Tag: Nu Disco

LEWCA – Album Review: “Boombap For Boomers”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews15 Comments

As I wrote last October when I reviewed his brilliant album Friday Night Rockstar (which you can read here), singer-songwriter-musician Lewca is one of the funniest, most creative and irreverent artists I’ve come across, with a deliciously bawdy sense of humour. As he cheekily states in his bio, “Lewca was born in a squat in Brixton, by age nineteen he was living in a squat in Paris, go figure. After studying fine art and dabbling in film, he started making music just before he was too old to die young. His influences range from cheap beer to expensive rum, and also The Clash, The Streets, Sleaford Mods, LCD Soundsystem, Bob Dylan, Eminem, Tom Waits…whoever is making decent music. He currently lives in Normandy, has three kids, a mortgage, and a semi-domesticated hedgehog named ‘Sonic’.”

To reiterate, he’s been making music for years, and after being in a few bands “that fell apart for the usual reasons”, he decided to embark on his own music project as Lewca in 2018. Although he collaborates with lots of different musicians on his projects, his main partner in crime is S.O.A.P. (shorthand for Son of A Pitch), a Parisian composer, producer, drum & bass DJ and beatmaker he met at a gig in 2013. Their partnership grew from a shared love of wonky beats, British soundscapes and a healthy dose of humour, along with an “expectation of absolute world domination and unfathomable wealth, obviously”. Together, they make exciting, zany and eclectic music drawing from a multitude of genres ranging from alternative rock, post-punk and indie pop to hip hop, drum and bass and nu disco.

Now the dynamic duo are back with another uproarious new album Boombap for Boomers, and I’m here for it! Though Lewca is far too young to be a Boomer (the generation I sit squarely in the middle of) and is most likely at the tail end of Generation X, he perfectly articulates the puzzled bewilderment of a middle-aged working stiff and parent coming to terms with the fact he’s not young anymore. As for the word “boombap”, a quick Wikipedia search revealed it to be a subgenre of hip hop that’s “an onomatopoeia representing the sounds used for the bass (kick) drum and snare drum, respectively.” The style was apparently prominent on the East Coast of the U.S. during the golden age of hip hop from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

Lewca says Boombap for Boomers, the second album to come from the basement sessions with S.O.A.P., “is as laid back as ‘Friday Night Rockstar” was angst ridden“, adding that it’s “about time passing, personal doubts and demons, abuse and dreams that will never come true.” All the lyrics were written by Lewca and the music composed by S.O.A.P., who also mixed the tracks. Mastering was done by Blanka. Besides Lewca and S.O.A.P., additional vocals and/or instrumentals on the album were performed by the artists MC Burnoot (of Scottish band Fire Up The Sun), Mick Swagger, Jamaican dancehall artist Elephant Man, Faya Braz, OrangeG, John Michie, Ian Williamson, Christelle Canot, Cody and Dylan Forsyth, and Luis.

The album kicks off with blaring bagpipes and the voice of Scottish artist MC Burnoot trashing the album right from the get-go on the 32-second long “Fire Up the Intro“: “What the fuck is this? I’ve just finished listening to the new record by Lewca and let me tell ya, it’s pure dogshit. ‘Boombap for Boomers’, what in the fuck is that?” Next up is “Peace of Mind“, a delightful tune about facing yourself after having sold your soul to the Devil to get what you thought you wanted: “Does the Devil now have my number, or have I always been in hell? All I ever wanted, was peace of mind. Bought a brand new soul, with a piece of mine. All those Sunday mornings, behind locked doors. I had all I needed, but I wanted more.” I love the slow, honky tonk piano riff, carnival-like synths and quirky childlike background vocals and sound effects that give the song its zany feel.

Single art by Anoosh from Fivr

Even more delightful is “Roundabout“, where Lewca reminisces about lazy summers spent with friends during his teen years: “Sitting in the middle of a roundabout, smoking weed and wonderin’ what life’s about. Spend a whole summer hanging out, pretending we were free. And I guess we were somehow.” As the song progresses, he sings of how that comaraderie is recaptured when they meet up again as adults with kids of their own, knowing those kids will end up behaving just the same, also viewing him as “a geezer who’s out of touch“. Once again, Lewca and S.O.A.P. employ all sorts of quirky instruments and goofy sound effects to create a lighthearted and playful vibe.

On “I Got it All“, he questions whether material possessions really make us successful, acknowledging with his usual cheeky humour that he’s already satisfied with what he’s got: “Got a beautiful wife that can hardly stand me. We got a nice house, yeah we got a nice family. Car that starts every once in a while. Different colored doors really give it a style./ I don’t need shit, mate. King of the world, mate. I got it all!” Listening to Lewca sing, I can’t help but compare his deep, heavily accented vocals to those of Mick Jagger. Conversely, the jazzy hip hop track “Day Job” sees him lamenting about the difficulties of making it in the music industry: “The game’s fucked up, and with the money I make in music, I’ll be giving it up” Guest vocalist Mick Swagger raps in agreement “I guess we do it for the love / Money’s a disease and I’m tryin’ to catch it / Fingers crossed, but ain’t we quittin’ day jobs yet.”

“Quite Like Me” has Lewca and S.O.A.P. teaming up with Jamaican dancehall (a style of reggae known as ragga or dub) legend Elephant Man, who Lewca said they “managed to get by basically cold calling him drunk.” Apparently written as a vehicle for the dream collaboration, the song celebrates the joys of being a totally unique artist with a style like no one else. With call and response lyrics, Elephant man ponders “Why you do what we do?”, to which Lewca replies “There’s nobody quite like me.”

On the madcap drum and bass gem “All Grown Up“, Lewca decries the soul-killing responsibilities of adulthood and how desperately he wants to avoid it: “We’re all grown up, and it fucking sucks! Oh no, I don’t wanna grow. I refuse to be an adult.” Once again, S.O.A.P. draws from his bag of musical tricks to create a playful sense of mayhem with goofy synths, funhouse sound effects, squeaking toys and the child voices of brothers Cody and Dylan Forsyth. All that being said, there are times when Lewca simply must perform his role as an adult in order to get his kids off to school, despite suffering from a hangover, on the wonderful ska song “Monday Morning“.  

One of my favorite songs on he album is the superb title track “Boombap for Boomers“, a celebration of the music Lewca and S.O.A.P. make: “I really got nothing to say, just rappin’ some shit, hope it sounds okay / We ain’t got a lot of talent, but we do what we can / We ain’t in it for the money, we’re just booming boombap.” With its propulsive drum and bass beat, wobbly industrial synths and intense scratching, the song is an exhilarating blast from start to finish.

And speaking of exhilarating, “Discoboy” nicely delivers with a wonderful pulsating house dance groove, exuberant piano keys and a colorful blend of gnarly and swirling synths. Featuring some terrific beatbox by French beatboxer and looper Faya Braz, the song encourages us to lose ourselves on the dancefloor while ignoring the haters and judgemental pricks, and practice a live and let live attitude by embracing others’ differences. Lewca frantically raps “Be who you want in life, fuck who you wanna fuck, goddamn, and fuck them haters / Forget the grind, the world outside, let’s lose our minds again.” 

Featuring a buoyant retro 80s synthpop vibe, “Internet Recovery” opens with those annoying dial up sounds we all suffered through in the early days of the internet. Lewca cleverly uses a computer reboot as a metaphor for reviving his exhausted and frazzled self “I’m running on fumes, mate. It’s like my system is about to shut down / I need to regroup, get my shit together / Best guess is to erase the whole damn disk, format my mind, I might cease to exist.“

One of the many things I love about Lewca’s songs are the entertaining and humorous stories he weaves. On the autobiographical “Life, innit?“, he tells of his marriage, and how it went to shit: “I met a girl / We had sex, we fell in love, we had more sex / We got married on a beach / We had kids, we left the city / We got a loan, we bought a house / I did it up, but guess what, she threw me out / Love is funny like that, innit mate.” But later in the song, he confesses that his marriage is in fact pretty good: “Full disclosure, I was just kidding. Me and my wife, we’re okay, we’re still winning. I’m so happy we’re still together. But for this song, getting thrown out just worked better.” With a deep drum and bass house groove, lots of glitchy sounds, and guitar played by British singer-songwriter and musician John Michie, it’s a great track.

The closing track “Daydreaming“, a mellow Americana-tinged ska song featuring charming banjo strumming by Pittsburgh artist OrangeG, continues the autobiographical theme with Lewca confessing some of his shortcomings, which aren’t really so serious at the end of the day: “I played a fool / Made believe that I break the rules / My life is one big bluff, but too much is never enough / Daydreaming, wasting my life away / Nothing’s gonna be okay, and that’s okay with me.” It’s a heartwarming end to a fantastic, massively entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable album.

Boombap for Boomers will also be available in a limited edition Halloween Orange 12-inch Vinyl. For purchases within the UK, Lewca advises pre-ordering through the Wax & Beans website shorturl.at/zFKT9, as the postage will be more affordable.

Connect with Lewca on Facebook / X (Twitter) / Instagram / TikTok

Find his music on Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Soundcloud / YouTube

TOBISONICS – Album Review: “We Need Light in the Dark”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews5 Comments

Tobisonics is the music project of Toby Davis, a longtime alternative electro-pop artist, composer, songwriter and music producer based in Luxembourg. A lifelong lover of music, he was born and raised in England, and spent his volatile teenage years in a series of, by his own admission, both ‘awful and awesome’ indie guitar bands. But by his early 20s, his increasing struggles with depression and other then-undiagnosed mental health issues led him to abandon music. By his mid-30s, he felt trapped, socially isolated, and suicidal. Finally reaching a breaking point, he sought the help of a psychiatrist, which led to regular therapy sessions and medication. Years of repressed emotions and music welled up inside him came pouring out as he slowly began to heal.

For several years, he used his creative vision and talents mixing, mastering or remixing other artists and bands’ music, but starting in late 2018, he decided to create his own musical works as Tobisonics. About his moniker, he says “All Tobisonics really means is Tobi sounds. And that’s how I think of myself, as a noisemaker, rather than a musician.”

Like me, Toby is frightened by the unsettling trend of increasing authoritarianism and populist nationalism happening across the globe, in what sometimes appears to be a creeping movement back toward a new dark age. Some of his songs – “Military Industrial Complex“, “Eye of the Storm” and “Putin’s Got a Gun Against Your Head” – addressed those concerns. More recently, he’s made the courageous decision to tackle his own personal mental health struggles on his debut album We Need Light in the Dark, which dropped October 7th.

In April 2021, he began working on what was intended to be 4 – 5 track EP in collaboration with spoken word artist Wee Scots Poet, with whom he’d previously collaborated on his single “All the Little Things”. When that collaboration didn’t work out, Toby needed to find a voice, as he’s not a singer. So, he decided to use vocal samples as he’d done with his first single “All These Things”. We Need Light in the Dark quickly developed into a far more personal story than he had ever intended.

Toby explains: “I wanted to make an album that gave people hope; an album that said, the worse things get, the more we need to find the wonder in life. In these difficult times, optimism isn’t naive, it’s imperative to our survival. In doing so, I ended up telling my own story of ongoing recovery from chronic depression/anxiety and PTSD, the lessons I have learned, and the ones I am still struggling to learn. By using recycled voices, from old public service announcements and Sci-Fi B-movies, I found I could hide in plain sight. I found I could talk about subjects far more personal and painful than I could ever with my own voice.“

The seven songs take us on a journey that begins with acknowledgment of emotional pain and poor self-esteem, the struggles of overcoming them, and acceptance of who we are and learning to find glimmers of contentment and peace of mind. On the opening track “Panic“, Toby addresses feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy, fearing he’ll never measure up or succeed, which leads to sleepless nights and bouts of panic – something many of us have felt at one time or another. I certainly have. “The trouble is, if you’re not self-reliant, you’ll never do anymore than just get by. You have more assurance but less self control. Panic. All night long.” It’s a fairly short track, lasting just slightly over two minutes, but makes a big impression. Toby starts with a mesmerizing deep synth-bass groove, then layers a fascinating blend of sharp industrial synths, eerie sounds and otherworldly voices, creating a soundscape that’s both unsettling and captivating, and a perfect backdrop for the man’s rather cold, matter-of-fact spoken words.

On “Scream“, he once again uses eerie synths and otherworldly vocal effects to create a disturbing vibe. The biting lyrics are spoken by both an accuser “I always figured there was something wrong with you. Loser. Failed” and the accused, who’s a demoralized victim: “Loser. Failed. Freak. I’m sorry you made me. Emotion. You made me scream.” And on “How Do You Say Life is Wonderful?” he ponders how to remain positive and sane in the face of so much pain (which isn’t openly expressed, but certainly inferred): “How do you say never give up. Life is wonderful? Never give up.” Toby drives home his message with an uptempo Latin dance beat, bathed in colorful industrial synths and almost playful sound effects, all of which beautifully expresses contrasting feelings of sadness and elation.

“Snakes” addresses what seems to be a reopening of old wounds and resentment, namely toward those who’ve betrayed him or let him down in the past: “The vision of your future starts to crumble. Snakes. This is why I keep no friends. No friends. What happened? I trusted you. Can not stand the lies.” Musically, the song is haunting and dark, with a hypnotic beat overlain with mysterious industrial synths, punctuated at the beginning by a somber ringing bell. Once again, Toby uses otherworldly electronically-altered voices, backed by a mournful chorus of female vocals, to create an even more unsettling vibe.

On the buoyant nu disco track “You Just Have to Dance“, he acknowledges that he has no choice but to move on from all the pain and resentment, and make the best of the life he has left: “Are you sure you can deal with it? Deal with it? Dance dance. You just have to dance. You just have to dance now. You gotta dance. But you can’t win them all.” On “All I Ever Needed“, he speaks of the fear of abandonment and being alone, and begs a loved one not to leave, in this case, his dog Enzo, who suffers from epilepsy: “The thing that makes the difference here Is the emotion that goes along with him. A great great fear of being alone. Being alone. All I’ve ever wanted. And all I’ve ever needed. Don’t leave. Don’t wanna be alone.” With a somewhat complex melody, dominated by a throbbing dance beat that calls to mind that used on the Donna Summer classic “I Feel Love”, the songs feels at once retro disco, yet freshly current.

That ringing bell first heard on “Snakes” makes a return appearance on the closing title track “We Need Light in the Dark“, which brings everything full circle on the album. Toby now recognizes that he must be the source of his own light in the dark, acknowledging that while bad stuff will still come his way and that life will never be perfect, he must do his best to remain hopeful and positive: “We Need Light in the Dark. We gotta help ourselves. But you can’t win them all. How do you say life is wonderful?” Running nearly five minutes, it’s the longest of the seven tracks, and also the most downtempo. The combination of a languid bass groove, cool spacey synths – highlighted by deliciously funky Prince-esque keyboards – and trippy vocal effects create a bewitching soundscape that nicely conveys a restrained sense of optimism.

We Need Light in the Dark is a fine debut by Tobisonics, beautifully showcasing his masterful composition, arrangement and production skills. I’m touched by his willingness to expose himself to the world through his music, and I hope this album will speak to others who’ve experienced similar mental health struggles, perhaps even helping them to come to terms with some of their own issues.

Connect with Tobisonics: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
Stream his music:  Spotify / Apple Music
Purchase:  Bandcamp / Amazon