Connolly’s Corner

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.

𝙒𝘼𝙆𝙀 𝙐𝙋! (& 𝙎𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚) – 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙡𝙞𝙣 & 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡

Charles loses an idol…

Monday morning. For Mondays are when I write these things. I woke up – an achievement in itself. Quick scan of the phone before making breakfast. A sensible person would perhaps make breakfast first, but ya know – I’m just so young and modern! Bleary eyed and stumbly (I would say zombie-like, but those scary days are behind us), I look at the messages that I know I will have to read again when I am awake enough to reply. Get rid of the red dots all over the screen (those with iPhones will know the curse), and so to the ritual of the coffee. Quite amazing what that smell does for one’s soul. NOW I am ready to start the day. Time to look at the “paper”. It’s an app (ugh). What news lurks in store for me? What shenanigans have people been up to? What catastrophes have encroached on our peaceful land? Ugh: Trump, Harris, Harris, Trump. NEXT! Politics politics. Economy economy. NEXT! Baby switched at birth. NEXT! Oh come on, there must be something. Oh JESUS!! Ah gawd. And I am stopped mid slurp. That hollow feeling, as if my chest holds only lungs and nothing more. Our great gilt past continues to evaporate, leaving little but a plastic, mediocre present. Quincy Jones has died. He was 91.

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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.

𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙏𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙈𝙚 – 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙡 & 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙣 𝙈𝙘𝙂𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙣

Charles dons his mortarboard and begins the class. “Settle down, children”…

This week I have moistly – it has been raining in London – been listening Jacob Collier. Many of you may not even have heard of this chap. He is not quite yet 27 years old, and already has a total of 5 Grammys (Grammys, not Grannies – that would be even more unlikely), breaking all previous records of all kinds. Not to mention MAKING records of all kinds. To say he is a virtuoso is really actually putting him down. I believe him to be the most talented musical artist since possibly Stravinsky or even Beethoven, and he is very much a genius. I don’t mean genius in the sense of a footballer scoring a goal, for that is slightly less than what I would call genius. In fact, I very rarely use the word. Paul McCartney is another musical genius. But Mr. Collier goes beyond this. McCartney has a gift. Collier has an incredible mind. If an informed man/woman/person/thing were to have a brain the size of a house, Jacob’s brain would be the size of the street. Or even the entire borough. His musical talents are seemingly quite literally unlimited. It is almost like he has the answer before you have even posed the question! His music knows NO bounds. No bounds at ALL! There is one problem, however. We, the general public are not on his level, or even close to it. We are barely on his horizon. We NEED boundaries. We need something we can understand and grasp. There needs to be a certain amount of familiarity (for most), or even predictability. There is something so satisfying about knowing where “the one” is. There is something so gratifying about knowing that the big old chorus is going to come nnnNOW. Jacob does not however make horrible dissonant disjointed “music”. He makes stunning MUSIC – no quotation marks. But it will only be for certain people, hence despite all the countless awards, he has never entered the Top 40 charts for any single or album. So! Where on Earth is CC going with this? Well. We have learnt that in order to make music that will appeal to the masses, it has to be not TOO dissimilar to music we know and love. But there is no point whatsoever in regurgitating the same old stuff, year after year (although this is exactly what most “artists’ seem to do these days). The question is this: How does one make music more interesting?

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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.

𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝘼𝙬𝙖𝙮 – 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙠 𝘼𝙝𝙡𝙢

Charles is standardising…

To quote It’s a Wonderful Life (as I often seem to), “I live in a shack in Potter’s Field and my wife ran away three years ago and took the kid”… This basically sums up my life. No, wait. That’s not true. It doesn’t at all. I have never lived in such a place (if it exists), I have never been married, and I don’t have any children. But the rest is true. But, there is no “rest”! Ah yes. True. Well, in that case I have absolutely nothing in common with the alternate life of Ernie Bishop, the cab driver. I can’t even drive! So where does this leave us? Where does this LEAD us? Well, it leads us to the beginning. My beginning. I really had a wonderful life!

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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.

𝙑𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙚𝙚𝙨 (𝘼𝙩𝙡𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙭 𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙬𝙖𝙫𝙚) – 𝙆𝙚𝙡𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝘼𝙩𝙡𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝

Charles mixes things up a bit…

For a change, we will not be diving deeply into the subconscious and philosophy of this here writer. We will not be talking about flowers, life, death, breakups, language, meditation, hangovers, choice, weather, buckets, or any of a number of things on which I have touched most recently. We will instead be going straight into the world of music. Or more specifically, remaking music. Being an observant unsigned artist, and being surrounded by unsigned artists, I have noticed two things crop up again and again. One of which is collaboration (habitually called “collabs”). I have covered no less than 7 of these “collabs” over my months of musing. The idea can really work to great effect, as talents can be combined to build a bigger, better picture. When art spurs art, inspiration can take flight. The other thing these days that punctuates our playlists, is the remix. I have however been, shall we say, less forthcoming in advertising these works, and have covered – I believe – no more than 2. This could be conceived as unforgivable, particularly regarding how popular they are, and how frequently they are released. But this might not be the case. Art is by definition subjective. Art is Marmite – a joke only perhaps for the Britonians, and one at which we can chortle in private as the rest of the world raises an eyebrow or politely glosses over. I have a little bit to say about remixes, which may or may not be contentious. Ooh! Nothing like a bit of banter.

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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.

𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙨 – 𝙏𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙫

Charles is heard but not seen…

Am I an introvert, or do I just have English manners? Am I scared of the world and its things and its people, or do I just prefer to live within the boundaries of my own little world? One can limp along in life, doing little and getting by. Anyone is free to do so. The darkness of the world will attempt to grab you by the ankles whenever possible, though. To mould you into a “standardised” member of society. I would say it takes more courage, determination and guts to pull away from the natural tide and do one’s own thing. A person such as this may seem to hide and shy away from “the norm”, but really they are only ridding themselves of the mundane and quietly getting on with their own way of doing things. It may seem like they are threatened by the lions and sharks of the land and the sea, but in fact they are batting away the irritating flies of the world wide wet.

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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.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙩? (𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙅. 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡 𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙭) – 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣, 𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙅. 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡

Charles bangs his head for fun…

Antidisestablishmentarianism is a word that appears in few dictionaries these days, simply due to its rare usage. I cannot think why. Could it be because it takes half an hour to pronounce, and half a day to write? It is still arguably the longest word in the english language. Yes, arguably – don’t start up in the comments. So is it just its length that stops people including it in their day-to-day vocal spiel? Probably not. It is probably because it has a stupid meaning. One can be FOR the establishment. One can be AGAINST the establishment. But this word sums up being against being against the establishment. Not a typo. Meaning FOR the establishment. And we’re right back where we started. Take coffee, for example. There are people who like coffee (the correct ones), and there are people who don’t like coffee (the silly ones). And then there are the people who don’t NOT like coffee. Who in God’s name invented this irritating and confusing double negative?? Speaking of God, this lengthy pretentious word originally stems from the Church of England, being the establishment. But just as you were all starting to moan and groan about this being another piece about words, you are now moaning and groaning further in thinking it is another piece about religion. Well, I am here to put your mind at ease. It is about neither. The point is, anyone who uses “antidisestablishmentarianism” is evidently someone who is against things for the sake of being against things, while trying to look cool. Bringing us to punks. A modern take on the original renegades. But not the rather amusing punks of the 70s, or the bullies of the 60s disguised as Hell’s Angels, but in fact a different variety. The crazy mixed up kids of the early 90s. Anti-establishment? Antidisestablishment? They were anti everything! But also couldn’t really care enough to make a solid point about anything. Basically, it was an excuse to have a lot of fun. To enjoy being young and seemingly invincible – as all young people should feel. Though this had been going on underground since around 1988, it took a few years for the scene to become a known culture. I bring you, London 1992.

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