02.15.21
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VOLK – Welcome To Cashville

Yesterday was Valentines Day. If I was a blogger of any note, I would have found the most loving, schmaltzy piece of music to share and then praised it to high heaven. Anything to increase the hits, eh? There are artists who release Christmas songs because they think that such tactical consideration is the path to fame and wealth. Those that drown you with their saccharine love on February 14th take such cynicism to a whole new level. I chose instead to take a day away from blogging. 

One suspects that VOLK are pretty unlikely to sell their souls to the PR machine. I ask the raucous, cowpunk duo from Nashville what they’d like to see happen in 2021. 

“Naive thought, but we’d get rid of all the algorithms and money obsession in the music industry and allow artists to truly follow their passions and creative whims,“, they offer. “That’s got to be better than following fads and mimicry, trying to figure out the next Instagram hack or to become a tik tok viral sensation. Honestly, it feels more like we are PR agents rather than artists these days.”

That anger with parts of the music industry spews out in Chris and Eleot’s recently released single, ‘Welcome To Cashville’. If you’re looking for a tune to help dislodge the Monday morning cobwebs, this could well be the one. Rough and rambunctious, deliberately messy and boisterous, this is a song that neatly mixes rock ‘n’ roll riffage with hard-living Country. Legends of yesteryear such as Townes Van Zandt are heralded whilst the acts that depend on autotune and DJ mixes are dispatched to the garbage. Healthily theatrical, OTT and sarcastic, you can’t help but be drawn to a band who observe that “2020 has sucked more than a Nickelback double live album on loop.”

VOLK were clocking up more than 200 shows per year before the pandemic raged. It’s no surprise what Chris and Eleot want to do more than anything else right now. “The first thing we are gonna do at each of our shows after the pandemic is hug, drink with, and laugh with our good friends on the road!”

Have a Rocking Monday y’all… 

02.13.21
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Jonny Ong & Inch – Taking Silence

It was at the mighty Shambala festival back in 2013 that I first became aware of the new instrument called the Hang, a steel drum-like thing created in Swiss music laboratories. My friend, Phil, had seen the Hang Massive play somewhere else that festival season and highly recommended that we nipped into a late night tent to watch them whilst allowing ourselves to drift in and out of sleep. It was a beautiful, beguiling experience. I wrote about it in this review here. 

I confess I’ve not followed the development of the instrument much since. But a quick scan of Wikipedia pages suggests that a tense and intriguing business battle and sometime legal challenge has sprung up around the name. The reluctance of the makers of the Hang to allow others to adopt the name has led to the creation of other similar instruments; handpans and pantams. Who would have thought that an instrument with such a chilled, relaxing sound could generate such intense, muso-political debate?

It’s not my job to stoke those embers (though I do think the instrument’s early history could make for a really quirky Netflix series). Jonny Ong is the subject of today’s Sonic Breakfast post and he’s forged a reputation for himself in the murky world of the handpan. The multi-instrumentalist from Singapore was inspired to pick up the instrument after seeing one being played by a busker on the streets of Amsterdam.

And sure enough, the opening segment of Jonny’s latest track, ‘Taking Silence’, features the reassuring tones of the handpan. Before long though, this dynamic collaboration with a Singaporean singer-songwriter, Inch, blossoms out into all sorts of other avenues. We get funky brass and an almost-indie guitar-based climax. It all makes for an exciting musical cacophony.

“On my previous albums, I’ve focussed on the handpan – this time, I wanted it to be all about the songs,” says Jonny. “I wanted it to feel cinematic. That’s why I went for a lot of strings and horns.”

The video for ‘Taking Silence’, an animated adventure exploring life under the ocean simply adds to the psychedelic fun. Hang The DJ.

 

02.12.21
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Julia Faulks – Not Losing Sleep

There’s an instructional, ‘life-coachy’ quote that does the rounds on social media with some regularity. “Be yourself; everyone else is taken” is a wisdom widely attributed to Oscar Wilde even though scholars of the great playwright maintain that he never uttered such a phrase. There’s something slightly absurd at play here but this is not a blog post about fake news. Regardless of who said it (and attaching it to Wilde undoubtedly gives it more pithy gravitas), it’s still a quote that holds some truth. 

But being yourself isn’t easy, right? It’s much easier to hold an inferiority complex or to deliberately sabotage what you’re really capable of achieving than to raise your head above the parapet and to seize the day. Instead of making ourselves vulnerable, we do what we’re comfortable with and limit our ambition. We’ll make excuses about how impossible our own dreams are to realise whilst applauding those who make the bold steps. 

“I have always loved music and even though my piano and guitar playing is pretty sub-standard, there are melodies in my head which can’t be contained.“, says Julia Faulks in the press release for her single, ‘Not Losing Sleep’. “This was what always held me back (apart from the fact that I am 40 and a mum of two!) – worrying that I couldn’t do it without being a Grade 8 student or having a music degree (although this probably would have helped somewhat…).”

Immediately, I’m drawn to Julia’s bold steps. Here’s somebody who’s now being herself to achieve a dream. And ‘Not Losing Sleep’ has much going for it. Within the relaxed groove and sultry chilled vibe, Julia sings confidently about a relationship that’s run its course. This is not a ‘woe is me’ tragedy though; saving the self-pity for the break-up songs of other singers, Julia gives the impression that she’s happy to be moving on. She’s ‘not losing sleep’.

02.11.21
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HALAN – A Waste

There’s not a lot of happiness around at the moment. Mostly, I’ll use these daily Sonic Breakfast posts to publish happy songs, bouncy tunes that might add a bit of sunshine and smile into our miserable lives. I guess that there’s no harm though to talk about tunes that wallow a bit more in the isolation, loneliness and personal strife that we all must be feeling from time to time as the pandemic progresses? 

That’s not to say that I’m feeling especially down right now. The casual reader of Sonic Breakfast could be excused for drawing that conclusion. This week, I’ve returned from the beautiful sunshine and warm terrace of Spain to the dreary drudge and sludge of the U.K.. Friends and colleagues have been asking me how I’ve been finding the enforced social isolation – my ten days of being stuck in one terraced cottage unable to even head out for a walk. And the truth is that I have no real desire to go out and I’m largely positive about the experience. There are supplies of beers and wine – and Sarah is being a Saint in responding to my ‘demands’ for food with patience and good spirit. It’s good to have company around. Once again, Sonic Breakfast has landed on its feet.

HALAN’s new(ish) electronic dark pop song, ‘A Waste’, finds our singer in an entrenched place. A persistent bass beat lends doom as a wistful vocal gives focus to the hopelessness of the situation. “There are some things you can fight for as hard as you want but can’t change the outcome of“, offers the accompanying PR note with bleak and honest inevitability. 

I ask HALAN how things are for her in Los Angeles right now and she acknowledges that it’s been pretty bad in terms of the cases so she’s pretty much a hermit, just staying home and making music. But, HALAN, a former vocalist in rock and metal bands, also mentions some positive plans on the horizon. “The first thing I want to do after the pandemic is probably go to a concert.”, she says. “I really want to go the Rammstein one if possible. They’re hard to catch! And I definitely want to travel. Maybe to South Korea with my mom, or to Iceland to see the northern lights.”

I guess it’s good form for all of us to cling to such dreams? Even if the more pessimistic outlook displayed in today’s song might offer a more accurate dose of reality. 

“Nothing’s fair to anyone,What you planned can come undone,What you spend can be a waste, Where you reach can be outrun“, sings HALAN four times with increasing intensity in the song’s outro. I’ll leave that there for consideration. 

02.10.21
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StanLei – Wake Up

It seems kind of obvious that Sonic Breakfast, a blog with the tag-line ‘Music musings with your muesli’, should feature a song called ‘Wake Up’. The breezy chorus of the tune and gentle, laidback beat could be perfect fodder for those still yawning, dabbing the sleepy dust from their eyes and trying to get their arses into gear for an inevitably busy Wednesday. 

But it doesn’t take long to realise that StanLei’s ‘Wake Up’ is asking you to do so much more than to smell the coffee percolating in your cafetière. This is a protest song, a call to arms that’s urging us all to take much more interest in the political, environmental and social issues of the day. “We are all in this together so why cant you take a minute before you sit back down, put your blinkers on and settle in it“, says StanLei in the song before another chorus kicks in.

StanLei (‘stan-lay’) – real name Jennifer Stanley Smith – is a singer songwriter and producer based in Toulouse. Leaving the adopted hometown of Bristol to spend years travelling as a nomadic seasonal worker, Jenny looks to have now settled in France. It’s from there that her debut album will be released, hopefully in April. 

Having spent one unexpected night in Toulouse back in 2018, I obviously hardly feel qualified to wax lyrical about the place. But the city did seem to have a vibrant energy and an ‘alternative’ culture that marked it out from other parts of a slightly dated, stuffy France that I’d been previously travelling through. “Toulouse is a really cool city, it even reminds me a bit of Bristol.“, says StanLei when I mention my sole visit. “I’m actually in the countryside outside Toulouse now though so 2020/2021 has been a bit more bearable here I think.”

Being free to travel across France (or to drive across any Continent) seems a long way away right now. But that surely doesn’t mean that I have to self-isolate without talking about the things that really matter. Today is a day to begin to ‘take back my power.’

02.09.21
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Natálie Grossová – Girls

One of the few beautiful things to come out of this year for me is our weekly quiz. I had kept in sporadic touch with the guys that I went to Polytechnic with before Covid 19 but now the disease seems to have given focus – reinvigorating those friendships from Bristol is of vital importance. 

It started with a whatsapp group and quickly the suggestion formed that a zoom quiz might be a cool thing to do. I’m not sure that any of us thought then that it would become a weekly thing or that it would be so successful in warding of our boredom but now not a day goes by without us saying good morning and wishing each other well. We look after each other from afar and that feels cosy. Two weeks ago, Mole led the quiz and I laughed so much that tears fell – that’s not happened for years. This is my therapy. 

The guys on the quiz will likely not care much for Natálie Grossová’s single, ‘Girls’. And I get that. This is pure pop with a sprinkling of cheese, a bit too glossy and upbeat for their more sophisticated tastes. But I maintain that pop done well with catchy, singalong choruses and synchronised dancing in a carefree video is of equal artistic merit to the serious and austere. We all need to smile right now – and there’s joy-a-plenty in this. 

Natália talks about some of the inspiration behind ‘Girls’. “I had a problem with groups my whole life but time went by and I got to know new people and found great friends.“, she says. “I want to say, through my debut song as an artist, that you don’t need a bunch of fake friends but just a few that will stick together and support you whatever it takes!”

The musical theatre star from Prague might be emphasising female solidarity within ‘Girls’ but the wider theme of strength through friendship is universal. Today it’s the morning to take a quick step back from the brink, to reach out and to cherish those friends who have our back.

 

02.08.21
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Moontwin – Waiting For Fall

I’m almost asleep. I can feel myself dozing off into dreamland. A game of cricket that I played in 2008 comes to mind; it was windy and icy then, certainly not the summer weather that one associates with the sport. With no obvious logic, I’m now an extra in the cast of the film ‘Titanic’. I’ve never actually seen the film but here I am appearing in my very own version. Icebergs ahoy! As I look out to see the white mass in the distance, it becomes a gigantic Christmas cake, the icing crisp, the decoration beautiful and intricate, much like my late Nan used to make. Red ribbons, green garnish. Deep breath. Sleep.

Moontwin’s ‘Waiting For Fall’ also “explores the twilight world that exists between dreamstate and waking“, according to their press release. “A fluid, shape-shifting space where conversations, random moments and thoughts can sneak into our sub-conscious, often revealing new meaning and unexpected significance..”

I’ve never really paid close attention those random thoughts I have on the edge of sleep. Perhaps I closed my mind to them because I thought that I was a bit strange for imagining such things as cricket, icebergs and Christmas cakes. I’m glad I’m not the only one. 

The Moontwin duo, Maple Bee (Melanie) and Zac live 1700 miles apart, one in Bulgaria and the other in the UK. I ask them how such remote working can work. “For Moontwin it’s pretty much normal for us….”, they say. “We have worked and hung out together online for the last 4 years! – so where ‘screen life’ and socialising online has recently become the norm for the larger population it’s business as usual for us. We did manage to meet up in Plovdiv, Bulgaria just before the Covid-19 situation took serious hold which was amazing…we were supposed to be touring the UK at the end of last year…obviously that didn’t happen but we are keeping busy working on the new record and making videos to go with each release we put out.”

If those releases are as grand as ‘Waiting For Fall’ then Moontwin have a fan in Sonic Breakfast. Always a sucker for a bit of spoken word verse, this tune has it in bucketloads before a wispy, ethereal and dare I say it, dreamy chorus chimes in. 

Excuse me whilst I grab twenty minutes more sleep before Monday kicks in? 

 
02.07.21
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Ali Horn – End Credits

The day has arrived. I was up early this morning to draw the blinds on the villa and to make my way to the airport. Goodness knows when I’ll get back. I might have shed a tear or two on the terrace last night but today I’m going to be defiantly happy. We only live once and let’s make it count, right?

Ali Horn gets me. In his nihilistic yet optimistic single from last year, End Credits, he’s making a ‘hopeless plea for temporary happiness’. He enhances his thinking later in the press release. 

“The only thing we know for sure is that we can’t stay here for long.“, Ali says. “We’re a speck of light reflecting off a fractured fragment of smashing glass in slow motion. There for a second and then gone. But let’s have fun while it lasts. You can’t hide for the inevitable.”

Spot on I say. I saw Ali play a live set in London (at the Old Blue Last I seem to recall). It was October 2019 and I was between guardianships, staying in an odd and quirky Airbnb house in Islington surrounded by books as I slept on a rickety sofa. I fully intended to write about Ali’s live set but the ‘delights’ of the accommodation got the better of me. 

My notes from the night still exist but they’re pretty indecipherable. I do remember enjoying Ali’s set though I also noted that Ali could do with smiling more. He had a four piece band with him and shades pinned to his chest. A fuzzy Neil Young, Ali commented that this crowd was ‘better than Brighton’. Fez and Jouis were also on the bill that night. 

So, I’m happy to be able to feature ‘End Credits’ as I get on this plane to leave Spain. A happy song as the trudge towards the end continues. 

02.06.21
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PJ Hopper – Not Your Daddy

A few of us went on a trip to Leeds to see ‘The Streets’. For Richard, it was a chance to revisit his old University stomping ground and to mournfully observe at every opportunity that the price of a pint had quadrupled in the Students Union since when he was last here. For the rest of us, it was a chance to see Mike Skinner play live; we’d regained a love for dance music on the back of ‘Original Pirate Material’ and really ‘understood’ the recently released ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’. For a while, we felt fresh and cool again at the prospect of what was to come.

And then we went inside the venue. As the doors opened, we all gasped in unison at what greeted us. A sea of excitable young people with their lives ahead of them clamoured in huddles coolly moving to the DJs dance beats. “It’s a bit loud“, said Kate observing what we didn’t want to notice. “We’re the eldest here by a generation“, said Richard as a precursor to a Grime beat banged out.

If I recall correctly (my memory isn’t what it once was), that was the night that our ‘Dad corner’ was formed. Typically, towards the back of any live venue and definitely at the side, this is the safe space for adults who are now past their prime. Should the venue have seats those in the Dad corner wouldn’t take them because we’re still ‘young enough for our legs to function’ but we’re also realistic enough to know that just a minute in the mosh pit would likely put us out of action for months. We look on enviously at the fun others are having whilst we sway gently from side to side.

 

My sense is that PJ Hopper won’t be joining us in the ‘Dad corner’ anytime soon. And that’s not simply because venues and clubs remain shut for the foreseeable. In his playful, carefree and bloody brilliant ‘dance’ track, ‘Not Your Daddy’, PJ proudly announces with baritone authority that he can still cut it, throw the shapes and party with the new kids on the block. 

“You’d best not consign me to my rocking chair before my time“, says PJ, in the accompanying press release. “You’d be better off coming along for the ride – I might just teach you a thing or two.”

Inspired by nights out at the legendary Heaven nightclub and an observation that the younger guys in the crowd were approaching PJ with increasing regularity, this is his fun response. From the off, ‘Not Your Daddy’ gets me smiling. It’s dark-cheese, slightly smoky and delightfully fluffy. These are tough times and PJ offers up some temporary respite from it all.

As an added bonus – and it needs to be said – PJ shows in his E-mail communications to me that he’s a decidedly thoughtful and caring man. I fully understand why other acts will use those E-mails to talk about themselves (and don’t blame them at all) and yet PJ ended his first E-mail to me with “hope you’ve got some good people watching out for you and keeping you sane.”. That touched me.

PJ Hopper’s humility shines through. We’ll get him in the Dad corner yet. 

02.05.21
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Roller Derby – Can’t See You

Regular readers of Sonic Breakfast might recall that we had a little guessing game going on just before Christmas. Back then I featured two parts of a trilogy (here) from Hamburg’s finest indie poppers, Roller Derby, and mentioned that the final reveal was on its way at the end of January. 

‘Can’t See You’ came out last week. Anybody who was hoping for every loose end to be tied up in a finale of absolute clarity will be sorely disappointed. I guess that life just doesn’t work that way. Instead, we get more insight into the lives of the two characters that we’ve become familiar with so far. 

The video for ‘Can’t See You’ finds our duo initially in playful mood. On a secluded beach and in deserted waters, these are happy times. Blindfolds are used to heighten the experience, to strengthen the sensation of joy. And yet the menace of future arguments still linger. The sea here is quite calm but we get the sense that there’s choppy water ahead for this friendship. Happiness cannot be permanent. And that’s alright if the good times on the way are cherished. 

Sonically, ‘Can’t See You’ is my favourite song of the trilogy. That’s not to say that there’s a weak link in the other two but this instalment takes the best bits of I Wish and Flying High and merges them together into a dreamy whole. I still get the influence of Camera Obscura coming through strong and a healthy slab of Alvvays. This is no bad thing. 

What’s next for Roller Derby is anybody’s guess. With this trio of tunes now proudly announced to the world, their profile is rightly rocketing. A glance at the comments already secured against the video for ‘Can’t See You’ sees a healthy South American following emerging. 

‘Take your time’, sings Philine in the opening line of ‘Can’t See You’. That’s also the way that Manu ends his E-mail note to me when I mention I’ll write a piece about the song. There is no rush for Roller Derby to do anything immediate. They’ve given us much to already enjoy. 

Breathe and relax.