feels cyclical.
J Dilla’s sample pulls down the pace into a hip hop groove, manipulating the chord phrasing, perhaps to fit better with his heavy, laid back beat. This became the instrumental that drummer and producer Richard Spaven covered 18 years on, featuring Jordan Rakei’s beautiful vocals sung on the hook and Stuart McCallum’s gentle, expressive guitar solo.
In true Richard Spaven style, Show Me What You Got is an atmospheric translation of a mood - according to Spaven, creating a mood is usually the beginning of his creative process. In comparison to the level of intricacy he is capable of, Show Me What You Got is an understated ‘Detroit swing’ featuring a lot of ambience that sharpen the beat, vocals and instrumentals into focus. Spaven has expressed before in an interview that sometimes it’s best not to overcompensate creativity in drumming to the point where it subtracts from the groove, and I feel this track is a perfect example of that.
Spaven is one of UK’s most acclaimed drummers of today. I recommend listening to Spin or The Self to really get to know Spaven’s style.
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Track of the week (29/04/21): Dreamflower by Tarika Blue (1977)
Tarika Blue’s Dreamflower can unmistakably be recognised as the instrumental backbone to Erykah Badu’s Didn’t Cha Know, sampled by J Dilla for her record Mama’s Gun released in 2000. Since this famous sampling, Badu has placed Tarika Blue’s Dreamflower on the map, having had only a small following predominantly from America’s East Coast during the 70’s.
The creeping bass combined with the smooth guitar slide of Dreamflower’s introduction is the most predominant part used in the Dilla sample. The feel is entirely mystical, probably why Badu took to using it. Dreamflower’s mystique continues beyond it’s initial section too; gliding soprano saxophone parts, followed by a key change into laid back guitar riffs, that slides back down into the original key.
The sax parts are played so smooth and controlled, they have an almost orchestral quality to them, at times resembling more of an oboe or clarinet timbre.
I’d recommend listening to other tracks on the Tarika Blue album such as Jimi, more of a 70’s rock track, to hear the extent of their influences and the flexibility of their sound.
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Track Of The Week (23/04/21): Kakashi (案山子) by Yasuaki Shimizu (1982)
Japanese composer, saxophonist and producer, and member of the 80’s experimental rock group Mariah (I recommend listening to their album Utakata No Hibi), Yasuaki Shimizu released the experimental jazz fusion album Kakashi in 1982.
Listening to the track Kakashi, there are distant familiarities within the unique sound; elements of dub with details such as the ambient reverb on the snare, paired with a rhythmic moving bass part, and echoes and reverbs applied to various areas of trumpet and percussion parts. Then there is the brass section that moves in unison as a melody that is recognisable as a style being used by New Jazz musicians today. Combined with fluttering marimba parts to create an overall blissful sound that is as charming as the album artwork, the experimental emphasis on fusion in this track feels very current, making it all the more interesting that it was released just under 40 years ago.