Category Archives: Track Of The Week

Weekly selection of other artists music

TOTW: IDLES_ Glastonbury performance

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It’s been a while since I last went to Glastonbury but, with the great BBC television coverage we get in the UK, I manged to watch many of the performances.

Out of these performances, IDLES really stood out with their message and energy. It made me come back to their first two album’s. I mustn’t have given them the attention they deserved when they came out, as they should have been considered – if not made – my albums of the year lists.

It would be easy to categorise IDLES as a modern take on “punk,” and I do agree that their songs feature many sounds that you would hear in that style of music. Their lyrics are angrily delivered and often politically pointed, which reminds me of the original punk movement.

But just like many of those original bands, punk was more a method of delivery than a genre. Many people would say The Clash are a punk band, and yet they have many songs that would be far better categorised as ska, dub, regge or rockabilly. Idles are the same; pushing their sound into into heavier and more progressive genre of music.

Idles have managed to create a music that resonates broadly in the world today, providing progressive messages of love and hope that are delivered in an antagonistic and rabble rousing way. It’s a sound that they deliver live with a raw energy that few bands achieve, and it can be seen even through the tiny screen of your mobile phone, or in the comfort of your home.

Below are several performances in case others get taken down and they’re all worth a watch along with one of my favorite tracks from their second album I’m Scum:

Idles Live performances:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Lindisfarne_ Lady Eleanor

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There are times when a song just drifts it’s way our of your subconscious. A recurring memory from a time long forgotten. I remembered this track when drifting to sleep this week and its stuck in my head since.

Lady Eleanor by Lindisfarne dreamlike qualities suit how i remembered this track perfectly. Its opening seems to slowly materialise out of the ether.

Instruments add to each other and build to a series of crescendos with each verse that then fall into a silence the courses come crashing out of. The song ends with a complete change in theme as a bass line takes prominence and the track drifts back into obscurity.

The continuous, almost liquid like dynamics and tempo that have kept this track enchanting for me since I first heard it as a child. A fantastic piece of folk rock that keeps on giving me joy to this day:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Nobuo Uematsu_ Fisherman’s Horizon

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The music of Nobuo Uematsu is loved by many the world over. Yet, I still believe he is massively underrated because the majority of his work is for video games; a medium that is still sidelined in many ways by the mainstream.

The quality of his work easily matches that of composers like John Williams and Ennio Morricone, and yet he gets comparatively little acknowledgement outside of the gaming world. I think this will change with time. As people who have grown up with video games become the people who control and dictate the direction of what “mainstream culture” is, the history of video games and their creators will become more respected and recognised for their artistic merits.

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite track from his work. This is, in part, due to the sheer scale of his achievement. The length and complexity of the RPG games requires the same of it’s soundtrack. Nobuo Uematsu did this to such a high standard that it is hard to highlight individual tracks. For me, his best work comes from the games Final Fantasy 7 through to 10 as the shift of the games from cartridge to CD and then DVD allowed for more complex compositions.

Due to budget and design constraints, most of the Final Fantasy soundtrack was made on synthesisers, which often emulate classical instruments. Still, Nobuo Uematsu was able to demonstrate his incredible ability to pull from the history of music, creating memorable and emotional melodies that have stuck with fans.

It is this fandom that has allowed many of the tracks from his more well known games to be scaled to full orchestral and piano arrangements, which add accessibility to people who haven’t heard the music before.

For my Track Of The Week I decided to go back to an original piece, straight from a game soundtrack. “Fisherman’s Horizon” from Final Fantasy 8 still resonates strongly with me. The track accompanies exploration of an area that closely resembles a coastal town. It manages to capture the gentle breeze and expansive ocean that surrounds the area perfectly. It demonstrates what makes the work of Nobuo Uematsu so great. A composition that works perfectly, both as a soundtrack for this section of game, and in its own right as a memorable and beautiful piece of music.

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Kelly Lee Owens_ Bird

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Another highlight from Hidden Door, Kelly Lee Owens set was well polished and full of a mix of different styles of electronic dance music.

“Bird” is my favorite track on her self titled album which starts with a drifting more ambient feeling with its synth and string pad sounds accompanying the percussive lead line. A couple of minutes in the pads are replaced with a deep bass line and more driving percussion that takes the track into a darker and more direct place.

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: MIDI Paul_Wandering

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Last weekend I attended Hidden Door, an arts and music festival in Edinburgh.

There were several musical highlights from the 4 days of music that I will bring to your attention over the next few weeks. The first was MIDI Paul who’s performance consisted of a live percussion, bass mixed with synthesis and the occasional vocalist.

The instrumental track Wandering demonstrates his qualities. Raw synthesis is at the forefront of the track but its constant melodic development keeps a sound that could easily become stale fresh and exiting.

It’s this skill in melody and rhythm that makes the piece work as it shifts around instrumentation. Creating a track that remains exiting and unexpected throughout its playtime:

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TOTW Playlist:

Totw: The Go! Team_ Panther Dash

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This week I suddenly had a hunkering to listen to the first album by “The Go! Team” . Up to “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” touring “The Go! Team” were the production skills and creative vision of Ian Parton, who recorded most of this album at his parents home and mixed it with his brother Gareth Parton.

This is probably why “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” still stands as my favorite album by “The Go! Team”. It’s the purest form of the distilled vision of Ian Patron. A sound that mixes garage rock guitars with samples of old-school Hip-hop, double dutch chants and soundtracks to such great affect. It created a jolly and childlike world of positivity that reminds me more of shows like Sesame Street then other music.

Panther Dash is the opening track and presents the ideas and even some of the key samples that we hear throughout the album. A perfect introduction to a great album and a novel band that are well worth investigating:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Shout Out Louds_ Ill Wills

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“Shout Out Louds” have made dreamy indie for nearly two decades. Their first couple of albums being key staples of my teenage years and provide a nostalgic haven for me to this day.

“Ill Wills” is a small instrumental piece that has always resonated with me. Its glockenspiel toylike lead melody and washed out distorted rhythm guitar creates a nostalgic quality first listen. It creates a track that’s short, sweet and well worth a listen:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Telefon Tel Aviv_The Birds

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Telefon Tel Aviv’s album “Immolate yourself” has both haunted and compelled me since its release in 2009. Its understated songs always downplay the heady heights synth pop usually aims for. It leaves the album with a macabre aesthetic that really grows on you with repeat listens.

The Birds starts the album and although rather simple in its arrangement and composition, every instrument is driving the track forward. Creating a constant crescendo for the first half of the track, only to drop off briefly before a distorted synth semi-solo that falls apart as soon as it begins. Back into the sounds of arpeggiated synths and repetitive electronic drums.

In a modern EDM world with humongous FM synth leads and all consuming Kick drums. The birds in a masterwork in understatement, achieving the same results emotionally without ever pushing for it.

All these years later on and with repeat listens, its subtlety’s still grow on me. Its a track that has and will always stick around:

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TOTW Playlist:

Totw: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma_Love’s Refrain

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This track with its washes of lo-fi synths distorting their way into landscapes of reverb and noise makes it share the same sonic soundscapes as many tracks in the vapourwave genre.

Over the duration of the track the blissful synth and guitar elements are slowly corrupted with further distortion until they are relics of their former selves. Quivering under the duress of white noise and tape hiss until they finally collapse abruptly into nothingness. It’s this powerful use of processing that creates the mood of the piece and drives the track forward. Turning a fairly minimalist composition into something far greater:

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TOTW: Toro y Moi_New House

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Toro Y Moi creates quirky electronic music which fuses different styles of American pop music through his distinct lens.

“New House” is my favorite track from his album “Outer Peace”. This brief down tempo track has auto tuned vocals that mix well with the digital sounding FM synth looping sample. It creates a very cool, laid back style that suits repeat listens:

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