Badge Époque Ensemble previews Clouds of Joy album with "Zodiac"

Check out "Zodiac" off the forthcoming Badge Époque Ensemble's Clouds of Joy album out September 9th.

Here's the scoop...

The Badge Époque Ensemble return to Telephone Explosion Records for the label's 100th release with a new album, Clouds of Joy which is set for release on September 9 – they're today sharing the news alongside the first single, "Zodiac" which features vocals from James Baley. Featuring three vocal-led compositions, three instrumentals and three choral arrangements, this new album presents the Ensemble’s most ambitious, mature and engaging material to date. Clouds of Joy represents a shift from the group’s previous sonic excursions – the worlds of vintage soundtrack grooves and early electric jazz which found critical acclaim at Pitchfork, The Wire, Uncut, Paste, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, etc – into a more era-ambiguous, complex and all-encompassing approach to arrangement and production. 

Familiar Badge Époque Ensemble motifs are present through this album’s nine tracks: extended sections of dusty drum & conga breaks, swirling saxophone and flute flourishes, fleet-fingered guitar excursions, hazy Rhodes chords and lashing clavinet stabs, but where Clouds of Joy excels is in its ability to weave tremendous vocal performances and choral arrangements into its dense tapestry of sound. This first single, "Zodiac" which features James Baley’s ecstatic, Stevie Wonder-esque lead vocal performance could light up the midnight sky, turning a nearly eight-minute jazz-funk instrumental odyssey into a sure-shot dancefloor hit. Watch the video below. 

Undergoing a major shift of consciousness upon learning that he was expecting twins, BÉE leader Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull found the spark to initiate the album within his reflections upon the nature of human joy. This shift in mindset also helped shape the record from an operational standpoint: Turnbull stepped away from his fixture on keys, leaving all of the musical performance on this record to his cast of collaborators. With Max assuming a more “directorial” approach to production and arrangement à la Barry White, David Axelrod, or Fagen & Becker, this album finds the Badge Époque Ensemble in its most collaborative mode to date. Vocalists Dorothea Paas, James Baley and guitarist Chris Bezant all have co-writing credits here with Bezant contributing significantly to three compositions, including the album’s title track. The album was mixed collaboratively as well, as another joint effort between Turnbull, Steve Chahley and Tony Price, a trio who have teamed up behind the mixing desk for all previous BÉE albums, as well as U.S. Girls’ Heavy Light LP and records from other members of Toronto's bubbling scene including the likes of Jane Inc, Young Guv (Chahley and Tony Price) and many more.

For the most part, the Ensemble on this record is made up of names familiar to anyone following the Badge cosmology: drummer Jay Anderson, bassist Gio Rosati, flautist Alia O’Brien, saxophonist Karen Ng, percussionist Ed Squires and guitarist Chris Bezant, with the new addition of young jazz pianist Edwin de Goeij, a perfect surrogate for Turnbull’s ideas on keys. (This in-demand collection of musicians represents a scattering of key cogs from a clutch of other premium Canadian exports; The Weather Station, Andy Shauf, U.S. Girls & Marker Starling). Clouds’ emphasis on the sound of the human voice finds its perfect outlet in vocal arrangements by labelmate Dorothea Paas and a return from lead vocalist James Baley. Their contributions are complimented by a choir composed of session vocalists, (including singers from Bernice and Bonjay) who come together to provide a series of show-stopping harmonic acrobatics. 

Clouds of Joy marks the group’s third proper full length of five total releases for the Telephone Explosion imprint in only four years. It represents the Ensemble’s most fully realized presentation of a founding vision to create music as human, organic and alive as it is synthesized, produced and designed; music that transcends the notion of linear time, pulling in influences and ideas from the past and taking them far into the future. 

You can pre-order the Clouds of Joy album via Bandcamp right here. Check out the video for "Zodiac" followed by the track listing below.  

 

Badge Époque Ensemble – Clouds of Joy

1. Conspiring With Nature

2. Clouds of Joy

3. Let Breath Be The Sum

4. Badge Époque Ensemble

5. Joy Flows

6. Zodiac (ft. James Baley)

7. Don't Touch A Hair On His Head

8. The Greatest Joy

9. All Same 2 Each, Each Same 2 All