The Aux Playlist: Joe's Picks

Struggling to find something new to listen to? Need some influence for your own music making? We've started a new series in which our team here at Aux will share some of their current favourites and most recent discoveries. Some might be totally new to you and some might make you guffaw as you shout "THEY'VE BEEN AROUND FOR AGES" at your screen. Whichever reaction strikes you we hope you enjoy getting an insight into what we've got in rotation here at Aux.

This week Joe is taking you through 5 artists that he's been tapping his toe and nodding his head to. You can find a Spotify playlist featuring all of the artists below at the bottom of the page.

Parcels

A friend of mine introduced me to Parcels about four years ago and they have been on constant rotation ever since. A band that looks like they’ve stepped out of a time machine from the 1970s, their sound encapsulates much of what that decade had to offer: disco, soft rock, funk, jazz and soaring orchestral movements. Their self-titled first album was choc-full of disco floor fillers and toe tappers, with highlights like ‘Lightenup’, ‘Closetowhy’, ‘IknowhowIfeel’ and ‘Tieduprightnow’. The sound that keeps pulling me back to Parcels though is their gorgeous harmonies - especially exhibited on ‘Bemyself’ on their first album but constantly showcased on their recent release ‘Day/Night’.

Their new release is a double album, charting the cycle of dawn, and the sense of hope and freedom it brings, to the darker and dreadful hours of the night. Although it was the Daft Punk produced disco of ‘Overnight’ that originally peaked my interest in Parcels, this album speaks to my love of 70s and 80s soft rock, or dare I say...Yacht Rock. Tunes like ‘Free’ perfectly represent that period, with stabby Doobie Brothers keys and high harmonies, ‘The Worst Thing’ smacks of a 10CC ballad infused with a Dire Straits guitar line and ‘Comingback’ is an earworm reminiscent of Supertramp and The Eagles. There are still examples of their love of disco and funk to be found - particularly on ‘Something Greater’, another track that I can’t get out of my head.  

The band claims that each half of the album can be listened to in isolation but hearing the two halves together is my preference. I’ve even let the whole thing loop without noticing and arriving back at ‘LIGHT’ is all the more satisfying after the sleepy, deceleration of the orchestra on ‘Inside’ at the end of the ‘Night’ album. I realise that I’ve accidentally reviewed their new album here but I can’t help but ramble on about how much I love them. If you take anything away from this post you need to go listen to Parcels.

Meet Me @ The Altar

I was unashamedly an emo and wannabe skaterboi in my teenage years, which meant I was solely listening to hardcore, screamo and pop-punk music. While I still listen to a handful of bands from that chapter of my formative years many have fallen by the wayside. Having said that I recently had an irresistible urge to blast some pop-punk in the car while I drove down the M6 and, during that session, Spotify threw up some unknown tunes via the ‘Pure Pop Punk’ playlist. Meet Me @ The Altar were by far my favourite artist that I hadn’t encountered before.

An all female trio hailing from the East Coast of the US, MMATA tick all the boxes that I need from pop-punk: catchy melodies, chugging guitar, gang vocals and drums that range from high energy to head-nodding halftime. There hasn’t really been a band since Four Year Strong that have nailed these categories so well in my opinion. The track that introduced me to them was ‘Hit Like A Girl’ - a feminist anthem about everyday sexism and the power of the female voice. Needless to say, it’s a banger. I then listened through their entire back-catalogue, which sadly isn’t very extensive as they’re such a new band, but I couldn’t recommend listening more if, like me, you long for pop-punk’s revival.

M Field

I’ve been a big fan of Beatenberg, a South African indie pop band, for a few years now. With a mix of catchy tunes charged with that jangly South Afrcian guitar sound and some more chilled ambient numbers, the band’s two albums were played into submission by yours truly. Sadly they’ve been quiet since 2018 and I’d assumed they were done with making new music. A couple of weeks ago a tune by a certain ‘M Field’ appeared on my Spotify Discover playlist - an excellent resource that I play with excitement every Monday. There I was working away when I instantly recognised the silky tones of Beatenberg’s lead singer.

It turns out that M Field is now releasing his own music and guess what, I love it. There are so far only five tracks, making up his self-titled EP and they all offer something slightly different. What’s constant throughout are his jaunty, jumping basslines, his laid-back, almost conversational vocals and his propensity to sing about people's first names. When I suggested a friend should listen to the EP he instantly heard similarities to some of modern jazz artist Pat Meheny’s work, especially his scatty moments. My love for M Field and Beatenberg’s work stems from my obsession with Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ and the joyous, “I have to dance or at least smile”, sound of the instrumentation. If you don’t listen to the whole EP, at least listen to ‘Fiona’ for a good reflection of his style. Also ‘Andrew’, ‘Andrew’ is great too.

Ruthven

A couple of years back a friend introduced me to Jai Paul - the enigmatic London based producer and artist in his own right. Now I know I’m very late to the Jai Paul hype but ever since I listened to ‘BTSTU’ I’ve been listening to anything and everything that Jai and his brother, A.K. Paul, have touched. I could harp on about their production style, sound and instrumentation for a whole article (maybe I will in another blog post) but instead I’ll focus on one of their recent collaborators.

Ruthven is a South-London based singer & songwriter who’s worked with the Paul Institute on a number of his tracks. The first song I experienced was ‘Evil’, a Prince inspired bop with a beguiling acapella intro. Not only did the track speak to my penchant for 80s new-wave and disco-pop but I instantly fell in love with Ruthven’s voice. It’s in his more recent tracks ‘Have You Decided?’ and ‘Don’t Keep It To Yourself’ that his vocals really shine though, as well as his varied influences. He recently spoke, in an interview alongside A.K. Paul (https://youtu.be/2ZoDsazSt8k), of the impact that powerhouses like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Prince have had on his style and that is imminently clear in his music.

Caroline Polacheck

Okay I realise that I need to stop harping on about Spotify but yep, you guessed it, this ones another ‘Discover Weekly’ success. Turns out the algorithm is absolutely nailing it for me.

Caroline Polacheck’s music is described as “atmospheric electro-pop” in her Spotify bio and I’ve come to realise that that might just be my ideal niche. She’s been making music under various guises and for various projects over the last decade but ‘Pang’ was her first album released under her own name. The track that got me into her, ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’, features on the aforementioned album. The track brings to mind the work of modern artists like Christine & The Queens and HAIM, as well as hints of Annie Lennox and Carly Simon.

It’s her production style that I really dig. The combination of a country slide guitar with erratic bass and hip hop drums on ‘New Normal’, the trap bass tendencies of ‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’, the oddly wet sounding percussion on ‘Ocean of Tears’; all combined with her excellent melodies. There’s a constant, satisfying juxtaposition of quite heavy, pounding bass and beats with her effortless pop vocals and I’m here for it. Oh and she's done an absolutely CRACKING cover of 'Breathless' by The Corrs - yep, I wasn't expecting to hear that tune in 2021 either.

Joe has put together a Spotify playlist of some his favourite tracks by the artists featured in this post. Give it a listen and let us know what you think of Joe's picks.
Make sure to 'like' the playlist on Spotify as the various members of Aux add songs to it alongside each blog post.