From Glasgow, Scotland
Recommended if you like Horse Lords, Melt-Banana, abrasive saxophone
Up next Album out now, touring the UK and Ireland from June
Taupe’s lawless mix of “not jazz”, sludgy rock and homemade electronics hits like a shock of cold water to the face. The Glasgow-based trio are a formidable live band: thunderously loud, crushingly tight, quick to surrender all control and trust-fall their way through wild improvisations. Their third album, Waxing | Waning, out now on Prague’s Minority Records, finally captures that power, as well as the band’s oddball humour and free-flowing imagination.
Single Lemonade Tycoon (a nod to the early-2000s lemonade stall video game) opens with stilted, comedic flurries of squawking sax and tip-toeing percussion before finding its groove – as well as ragged electric guitar with the heft of an industrial power tool. Sharp, smart and often brutal, Taupe make light work of heavy noise, as well as the complex musicianship that underpins their sound.
Guitarist Mike Parr-Burman and saxophonist Jamie Stockbridge met studying music at Newcastle University and, like drummer Alex Palmer, are tied to a clutch of other experiments and projects, including the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. But, as Taupe, the trio share a brinkmanship – a mutual understanding that risk of disaster is part of the fun. Allcapsallbold melts a repeated melody into purring electronic chaos and then again into stomping doom metal, while Pet Boss evolves from a freaky sound collage into a bludgeoning monster. Fun, freeing and as good for your nervous system as a cold plunge, Taupe demand earplugs and a sense of adventure. Katie Hawthorne
This week’s best new tracks
Sofie Royer – Cowboy Mouth
A typically droll and high-minded conceit from the debonair star-in-waiting: a reimagining of Patti Smith and Sam Shepard’s play, with the Austrian musician pondering her role in life over fuzzy, funky pop. BBT
Goat (JP) – Orin (Ricardo Villalobos Variation)
This goes straight into the already-stuffed hall of fame for Villalobos remixes, and at 13 minutes, it’s relatively restrained: he takes the Japanese band’s minimalist shuffle and builds it out into a throbbing, lightly crunching groove. BBT
Emily A Sprague – Double Moon
Sprague combines the intimate ambient music she makes under her own name with the lyricism of her band, Florist, on this lovely, woozy cut, synths flickering like fireflies as she contemplates “communication …” LS
Dorian Electra – Hips Don’t Lie
In an upbeat and fast-paced rendition of Shakira’s infamous single, the US alt-pop voyager pushes further into hyperpop on the first taste of a new covers album tackling New Order, Gorillaz and Enya. SA
DC – Misunderstood (ft Bawo)
Over a soulful, drill-adjacent beat full of high-speed skippy hi-hats, the two UK MCs get gorgeously contemplative, pondering their respective paths and the strange headspace of half-success. BBT
Rustie – Arora
Long absent from the scene, the Scottish maximalist has been quietly posting new tracks to YouTube each month: the latest whips samples of previous hits into absolutely bonked, blown-out, pile-driving chaos. LS
OOIOO – The Horizon
From a new split EP with Lightning Bolt, the Japanese space rock veterans amble up to the launchpad on a loping bass groove, then up the tempo and launch skyward with a trumpet fanfare. BBT
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