Kassa Overall — virtuosic jazz drummer, Grammy-nominee, and long-standing Nick Hakim collaborator — is the latest to world premiere a track live on MBE. “The Lava Is Calm,” featuring Overall’s fellow Grammy nominee/jazz virtuoso Theo Croker on the trumpet, plays with tension and rapidly shifting soundscapes over the course of its three minute run time. Anxiously half-spoken, half-sung words over gentle bossa nova beats give way to abrupt bursts of noise, and explosive electric guitar stretches that demand active listening throughout. This one doesn’t hit DSPs until Friday, Apr. 28 so the only place you’ll be hearing it until then is the MBE archives. “The Lava Is Calm,” will appear as part of ANIMALS — Overall’s debut LP for tastemaking label Warp Records, set for release on May 25.
We’re also sharing the latest standalone work from Four Tet since last year’s “Mango Feedback.” The sprawling electro-jazz piece “Three Drums,” comes on the heels of a transcendent Coachella headlining set which found Four Tet teaming with fellow super producers Skrillex and Fred again.. Plus, a tease of PJ Harvey’s first album in seven years, I Inside the Old Year Dying; a bit of “cowboy jazz” from Rahill’s forthcoming Flowers at Your Feet (due May 12 via Big Dada); and a low key classic 1984 cut from Scottish avant-poppers The Blue Nile.