Tag Archives: TOTW

TOTW: U.S. Girls_ Overtime

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I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last few U.S. Girls albums. Their blend of art-pop and experimental pop takes influences throughout the history of pop music, and delivers them with pristine production and a great vocal delivery from Meghan Remy.

“Overtime” feels like a classic soul track. Driven by an organ and featuring vocals dealing with a darker subject matter, it is reminiscent of the blues, but with a faster tempo.

This is a tried and tested genre, which still holds as much power today as it did decades ago. U.S. Girls continue to prove this by creating an exhilarating piece of music that’s easy to listen to and enjoy from its first through to its 100th listen: 

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TOTW: Porridge Radio_Circling

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“Circling“ by Porridge Radio instantly grabbed my attention with its guitar that bends its way around the pitch, which perfectly accompanies the apathetic vocal delivery.

I have always found this downplayed style enjoyable, but it’s a detached sound that’s hard to do well. Fortunately Porridge Radio pulls it off wonderfully, even in a crescendo, which manages to provide energy to the piece without drifting from the context of the track.

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TOTW: Leonard Cohen_ Happens to the Hart

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I’ve only just got around to listening to “Thanks For The Dance;” a posthumous album by Leonard Cohen. Cohen’s son took poetry recorded before his death and added instrumentation to it to create the album, which works especially well on the opening track “Happens to the Heart.“

Leonard Cohen’s strongest point was his poetic verse and its delivery through his rustic baritone voice. He always managed to conjure the dark sinister corners of the mind and take you there, often delivering one-two punches in his rhyming couplets that left me as the listener in awe. The end of “Happens to the Heart“ is another example, leaving you with something to stew over on the tracks conclusion.

When you have lyrics this good and delivered perfectly in context, the instrumentals surrounding it should always play second fiddle. For me this was often Leonard Cohen’s downfall. I found that often music would get in the way of what was being said. Fortunately “Thanks for the Dance“ reverts to traditional instrumentation and a supportive role.

“Happens to the Heart” features nylon stringed guitar (prominent in early music by Leonard Cohen) strings, woodwinds and piano. It cements the lyrics in a sound that will stand the test of time. Building them into something greater without removing any of their raw power:

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TOTW: The Soft Pink Truth_ Grace

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For those of us who like to listen to an album start to finish, and appreciate it in this way as a complete, creative work, “Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?” is definitely worth a listen. Drew Daniel (one half of Matmos) has gathered a collection of musicians and created a complete piece of work that defies genre, instrumentation and structure to create both a joyful and adventurous listening experience.

Although the tracks flow into each other, and therefore picking an individual track can seem a bit abrupt in its opening and closing passages, I decided to pick the penultimate track “grace” as a highlight for you to start with if you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing.

For me the album builds to “grace,” which summarises all the ideas laid out in the album up to that point. Weaving a beautiful collage of instrumentation and genre, it creates an uplifting and drifting piece as the result. It’s a stunning piece of work that deserves a listen:

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TOTW: Alabaster DePlume_ Visit Croatia

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On the track “Visit Croatia,” Alabaster DePlume demonstrates the qualities great musicians can impose on a single melody.

The 8 bar melody provides the fundamental structure, looping throughout the track, with the instrumentation provided by alto sax, cello, piano and guitar. However, each instrument takes turns to lead and changes its intonation with each repetition of the track, keeping it permanently intriguing and in flux.

When the instruments aren’t taking centre stage, they either provide counter melodies or back up the others and round off the lead instrument. A great example (and highlight for me) is the way the cello creates a rich deep base tone underneath alto saxophone early in the piece.

“Visit Croatia” is what you get when you put great musicians in a room together and allow them to play off one another. It is music captured at its purest for all of our enjoyment.

The simplicity in production is a huge strength, putting the listener in the room with the musicians. You feel part of the performance, as though you can access the tactility of the instruments, and swim in the emotions portrayed in their playing:

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TOTW: Asa-Chang & Junray- Hana

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This track popped up in a playlist I was listening to and intrigued me instantly with its unique, creative sound. Although the track predominantly consists of just four layers of instrumentation – a violin loop, a male and female spoken word recording, and a tabla as the percussion – it is the way these layers interact that’s so fascinating.

The tabla seems to be the driving force, setting the pace of the violin recording. Where it gets interesting is how tightly woven together the tabla and the vocals are. As the track progresses, these two instruments become closer entwined until it sounds as if the complex rhythms of the tabla are triggering the vocals themselves.

The tabla is an instrument that’s centuries old, and the human voice has existed longer than our recorded history; yet on this track Asa-Chang & Junray do something completely new with them. And throughout that uniqueness, they still create something that is relatable and enjoyable. Give it a listen below:

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TOTW: Perfume Genius_Jason

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The production quality of the last couple of Perfume Genius albums has been exemplary. Producer Blake Mills has a way of capturing the albums experimental dalliances with an air of warmth and lush quality, reminiscent of classic albums.

It gives the tracks a gravitas that is often missing in modern song writers who are pushing boundaries, making the interesting compositional style of Perfume Genius accessible to more people.

The track “Jason” is one of many of the many high points of his past few albums. Although the vocal melody starts with a fairly traditional structure, the way the instrumentation is completely shifting throughout the track is far from it. Sections move between electric piano and bass, harpsichord synthesis and strings, and although the versatility of the instruments in these sections is dense, they are all carefully intertwined and enhance the piece, rather than dragging you out of it.

The track ends on an escalating arpeggio on the strings, as the vocals ascend up the scale. This ends the track on an almost whimsical note. “Jason” isn’t the only great track on his album “Set My Heart on Fire Immediately,” but it is a good place to start:

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TOTW: Ennio Morricone_ The Man With The Harmonica

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Last week marked the passing of Ennio Morricone. Although the death of someone is always a sad thing, over his 91 years he managed to pack a lot in. Composing for cinema and television, as well as classical and avant garde composition, he created over 500 scores. Its a mammoth achievement that is only matched by its level of quality, experimentation and, at its highest points, some of the greatest compositions ever made.

Probably best known for his iconic spaghetti western compositions, Morricone continued to push the boundaries of classical composition by adding his interest in avant garde music into them, but for me his greatest achievement was his ability to turn these unconventional approaches into tracks that seemed so natural they resonate with anyone.

From the choice of instrumentation, which blended modern and orchestral, to the track structures that used current and traditional techniques, his scores always managed to both enhance the scenes they accompanied and be incredible pieces of music in their own right.

With so many tracks that are worth mentioning it’s hard to pick one but as I’ve already given my favorite (Gabrielle’s Oboe) a previous track of the week I decided to go for “The Man with the Harmonica“ from “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

Maybe not as well known as his more iconic tracks from the Dollars Trilogy, “The Man with the Harmonica” is a sinister track that slowly escalates with its slow string arpeggios, which have become a staple of many tension building scenes in modern cinema. The piece also exemplifies his ability to blend different instrumentation with electric guitar and harmonica intertwined into the more classical orchestration.

The piece both aids the story in “Once Upon a Time in the West” and works on its own as a piece of thrilling music worthy of your time:

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TOTW: Moses Sumney- Colouour

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 I’ve really been enjoying the album “Græ“ over the past week. Lush, dense music underpins Moses Sumney’s amazing vocals on this gargantuan double album, which mixes many genres together with bold ambition.

 It was no surprise to realise that, on further research, Daniel Lopitan (aka. Oneohtrix Point Never), a regular in my TOTW lists, was a co producer on this album.

Looking deeper into the album’s liner notes, you will notice a who’s who of some of the people at very cutting edge of music over the past 5 years.

Its impressive to see this much collaboration from so many strong identities. They have all come together to create something that manages to stay sounding “popular” throughout all of its experimentation, without compromising on any of its artistry.

 Colouour features Keys for both Danial Lopitan and FKG, who also provides saxophone along with Shabaka Hutchings (the saxophone player on my album of the year recommended The Comet is Coming).

It opens with washes of layered saxophones and electric piano. These build to the halfway mark, before fading away to a more sparse arrangement. Moses smooth vocal delivery over an e-piano and deep 808style bass/kick is reminiscent of many a traditional neo-soul track, but it is then peppered with experimental electronic SFX that slightly warp the track into new territory.

Colouour is one of many interesting and enjoyable tracks on an album that is well worth a listen. It could easily be re-appearing in many lists at the end of the year, including mine.

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TOTW: Aphex Twin_#13 (blue calax)

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The Selected Ambient works albums from Aphex Twin are some of my favorite records, with their distinctive lo-fi recordings that give the synths a unique otherworldly feel.

Track 13, also known as “blue calax,” from the album Selected Ambient works Volume 2, is a perfect example. Instrumentally, it is fairly simple, with just one polyphonic synth line and a drum machine. But the use of fx – especially chorus on the synth – create an iconic sound that transports you to another place. A place I love to return to again and again.

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