Haze - Smoke (Video)

Last weekend The Guardian published an article that detailed the inner workings of Radio 1’s playlist committee and how it decides on what tracks will get the stations maximum exposure through repeated plays (A-list records get 25 plays a week, B-list 15, and C-list eight to 10). You can read it via this link. The article made depressing reading, detailing the stations over reliance on data from social media and You Tube to determine what would and wouldn’t get played (that is of course if the record was even given consideration, which appears to rely heavily on having the support of a radio plugger to get under the noses of the committee.) As the Guardian suggested it made the whole process utterly soulless and risk free – where was the passion? Where was the ability of an individual human with a strong gut feeling to say 'I think this record is f*cking brilliant and irrespective of the fact that hardly anyone has watched the video on You Tube, I believe it’s our job to give this song a chance?'

The article emphasised to us the thought that, in their own small way, how important music blogs are, particularly to acts without a radio plugger or big financial backing. In all the time we’ve been writing Breaking More Waves we’ve never given any consideration to how many hits or plays a song has had, we’ve never given consideration to if an act is on a major label, a tiny indie or is completely d-i-y, we’ve simply featured music that we believe in, that says something to us. It’s just our opinion and taste. The idea of relying on data rather than gut instinct to determine if something is great or not is something we would never ever do. Ironically of course by streaming a track here we’re increasing the songs data load, and if enough blogs grab hold of a tune and push the views and plays through the roof Radio 1’s playlist committee will have to take notice.

Today we’re streaming a video from an artist that at the time of writing has had just less than 50 views. It’s probably fair to say that Radio 1 won’t be coming running any time soon, but we’re absolutely enamoured by the song.

Reading based singer songwriter Haze’s Smoke is inspired by the TV series of the decade - Breaking Bad - the lyrics being pretty self-explanatory if you’ve seen the show, although alas Haze doesn’t mark the tune with any Jesse Pinkman style yo’s (like this). It’s a quietly alluring song, that grows in stature as it develops, with the key line "win or lose, would you choose the life you had?" being the inspiration for the video.

Forget the data, give the song a chance.

Haze - Smoke (Video)


Haze - Smoke (official video) from The Deolali Plan on Vimeo.