Category: Albums and Videos

Jungle has erupted onto the music scene with their trending song “Back on 74” off their 2023 album Volcano.

Album cover: Volcano by Jungle. Via Spotify

British electronic music project, Jungle, first appeared on my radar last summer, when I stumbled upon their song “I’ve Been In Love” in my Spotify recommended songs. I was instantly hooked, as it matched the mood of summer perfectly with its easy-to-move-to-beat paired with the smooth and nonchalant vocals from Channell Tres. It became my summer anthem, and it is a song I will never get sick of. I would spend the days lounging near the river with my sister listening to this song on repeat, shocked that I had never heard of this group before. Their sound was right up my alley, with the transformation of older disco/funk beats into modernized electronic dance music; the perfect blend of relaxed yet exciting, old yet new. It wasn’t until a little while after I started diving into their music, personally, that “Back On 74” went viral. 

The group was first conceptualized in 2013 by producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, who are both based in London as well as childhood friends. The goal of the pair was to create more of a musical project in which lots of collaboration was necessary to produce artful music, videos, and performances. They have released four studio albums, Jungle (2014), For Ever (2018), Loving in Stereo (2021), and their most recent album Volcano (2023), which has recently gained internet fame due to the virtually iconic choreography within the music video released for it. The videos are a large part of what has launched the group to the current center stage. The songs off of Volcano each have their own visual pairing with a music video that follows the same formula and style, often featuring the same dancers, choreographer, cinematographer, and is directed by Josh Lloyd-Watson. The “Back on 74” video captured the internet’s attention, as it became a trend to replicate the unique and fluid choreography of Shay Latukolan that is included within it. With this fascination with the video came extra attention to Volcano, as people came to realize that they enjoyed the music paired with the dancing. 

 As an album, Volcano plays it safe, and it is apparent that much of what Jungle are doing is not pushing any sort of boundaries musically. They know what they are good at and stick to it, and the songs that are on the album can be put into sort of categories based on what sort of sound they are trying to emulate. 

“Us Against The World” opens the album up, and is one of my least favorite on the album, which is disappointing. It is one of the songs on the album that is more overtly designed to be more of an electronic dance song. For me, it is repetitive and boring with the same sort of vocals blasting atop a thumping and overly rhythmic backtrack, repeating the same lyrics over and over. “Holding On” and “You Ain’t No Celebrity” follow a similar formula, which produces a similar reaction from me: I am not as impressed with these songs. They sound too poppy, as if they should be in the background of an Old Navy commercial. “You Ain’t Celebrity” is too stripped down for my taste, with the falsetto vocals peaking out against a blipping beat full of beeps and boops that sound more like a confused robot than an actual beat. This is a rare occurrence where the contrast of soul/funk does not mesh well with the electronic beats designed to get people moving. These songs miss the mark by a country mile, focused as they are on formula rather than musical experimentation. 

Another genre that is heavily interwoven within Jungle’s music is disco. Songs on Volcano that present these influences are “Don’t Play,” “Problemz,” and “Palm Trees.” My favorite among the three that I just mentioned would be, “Don’t Play” as it has a nostalgic house feel. The repetition of the lilting vocals along the top of the groovy backtrack creates a visual that the song is almost sparkling with a playful innocence as the lead vocalist croons “Baby/I don’t know what I would do without you.” While it is repetitive in its own right, this type of music tends to be that way. The beauty in that, though, is it is so easy to get lost in the groove that you forget nothing else but the need to move along to the music you are hearing. 

The songs that are the most musical and make the album worth listening to are “Candle Flame,” “Dominoes,” “I’ve Been In Love,” and “Back On 74.” These are songs that I would characterize as having a more modern funk/house feel with influences of soul and R&B. They are the most musically diverse and genre-bending, combining a number of different styles that result in some masterpieces, “Candle Flame” has an ethereal opening of harmonizing soulful voices paired with a soaring string section, until it launches into a 1-2-3-4 count beat drop that drops you in the middle of an absolute jam, giving the audience no choice but to bounce along. It then features the rapping of Erick the Architect, adding some modern swagger and providing the listener with words to sing along to. The stark contrast from the beginning to the rest of the song is what grabbed my attention and kept it. 

“Back On 74” has more of an acoustic feel, which departs from the rest of the album, and includes the rhythmic and repeating strumming of a guitar. The main focus of this song is the vocals of Lydia Kitto, which are utterly whimsical and breathtaking, flitting effortlessly above the groovy baseline. She is supported by strong backup vocals that emphasize her well, providing a vocal masterclass in harmony and cohesiveness. 

Volcano as an album has its strong points and its weak points, but the strong aspects are heavyweight champions. With songs such as “I’ve Been In Love,” “Back On 74,” and “Candle Flame” carrying, it is hard to label this as anything short of great but I am afraid I may have to. It is clear that Jungle has gone a more commercial route, but I still appreciate some of the jewels that they have put out into the industry and I am looking forward to what they release next, as well as seeing them live this summer (hopefully!) at the music festival Osheaga, in Montreal! 

The illustrious British producer’s latest releases highlight their creative streak, with a diverse array of electronica

The surrealist cover of Vegyn and Francis Hornsby’s new spoken-word album

“When the hell is Frank Ocean releasing a new album?” I don’t know, but Vegyn might. The 31-year-old UK-based glitch-hop and prog-house extraordinaire, best known for producing Frank Ocean’s Endless and Blonde, has been steadily pumping out projects over the past four years. Now having made his own label, 3 albums, 3 EPs, and 2 mixtapes—with one a staggering two-and-a-half-hours long—it’s safe to say that Vegyn’s taken Frank Ocean’s silence as a message to double down on his sound. Admirably, Vegyn isn’t simply copying the same production formula across all these projects. Ranging from ambient house-thumping ragers to his own disconcertingly minimal (yet melodic) take on intelligent dance music, Vegyn’s unabashedly pushes his songwriting in new directions. In the last two months alone, he’s ricocheted between avant-garde poetry to prog-house with surprising dexterity.

The Head Hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth—the aforementioned ‘avant-garde poetry’ album—is perhaps the biggest change in sound Vegyn’s made to date. The trip-hop-driven album unleashes a hurricane of melancholically booming synths yet is calmly centered around the narrator’s psychosis-propelled spoken-word poetry. The stream-of-consciousness lyrics, written by Francis Hornsby and delivered by AI, revolve around sardonic stories about the narrator’s past lives, detailing their thoughts on music, love, spring onions, and everything in between. “I used to take my breakfast off of a mirror / Now I just walk around and stare at people at the park” are the unwelcoming first two lines in the project. The surrealistic implications of ‘staring’ juxtapose the familiarity of simply people watching. It’s clear the narrator is unwell.

The album also marks Vegyn’s departure from minimalistic-glitch-hop-inspired beats, though he makes his ambient influences clear: “Truisms 4 Dummies” and “Bucket Listener” are Boards of Canada worship, with synth and guitar lines that ground the listener with the weight of emotional memory. This style of instrumentation lends itself perfectly to a spoken-word album. Cathartic strings and synths dot (and at times swallow) the instrumentation of “Business Opportunities,” giving the AI’s emotionless voice faux depth. Hornsby expertly weaves between stories of drug abuse and lost love in this track as well, making it easy to get lost in the narrator’s musings. “I felt happy in a secret way / Naked obviously, / Angry that I could hear voices / But really, / I was at peace with everything.” Some lines cut through the mix and demand the listener’s attention, like a stopped clock being right three times a day.

While Vegyn does demonstrate he’s able to produce a compelling album in this style, the narrator’s storytelling can be too cryptic at times, giving the album moments of embarrassing bathos. “Of all the onions in the world / I prefer spring onions,” the narrator interjects in “Truisms 4 Dummies,” right after discussing how life makes them feel “both dead and alive.” Contrary to its purpose, these intrusive comments don’t highlight the narrator’s deteriorating mental condition, they instead clumsily show that Vegyn has yet to find his footing in this sub-genre of trip-hop. Despite its kitschy attributes, there’s a lot to love about Head; it explores a style of electronica rarely indulged in. Forgoing his pattern of musical reinvention, I hope Vegyn returns to the album to smooth out its rough edges.

Less than two months after Head’s release, Vegyn’s new single “Makeshift Tourniquet” made for a particularly surprising listen given its lack of experimentation. It begins with spacey house-inspired synths pulsating in and out over a sample of a man discussing “the creative process.” His words are masked by the flow of synths, only discernible when they ebb back. As the synth’s reverb starts spiraling out of control, the song plunges the listener into the depths of a frigid and sparsely populated underground electronic venue; a crispy drum loop replaces the ethereal echoes which are now just a backdrop to the song’s new head snapping anthem. Where a lesser artist would have let the synths engulf the mix in a saccharine chant, Vegyn’s subversion of the dance formula forces listeners to perk their ears and focus on the production’s minute changes. 

Despite not seeking to redefine genres like Vegyn’s other works, “Makeshift Tourniquet” is an incredibly gripping track which sits right in the middle of prog-house’s oft-explored motifs–apart from its surprisingly minimalist drop. This, to me, is a welcome change. Partially as the result of his reinvention, Vegyn oftentimes struggles with developing depth to some tracks. Head’s small bumps in production and layout are clear growing pains from Vegyn’s introduction to the spoken-word sub-genre. Some sections of his other albums (Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds) are also so minimal, I can’t help but wonder if there’s supposed to be more to the mix. Sometimes reinvention is unnecessary. For Vegyn’s next release, let’s hope he continues his foray onto already-established sound.

Courtney Barnett’s latest album leaves behind the catchy melodies and witty lyrics she’s known for and charts new territory with striped back sounds and hypnotic repetition. 

Courtney Barnett is no stranger to the soft strum of a guitar or a slow tempo. While she may be known for her indie-rock classics such as “Avant Gardener” or “Pedestrian At Best,” Barnett has been writing ballads since her first EP was released in 2014. But songs off her newest album, End of the Day, evoke a sense of peacefulness and wonder like no other song off her discography has before. Originally recorded to accompany her 2021 documentary Anonymous Club, this instrumental album found a life of its own when it was released earlier this month with a biophilic visual accompaniment. No vocals to be found, this album is carried solely by the aesthetic reverberations of Barnett’s guitar and the gratifying synth tones and percussion of Stella Mozawa, fellow collaborator on this soundtrack.

When heard in the background of Anonymous Club, the songs off of End of the Day fit almost flawlessly with the sensations stirred up by Barnett’s intimate video-diaries. In the documentary, fans are given a close up of her life on tour, her creative process, and the mental toll of having fame magnify her insecurities. The Guardian’s Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen described it as, “so intensely personal it almost borders on claustrophobic, as we enter the anxious mind of one of Australia’s most loved contemporary rock musicians.” There’s a reason that the soundtrack is able to authentically capture Barnett’s wandering, melancholy mind. It was improvised to a final-cut of the film, allowing the songs to evoke the precise emotions Barnett is feeling in each scene.

Just released on streaming platforms, the captivating power of the melodies maintain their weight even outside their original purpose. The opening track is “Start Somewhere.” It begins with a wavering yet ever growing pitch that sucks you in while simultaneously throwing you off balance. The guitar comes in and out, never acting as more than a hovering buzz or a wandering thought. The tune holds a distant feeling of longing when the texture thins to quivering chords, but keeps a sense of hope alive by never going fully silent. “Start Somewhere” flows effortlessly into “Life Balance.” In this song, each guitar note is accented and sustained, yet the space between them feels devastatingly empty. The pulses behind them are grainier and have lost the dream-like quality they held just one song prior.

Slight changes like these are able to completely shift the tone while keeping the songs minimalistic and cohesive. They fit so seamlessly that noticing a change in my own mood was the only signal that a new song had begun. Sustained notes flow from one song to the next, essentially making the album appear to be one forty minute song to the unknowing ear. This aspect makes the soundtrack perfect for meditation, the calming yet thought-provoking pulses and unbroken melodies make it almost inevitable to slip into deep contemplation. 

Shows on Courtney Barnett’s upcoming tour, beginning October 11th, will each feature two sets from versatile guitarist. One with the instrumental music from End of the Day and the other with songs from the rest of her music catalog. The two sets will be sure to provide both a holistic image of the musician as well as summon a contrasting set of emotions from its audience. The peaceful, spiritual moment brought on by End of the Day will give way to a rock concert that the crowd will have to quickly switch gears to enjoy.