We Speak Music
BRAJ Embraces No Limits On The Intense Emotional Journey On ‘Overview’
The dynamic duo, Jordan Kellaway and Nev Benjamin, are the masterminds behind BRAJ. They are gearing up to drop their highly-anticipated new track ‘Overview’ on September 7, 2023. The song, which has a bright, summery mood with pop and R&B influences, expresses the universal desire to anticipate the fate of a relationship before joining it.
Jordan Kellaway (vocalist) and Nev Benjamin (producer) are the ingenious minds that birthed BRAJ. Their irresistible sounds are delivered from 2000s R&B mixed with the freshest pop vibes of today. But cling on tight as their strategy has nothing to do with predictability. These two musicians don’t believe in following the rules or being cautious with their artistry. They reverse the script for each fresh production to make sure that no two songs are ever misinterpreted for twins.
Get ready for an intense emotional journey as you listen to each song, with Jordan’s words serving as the conductor that tugs at your heartstrings. His words encapsulate emotions you never realised needed a soundtrack. In the meanwhile, don’t be shocked if your head nods involuntarily and your feet begin to tap. Everything is a result of Nev’s infectious production and soundscapes. His creations of rhythms are so contagious that they almost force your body to groove.
Jordan’s melodic guitar line and Nev’s silky bass line are the highlights of this song. The track’s percussion and drums truly bring everything together and give it its own identity as it alternates between trap beats and indie-pop textures. Naturally, the last chorus was going all out, utilizing even more distorted guitars, layered synthesizers, and Jordan’s powerful vocal delivery.
BRAJ comments on the track, “‘Overview’ encapsulates the universally relatable desire to foresee a relationship’s trajectory before diving in. This concept takes center stage as the track seamlessly oscillates between vibey surf rock riffs and anthemic trap beats. Jordan Kellaway’s vocals passionately beseech listeners for such prescience, delivered through catchy melodies and an emotive, bittersweet, and energetically charged performance. In the background, Nev Benjamin’s masterful basslines and production work synergistically to amplify the track’s sentiment, creating an instrumental landscape that resonates deeply with the song’s core theme.”
So prepare to be amazed, touched, and inspired to dance by the fantastic musical work that is BRAJ. There are no limits to the audio adventures you are about to go on with Jordan Kellaway and Nev Benjamin in charge.
‘Overview’ is available on all streaming platforms.
We Speak Music
BEST BAND invite you into their bizarre and surreal punk world with new album ‘The People’s Cub’
Sometimes London based three-piece Best Band’s band name genuinely angers people and they think that the band are being cocky and are exclaiming that they are the ‘best band’ ever created. However, the name came about after drummer Simon and guitarist Richard were inspired both personally and creatively with the goal to make the ‘best band’ that they possibly could.
The pair first met as members of improvised band ‘Improvisi’ and then they formed ‘Baffy’, a surreal band with a dada approach and a failed musical. Then came punk / free jazz band ‘Madchen 84’ and instrumental / experimental project ‘Stan Dingwater’. ‘Best Band’, however is the evolution of these previous incarnations, with the name being a triumphant marker of Simon and Richard’s journey to date.
“It was always a dream to do this- the “best band” that we could make”, explains Simon. “After failing many times to try and find singers and band members for all the cool instrumentals Richard makes, eventually after some debating and persuasion, I just said, “Fuck it, I’ll sing and put poems to it”, which makes things easier for everyone. We are finally living our dream, with also Cai, who was the ONLY person to answer our advert for bassist”, he furtheradds.
With their drummer also being their singer, Best Band have an unconventional and chaotic presence, both live and in the studio. The three members also span three different generations: one being from Gen Z, one being a millennial and one being from Gen X. It’s an unlikely combination that somehow works awesomely and has given birth to two albums ‘Life as a Baby’ (2024) and ‘Go In Rooms’ (2025), with the third, ‘The Peoples Cub’, now ready to be unveiled.
Musically, Best Band are influenced by post punk, disco and drone rock methods and emerge as an intoxicating blend of outsider pop / avant punk, groove rock, pub rock and weird pop which they themselves describe as ‘Zolo dada no-wave avant bogrock’. The tracks on the ‘The People’s Cub’ all have a looping bassline to make a sort of hypnotizing repetition, instead of conventional verse-chorus-verse changes, which the band find more interesting and fun to play. The People’s Cub himself is a quasi-political figure, with many of the tracks on the album involving creature characters. There’s a flea, a hedgehog, voles, owls, vultures and beasts.
Album opening track and first single, ‘Broken Coast’ is a scrappy blast of energy that is both strangely catchy and weirdly poetic in its own eccentric way. The track is about personal legacies, ideals, beliefs and opinions and humans wanting to be perceived / remembered in certain ways, then that being juxtaposed with not being able to get out of bed in the morning due to depression. The band use a flea as a metaphor for believing in an idea of who you are and how you’re perceived/remembered, and your integrity, beliefs and ideals. In the song, the flea is eventually killedas the band break free from living up to any imagined idea of themselves and the created self.
Elsewhere on the album, ‘Boghouse’ is an ode to the lower ‘toilet venue’ end of the London music scene, describing all the little events, actions and intentions of any small rock band playing in Boghouses. It features wailing guitar solos all over the track, as a tongue-in-cheek homage to many of the bands Best Band have played with over the years on the circuit.The titletrack ‘The People’s Cub’ is an off kilter discordant yet cuddly political satire featuring the main character and mascot of the album. ‘The People’s Cub’ is an MP / Mayor but is also a little cub so he needs to stand on a tub to make speeches and he cuts the ribbon on new a village pub/cultural hub with his little furry stub.
Overall, the record is a bizarre and surreal journey through Best Band’s own disturbed inner psyche, set within erratic fuzzy rock styles that veer between 70s / 80s punk and 90s lo-fi indie worlds. With its offbeat themes of psychosis, unironic irony, modernity, depression, pathetic love, street nomadism, smelting, the afterlife, bus journeys, dread and defiance, ‘The People’s Cub’ is an excellently odd and candidly potent soundtrack to the times in which we all now live.
Catch Best Band playing the following shows in London:
27th May Dublin Castle, Camden
30th May Dash The Henge, Camberwell (early 3pm show)
17th June- Old Dispensary, Camberwell
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