MUMBAI: Miki Berenyi Trio today announce the release of their debut album Tripla due out April 4 via Bella Union and available to preorder here. A new chapter, a new-line-up, a newly minted sound; it is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop and Oliver Cherer. The album’s richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognisable vocal, overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world.
To accompany the announcement, the band have shared a video by Sébastien Faits-Divers combining live footage filmed in Dijon, France with artwork by Chris Bigg for their rousing first single “8th Deadly Sin”.
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Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer – a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognisable faces of the ‘90s – but the songwriting is entirely a three-way collaboration, as the album title describes: acknowledging the mother tongue of Miki’s father, Tripla is Hungarian for ‘triple’. The trio’s dynamic beauty is illustrated by the album’s lead single and opening track “8th Deadly Sin”, subtly influenced by dance music but equally driven by a shoegaze-y dynamic, a combination accomplished with finesse and a barrage of gorgeous hooks. The track is coupled with Moose’s eco-protesting lyric, or as he puts it, “the absolute disrespect for Mother Earth.” “D’you understand the mess we’re in?” Miki sings. “So what’s the plan, Action Man? / Silly boys / broken toys.”
Commenting on “8th Deadly Sin” Miki Berenyi says: “Simon Raymonde instantly picked this out as a single and it immediately went down a storm when we played it live. I can’t pretend that I am in a position to lecture others over their green credentials but there’s a broader philosophy in the song that I can relate to – humanity hurtling toward its own destruction, which (to me) applies as much to wars and social intolerance as it does environmental issues.”
Tripla is completed by a superb mix by Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns On The Lake) and beautiful artwork by Chris Bigg – who designed the sleeves for Piroshka and contributed to all of Lush’s sleeves – incorporating photography from Martin Andersen. But for all the album’s heightened and sophisticated sound, MB3 have gone back to basics, not only recording at home but driving a car packed with their gear, loading in and out of venues themselves. “There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Miki. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route – we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”
Miki Berenyi Trio have announced a number of upcoming live dates including UK shows as part of Independent Venue Week followed by Rough Trade instore performances in April and a European tour in April and May. All dates are listed here.
Tripla tracklist:
1. 8th Deadly Sin
2. Kinch
3. Vertigo
4. Gango
5. A Different Girl
6. Big I Am
7. Hurricane
8. Manu
9. Ubique
