Tape Ends
The Steve McQueens
This 6-track EP features previously unreleased music from the band’s 2018 ‘TAPE’ tour where they played shows across Singapore and Japan including the Tokyo Jazz Festival.
Tape Ends treads a fine line between jazz, soul, and all-out chaos. Explaining the EP’s title, the group says “tape obfuscates, hides. Tape repairs, heals. Tape records, history. Tape ends.”
While technical at times, the songs on Tape Ends are volatile, taking sharp detours into the physical beyond. Especially evocative is “Never Not”, a song inspired by the tale of Hindu Goddess Akhilandeshwari. Translated from Sanskrit, her name is commonly referred to as “she who is never not broken”. Eugenia Yip, the band’s vocalist, says: “The song explores the idea that the Goddess exists everywhere and lives in the parts of us that feel broken. It’s within these cracks that bridges form, connecting who we are to who we are becoming.”
Facing 2020’s tumultuous times with their unpredictable nu-jazz form, the four-piece are currently penning their next album, The Observer. Slated for release in 2021, The Observer pokes at the culture clash between jazz traditionalists and the new vanguard. “The Observer is an indifferent spectator who stands apart," says the band. “He smiles quietly to himself and continues making his own music.”
