waxing | waning by Taupe, released by Minority Records, on CD, Digital and LP on 6th March 2026.
” An instrumental album that is fast, raw and incredible fun…, with an avant-skronk irritability and uncompromising intensity that weirdly reminded this listener of Sam Gendel’s admirably perturbing ‘clown core’. “
Exploding with the concussive stridency of a punk band yet with an improvising jazz trio’s chops, opening track Lemonade Tycoon makes clear the listener is in for something quite special. An instrumental album that is fast, raw and incredible fun unfolds, with an avant-skronk irritability and uncompromising intensity that weirdly reminded this listener of Sam Gendel’s admirably perturbing ‘clown core’.
Photo credit: Tom Lovatt
While this band might be new to me, waxing | waning is Glasgow-based experimental trio Taupe’s third album. Consisting of Mike Parr-Burman (guitar, bass guitar, electronics), Jamie Stockbridge (alto and baritone saxophones) and Alex Palmer (drum kit and percussion), Taupe reportedly forged waxing | waning during monthly composition sessions in Manchester and Glasgow, refining their sound across multiple improv-heavy gigs when the band clearly also developed an admirable tightness. It feels entirely appropriate that an album of such doomy beauty was recorded in a former undertaker’s premises.
Six more tracks ensue. Anti-Bird-Spike-Bird-Nest moves from electronic gestures, through skittering, playful team play, to a powerful and rhythmic rawness then borderline dissonance, before ending on an upward scale, soaring avian-style. Interlude (Stride)’s tinkling electronics and high frequency drones provides a peaceful breather, before allcapsallbold’s very free-sounding electronic blubbers and squeaks gradually settle into repeated phrases that give a framework behind Stockbridge’s controlled sax meltdown. Always changing, a heavy, jazz feel develops.
Fifth track Pet Boss opens and closes gently, but wow, that middle section! Once again, the dissonance and volume build, the tautness of the playing matched nonetheless by a very free feel. Following this the title track at 9.45 is the longest on the album and perhaps the most perfectly formed of all.
Birdlike electronics feel strangely ominous before the atmosphere builds as the sax enters, by four minutes becoming impressively intense. Rough-sounding electronics, to this listener like heavy traffic, precedes four minutes of waning to a lovely terminal serenity. This is creative music of the first order.
In final piece Turn Push Kick, fluttering electronics lead into the by now familiar harmolodics, the gradual climaxing leaving one wondering how on earth this band finds the energy.
So, definitely a very special sound. Complex and heavy, waxing | waning is a refreshing antidote to the current, regrettable pressure towards blandification in the music industry. More please.
Taupe are currently on tour:
March 7th – Newcastle, Star and Shadow Cinema
March 27th – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
March 28th – Edinburgh, Leith Cricket Club
April 8th – Eindhoven, POM
April 9th – Utrecht, Studio Patrick
April 10th – Amsterdam, OCCII
April 11th – Jena
April 12th – Würzburg
April 18th – Tilburg, Offroad Festival
Buy waxing | waning here: https://minorityrecords.bandcamp.com