03.17.21
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Barbara – BRB

Since it’s moved to Netflix, I’m probably not up to date with my watching of the ‘Black Mirror’ TV series. I’m not a big consumer of TV and just tend to forget or lose interest as things enter multiple seasons. But, back in the day, I’d look forward to a new series of ‘Black Mirror’ with excited anticipation. It was a time when Ollie, my son, would visit at weekends and we’d watch whatever was new. They never failed to prompt discussion and conversation – scientific advances upsetting and confusing the world as we knew it. 

Be Right Back is one of my favourite episodes. If you haven’t seen it then you must. It’s the one in which a grieving Martha loses her partner to a premature death. She’s put in touch with a sinister company who are able to recreate that partner based upon his online and social media activity. It’s creative, startling and unsettling as it hurtles towards a disturbing ending. A totally compelling watch. 

I sometimes wonder what the Sonic Breakfast bot might be like. I expect they’d be exceptionally annoying. You’d hate that they brought all conversations back to new music that they’d heard. They’d only be revealing a small part of their actual life; some parts would remain hidden. Sometimes, the bot would make stories up, just because it felt mischievous to do so and nobody would know any different. 

Barbara are Henry and John Tydeman, songwriting brothers from Hove. Their debut single, BRB, is directly inspired by that episode of Black Mirror. “It’s an amazing episode because of all the moral questions it raises,”, says John. “Especially as it’s inevitable that this sort of technology will be available in the real world some day soon. Perhaps it already is! That’s what the song’s about: we’re retelling that story, from the perspectives of the human and the android.”

You sense that Henry and John are no mugs. “We’re trying to enjoy the journey instead of being obsessed with goals.“, they say when I enquire about plans for 2021. “The first thing we’ll do when lockdown lifts is have a nice pint at the local pub. Hopefully in the beer garden with the sun out!”

Musically, BRB is right up Sonic Breakfast’s street. Inventive and yet familiar, the song dances along not afraid to draw influence from all manner of places. I hear the pomp of Queen, the harmony of the Beach Boys, the choir of the Polyphonic Spree and the vintage sounds of music hall all coming to the fore at different points in the tune. That could descend into an almighty chaotic mess of a whole in lesser hands but Barbara are too talented to allow that to happen. 

That talent really does come across strongly in the lockdown live video that Barbara released to accompany BRB. They released this after a lyric video. Both contain slightly different versions of the same song – one has the studio whistles and bangs whilst the other sounds more organic. Both are vital and I make no apologies for sharing the pair today. 

I’ll see you soon. 

 

03.16.21
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Fred Red, Matthias Hetzer & Bernhard Hollinger – Waska

I have never taken Ayahuasca. And I dare say I never will. My brain is a complicated box that teeters on the edge of sanity/insanity and I’m not sure that messing around with the delicately balanced neural pathways within is the best of ideas. But I can’t help being fascinated by the spiritual medicine used amongst the indigenous people of the Amazonas. I think I’ll stick to vicariously watching those documentaries in which intrepid travellers head to Shamanic ceremonies to discover transcendental states and higher levels of consciousness. And are always horrifically sick in the purging process. 

 

For Fred Red, Bernhard Hollinger and Matthias Hetzer, Ayahuasca is still on the list. I confirm this when briefly connecting with Bernhard in advance of publishing this piece. Their collective curiosity about ‘Waska’ though has led to the production of a fine psychedelic groove. This is a track that will transport you to the Shamans; the delicious layers conjuring up all sorts of magical melody and Amazon spice. 

The simple video that accompanies Waska is also a fine watch. A static camera, perhaps set up as CCTV, observes a residential street in day-to-day operation. At first, it looks like very little is happening but gradually you get drawn in to the minutiae of the street scenes. You notice people going about their daily business and the animals that come out to play. I guess there’s a point to it all. As our mind focuses on the one scene, more and more is revealed. The ordinary becomes fascinating and we feel calm. Towards the end of the video, the scene somewhat abruptly ends and we observe more of the beautiful surroundings. The simplicity is transcendental. 

Fred Red, Bernhard Hollinger and Matthias Hetzer are now all living in Berlin. They were all born in Ingolstadt in the South of Germany. Fred produced ‘Waska’ whilst Bernhard recorded the bass, guitars, KeySolo and vocals. Matthias provided the tropical rhythm of the drums. I’m reliably told that each will be taking time out from their own projects to record together again before this year is out. 

When the combined curiosity is of such quality, it’s a no-brainer to suggest that I can hardly wait. 

03.15.21
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Robert Vendetta – Colombian Spice

Another working week beckons for many of us and I’m sure we all need a bit of glam sassiness to get us through. Best look no further than today’s Sonic Breakfast track from the self-styled Norwegian mariachi, Robert Vendetta, an entertainer who labels himself old-school as a badge of honour.

 

The concept for ‘Colombian Spice’ is simple. Robert Vendetta has just bumped into a ‘gorgeous Colombian girl’ coming out of a hotel lift. And the moment made him want to dance in celebration. “It is inspired by real events,“, says Robbie when I check in with him and ask about the veracity of the tale. “I’ve met a lot of amazing women.”

The sound is a mash-up of all manner of vintage influence. It’s glam Bowie, funky crooner and quirky rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a song that wouldn’t seem out of place back in those glorious days of Stiff Records just after the peak of punk when songwriters such as Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Nick Lowe came to the fore. It’s bouncy, pastiche-laden fun. 

I ask Robbie how things are in Norway right now, conscious that an extrovert performer such as he is might be struggling more than most. “I miss the casual interaction.“, he tells me. “We’re back in lockdown here in Oslo. The goverment are coming with new information soon, since the numbers of infected people here in Norway are going up. But even tough 2021 has been good to me, thanks to the internet.”

Robert Vendetta is clearly a man with oodles of positive spirit – and nobody can deny that’s what we need right now. 

03.14.21
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The Director’s Cuts – STAR

What on earth is happening? I hardly feature any instrumental tracks in years of publishing Sonic Breakfast posts and then, within the space of a few weeks, I post two. Unlike the piece by Sacha Hoedemaker though (here), today’s track has an accompanying video. My desire for narrative is sated by the film that wraps around ‘STAR’ by The Director’s Cuts. 

The Director’s Cuts is essentially Peter Pahor, a filmmaker from East London. Peter tells me that he has a few projects on the go; “A music video for a very cool rap rock duo, various cinematic portraits (https://peterpahor.com/cinematic-portraits) and a humanitarian documentary featuring a nobel peace prize! 🙂“.

With a post-rock soundtrack, a piano loop that builds to a cinematic crescendo, ‘STAR’ finds us in a hotel room. Our main protagonist mauls a small trophy. There is sadness in his eyes. Perhaps, he’s thinking back to the night when he won the trophy and wondering how it all came to this? Perhaps, the trophy he actually wants is bigger and better than the tiny one in his hands? He’s the runner-up and he’s about to let his partner know how angry this makes him. 

It all reminds me a little of watching a live show by Nordic Giants. I take a look back into the archives of the eGigs back catalogue and am reminded that I’ve now been writing about things for a long time without much accolade. (Review here).

The press release fills in some of the blanks. STAR is inspired by the failed dreams and frustrations of the millennial generation, a bunch who have been sold the dream of success and fame as the only way to really being happy. It’s brooding, chilling and laced with sad menace. It’s also expertly executed and marks Peter out as one to watch. 

And that, brief and to the point for a Sunday, is a wrap. 

03.13.21
by

Lena Minder – Stay Around

I’m not sure why but the often-cited ‘fact’ about Paul and Linda McCartney used to bring me out in a rash; Paul would say that, since meeting Linda, they had never spent a night apart. I’d wonder about the impossibility of this; Surely Paul’s work must have got in the way of such doting practice? Or, at the very least, surely there were times when one or the other fancied a night out with their own crowd? I’d try to validate my own objections (not that it’s any of my business) by mumbling something about ‘absence making the heart grow fonder’ and suggesting that it’s just not healthy to live in your partner’s pockets. By then, I think some of my friends had just written me off as cold and callous.

It’s true that I have friends now who are such a compatible match that they’re barely apart. It’s lovely and it makes me sick. In their togetherness, they’re able to find such happiness that they need no external distraction. They’ve sailed through lockdown and the challenges of Covid-19 largely because their lives have barely changed. I suppose, at the heart of my feeling, there’s an envy that such stability can be found within such limited horizons. Of course, the properly advanced state of thinking here would be ‘each to their own’. There are many ways to swing a cat and one man’s liquor is another man’s poison. 

Today’s Sonic Breakfast track, ‘Stay Around’ by Lena Minder, is a song all about togetherness and the enduring nature of some relationships. Conversely, it could also be about never quite being able to deal with the memories of a break-up. I guess the simple lyrics are left inconclusive to enable the listener to layer their own interpretation over. At its core though, Stay Around is, without doubt, a tender love song.

Beautiful and lush, Lena treats her listeners to enticing harmonies and vocal effects. Over a finger-picked guitar line, the song gently meanders with occasional piano chord to a sweet conclusion. Originally from Zurich and now living in Berlin, Lena recorded this out of ‘The Famous Goldwatch’ studios. 

I ask Thomas from the studio how things are going right now. “For now Lena plans to release a few singles which I’m sure she’ll eventually compile as an EP or even album.“, he tells me. “Lockdown is still hard for the musicians of course, but at least the weather now allows for busking and we try to keep our studio running as much as the restrictions allow us to.”

Have a lovely Saturday full of happy coupling moments if you can. 

 
03.12.21
by

Luke Lanzon – Saving Grace

I still chuckle somewhat when I think back to the barnstormer of a Twitter row that I had with the Mum of an act I once reviewed. Taking offence at a gig review I published (here), the Mum of a ‘star from Nottingham’ got all uppity with me suggesting that I’m an awful writer with poor judgment. Whilst she might have had a point, I couldn’t help myself and had to respond pithily. “Pushy parent?”, I suggested and the floodgates opened. Even the act himself had to get involved threatening me with all sorts of cease and desist nonsense. 

You suspect that if I said cruel words about today’s featured Sonic Breakfast act, Luke Lanzon, his family might not be so quick to rush to his rescue – or at least his 90 year-old Grandma wouldn’t be. 

“Grandma is here to humble me, as she still does not enjoy my singing, which is also a deal breaker for her appreciating the songs themselves.“, says Luke by correspondence. “Maybe if my rival Frank Sinatra were around to sing it she’d feel differently, but all the same I’m determined to change her mind!”

Luckily for Luke, he has nothing to worry about. I couldn’t possibly have bad words to say about his debut single ‘Saving Grace’. It simply oozes charm. An indie-folk song about following your dreams and overcoming inertia, it’s the sound of an artist beginning to break free from the ties that bind. Luke tells me that after years of writing and stockpiling songs, it feels great to finally be putting out music. It’s something that will continue across 2021. 

“I have several more singles planned for the rest of the year that I’m hoping will win Grandma over.“, he says. “The goal is getting into the groove of releasing music regularly and doing what I can to get people to listen. It’s definitely more work than people think, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Sonic Breakfast readers – I’ll leave it with you to decide if you’re a Betty (Luke’s Grandma) or not… 

03.11.21
by

Skymachine – Tangier

“All this luminous colour… seems… that it enters the eye like a glass of wine running into your gullet and it makes you drunk straight away“. – Cezanne about Tangier

When I lived in Spain, we sometimes talked about nipping down to Malaga or Gibraltar and then heading out to Africa. A six hour ferry ride to Tangier makes it more than possible to travel with a backpack and to arrive on another continent by daylight. Having barely left Europe in my life, the excitement gained from even thinking about such adventure was palpable. 

You mention Tangier to some and they might think of the danger; the scooters that can zip past the unsuspecting tourist and steal their unprotected possessions. And I’m not saying that such crime (and worse) doesn’t exist. But, I’m drawn to the city with its rich cultural history. This is the city in which William Burroughs wrote and imagined ‘The Naked Lunch’. Surely, the hippie influence from years gone by, the influence of the visits from Brian Jones and the other Rolling Stones, can’t have been completely stamped out with the recent regeneration of the beachfront and the creation of new, modern bars and clubs?

It’s not clear if Skymachine have ever been to Tangier either. The band from New Zealand are suitably influenced by its reputation though to release a single in honour of the place. For Skymachine, Tangier is simply representative of a feeling. “I have always loved the idea of just packing a suitcase and jumping on a plane with a one-way ticket.“, says Brydon, the head honcho from the outfit. “If you met someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, could you leave everything behind to be with them? Tangier is that feeling.”

Music-wise, this is a track that will make lovers of 80’s pop romanticism squeal with delight. It’s got the glamour, the shiny suits and the synth beats in abundance. There’s an overwhelming sense of longing within this pop nostalgia; radiating in romance, we’re all encouraged to experience our own Tangier moment as we throw caution to the wind and escape to a new continent.

That’s surely what we all need right now. 

03.10.21
by

Loose T. – Brexit

Brexit supporters must be thanking their lucky stars that Covid-19 happened when it did. The economic fall-out as a result of the shit storm can now be hidden away within the much larger negative pandemic impact. “Oh, that’s a direct consequence of Covid“, the politicians can say about our poverty for years to come when questioned why the nurses are only seeing paltry pay rises and the NHS doesn’t seem to be £350m better off. 

I’ve no doubt begun to sound like a broken record on these pages. But friends who run small businesses are either no longer exporting into EU countries or cutting into their thin margins to do so; friends who live in an EU country are reporting that the shelves are bare of things like Marmite and UK based cheddar cheese. Transferring funds from the UK into the EU now costs silly money every transaction. And I’m not even going to start on the time limits that we can now all spend in EU countries. 

Brexit supporters, tongues in the arses of others, lick away whilst mumbling incoherently about beating those pesky Europeans to vaccinations as if it’s a competitive sport. It all makes me want to scream. 

But, arguably, I’m still not screaming as loud about Brexit as Loose T.. Jim, from her record label, Pear O’Legs, tells me what Loose T. will be doing when the pandemic is done. ” She’ll probably just go and shout somewhere“, he says – “it really is her thing.Ideally in a crowd with a lot of sweaty strangers.”

 

Loose T.’s track ‘Brexit’ is a wonderfully angry punk piece, a fingers up to Brexit and British politics from a French cellist, writer and activist who has spent the last 8 years living in London and Edinburgh. Who can not be drawn to a track that quickly and immediately gets to the very heart of what’s wrong with it all?

“On the next day, My boss came In a Hawaiian shirt Cause he felt so smug.” screams Loose T. at one point early in the song nailing the divisions that were reinforced overnight in 2016 and have still to go away. 

“Sadly I think lots of people have had enough of Brexit and have just accepted the ongoing shambles.“, says Jim from the record label, on behalf of Loose T. who doesn’t do social media. I suspect that Jim is broadly right. 

Sonic Breakfast will never accept it though. 

03.09.21
by

Penny Roox – Mean

I bet that we’ve all seen enough in our lives to realise that the old adage, ‘Treat them mean, keep them keen’, has more than a semblance of truth. We’ve surely been left frustrated by friends who keep returning to partners who are clearly no good for them whilst an obvious match whimpers and wilts in the corner. Indeed, we might have even recognised such behaviour in ourselves with our predilection for the bad boy or the femme fatale.

Over the years, scientists with bigger brains than mine have tried (and sometimes failed) to explain why we love those that it’s harder to. And Robert Cialdini, author of ‘The Scarcity Principle’, probably hits the nail on head when suggesting that it works on the idea of ‘reactance’. We don’t like to be told no or be limited in any way. When we think we are going to miss out, be rejected, or be denied what we want, we react by wanting what we have been denied even more and trying even harder to get it.

Others have suggested that things are more valued by us if we’ve had to work harder to get them. And I can see some truth in that. But it does all seem ridiculously complicated when the nice boy or the girl next door waits patiently for their love to be reciprocated.

 

Penny Roox’s debut single, ‘Mean’, focuses on this phenomenon. The rising star from the Netherlands tells more in E-mail conversation. “Mean isn’t about someone in particular being mean to me.“, she says. “I wrote this song inspired by a conversation with one of my closest friends after a night out. It’s about always falling for the dickheads instead of the nice guys, about the thrill of rejection.”

‘Mean’ is a fine showcase of Penny’s talent. It has a vintage feel; a dash of jazz in a pop serenade. It’s a slice of Springfield (Dusty) and a drizzle of Winehouse (Amy) that help to create the Roox whole. It’ll come as no surprise to regular readers of Sonic Breakfast that I love it. Perhaps if I was ambivalent about ‘Mean’, it would be more of a recommendation?

Penny lets me know about the state of play in the Netherlands. “The pandemic is still very real here,with everything still closed.“, she says. “I haven’t played a proper full band show for over a year now, but it gave me the peace of mind to finally release Mean and work on my own music. I made sure to write and record as much as possible so the plans of 2021 will be releasing a lot and hopefully start playing again.”

Applying the logic from above, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about your Tuesday and I don’t care one jot if you like this song or not. 

03.08.21
by

Delta High – Let’s Go To The Beach 2020

For many, this is a Monday morning that will be far from welcome. The lockdown begins to ease and with that schools are back until the summer. Many of my teacher friends head back with all sorts of fear and trepidation. Without vaccination, they don’t feel safe despite being assured by Tory politicians that they will be. Let’s face it – these are politicians who have hardly got unblemished records when it comes to their recently dispatched advice. 

Today’s bright and breezy Motown-like pop song is for the teachers. ‘Let’s Go To The Beach 2020’ by Delta High is a large chunk of escapism, a shiny happy song encouraging us all to get away from it all. Written by the Svengali behind Delta High, Neil Jackson, on Cromer Pier one summer day, this is pure and simple bubblegum pop to help to cheer people up. “The song was written to give people positivity, hope and fun in the sun“, says Neil in the accompanying press release.

The video is fun as well – or at least as much fun as you might reasonably expect in Great Yarmouth. Neil, Charlotte and Verity from Delta High amuse themselves in arcades and by getting sand in their shoes as they playfully enjoy a day-out at the Great British seaside. You imagine that when the cameras stopped rolling, the three members of Delta High head off to a Karaoke bar to sing some Shangri-La’s or Supremes. Vocalist Charlotte was spotted by Neil in local pub singing Motown and that comes as no surprise. 

Neil tells me that Delta High have an album, ‘Life’s a Beach’, coming out in May 2021. And as that approaches he’ll be “coming out of lockdown and filming some videos for the album ( and having a Beer on Cromer Pier) 😁.“. 

Let’s Rock ‘N’ Roll towards May then with some sunshine pop to keep us warm. I know that teachers will be looking forward to getting there safely and I hope they do.