This is an enig­mat­ic work from the Cor­nish synth mas­ter, from HOLD. STAR. RETURN, his up and com­ing album. White Tea from a Vend­ing Machine is the sec­ond sin­gle; it opens with a woozy gen­tle­ness that envelops you and sinks you into a com­fort­ing space with its sim­ple retro-synth sound and lay­ered soft vocals. 

White Tea from a Vend­ing Machine may appear to be a hum­drum moment from any­one’s day but the lyrics move in a strange and tense direc­tion: “Black cof­fee and codeine; deodor­ant and chlo­rine”. Some­thing will be “the death of us all…” David A Jay­cock scat­ters clues through­out his com­po­si­tions, some­thing begins to unsettle.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the video delves into mem­o­ry, shaky moments end­less­ly replayed, a jour­ney back in which frag­ments sur­face, their mean­ing explored. Try­ing to make sense of lim­i­nal spaces is an oft-vis­it­ed place and whether the repeat­ed view of a mem­o­ry will bring about enlight­en­ment is any­one’s guess. I think this is the mes­sage being con­veyed here.

HOLD. STAR. RETURN is “an imag­i­na­tive side­step into synth pop and exper­i­men­tal elec­tron­i­ca, inspired by the music of his ear­ly youth – from Japan and Eury­th­mics to Kraftwerk and Vangelis.”

Scot­tish singer-song­writer and Domi­no Records record­ing artist James York­ston con­tributes cre­ative­ly and helped release the album via his DIY micro-label CRAWS. Says Jay­cock about York­ston. “He puts me on to some great music. He gave me a kick to keep at this record and add lyrics and found time to add spo­ken word and back­ing vocals with some dul­cimer thrown in. He is one of the most sup­port­ive, gen­er­ous with thought and time musi­cians I know. He is a great listener.”

davidajaycock.bandcamp.com /// jamesyorkston.co.uk
White Tea from a Vend­ing Machine is avail­able now.
Hold. Star. Return. Album release date: 17 May 2023 via Jame’s York­ston’s DIY micro label Craws