Our ‘Track By Track’ guide sheds light on the stories behind some of our favourite artists’ music.
We love pulling back the curtain on the stories and inspirations behind intriguing new releases. It’s always fascinating to hear the personal anecdotes, creative processes, and little-known tales that shaped each track, giving us all a deeper appreciation for the artistry that goes into crafting these musical gems.
This Friday will see the release of ‘Perfect Strangers’ the debut album from Greg Sanders’ new project Lophae (pronounced Lo-fi)). Led by the talented guitarist, producer and composer the quartet is completed by drummer Ben Brown, bassist Tom Herbert, and saxophonist Sam Rapley. In our review of the album’s closing track, ‘Heddon Street’ we noted that, despite it being their first time recording together, these musicians are remarkably attuned to one another and excel in the art of collective improvisation.
The sonic landscape of the record is rich and often belies the small group size. “I used a lot of pedals with the guitar to create washy, floaty loops using just a couple of notes that would give a sense of ambience and atmosphere without pinning us down harmonically,” says Sanders. “And recording to tape gives a certain sound that I really love.”
Sanders has kindly curated a playlist of songs that inspired the creation of ‘Perfect Strangers’. Stream the playlist below, followed by Sanders’ exclusive track-by-track breakdown.
1) Fallout
Fallout started life through a compositional exercise I do quite a lot – using the chords and form of an existing song (in this case Karma Police by Radiohead) as a template for making a brand new chord progression. (It’s something I read Bob Dylan talking about doing with folk songs, and I thought it sounded smart!) For example I might take the first 4 or 8 bars of a 16-bar song that I like, and experimen with changing the 2nd chord, the 3rd chord, 4th chord etc, until I have my own 4 or 8 bar progression that after so many iterations, no longer has much (if anything) audibly in common with the original song I liked, but is a new thing I like. I might then try to come up with a melodic phrase I like, possibly using a particular scale or subset of notes from within a scale that have a certain vibe.
From there I’ll try to “fill in” the rest of the tune – using that initial melodic statement and chord progression to guide the remainder, trying different iterations and approaches to tension and resolution to arrive at a final thing I’m satisfied with, and that sounds like something that would grab me and make me want to listen again if it were someone else’s work.
It sometimes feels a bit like making a very small sculpture (something I definitely can’t do!), chiseling away to reveal the most economic, concise and arresting realization of the initial musical statement.
I’m also always trying to combine different musical elements and concepts that I love but haven’t heard together before.
In Fallout – there are a few of these in the compositional DNA, as well as what Ben, Sam and Tom then bring through their interpretation.
There’s a rich trove of 60s Wayne Shorter tunes where he uses almost completely pentatonic melodies with juicy, dark and often non-functional chords.
Fellow London guitarist Harry Christelis is an old friend, and I have fond memories of countless hours playing Shorter tunes like House Of Jade together when we were in our early 20s, before either of us had done our formal jazz studies!
Bill Frisell’s amazing 858 quartet album was also on regular rotation for me around that time – there’s a particular sound-world / scale which my brain categorizes as ‘that kind of bluesy, swampy, country American thing’, which I was hearing for the Fallout opening melody.
The groove is loosely based on the Brasillian frevo – an amazing rhythm and dance from Recife in the north-east. In Fallout, the frevo hints are mostly present in the skipping rhythm Ben plays on the hi-hat and snare, and the phrasing of the melody.
I’m probably going to say this about every track, but I absolutely love what Ben Tom and Sam do on this recording!
Tom’s fretless playing is an absolute masterclass in melodically winding through the chords in a way that’s supportive to everyone else, rhythmically in the pocket, and constantly developing inner themes.
Ben’s drums drive everything along with an amazing feel and fierce energy without ever boiling over, and Sam’s lyricism, lush tone and relaxed approach are such a hip contrast to those fiery skipping drums.
Playlist tracks:
‘Old Times’ – Bill Frisell & 858 Quartet
‘A Banda no Frevo’ – Marco Cesar, Ezequias Lira
2) Dedication To David T
This one was written probably back in 2013.
Similar inspiration to Fallout – that Wayne Shorter-ish lyrical mostly pentatonic melody with super juicy dark non-functional chords thing.
I love tunes which are slow but groovy – and not in 4!
I saw Shabaka & Sons Of Kemet quite a few times from behind the bar at the Vortex around this time, I found the way Tom Skinner and Seb Rochford played together really inspiring, especially on the slow tunes.
Slow but funky, deep, profound and rich. And hypnotic.
Again – Ben Tom and Sam sound amazing on this track, they all bring exactly what the music needs!
Playlist tracks:
‘Adonia’s Lullaby’ – Sons Of Kemet
‘House Of Jade’ – Wayne Shorter
3) Vicentina
My attempt at a “classic” sounding Samba, in the vein of gorgeous minor-key tunes like ‘Canto Das Tres Racas’ by Clara Nunes, ‘Zum-Zum’ by Edu Lobo, and ‘O Grande Amor’. I wanted to hear Ben, Tom & Sam on something like this!
I’ve always been a sucker for the slow sad sambas (e.g everything by Paulo César Pinheiro) so this is my contribution to the slow sad samba pile. But (as often seems to be the case) I’m not sure if I quite managed to write what I was trying to. It’s probably not sad enough and a little bit too slinky.
Playlist tracks:
‘Canto Das Tres Racas’ – Clara Nunes
‘O Grande Amor’ – Stan Getz & João Gilberto
4) Perfect Strangers
The groove on this is kind of funky highlife from Ghana – in particular an amazing contemporary band called West Coast Ebusua, in particular THIS amazing video of them which I’ve watched so many times and I LOVE.
Linguist (the guitarist) has such a beautiful way of playing – a kind of constantly evolving commentating accompaniment style that sounds so laid-back and sweet but is really hard to do! They’re all amazing.
For the chords I wanted a progression that sounded kind of wrong but also satisfying and inevitable. And then a cool jazzy boppy head. Also energy-wise I wanted us to go for a kind of constant slow burn with a fairly small overall dynamic range, rather than trying to achieve any solo hero moments.
Playlist tracks:
‘Nyansapo’ – Adasamma
‘Line For Lyons’ – Gerry Mulligan & Paul Desmond
5) Family Tree
A Maracatu rhythm (from the north-east of Brasil) with an extra beat squashed in there.
Some classic Blue Note Hard Bop tenor & trumpet 8ve unison (thanks to the amazing Yelfris Valdés for the trumpet).
I don’t know quite what I was going for on the guitar sound on this one! Whatever it was I didn’t get there but I wanted to try to make the best of whatever it was.
Sam’s solo over the gospel-y B section and Tom’s amazingly rich bass notes give me joy.
As well as Ben’s irrespressible inventiveness!
Playlist tracks:
‘BALEIAS’ – Babo Moreno & Baque Luar
6) Greatfields
This is a pretty straight-forward homage to Hermeto Pascoal and that rich seam of jazz forro / jazz baião stuff that Hermeto, Airto and that whole scene invented (as far as I know!)
I particularly love Tom’s McCartney bass tone on this one – the whole thing gives me a kind of Beatles got high and played psychedelic brasillian jazz alternate universe vibe which makes me smile.
Playlist tracks:
‘Forro Brasil’ – Fabiano Do Nascimiento
7) Negative Blues
I’ve written a few things that seem to have some kind of 70s / 80s “cop-show” spiritual lineage. I don’t know what I’m channelling there… but I like it.
See the unison bass & guitar riffs in ‘Gloves Off’ and ‘Nearly Everything’ on the Teotima ‘Counting The Ways’ LP.
Continuing in that cop-show tradition, Negative Blues is… a negative blues. 12 bars blues progression, but the chords are their negative versions. If you don’t know what I’m waffling about, you could go down a Youtube ‘Negative Harmony’ rabbit hole but you don’t really need to.
Some Fela-inspired rhythm guitar and tenor guitar bedroom overdubs on this one… as well as the actual guitar solo!
Another fun 3 beat groove (like David T), with Ben bringing some Harvey Mason vibes.
Playlist tracks:
‘Fourty Days’ – Billy Brooks
8) Heddon Street
This was written very pragmatically for a series of outdoor Sunday afternoon gigs on Heddon Street, in central London, sometime around 2014. The person organizing the event asked us to play “kind of groovy, jazzy, chill stuff” for vibes and atmosphere for people eating al fresco at the restaurants on this little pedestrianized street.
I jumbled together some little harmonic moments from D’Angelo’s Africa and an amazing song called ‘Fight’ by my Teotima collaborator Ellie Rose Rusbridge, with a groove inspired by some old rare groove tune that had lyrics that went something like “if there were any justice, in this world” but WASN’T the Lemar song, and another little bluesy swampy melody for the B section.
Really just something for us to have fun playing around on with no pressure!
Playlist tracks:
‘Africa’ – D’Angelo
