Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.
𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙚𝙧 – 𝘿𝙤𝙣 𝙆𝙮𝙤𝙩𝙚
Charles is designed that way…
Do you find that you seem to be forever fitting things in? Only embiggening the to-do list, rather than ticking things off? While your “Hobbies, Experiences and Dreams” list is in need of some light dusting (if you can even FIND it)…? Ten chores to complete in the time it takes to do six…? Heavy competition from your peers. Constant slog. Never a moment’s rest, or even really any time to do what you WANT to do, rather than what you HAVE to do. The world keeps turning. It’s exhausting. So you eventually go to bed. Or rather, you fall into a large slump when the sky is black and you can no longer stay upright. Barely able to achieve just a few hours’ rest at night, do you then wake up fresh and enthusiastic for a bright new day…? Hardly. Reluctantly, you pull back the bed sheets and do it all over again. A permanent drowse follows you through the room, delayed with every movement. It ain’t human… Yet this is what we are now. Sleepwalkers. The thing is, we ARE human. We simply weren’t built for this way of life. We were not designed for this… Which got me thinking…
Science was designed to make our lives better and longer, not for inventing the atomic bomb. Saltpeter was designed for fireworks, not guns. Telephones were designed for communication, not for isolation. Alcohol was designed for a good time, not to numb the pain. Drugs were designed to cure, not for a good time. Painkillers were designed to numb the pain, not numb the soul. Books were designed to be read, not consumed by machine, then burnt. Wellington boots were designed for purpose, not for fashion. Fashion was designed for aspiration, not for purpose. Cars were designed to transport people, not to plough into people. Knives were designed to cut, not to stab. Guns were designed to kill, not to… okay, fair enough (sadly). The internet was designed to bring us all together, not to turn us against each other. Technology was designed for efficiency, not for time-wasting and human-redundancy. Art was designed for inspiring, refreshing and enhancing the soul, not as a fresh canvas for orange paint. Music was designed for every emotion under the sun, not for artificial streams. Film was designed for immersion, not for passing the time. The countryside was designed for freedom and peace, not for building on. Houses were designed to be lived in, not owned by oligarchs for investment purposes. Stradivarii were designed for playing, not for sitting in a museum. Deer were designed to frolic and roam free, not to be shot. Churches were designed for worship and contemplation, not for converting into unaffordable flats. The Sun was designed for warmth, free energy and free smiles, not for skin cancer. The Moon was designed for sheer beauty, not to be taken for granted. Birthdays were designed for celebration, not nonchalant depression as you notch up another year closer to death (“I’m not dead yet” – that’s the spirit!). Computer fans were designed to cool their processor, not as a hand-warmer. Chainsaws were designed for swiftly removing diseased trees, not for slicing wafer-thin ham – quite the amusing image…
But you know what else seems to have been misunderstood…? Albums. LPs. LPs were designed as a full chunk of time away from everything; a chance to truly immerse oneself in an artist’s creation. I’m talking about proper ALBUM albums. They were NOT designed to be cut up and thrown to the curators for a playlist to devour. One isolated track from a concept album, sandwiched between two other artists’ fully standalone singles, is completely meaningless and simply doesn’t work. A single is a single. And a playlist of a suitably suited genre is the perfect place for it. But when an artist puts out something so important (yes, genuinely important) as a full-length concept album with zero gaps or pauses, no limb should ever be disconnected from its body. It simply can’t function or perform on its own. It will suddenly start out of context, then abruptly stop just as you were starting to feel it. Can you imagine reading a short story, then moving on to chapter seven of a random novel, then finally finishing your meander with another short story…? The short stories work perfectly. That seventh chapter was a disjunct interruption that simultaneously interested and confused, briefly.
And so we come to Don Kyote. A name that despite being written phonetically, always reminds me how I used to pronounce the word from whence it came. It took me years to realise that Quixote (of Don fame) was not pronounced Quick-Sote – which sounded to me like a fast-drying cement, a high-protein muscle-gain product, or a flash-fryer. Surely that’s not CC digressing…? It is, ya know. Don Kyote is not in fact the chivalrous romantic, this time, but instead another man entirely. And there’s a high chance you might have heard of him. Mr. Braddon Williams…? Ring a bell? Well, it should. Alongside myself and Andres Guazzelli, Braddon has mixed many pieces for many artists in the community. The question is, “Is he any good?”… p-HAH!! Yes. In a word, yes. He used to be an official mixing engineer for Sony, working with artists such as Mark Ronson, Beyoncé, Billy Joel, The Script and many more. No, I’m not kidding. So yes, he is indeed good, to say the least. But aside from his known expertise in mixing, he is also a producer and an artist in his own right (like most of us engineers). And it is THIS side of things that I would like to focus on. Rather embarrassingly, I have never reviewed young Braddon before. He has always released such brilliant work under a couple of guises. One, being his rock band called Prototype One, with an LP (‘Home’) released in 2022. But it seems these days he seems to have quietly settled behind the mask of Don Kyote.
So, why have I never reviewed Braddon Williams? Mainly because of that simple thing called taste. The talent was ALWAYS very evident. But the writing from Prototype One never quite warmed my cockles. As to Don Kyote’s initial couple of albums – ‘Scatterbrain’ (2023) and ‘Transmogrification’ (2025) – it was simply above me. Jazzier than a mother. In awe of his talent, I just couldn’t connect. Although loving a lot of jazz, I have never really been “a jazzer” (except for a brief migraine in around 2004). Then something happened around 10 days ago. This brave lothario (Braddon Quick-Sote) released something entirely new. A whole side of him I hadn’t heard before. Along strides – sorry: Along mooches ‘Sleepwalker’. Or, what I believe to be his greatest work yet. Something worthy of so much more than this article. THIS is the feature-length concept album of which I was speaking. The one that would be sacrilege for Edward Scissorhands to go anywhere near. Scissors are designed for running with, not for cutting. The LP is NOT for playlisting. Actually, correction, I discovered it by listening to the community’s playlists. So, it IS for playlisting, but only for use as an advert for the complete production. Think of its appearance on a playlist like a film trailer rather than the product itself. My worry is that most listeners are not so pro-active (hate the word) as I, when it comes to music. Whenever I hear a track I love, my thumbs lead me to the album (if it is from an album). It killed me to cut up my own debut (and only) album for playlists, but it was frankly the only way I could get each and every part heard. I didn’t really think of it as a collection of 14 tracks, but more a piece in 14 parts. I initially wrote and produced the whole thing in order, in one project, before cutting it up for mixing (and for my old computer’s wellbeing). So I very much understand Braddon’s potential frustration in having to split things up for playlists. Once I had heard just one track from ‘Sleepwalker’, though, there was no doubting that this was only one small fraction of something not only bigger, but greater.
As to the actual concept of this album, I searched and searched for information on it. I found absolutely nothing. Which is, by the way, the reason this was not reviewed last week. I knew it needed a great deal of research before the actual writing part. Gutted, and despite my attempts, I can give you nothing but the record. CC failed. Each track takes place in a different time and city in the world. We cover Melbourne, Paris, Christchurch, Geneva, Prague, Bangkok, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Madrid, Florence, London, Cape Town, Seoul, Toronto, Cairo, Tokyo, Los Angleles, Honolulu, and finally back home to Hong Kong (that’s where he resides these days). I know, 22 tracks sounds like far too much to sit down with, but remember, this is designed for one sitting, not to ruin your schedule. It only runs to 37 minutes. Hence why one isolated track is wholly unsatisfying, no matter how brilliant it might be. At this juncture, I might now let you in on the genre. It ain’t jazz. It ain’t rock. It certainly ain’t electronic. It’s classical. And very filmic indeed. I actually assumed that ‘Sleepwalker’ was the soundtrack to a documentary, but as far as I can tell it is simply a musical release. I said, my research led me nowhere. So I simply listened. Throughout the writing of this entire article, I have been listening to the LP on repeat. I have let it wash over me. I never listen and write simultaneously. Normally, I simply can’t. “Just like a man”. I think the lack of words was what made me able to write and listen simultaneously. And aside from listening, it is such an immersive, satisfying thing to have playing. Every so often, I would be curious as to which city the music was supposed to be portraying. I assume this is the idea, anyway. I found this most interesting and a little bit fascinating. But I must say, I certainly do NOT want to go to Los Angeles after having heard his musical interpretation of the city. The only musical relative I can hear is Amaury Laurent Bernier when in his soundtrack mode(‘Totem‘, for example), as opposed to when he is free from constraints (‘Polaroid Revolt’). Amaury is the greatest film composer I personally know, so this comparison is certainly a compliment to Braddon. Classical music is more than a genre; it’s another world. As is jazz. It’s not something you can quickly pick up and “get’ within a few weeks. It’s like learning a new language. It doesn’t just mean you stick some strings in it and call it classical. Braddon seemingly just KNOWS what to do and when to do it. For me, he easily eclipses Ludovico Einaudi and modern day Max Richter (he used to be great), who both frankly bore me to frowns. There is nothing more I can say about ’Sleepwalker’ because it’s much better heard through ears.
Contrary to my first paragraph, some things just take time. Some things are not designed to be rushed. My old manager used to say this about our breaks: “best get it over with”… A break is to be relished!! As is an LP. Find time in your hectic schedule to listen to this feature-length release. Nay: MAKE time. Embiggen that list by one. You’ll thank me in the end. Nay: you’ll thank our courageous romantic, Brad-Don; the fast drying, muscle-bearing flash fryer. Much better than a wet muscle-baring fly-flasher.
I need one thing from you readers before I go. For one week, the entire LP will be at the top of my Connolly’s Corner playlist – almost unheard of! Once the week is over, I will be keeping just one track. Let me know in the comments which city’s track you think I should keep, and why. Whichever city has the most votes will remain. I will only consider votes in the comments below the article, NOT on social media. And yes, I know; I am being Edward Scissorhands in keeping just one, but ya know. It was designed this way. “Oh CC, cut it out!”
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