I’ve already featured Mother by Jerry Williams on the blog, but now the song’s got a video treatment. Just in case you missed it first time round, this one’s a naggingly upbeat piece of day-glo indie pop that burns with a tuneful brightness. Of course chirpy sounding pop music sometimes needs to come with a warning stating ‘May Become Annoying’ but thankfully this isn’t the case here, particularly as Jerry isn’t shouting about how life is fantastic and everything’s perfect. Instead she sings of running home through the rain and not feeling herself. The video itself is a performance piece that fits with the general chirpiness of the music, with Jerry playing around on a bike, pulling some shapes and swapping roles with her band. Extra marks as well for the best pair of trousers I’ve seen this week – other indie pop acts take note. There’s more to life than skinny jeans and leather jackets. Jerry Williams - Mother (Video)
The last post on Breaking More Waves was about Sofi Tukker and now here I am, in what is probably a first for this blog, writing about them immediately again. The first post was because they recently banged out a delightful tune called Awoo from their forthcoming Soft Animals EP (which incidentally features a giraffe on the cover, always a good idea, after all one of the best pop videos of the last few years (here) had a giraffe in it). Now Team Tucker and Team Sophie (I’ve yet to decide which team I’m on yet, at the moment I want to vote for them both) have released their first ever video for Drinkee. You’ll probably remember Drinkee from back in 2015. It’s an absurdly addictive track that mixes a snappy guitar riff with Brazilian poetry and some house grooves; because of its brilliance it even found itself on an Apple watch advert. Last night I went to see the band play live in London. Many elements of their live show are incorporated into the video, namely Sophie’s halter neck and white flared trousers garb, the band's ability to do a cool head roll (at 2:05) and the weird instrument they have that appears to be some sampler pads on some sort of rotary pole (at 2:15). Sadly the jungle backdrop and Tucker’s immensely cool water sip moment ( at 1:08) didn’t make it into the live gig this time round, but they did manage a few choreographed dance moves, including Sophie attempting ballet even though she admitted she can’t do ballet at all. Sofi Tukker is my new favourite pop band. Go see them live, listen to their Soft Animals EP and watch this video to make your life that much better. Sofi Tukker - Drinkee (Video)
Sofi Tukker (they’re a duo consisting of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern) have been picking up a fair head of steam with previous releases such as Déja Vu Affair, Drinkee, Hey Lion and Matadora and now you can add new track Awoo (feat. Betta Lemme) to that list. Get your dancing shoes on for this one as it takes a simple keyboard riff and rolls with it before going for the kill with a pause, a glorious shout of ‘Awoo’ and some percussion that heads off to planet oblivion. Sometimes we can all overthink music, both in terms of its creation and its meaning. Sometimes you’ve just got to let go of your inhibitions and have some fun. This is one of those tracks to do exactly that to. Yeah it's silly, but sitting stroking your beard and listening to Radiohead forever isn't really enjoying life is it? Sofi Tukker hit the UK this week, touching down for just 1 day, but with 2 shows on Friday 1st July. 1st as part of the supporting bill at Massive Attack’s Hyde Park concert and then later in the evening with their own headline gig at the Lexington. If you’re at that second gig I’ll see you down the front for a dance.
This track as well as all the other tunes they’ve put out so far have been collected together and will feature on Soft Animals, their debut EP, due on 8th July. That phrase 'eagerly anticipated' is over used and not always true when used by music writer types, but certainly from my point of view Soft Animals is exactly that. Sofi Tukker - Awoo
Having taken a few days out for Glastonbury festival - an incredible experience that has no lesser impact on me the tenth time as it did the first time I attended, in fact even more so now - and then a couple of days catching up with ‘real life’ afterwards, Breaking More Waves now slowly begins to roll itself out onto the world wide web again starting with the new single from Still Corners; a band who from their blissed out beginnings at the start of the decade are now gearing up to release their third album Dead Blue. Lost Boys is arch, pulsing, glacial, synth-pop that verges on the darkly exotic with its twilight hours’ sound. The obvious comparison is Goldfrapp, dashed with a touch of Kraftwerk and Ladytron. It’s the kind of music that I imagine would go down very well in certain parts of Eastern Europe and cool German bars. Still Corners might have started out with a very blurry, almost vague sound, but Lost Boys is far more precise, almost enigmatic. It suits them well. Still Corners - Lost Boys (Video)
