AKB — SAKTMODET

⌾ LISTEN TO AKB, SAKTMODET ⌾

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Though it's possible to be fooled into thinking that AKB is a thinly veiled tribute to J-pop megagroup AKB48, it simply spells out the initials of Swedish musicmaker Anna-Karin Berglund. Names aside, her track 'Saktmodet' (loosely translating to "gentleness") is a gloriously organic, living-and-breathing piece of ambient music.

The song is a crooning collection of woodwinds, and the crash of resonant, lightly phasing piano (reminscent, in texture at least, of 'Canticle' by English band These New Puritans). It came to life while working on her 2020 album. Marianergraven, which was more focused on "mechanically profound sounds and sound worlds."

"This song," Berglund tells yes/no via email, "was a respite to work more with traditional instruments like piano and clarinet."

'Saktmodet' is an illustration of hot and cold: sharp, icy sounds ping out, and there's the accidental rustling and whispering of breath, all cushioned by rich, warm sounds of the clarinet and the fading, post-percussive glow of piano chords. More than temperatures, however, more than indoors and outdoors, it's the vital, close-at-hand feeling of the instruments that give this slice of ambience a real sense of human effort and emotion.

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• 🔔 'Saktmodet' arrives via Swedish label Lamour Records, originally featured as a bonus 7" bundled in with AKB's limited edition Marianergraven. You can listen to the track on Spotify, if you like.
• 🔔 If you want to hear more from AKB, it's possible to stream and download Marianergraven from Lamour Records' Bandcamp.

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💽 LOOM — LONDON AMBIENT

JAAAAAA. The first big chords of producer Loom's London Ambient EP bristle with drama. The complexity of them and the progression as the opening track 'Heavy Glow' soars onward. The space between the chords and the robust sub that drops depth charges in these ambient moments. The orchestral clarity of the sampled violin hits versus the twangs of metallic synth that play syncopated melodies ending each phrase in a series of satisfyingly jarring triplets. The darkness and distortion of it. And the thing is that it feels like late-night London, the looming exterior of a club on an empty orange-lit street, and the slow-motion crowd of its interior; the camera turns slowly on its axis. It is the prelude to the three juddering tracks that follow.

First up: 'Aacccid', a track true to its name, featuring the overdriven booming kicks and handclaps that conjure warehouse dancefloors, distant smoke machine times, the vomit of strobes, the uptempo rave counterpart of house music that was born and nurtured in the UK. But over the top, in place of the squeegee elastic synths typical of this '90s style, there are clarion clusters of synth boops that cut the air glacially, less soft fizzy Refresher bar and more hardboiled tang of a melody pop; rave cymbals crash.

A slosh of crushing handclaps is the abrasive punctuation of aptly 'Dog In The Fight', combined with plasma kicks and a constant gloop anti-groove of sub-bass that gives it this urban swamp sort of feel. Beginning like an unaccompanied grime instrumental the track morphs into a UK funky sort of rhythm, complete with wobbling wah-wah synths, something closer to the acid that gives the previous track its title, a retro sound; one of the things that characterises London Ambient as a whole, these sounds of yore, a motif extracted not from nostalgia but from objective heritage and contemporaneous revivalism in electronic dance music.

Raving breakbeats thud and thump at the heart of 'Saturday Job At Laser Quest', part throwback dancefloor destiny and part heart-thumping excitement and fear of a laser quest party. The middle section is tense, poised, all the smell of the smoke machines and the strobing lights and the heavy laser gun in hand. Slimy synths drip-drop all over this one, a biohazard sort of sludge that gives this track a wonderfully dark edge to its retro-facing beats.

But ending as it began, beatless and textured, London Ambient bows out with 'Forever', a postscript to everything that's gone before. It's a touching swansong of crunched rumbling synth that fizzes with crackling decay and chugs along with a flanger effect, decorated with zipping little plasma synths resonating like echoes of the synths from the previous track in a cosmic void, chirruping like alien animals calling out to each other, and bitcrushed little trinkets. A simple melody plays on glossy blooping synth, melancholy and heartbroken but innocent in its melody, something human and emotive above the harsh electronics, the contrast of glassy clarity and the drone of the bass below, humans doing what they can in the murk of reality. A robotic voice wheezes the word "Forever…" The lights come on, the music stops, everybody has to go home.

London Ambient is both fantasy and reality, cinematic and observational, pushing forward but with a reverence to the sounds of the past. Crucially, atmospheric drops abound—even from looking at the waveforms as the tracks play on SoundCloud you can tell this. It's another relic of the past – another motif for Loom in this instance – taken carefully from the UK's earliest love affair with dance and a trope of the collection of genres that make up "rave"; the beat falls away and there is this ambient void in which sweat-jewelled dancers sway and eyes-half-open leaning on each other, an almost motionless vacuum; a chance to breathe, let the music sink in, feel. And that is London Ambient.

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• 🔔 Loom's love-letter to the dance music and culture of past and present London Ambient is out now via Gobstopper Records. You may purchase it variously here. There is also a site dedicated especially to the release in the form of londonambient.com.
• 🔔 Loom is also a founding member of club collective/party/night Acid Fantasy.

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🐣 AUGUST ROSENBAUM — NEBULA

The sense of space, the resounding sense of vast expanse, the music here frames a snapshot of infinity, the conjuration of something gargantuan. Before its delicate guitars and dustyroom ancient pianos – vital human instruments, organic and tactile, the strings of the guitar pealing rounded and faint glimmer in the gloom of space, the gentle pluckings made intense in the hold-your-breath quiet of the track – before all that, August Rosenbaum crafts orchestral awakening sets the scene: majesty, and awe in the scale and glow of that majesty. The piano that follows gloops drily with melancholy, a lament under the eaves of wonder and fear, clanging with reverb that seems to call out, cello aches wooden and earthly, bass thumps subtle like heartbeat in your ears.

And a plaintive song, an analogue melody pings out with microdelay, plinking and blinking in tempo rubato, an alien sense at odds with the anthropoid regularity of sound blanketing the canvas, its dendro-life physical and easily manifested beneath this new noise, this unidentifiable sound, non-physical, abstract, void-born. It plays out a future romanza amidst the strewn neoclassicism vibrating through space. The music dissolves and rematerialises a whole new beast, shining beacons javelin through an ominous arpeggio, a brass growl, an ascension of strings, an introduction of the proverbial bigger picture. 'Nebula' paints loneliness, a sense of being small, an intergalactic search for more-than-this—and it paints discovery, the response to our calls, the giant unknowable to our minute but powerful and personal curiosity.

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• 🔔 'Nebula' is the first track to demonstrate August Rosenbaum's upcoming album Vista, due for release via Copenhagen record label Tambourhinoceros on 24th November. You can download the track from Bandcamp.
• 🔔 The unnerving video for the track was directed by Andreas Emenius and made in collaboration with Prxjects, "a culture laboratory initiated by Mercedes-Benz."

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Y E Λ R S – 緑の都市

If you google image search 緑の都市 (which literally means "green city") you'll be in for a treat. There are loads of photos and pictures of "green cities" around the world, from futuristic plans for cities imbued with living-and-breathing greenery to actual cities brimming with plantlife. It's kind of a utopian vision; one plan sees a verdant cycle path created as a second floor for a highway overpass; another is an actual photo of a stepped building covered in a forest of trees. It's beautiful~

Other than that, it's the title of a brand new song by Y E Λ R S, or as I'm going to say from now on, YEARS. One of the sparks that ignited the now very popular kinda otaku or anime trap style (there's no other name for it as far as I know so…) this musicmaker is very prolific, pairing chilled atmospheres with hard beats for soundscapes that are as transportive as they are head-nodding.

This latest one, 緑の都市, feels a little different. Taking some orchestration from somewhere (or maybe it's original), it's looped and then allowed to continue into its flighty fantasy, whimsical melodies fluttering throughout. Coupled with a simple beat that features rolling hi-hats, handclaps and one particularly pronounced kick that hides a blast of sub-bass, it does indeed feel like the perfect soundtrack to a green city, or Green City.

The natural feel of the flute and strings in the orchestration conjures images of rustling leaves, green shrubbery, flowers skipping in the breeze, lush grass – the beat, on the other hand, effuses a more synthetic feel, precise and man-made and future-facing, yet working with the organic instruments to produce a beautiful harmony. YEARS has made a sonic illustration of the possible unity that can exist between the natural world and our technological one; both can be as destructive as each other, but only one can think for itself: that's us. We can build green cities!

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Y/N GUEST MIX 018 :: STONEWALL KLAXON

This mix. It is a wholly original mix. It features only tracks from the artist himself, Mr. Stonewall Klaxon. Obviously, or perhaps not obviously if you're not au fait with Americano historia, this guy is named after Stonewall Jackson, an American Civil War commander. A few potential reasons why: 1. This guy is a Confederate sympathiser (being from Texas and all); 2. Apparently Mr. Jackson was something of a legendary person, why not name yourself after (kinda) him?; 3. Just cos it rhymes; 4. Don't know. Should've asked really shouldn't I?????????? lol oh well. Not the point right now is it.

The point is this is a mix with a difference because it's basically like hearing a Stonewall Klaxon live set. His music is like… really nice. It's beats-heavy, synth-heavy, a waterfallish cascade of electronica set to mostly uptempo rhythms, kind of in a paint-splashed realm between dubstep and footworky stuff, for instance with the white noise watercolour wash and pneumatic drill kicks of his remix of 'TBAE' by urlchild or the hyperactive synth stutterings and finely diced vocals in 'Gary Lazer-Eyes', coupled with the busy explosiveness of 'Neon Swords' and its gurgling vocal samples whose beat seems to hang in the air, and 'Cigarettes', where infra-bass kicks are the gloopy swamp out of which brittle mangrove snares snap and crack.

The mix, which includes samples of Link's sword-swinging shout in Ocarina of Time ('All Of Me') and Navi's "Hey!" ('Neon Swords', the set closer), and a sparkly remix of 'Latch' by Disclosure, pitch-shifting Sam Smith's vocals just ever so slightly, is luscious, the sound equivalent of breakdancing under a canopy of stars, or playing videogames with friends because one of them has a free house and it happens to be a marble-and-gold mansion of a place. Stonewall Klaxon, real name David Andrew Lunson, is 26 currently lives in Austin, Texas, "working as a chef in a restaurant downtown." But cooking skills aside, musicmaking comes first: "Music has always been my passion, and my true priority," he tells me. "I suppose what first inspired me to make music was simply being in the school band and orchestra~ playing euphonium, trombone, and cello."

The rich flavours and dynamics of his sound are, with this information in mind, easily traceable back to this classical and traditional training in music; you can hear the feel-good, triumphal nature of band music in each rousing hit of synth, and in its gentler moments, his music is certainly orchestral, albeit with electronic sounds – the melodies and progressions are so well done, so basically perfect. I've seen reviews of his stuff saying 'Flume-esque' or 'Wave Racer-esque' but you never hear anybody say that any classical music is 'Beethoven-esque' or 'Mozart-esque', really, do you? There is space enough in the music world for true talent and actual hard work to shine through, and it seems as if the gleams of Stonewall Klaxon are just about starting to reach the eyes and ears of the world.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. 0:00 Chords (Excerpt) (Vocals are Frank Zappa)
2. 2:39 Gary Lazer-Eyes
3. 7:27 Spherical
4. 12:07 Cigarettes
5. 15:21 Urlchild - TBAE (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
6. 20:09 Disclosure - Latch (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
7. 23:21 All Of Me
8. 26:38 Neon Swords

All tracks by Stonewall Klaxon

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• Hey! Listen! Go download a free copy of the Neon Swords EP, from which most of these songs are taken.

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BRETON WAR ROOM STORIES LP

When I first knew the release date for Breton's second (or "sophomore" like an absolute pleb) album War Room Stories, it seemed like an age away. Yeah, and I'd be a different person by that date – maybe I'd be a real person, with a suit and a nice house, and a part to play in local politics; with the whole world changed, we look towards a united effort in space exploration, and I look down at my hands and they seem older, wrinkled elastic. But no. It turns out that a few months zip by in no time. (The) 3rd (of) February arrived a lot sooner than I had imagined. How mundane to talk about a date like this, I'm really sorry.

In any case, it's not like I've been waiting for the date to HEAR the album – that's been done. Heard it a lot, in my car, in my room, and it's fair to say that a) I really like Breton and, b) I think that a lot of people around the UK will love it too. Having been played on BBC 6 Music, it's only a matter of time till they're on Radio 1 – that's when you get big in the UK, isn't it? Anyway, they deserve it. And whilst waiting for the album, there's been a steady flow of tracks and videos, even an EP, released in the meantime. Arguably the catchiest and addictive of these, 'Envy', starts War Room Stories with a bang, a tropico-indie sound, rich with orchestration and nonchalantly yelped vocals, the likes of which appear all over the album with near-intense coarseness that oozes satisfaction. A more melodic example of the vocals is in the dynamic folds of 'Search Party', where the guitar and bass guitar shine out with only minimal plinks from the orchestra, and atmosphere-forming house piano chords; that is until the end where bass gushes forth in brain-drowning quantities.

Where the vocals might not be exactly as strong as they are elsewhere is on 'Legs & Arms' – where they're sung through a megaphone. Maybe I just don't like megaphones or megaphone settings. The rest of the song – a kind of grey day revolution vibe – shows off the 44-piece orchestra with whom Breton recorded this album; rich cascades of strings and bolshie brass blasts, the kind we find on brash, synthy bass-heavy thudder 'Got Well Soon'. Here too the beat, as elsewhere, conveys brimming brutal energy. Recent single 'S Four' gives pride of place to its beat – which by the end is a towering beast of a beat – a fractured dubstep style that thumps below faraway vocals that ask as a simple, looping lyric "How will I be in two places at once? And how will I drag myself out from there?" – add to this rainy night garage-style pizzicato strings, videogame bleeping synths and you have yourself a winner.

Clattering schizoid drums roll their virtuosic way through 'Closed Category', regulating themselves towards the song's end as the strings reach a crying crescendo, a real mind-possessing moment on the album. A similar, energy-catapulting moment is the final part of the final song, 'Fifteen Minutes' – littered with saw-wave bass, gorgeous hi-hat fills and rich piano chords; snare roll leads into an up-tempo crash of sound, synth bleeps playing a buzzing lead, soon followed by the strings – cymbals exploding with the gun-stutter of mental snare and tom drum assaults, ending in a calm of background noise. That fast-paced beat appears before, however, in futuristic and noisy 'National Grid', whose vocals are thickly layered and gloriously laid-back alongside glittering star-like synth leads that lance through the fuzzy phasing bass.

Breton's penchant for hip hop beats, which was shown off in their pre-album EP Force of Habit, comes across in '302 Watch Tower' – a bouncy track which features hypnotising vocal samples and reggae-style bassline, both underpinning a sun-kissed beeping synth solo towards the end. A more experimental beat pops up in next track 'Brothers', comprising of percussive sounds rumbling in thick-aired, dusty rooms, heaped with reverb, like the faraway vocals and ghostly low-register piano. Around halfway through, it comes into its own however, and changes gloriously into a funky, disco number with a beautiful crowd of catchy vocals: an extremely danceable, and ultimately singable, track.

It's difficult to say exactly what is Breton's strength on this album – truth is, it's a lot of things and a lot of things combined that give them their signature sound. The new addition of the 44-piece orchestra gives songs that, perhaps without these soaring organic sounds, might not have the same gravitas as they do with orchestral ecstasies. That said, it's pointless to say that because these songs arrive with orchestra, so that is how they are supposed to sound – hypothetical 'well if they didn't have this then blah blah blah' situations are kind of a non-issue. In other places, the band execute unbeatable moments of excitement – the funk of 'Brothers', the climax of 'Fifteen Minutes', most of 'Envy', for instance – and this is mainly down to the undeniable rhythm with which these guys seem to be partly made of. Composition, and not just because of the orchestra, also plays a large part, with things like 'Brothers' turning from a genreless experimental sound into a tropico-funk disco; 'Legs & Arms' turning gradually from brash to beautiful; 'Fifteen Minutes' and its euphoric ending.

It's a stylistic, at times epic and often dancefloor-led, collection of music, familiar enough to please general crowds of music-likers, and creative enough to satisfy those looking for something new in the world of what is essentially indie music; indeed, it marks – and is resultant of – the evolution in indie music from traditional 'band' formations, adding not only classical instruments, but also elements of urban electronic music with which the music world is suffused: as natural as it is original.

War Room Stories is OUT NOW and available for purchase both digitally and of course physically.

Also check out the YES/NO interview with Breton's frontman Roman Rappak!

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BRETON FORCE OF HABIT EP

Am I being a bit Breton-heavy recently? If you think I am focusing on them too much, then I'm really sorry and I don't know how you'll ever forgive me. If you don't think I'm focusing on them too much, like if you've never read this damn blog before, then don't worry about what I'm saying. I was worried but now I literally don't care. I'm going to write about Breton again and again and again until I'm sick of writing about them and their music loses all meaning to me – now that's dedication, don't you think?

But recently London band Breton have been doing quite a few things so writing about them often is unavoidable, well, it is unavoidable if you happen to like Breton. And you'd be a cynical fool for not allowing yourself to like them. Cause they ARE good. But then again: is everything just an opinion? I'd like to think no – sometimes things just are the way they are, no matter what a certain amount of people think about it. But what am I saying? I'm sorry again. What I mean to say is: prior to the release of their upcoming album War Room Stories, out 3rd February next year, Breton have sneakily dropped an EP titled Force of Habit.

Officially released yesterday, Breton frontman Roman Rappak – who tackled a YES/NO interview the other week – describes the EP as a "16 minute introduction to our love of hiphop, films, guitar music and massive hooks." Including the wildly different but equally brilliant 'Envy' – a tropico-disco indie math medley – and synth-laden 'Got Well Soon', with its nocturnal heft, the EP leads you by the hand through a small but very cool museum of Breton's varied sound.

Minus the strong, hip-hop-inflected beat of 'Sticker Factory', complete with wonderfully industrial sounding cymbal taps, its orchestral arrangements – which come courtesy of a 44-piece orchestra called upon just for this occasion – could work perfectly just by themselves. It's a superbly rich and all-encompassing sound, growing from a street-level tune with a cool bassline and attitudinal vocals into a veritable symphony of drama, the strings soaring into a an emotional and indeed quite filmic climax. This is something that I'd imagine would take over your whole mind if you saw it live; a powerful atmospheric track, this one.

To finish things off, the wholly unorchestral-and-it-knows-it swagger of 'Plot Device' rings with atonal, buzzing synths and dread quakes of bass, all set to no-nonsense hip-hop drums. It is dramatic, not in the same way as 'Sticker Factory' of course, but it plays with the same dynamics that gangster rap employs in its brutal beats that ring with polished sheen. It's an ear-burster and it's glorious.

From indie dance and electropop, to orchestral rock and hip hop, this Force of Habit EP has it all; for a band to be so varied in their sound, and to accomplish these variations with undeniable finesse, is not only rare but wonderfully enjoyable and refreshing. Creativity is often about finding your own "voice" or sticking to a particular style – Breton here, I think, prove that you can "do" any style you want, enter any genre, so long as it is a genuine love of yours (otherwise people would notice that you're trying too hard), and if not add elements of it into your music, then completely embody that genre for the duration of an entire song. You're limited by your tastes and that's all.

I looked around but I don't actually know where you can get this from. Maybe it's just a streaming thing. Yeah it probably is. Unless you illegally obtain music from sites. In which case you're v naughty.

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BRETON ENVY [VIDEO]

Ooo well this arrived a lot sooner than I thought it would. Yes! It is a new video from Breton for their really really nice song 'Envy'. I wrote about this song almost a month ago... wow, has it really been that long? Well, time most certainly does fly – whether you're having fun or not.

Premiered on Nylon just a while ago, video features what all bands should be pretty good at: playing live (which is, apparently, a first for any Breton video). Although it's not a live recording of the actual song, it's cool to see that Breton seem to be playing their hearts out. Yep, it's a high-energy performance that perfectly reflects the passion that clearly goes into all of their tracks, especially this one – the yelped vocals, the battering of the drums, the joyfully in-sync melodies.

But it's not just a live performance. Being versed in filmmaking themselves, Breton have included a little character study by personifying the often destructive nature of the very feeling of envy itself. Frontman Mr Roman Rappak had this to say about it: "Envy of other people and the desire to have a life you have been promised is sometimes the most destructive thing in the world." I hear that!

PS. Breton have a pre-album EP, Force of Habit, out on 16th December.

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LAZY INTERVIEW #19: BRETON

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← #18: PSAPP #20: SUPERFOOD →

Yo! Well well well. The wonderful Breton. I have a friend to thank for telling me about these guys a few months ago – sure enough, not long after, I encountered the indomitable and intense 'Got Well Soon' with its slick & stylised video that depicted a botched suburban burglary. This was also the first single from their upcoming second album War Room Stories. Single two came in the form of 'Envy', and it's here where I stopped and thought, "These guys are really, really good."

Yep, I'm a fan of the band, a supporter of their sound – a genuinely exciting mix of "live" organic sounds and electronic, dance-flavoured jams, an indie outfit with nightclub sensibilities. But, War Room Stories comes with an added orchestral element, something that adds a filmic quality to their sound, summoning a scope that extends further than just a stage or a dancefloor, instead encompassing the infinite possibilities of emotions and atmospherics. When I put it like that, they DO sound pretty good don't they? Well, they are. You could say it any number of ways, but if you don't know about them already, just HAVE a listen to Breton.

Anyway, Roman Rappak – guitars and vocals for Breton and one of its founding members, alongside Adam Ainger (drums) – was kind enough to immerse himself in the Lazy Interview on behalf of the rest of the band, Dan McIlvenny (bass), Ian Patterson (sampler) and Ryan McClarnon (visuals), wading into the midst of meta-Breton for the sake of our curiosity.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
ROMAN
LONDON
PLAY AND WRITE MUSIC FOR BRETON

Why did you decide to start creating music?
When I was about 14, and found I could make hiphop with pirate software.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
We make music that we would be excited by if we heard it. It may seem like a simplistic approach, but it honestly is the only restriction you need to put on your self. It's putting faith in the idea that you have not gone crazy, and if you like the way something sounds, then others will too.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
I think that good music works in different places. In fact the best thing is when you take a track out of context and it works in an entirely different way.

You can see it a lot in Scorsese films, where he'll out a Ronettes track over the top of someone smashing a person's face in. A story I heard the other day was about a guy's funeral, who was a massive metaler and biker, who asked for a track by Iron Maiden to be played as his coffin went into the crematorium. Apparently everyone found it hugely moving and most of the massive biker dudes who had attended broke down crying.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
There definitely isn't a single thing that inspires me more then anything else.
One of the things that keeps me going, is the turns you didn't predict, that you had to run with before they disappeared.
Capturing those is amazing if you get it right.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
Having piano lessons when I was 12. My family moved next door to synth legend Manfred Mann, and became friends with him.
His lessons were basically about getting lost in playing things you liked.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?

Brown Bells – Dippin Demons

Sons et Al – Mishaped Mouth

Patten - Obsidian Alms

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Nigel Godrich
He is everything great about music.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
I think if you take the last 5 years as a blueprint for the next 5 years, we will see more and more exciting sounds and scenes, but without the cliquey, self-destructive bullshit that you used to get with them. Also the fact that music that was “Difficult” 5 years ago can now enjoy a wider audience, but this is something that has always happened

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
The next part of the adventure for us is finding out what it's like to release a second record, and to see how people respond to the group's evolution.

I'm really excited though, not many bands get to make a second record, and I feel like its something we really needed to do.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
I feel like there are a lot of films I have to see, and books I need to read, which I'm hoping to catch up on soon.

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A trend, well not so much a trend as a rule of thumb, I've been seeing a lot of is musicians, artists, producers, whatever you wanna call em, making exactly the kind of music that they want to make. The simple statement of that Roman gives here – "if you like the way something sounds, then others will too" – should read like a mantra to other musicmakers from all across this busy globe. It rings true in Breton's music that they have enjoyed making it; it feels as though it wouldn't move the same way, sound as intrinsically impassioned as it does, if it hadn't have made with its own creators' tastes imbued within.

As for their second album, it's right that the band should be wondering what people will think. As you grow, your own tastes grow, and as such this will show in all creative pursuits – in this case, it's music, and more specifically it's music inspired by what its makers find exciting, resulting in a direct correlation between their own likes/dislikes and how their new music will sound. One thing particularly stands out so far, and that is the filmic quality of some of their new tracks, which – combined with what Roman mentioned about out-of-context music used in films – should make for some punchy, atmosphere-making or indeed atmosphere-breaking moments, and will I'm sure influence the videography that will accompany any further singles from their new album. I've rambled too long.

War Room Stories is out February 3th 2014 on Breton's label Cut Tooth, an imprint of Believe Recordings.

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← #18: PSAPP #20: SUPERFOOD →

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TABLE MUSIC MEETING & RAINBOW VALLEY AUTUMN SONGS

Something a bit different now. It's interesting because music doesn't always have to be stuff you can dance to, stuff you can sing along to, or indeed have any real intent for anything other than being a piece of music. In essence: music as music. As such, I would like to introduce a split between two acts whose distance from each other has not stopped their very pretty collaboration; Table Music Meeting, a band from Japan, and Rainbow Valley, a singular music-maker from Southend-on-Sea (UK), have teamed up to create the wonderful Autumn Songs.

Instigated by Rainbow Valley (aka Graham Boosey and owner of microlabel, Wrieuw Recordings) when he stumbled upon the music of Table Music Meeting by chance on Lastfm, the two entities agreed to each write and record a song about autumn. It's a magical time of year; despite the cold and windy weather, autumn is special for the obvious transition between warm and cold, growth and hibernation, especially in the changing leaves. So anyway, both of em did it and here we are: Autumn Songs is here.

Table Music Meeting's 'Autumn' comes first, a blustery, breezy affair that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the season. Using an assortment of instruments — clarinet, recorder, something brassy, xylophone — sounding a little like a glorious toy orchestra, the group create a jaunty melody which contains within it a certain stubbornness to accept the onset of colder weather, as well as the feeling of that slow walks people take when admiring the season's new brown, red and yellow scenery. Dissonant chords play lightly on a piano, summoning the sharp sense of losing summer's warmth, with an overall sound that directly embeds in my head images of people wrapped up warm in cafés, looking out into an increasingly desolate natural world.

The contribution from Rainbow Valley, however, is quite different. 'Spinney' (a word that means "a small area of trees and bushes", less dense than a thicket, not as tree-heavy as a copse) is for the most part an ambient field recording of some birds - particularly, I think, song thrushes - chirping away: a very autumnal sound, the sound of early evening and swift sunsets. A slow, simple electric piano melody fades in, plaintive in the midst of nature's continuation, a flow of human understanding and feelings. Soon, a glockenspiel melody floats above, alongside an old guitar playing a slow arpeggio. The sounds of rustling leaves rise up from the background recording as the original electric piano notes grow glitchy before being cut completely out of earshot. A more delicate approach, one closer to nature perhaps, than TMM's offering.

However, both summon feelings and images associated with Autumn, though in different ways, which could reflect the potentially differing ways in which autumn as a season is viewed in Japan and the UK, respectively. Instrumental music like this, stuff that has pretty much nothing to do with current trends in the modern/popular music world, continues the tradition of classical music's supposed or maybe inherent ability to paint a picture based on a theme (whether it's antiquity or nature or whatever), but also has a touch of folk sensibility to it, utilising the organic feel and sound of mostly non-electronic instruments to take you on a short but sweet musical journey.

PS. Each song has a lovely video that has been created by Rainbow Valley to accompany the release: the autumn leaves of 'Spinney' and one for Table Music Meeting's 'Autumn'.

You can pay what you like for this digitally, or order the CD and the cute artwork (from A Sparrow By Water, asparrowbywater.com) that comes with it from Wrieuw Recordings' Bandcamp.

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PSAPP WHAT MAKES US GLOW LP

Earlier this week I posted a little interview I did with the two people who make up London two-piece Psapp, namely Galia Durant and Carim Clasmann. It was kind of in conjunction with the release of their latest album, What Makes Us Glow. In some ways, it was quite beneficial to get the insight of the duo on how they make their music, what they're interested in; I find myself, right now, listening to the album thinking about the things they said about not basing songs on chords, making use of found sound via objects that on an everyday level are not deemed to be musical, finding accidental notes in certain things - "a hoover, a creaky door, a swing, a washing machine, a distant argument" - and creating melodies from them.

The album begins as it ends, with field recording of rain dripping somewhere (or maybe something being fried), making it a cyclical experience, connecting the string of musical sounds, songs, with a snippet of everyday noises that show how the creative process is not an endless composition but a series of bright sparks in the mundanity of life. The first song I encountered from this album was the 'Everything Belongs To The Sun' - its strong emphasis on beats and chanting vocals, each with a tribal lilt, gives it an exotic appeal, painted by all the uncountable and sometimes unknowable amount of percussion infused into the song. Percussion - intricate, makeshift, homemade - plays a large part. Much less tribal but just as interesting are the scurrying noises of 'That's The Spirit' - alongside twisted, breathy organ sounds, the scuttling clips of percussion help provide a "noir" atmosphere, a sense of black comedy.

That same spirit is found in 'The Cruel And The Bad', a kind of a hot & sweaty burlesque number with a macabre brass section and a galaxy of pinging noises mixed with claps and shakers in 3/4 time. 'Seven' plays out in a similar vein, whisking you away to some exotic, fantasy bar where candles strewn with melted wax light cabaret acts; it has a fresh atmosphere with a dark jazzy twist - sultry crooning, double bass, clean guitar chords in a funky progression, and there's even a background sample of someone shouting. The bossa nova rhythm and woody percussion of 'In The Black' takes you to another tropical location. Plucked strings and a old guitar providing a lovely pizzicato melody, ending in a frenzy of Middle-Eastern-sounding melodies crossing each other. This one teeters over the friendly precipice of pop.

And it's in the fuzzy arms of pop that we find single 'Wet Salt'. Luscious sweeps of percussion punctuate the song's catchy organ-type chords and melodies, as well as the richly layered vocals. A half-lament-half-celebration of the respective dirt and magic of city life, specifically in London, it dreams as much as it stays rooted to the ground. But it's here that we first see the power of Psapp to create ear-friendly tunes. Likewise, 'Your Hot Knife' is a head-bopping toytronic pop number. It's evident in its core of low electric piano chords, the vocal patterns and the way they flow in delicate harmonies. It's one of the most upbeat songs on the album and is certainly easy-on-the-ears. Some great found sounds too: for instance, a bell from a bicycle. The organ solo towards the end is a lovely subtle touch.

In a similar pop vein, the title track 'What Makes Us Glow' is really lovely. A warm and calming track soaked in comforting and playful melodies, familiar vocals float in rich harmonies especially in its chorus refrain of "We choose what makes us glow". It's a sitting-by-the-fire kind of song. Those playful melodies are a real strongpoint of the duo, strong in most songs but in particular in 'The Well And The Wall'. The way the strings are here at the start give it a baroque feel. Or even before that. It's like lute music. A medieval feel, the vocals plaintive. It gradually falls into a mind-bending subversive version of some kind of courtly dance, with lightly crashing cymbals and glitching bleeps.

But it's not all about being busy and bustling. Psapp do minimalism, too. Each sound in 'Bone Marrow' is allowed to breathe in uncrowded space. Cutesy bells and woodblocks add percussive flair whilst the different vocal tracks in the chorus are layered with a simplistic intricacy. I found 'In And Out' to be a similar experience; starting with sound of someone breathing in and out, or maybe someone pumping bellows or something, it's another homely number that sleeps with dreamy chiming xylophones, bristling with pinpoint percussion, violins enriching with their organic woodiness. These sounds remind me of the music from Zelda: The Wind Waker; woody, organic noises that rattle in a light fantasy world of trees and magic.

And it's on that note that the true nature of Psapp's What Makes Us Glow becomes apparent. It's not a clashing but a melding of worlds: the bustling cosmopolis on one side and the essence of natural folk on the other; electronic noises and pioneering experimentalism, yet a delicate organic touch with pre-electricity conjurings and orchestrations. And with the duo saying in the interview that they want to carry on being more experimental, with increased found sounds and field recordings, as well as writing scores for more traditional instruments, it seems that this twoness of Psapp is going to go through intensive development. And there's nothing better for music, or even the universal creative process, than directive forward-thinking that is not forced, but freeform and fuelled by passionate curiosity.

Stream What Makes Us Glow on Hype Machine and/or buy it on iTunes.

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BRETON ENVY

Majorly digging this. It's quite different to the last song I heard by British band Breton, 'Got Well Soon', a dark rumbling number, almost exclusively electronic in its sound. This new track 'Envy' is a beautiful change in direction, compared to the dark basement club feel to 'Got Well Soon' - here we're thrown into a swirling world of addictive, breezy rhythms that touch you in all the right places. It's got a tropico-indie-dance feel to it; pointing out the obvious like a child would be saying "sounds like Foals" but on the other hand, but looking at it with a bit more scrutiny gives more away. However, that's not to say that first impressions should be discarded: these delicious sounds are for real and they're in my ears right now and I love them.

I need to get a grip. I can't very well sit here listening to this song on repeat like a lunatic, can I? How would I ever finish my washing? Or make lunch? So I'm gonna purge myself of what I'm feeling about it. Syncopation plays a massive part, offbeat rhythms crossing over each other keeping your ears busy, giving a sense of the gloriously unexpected to the song. This repeated instrumental refrain, with steel pans, glockenspiel, synth beeps, bass guitar, drums and strings, is really dynamic, always feeling like it's leading into something, rather than remaining the mainstay of the song. The drums are real, played with gusto, and filled with delicate touches of the hi-hat - they keep to a general house or disco beat for longer, more driven parts of the track. Actually, I'm gonna stick with house, cause the rich piano chords that clomp down on the song from early on, and their pattern, really do conjure 90s house music. Just saying. It does.

The piano chords are just one part of the song's thick and richly populated orchestration. Strings and a brass section arise in the two more driven parts of the song, building up in the last section to a genuinely symphonic ending, with virtuoso bass sidewinding with little variations the whole time, the steel pans adding their sharp exotic lilt to the mix. The vocals are simple, raw, understated, yet yelled out in lush layers of natural harmony - perfect for sing-a-longs and by turns perfect for a live setting. They sit superbly comfy in the mix with everything else. Fast-paced indie-dance with an orchestral-yet-90s-house feel - that's what this is. And it's lovely - in composition, dynamic, and sound.

'Envy' is out properly on January 23rd 2014 as a single from upcoming second album War Room Stories, due for release on February 3th 2014 on Breton's own imprint label Cut Tooth, through Believe Recordings.

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N-QIA SHOOTINGSTAR // TREE [VIDEO]

Last time I heard from Tokyo duo N-qia it was their collaboration with Italian producer Neeva for the song 'One Day' on his Even If... EP. That particular song offered up orchestration and melody in the midst of an EP fraught with deep, dark sounds - my favourite out of all the tracks on it in fact. So naturally I wanted to follow up and see what N-qia were doing now.

Turns out they're doing an album. Doing, making, whatever, but an album is imminent from these two. Yep, producer Takma (aka solo artist Serph) and vocalist Nozomi will be releasing Fringe Popcical 26th October on Japanese label Virgin Babylon Records. Until then, we have the following songs taken from that upcoming release with which to enjoy ourselves.

First off there's 'Shootingstar', the perfect showcase to this duo's style of alternative, "unexplored" pop. With Takma providing staccato MIDI-esque guitar sounds alongside soaring clouds of bleeps, the track runs as a house tune with the four-to-the-floor beat thumping below. There are plenty of moments where the song breaks, like sunlight through clouds, to provide bright piano work, chords that conjure the smell after summer rain, the consequent glitter of golden sun on soaking pavements.

Nozomi's vocals are stunning, urgent whispers often in monotone that gives a sharp humanity to the coastline of complex sounds that Takma lays down, adding contrast with her slow, considered style against the frenetic percussive and melodic patterns of the song; her voice offering up a subtle starkness with its layered and sometime-harmonising mist of hush.

They're even more haunting in the dramatic track 'Tree', where they shoot through like rapid cross-hatchings of vapor trails. Here they follow the melody of the song, which is one seemingly struck with powerful notions of human cohabitation with nature (that's what I imagine, anyway). Her style is one in which her voice holds onto each single note with lingering love, so each change up or down is breathtakingly vivid.

The video for this track features what resemble Balinese shadow puppets; the music, too, is reminiscent of the orchestra of instruments that usually accompanies these traditional shows, the gamelan. The percussion in the song is lush and clattering and is supported by a rich sea of plucked strings, a modern day gamelan if ever there was one. Takma seems to be at his best when the sounds he creates are most compositional, orchestral, and the strings, flute-like noises and soft synth vox sounds he weaves together are perfect evidence of this. The beat in this track, especially when it first comes in, is something that cannot be ignored, either - it's addictive and effective. What else can I say but that this is a beautiful track with an equally beautiful video.

The album Fringe Popicical sounds as if it is going to be a wonderful collection of well-composed, gloriously percussive tracks inspirited with visitations of ethereal vocals. Look out for it. Well I will be looking out for it so you could just look out for my own look-out, ok?

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THESE NEW PURITANS AND IT'S RISEN

Cor blimey am I slow on the uptake sometimes. How embarrassing this can be. You see, These New Puritans have already released their third album Field of Reeds and where was I? Nowhere, apparently, cause I didn't write about it. I did however write about their song 'Fragment Two' when it was released for human ears a few months ago. It was nice, showing a subtle mix of their beats-inspired earlier stuff and the spooky instrumentals of their second album.

Now they've got a new album out they've been naturally doing the rounds, on tour an' that, and a few days ago they were on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1. If you don't know who Zane Lowe is then that's fine - he's this guy from New Zealand that plays music on BBC Radio 1 on weekdays from 7-9pm GMT. Use your googling skills to find out more.

So anyway they were at Maida Vale in London which is where all the bands and artists do live stuff for Radio 1. They played a few songs from the album. In addition, they also played a didn't-make-it-on-the-album track called 'And It's Risen' AND it's nice. Listen down.

Beginning with a now seemingly quite typically TNPs combination of unassuming vocals and piano chords, the song grabs attention right away. The piano sounds are almost uncomfortable in the beginning, beset by the languor of their own lingering reverberations, but in that there's a prettiness in the simplicity of the progressions and the way that the vocal melody follows the piano's.

The unexpected addition drums into this song is a very welcome addition indeed. They are wonderfully hesitant, clicks tripping over snare, a sparse beat yet imbued with power that provides the perfect companion to the vocals and piano. The beat in fact almost follows the new melody painted by the piano and vocals, all of which sinks into the background as bassoons or whatever rise up and provide a large orchestrally murky finale to the song, they give it this mournful tone that well describes the mud and grey of the Thames Estuary. Dunno why this didn't get to the album cause it's well good innit.

Have a listen to all of the Maida Vale sessions, but you should probably also check out their album Field of Reeds too.

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