Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of the Badge Époque Ensemble yet. All things considered, the work of this Toronto-based sextet might be the province of future crate-diggers, or the next generation of library music samplers. The disco-inspired sleeve for Nature, Man & Woman (the follow-up to their self-titled full-length debut that was also released in 2019) may give the EP the aura of having emerged from the deliriously dusty bins of the great cosmic record store. But if you’ve read this far, you might be one of the chosen seekers lucky enough to find and appreciate this peculiar artifact right here and now.
With the title of Nature, Man & Woman taken from its second track, the three-song, 26-minute-long EP continues the astounding creative narrative of Max “Twig” Turnbull, the man formerly known as Slim Twig who played a heavy role in the sounds of hard psych-rockers Darlene Shrugg, psychedelic jazz mentalists the Cosmic Range, and alternative pop icon U.S. Girls. Turnbull offers the quintessential 70s sounds of clavinet and Rhodes to this freewheeling collaboration with drummer Jay Anderson, guitarist Chris Bezant, percussionist Ed Squires, and bassist Giosué Rosati, who constitute the U.S. Girls live band, alongside Blood Ceremony flautist Alia O’Brien.
The unapologetically throwback style driven by liquid flute, processed guitar, and 70s keys brings to mind some mix of Jethro Tull and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard if they were combined in order to score a ‘sploitation film of some kind, and something tells me the conga-laden progressive funk of “Badge Theme” — would work just fine in that context. Check the track out down below in all its epic, 14-minute-glory; and, if you don’t feel like waiting until some savvy 70s sampler a-la Madlib plucks this EP from obscurity, go ahead and pre-order Nature, Man & Woman yourself through Telephone Explosion right here ahead of its December 6 release.
Nature, Man & Woman tracklisting:
A1. Zealous Child
A2. Nature, Man & Woman
B1. Badge Theme
More about: Badge Époque Ensemble, Darlene Shrugg, Slim Twig, U.S. Girls