Flute, congas, bass, drums, guitar and clavinet; this unconventional arrangement of instruments intertwine to form the debut album by Badge Époque Ensemble - a group of creative improvisers assembled to perform new, largely instrumental compositions by Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull (formerly Slim Twig).

Badge employs an eclectic cast of characters from the Toronto underground music scene, whose combined experience would take pages to spell out. It includes stints accompanying songwriters Andy Shauf and Marker Starling, outfitting heavies Blood Ceremony and Biblical, and respective careers spent gigging Django-jazz and the classical cannon. Badge’s distinctive sound arises from the diversity of these musical exploits, creating a palpable chemistry well captured on the live-tracked songs that form the group’s self-titled debut.

Part of this crucial chemistry can be attributed to the fact that four of the six players in the Ensemble have been at the core of the live, U.S. Girls band, a group that has scorched stages internationally over the past year and was hailed by Paste magazine as the best live band of 2018. Since 2015, when Turnbull released his final record as Slim Twig for DFA, he has largely concentrated his efforts as a producer and writer on the U.S. Girls project, together with making contributions to the theatrical rock outfit, Darlene Shrugg and the psychedelic jazz-funk collective, The Cosmic Range. Badge’s set of songs is yet another 180-degree turn for an increasingly collective-minded bandleader, who is singularly disdainful of any genre orthodoxy.

The record is a collection of densely packed grooves, arranged by committee. Dank set pieces culminate in album standout, ‘Undressed In Solitude’, which features the otherworldly r ’n b of guest vocalist, James Baley. Over 11 simmering minutes, the track defies the contemporary fixations of automated music to convincingly combine sensual and cerebral textures. While it may call to mind an improbable collision.

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Badge Époque Ensemble

Badge Époque Ensemble - Undressed In Solitude (ft James Baley)

Dawless synth recordings and live performances
Producing scores for films and Installations

In the beginning was pure goofiness, reckless fun just for the fun of it. After impacting head-on with this fast-paced, modern, dehumanizing world, a smiley-face with fangs, heavily compressed down to less than a pinpoint in hyper-dimensional volume, imploded to become the artist Spastic Goofball.

Influences:
Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, Weapon of Choice (MegaNut), NIN, New Order, Frank Zappa, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Talking Heads, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Babes in Toyland, Jesus & Mary Chain, Miles Davis, My Woshin Mashin and others....

Badge Époque Ensemble - Undressed In Solitude (ft James Baley)

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