Category Archives: Track Of The Week

Weekly selection of other artists music

TOTW: Protomartyr_ Processed By The Boys

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I’ve come back to this track many times since hearing it on a “Spotify” missed list of 2020.

The composition really subverted my expectations. Its lyrics deal with an oppressive force taking control and at first the instrumentation seems to follow this style with building melodic darkness and aggression, and on first listen it was where I thought the track would continue to go. However, as “Processed By The Boys” gets to the chorus the chords become far more uplifting, almost subverting the lyrical context.

The track furthers this development as it comes to its conclusion. “Next time it will be different, So cool so nice,” Joe Casy delivers with a mix of apathy and acceptance, which is opposed by the crescendo of instrumentation escalating until is soars.

After this point things come crashing down and the track finishes with a whimper. The protagonist doesn’t go out with a blaze of glory and instead accepts defeat.

When I first heard the track I thought it would go in one direction but it turns down several other forks in the road and finishes somewhere else entirely. This both surprised and excited me as a listener. Those feelings haven’t died away as I have become more accustomed to the track, which is rare indeed.

“Processed By The Boys” by Protomartyr is well worth a listen:

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TOTW: Axel Boman_ Eyes Of My Mind

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I loved the album “Talaboman” from a few years ago. A collaboration between John Talabot and Axel Boman a few years ago, which introduced me to Axel Boman.

“Eyes Of My Mind” is a great example of this stripped down House sound that Axel Boman does so well. Focused on a small repeating vocal, he manages to make a track with a strong driving force that also has a refined subtlety to it.

Its a difficult skill to create a track with drive and without aggression but “Eyes Of My Mind” does it perfectly. A track that’s right up my street and comes highly recommended:

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TOTW:Actress- Actress_Leaves Against The Sky

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Actress has managed to create a uniquely identifiable sound in electronic music. It’s dark and and amorphous sound seems to contradict the locked loops of the instruments themselves.

On listening to their complete albums, these techniques create works that have a strong mood. I have found it captivating when in the right mindset. It has kept me returning to them over the years as their subtleties worm their way with time into my subconscious.

I can see that being the case with the most recent Actress album, “Karma & Desire.” Fragments of the record already loop around in my head from time to time; one of them being the piano line on “Leaves Against The Sky.”  It follows the same off kilter production that his work is known for, but with an unusually up tempo driving kick drum in sections.

Listen to “Leaves Against The Sky” and let it sit with you for a few days. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to return to its distinctive opaqueness to try and grasp onto what makes the track so compelling:

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TOTW: Bicep_Atlas

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The next couple of weeks are going to be short ones. A lot is going on in my life with a big move to a new house. Which will also provide me with a space to finally build a studio.

With it comes a lot of packing and arranging along with a potential lack of internet for a few days whilst we get it up and running. So with my time and attention on that I will have less time for these blog posts over the next few weeks.

However I will still try to keep the Track Of The Week segment going if not keeping it brief.

Whilst packing I have been listening mostly to audio books with a scattering of music in between. Atlas by Bicep was one of the tracks that really grabbed my attention. A electronic track with interesting synth design and well produced will never go amiss and Bicep has them in spades.

“Atlas” is the closing track (and my personal favorite) from their “Sundial” EP, Give it a listen below:

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TOTW: Lomelda- stranger sat by me

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I found the track “stranger sat by me” by “Lomelda” when listening through a long playlist of music from last year, and found it instantly enchanting. Its got a naivety to it, with the vocals being so low in the mix, but then mixed with an odd assortment of instruments and strange synth and guitar sounds.

“stranger sat by me” is the perfect name for this introverted little track and I recommend you give it a listen.

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TOTW: Future Islands- Born In A War

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Future Islands manage to filter pop music through an odd prism of the past. Modern synthesizers carry the aesthetics of classic mo-town records, and that’s backed up with Samuel T. Herring’s vocals that sound absolutely nothing like, and yet encapsulate, the feel of a soul singer.

Born In A War is a perfect example. If you break down elements of the track, they don’t quite make sense out of context; especially the vocals, which in isolation sound like they come from a completely different genre. But when you put them together the result is a well crafted pop track with plenty of soul.

An easy recommendation for my Track Of The Week.

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TOTW: Grandaddy- Hewiett’s Daughter (Piano Version)

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After a weeks break for my albums of the year, I continue my Track Of the Week section with a focus on an album that is essentially a stripped down version of another work, reimagined and converted into purely piano pieces. This makes for a different but amazing sound.

I Love The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy. It’s probably one of my favorite albums overall and at some point deserves me to talk about it in more detail. So when they announced this remastering of The Sophtware Slump with a bonus piano-only version of the album I was excited.

Its great overall and transitions well to piano (and the ocasional synth), but its Jason Lytle’s vocals that still steal the show. The wounded loneliness in his vocal delivery are just as soul destroying as ever, and even in the more playful moments you always feel it.

If you have never heard “The Sophtware Slump,” start with the original album. It really is classic.

If you have heard that record and are open to a different take on it that still holds many of its qualities, then this definitely justifies your time.

Hewett’s “Daughter” is probably my favorite track on both the records and so had to be the Track Of The Week.

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TOTW- Nick Cave- Man In the Moon (Live at Alexadra Palace, 2020)

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The album “IDIOT PRAYER” features Nick Cave playing on piano a collection of songs from throughout his career.

Lyrics have always been one of the strong points of his music, in both The Bad Seeds and Grinderman. By stripping the tracks down to these smaller and more traditional arrangements, it shifts the lyrics framing slightly and often enhances their emotional weight.

Many of the tracks are great, but I really like this version of Man In the Moon. The sound of the space adds a greater loneliness to the lyrics than the original, and the way they interweave with the piano only enhances it further.

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TOTW- Moses Boyd, Joe Armon-Jones_2 Far Gone

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Moses Boyd’s album “Dark Matter” takes the fundamentals of Jazz and paints them with modern production (especially in the drums) to create some highly enjoyable music.

On 2 Far Gone is one of my favorite tracks from the listing. The percussion shuffles between several genre of dance music and provides a drive to the piece that the smooth horns can’t shake with their coolness:

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TOTW: Freddie Gibbs, The Alchemist_Something to Rap About (feat. Tyler, The Creator)

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The Album “Alfredo” is another collaborative album from Freddie Gibbs. This time, he teams up with The Alchemist whose production enhances Gibbs’ always great rhythmic deliveries.

The style of production of this record feels very old school in its sound elements, with a traditional funk and soul flavour in sampling. I’m not aware of the legacy of the sounds on this production, but they sound so cleanly produced that they give the album an air of a modern classic that will suit fans of classic HipHop.

It’s hard to pick a favorite track, which is always a good sign. The album just has an overall mood that is easy to enjoy and hard to describe. That being said, “Something to Rap About,” with the feature from Tyler, the creator, really stood out to me on first listen. Smooth instrumentation underpins great vocal delivery from both Gibbs and Tyler. It epitomises the feel of the album and would be a great place to start:

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