𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 - this week: Starin' at the Ceiling - bad.r4t

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.

𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣' 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙚𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 - 𝙗𝙖𝙙.𝙧_4𝙩

Charles is looking forward…

We rounded off 2024 with No Pinks. Were you young enough to start 2025 with No Pants…? New Year can make you do the strangest things, so I hear… But I suppose, you’re as young as you feel, so the saying goes. How young are YOU feeling? I’m feeling sort of averagely young. Ya know. Not old, not young. I suppose my age might have something to do with that, what with it being somewhere in the middle… Take Facebook, for example (if we have to). Is it an old thing to you? Were you born with it? Did you grow up with it? Did it arrive when you became “an adult”? Have you only just started using it in recent years? And more to the point, are you STILL using it? If your answer to the last two was yes, you’re probably rather old. If you have yet to ever touch the thing, I commend you, you ancient being. You are still untainted by cheap garbage. Or you’re so young as to be proud of not needing nappies (diapers). The ancient beings will only just have revived the fond old habit; that is, if they can remember it at all… Lately, Facebook has decided to show me a plethora of certain posts. No, not HAL (A.I.). In fact it seems to be one of the only kinds of post on Facebook that contains a genuine photograph. Here’s how the post usually goes: “You may be old, but are you THIS old?”, complete with a photograph. So what is this photograph? A horse and cart? An untethered bicycle parked by a beautiful cottage? A man smoking a pipe? A manual sewing machine? A wartime ration book? A man wearing a waistcoat when it isn’t forced upon him? Nope nope nope. The prehistoric item is……… A CD player. I warned you it was face-palmy. Oh, I didn’t? Well, there you go. The thing is, apparently you are VERY old if you remember a CD player. Meaning that anyone older than 10 or 15 is apparently VERY old. There’s another similar post I saw whose photograph was of Windows XP. An operating system that was (rather surprisingly) used well into the 2010s in some places. So basically, if you’re into double figures, it’s official: you’re old. What wondrously upbeat information I bring you to ring in the new year!

What else have I got for you in this latest of annums…? What points have I got to make? I know you all love the points I make. And the points YOU make. And the points we all make. We’re just one big pointy family! My point is… What was my point? Did I have a point? I used to have loads of points… Ah yes. A plan. We’re all told to make a plan at New Year. Always gotta have a positive outline for how you’d like the year to play out. Roughly. Otherwise it’s just depressing monotony, right? Well, yeah… That’s perhaps one way of looking at it… The thing is, while planning is good, it can hinder. It can scupper things. Let me explain. What is the point (there I go again with my points) in making a plan if you don’t stick to it? So you stick to it, right? But what if something comes up? What if there’s an unforeseen change in your life (good or bad)? You have a plan, damn it! Gotta stick to it or all hell will break loose! Right. But you can’t. Because something came up. You get my point? You usually get my point. Especially YOU. So, that plan… It goes to blazes. You can’t really pick up the pieces because it’s now a half plan. An incomplete plan. Which is a pointless plan. So maybe bugger the plan…? I think what might be a better idea is a couple of vague, er, points. A couple of general things to do or get done. A couple of ways to improve. This way, you won’t lose your mind when life inevitably throws a spanner in the works. Take it as it comes. I’m not saying DO make a plan, and I’m not saying DON’T make a plan. I’m just throwing out options. Points, if you will.

I hear you crying out for one last point. It’s either that or tinnitus… Either way, I’m feeling rather pointful, so here goes nothing. We’re all musicians here, right? Well… Most of us, anyway. So how’s about rather than obsessing over your next masterpiece, try listening to a few. I don’t mean having it on in the background while you work; I mean really LISTEN. The kind of listening that you hope others would do for your own music. Spoiler alert: most don’t LISTEN to yours. They hear it, or they simply don’t. Sorry, but it’s true. A sad truth indeed. So let’s all rectify that! Let’s LISTEN to LOADS of music this year. Brand new, of course. But specifically brand old. There's gold to be found, believe me. In the old days, when a record was out of stock or out of print, that was that. One would have to be very determined indeed to bother to try to track it down. And if it were something obscure, good LUCK! These days, though, we have everything. Much like with Google; we have all the knowledge at our fingertips. Yet people seem to know less. I think this is because people know it is always there, so they don’t retain anything. Either that, or they just tell themselves they will “look into it in the future”. Mañana… The same goes for music. It’s all there now. As free and easy as the current stuff. And yet, we don’t delve. Most of us don’t, anyway. Why ever not…? 2024 was HUGE for me in terms of music discovery, but not in the usual ways. Well, some usual ways. The NAS has been one of the usual ways. Perhaps the ONLY usual way, actually. But in terms of mainstream music, I have never quite known such a dire year. You know it’s dire when Sabrina Carpenter is the biggest artist of the year… And she’ll only embiggen in popularity. So I switched off from the mainstream without realising. And I’m all the better for it. I discovered two main things in 2024. The first is a band called The Dear Hunter (spelt correctly). A truly astounding band - thank you Ryan from broselle & naysh for the recommendation. The other thing is more an entire world. This has been the first time in my life that I have TRULY got into classical music. Apple Classical has helped tremendously with this (yet another reason to go with Apple over Spotify - you get this for no extra charge). I have been immersed in it for months. I never thought I’d be “one of them”. And, it could be a phase. Next week I could be listening to Kendrick Lamar. Ya never know. But I do have a feeling this is more than a phase. It feels like a new chapter. And THIS, I think, is how life should feel. Like a book of chapters. It shouldn’t be a string of short stories, for your past will no doubt shape your future. But neither should it be like reading the dictionary. The thing is, if you feel it’s more like a dictionary, you don’t know if you’ll ever get to Z. You might be stopped short at F. Then all you can say is “F-“. So you see, the idea of chapters is a better one. Altogether more interesting and more fun. The journey. Think differently. Be willing to step out of your comfort zone. I don’t mean you should do daredevil skydiving or anything like that. That’s only for professionals like me. But try meandering or wandering off the beaten track. Good point, no?

Enough about points. We’re all sick to death of points. Let’s talk music. Not classical music. Not stunning prog stuff. But something new. Something fresh. Something perhaps original…? Something maybe seemingly entirely unpronounceable? The kind of artist name I usually try to avoid because I just don’t understand…? Well, please welcome Bad-Dot-Arr-Underscore-Four-Tee, otherwise known as Bad Rat. There is apparently method to his madness in spelling it bad.r_4t, but I am evidently of diluted mind. The last time I spoke of someone so eccentrically unusual (both in personality and music) was when I reviewed Lekursi. It was fabulous music from a brilliant mind. This time, it is no less. So who is bad.r_4t? Joshua Goordat, since you ask. While his family hails from Guyana (then British Guyana - a colonised corner, since set free), he is a fully fledged Torontino from Toronto. What this means is, he has a rather fond affinity to Britain - which is nice. And why have I chosen to review him? Well, because on January 4th of this brand new year, he released an 11-track album (Midwinter Moonbeams). A proper LP! I have picked one specific track (Starin’ at the Ceiling) simply to showcase a little of what he can do. But more importantly with the hope that some of you venture further and actually listen to the LP in its entirety rather than just this one song.

You see, bad.r_4t is rather unique. Every single track is very different from any other on Midwinter Moonbeams, and even each individual track feels the need to do something unexpected. I am not sure if I have ever heard anything quite like it. And if I have, I don’t think it has worked. Mr. Goordat makes it work. Starin’ at the Ceiling has him singing - not exactly a novelty so far, but considering a lot of this album is semi-rapped, it does actually sound quite new in the scheme of things. The thing is, he mixes very old and very new. This is very “right now” and also very 1950s. But even that fails to conjure the correct mental assumption of how this might sound. Like Lekursi, it is wholly unpredictable. The music alone shows great skill with evident experience in having heard a great deal of music. His piano and organ chords are not simply major or minor. They don’t do what you might suppose. His vocals are untuned, which is frankly refreshing and I think quite the right choice for this music. There is something so utterly organic and honest about the whole thing - both the song and the album. He isn’t caught up in “what sells” or “what people might want to hear”. Instead, bad.r_4t is busy being bad.r_4t. Uhhhhhh!!!! I’ve just realised! Goordat. Goodrat. Badrat. badrat. bad.rat. bad.r4t. And finally, bad.r_4t. Or maybe that’s all coincidence. Anyway, back to the music. His guitar work in this track is loose and cool. Very “modern soul”. But the thing that really grabs me is the vocals. They too are loose and cool, but also somehow arresting and insistent. Strangely, I think there’s something of Nat King Cole about him. But more like “Tell me you love Nat King Cole without telling me you love Nat King Cole”. I can’t really explain it. Goordat has a bold way of singing. There ain’t none o’ that wispy breathy stuff here. And yet, it’s somehow soothing and (as I said), loose. It’s casual and real. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Should it be? Absolutely not. Quantising (perfect timing) and tuning his music would kill the vibe. It would arrange “life” into “file”.

It is just SO clear how much time, effort and THOUGHT has gone into Starin’ at the Ceiling, along with the entirety of Midwinter Moonbeams. Some might listen and think he is entirely lost, like he hasn’t got a plan. I say “To HELL with the plan!!”. Instead of being a lost sheep, he is simply lost in a world of sheep. Therefore I would personally say he has found himself. Some listeners might be underwhelmed, while others might be overwhelmed. I consider myself just whelmed enough. A satisfaction in having experienced something daringly new. And I have the feeling he has no idea he is being daring in the slightest. He’s only 24, for God’s sake! I don’t know what that means, but frankly with this talented world of his, I thought that was impressive. You see, unlike with the major labels, we independents are not thrown help from every angle. In essence, we therefore do far more than the average mainstream artist, in terms of the music itself. Joshua’s dry, dark wit shines through throughout. And yet there is such light in this darkness. Not to mention a truckload of unusual charm. Like “outtake charm”. His harmonies are thick and fudgy, perfectly both off and on key. Like me, he seems lost in terms of natural era, so (like me), he makes his own. Some listeners might call this “genre-bending”, and I’d be inclined to agree. But it is so natural. Nothing is forced. This is evident from his inspired melodies carried through with effortless vibrato. That is, vibrato when he wants it, and straight when he doesn’t. In a way, Midwinter Moonbeams is lo-fi vibe, but it’s like hi-fi lo-fi. Or hi-skill lo-fi (something I rarely hear). Lo-fi that actually goes somewhere. The only lo-fi that makes you listen as opposed to hear. Just listen to the LAYERS!! And do you know what’s REALLY weird about this unusual artist? I can see him suddenly hitting big. Like a carrier of “the new sound”. Bravo, bad.r_4t!! Enjoy the new year. You deserve it. And what do WE get? We get the fruits of his labour. Good point!

Had enough points? Well, that was never really the point in the first place. It’s all about the music. THAT'S the point.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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