We’re thrilled to know Qasim Naqvi has a new release on the way, following last year’s Teenages, which was one of our 15 Album Picks of 2019. Entitled Beta, the album is meant as a sister release to Teenages, which was brought to life using an analog modular synthesizer built by Naqvi over the course of two years. The extraordinary percussionist and composer explains:

“Beta is a prequel to the story of Teenages. At the time I had the most basic elements of a modular synthesizer- one oscillator and a random voltage generator which is a module that releases sporadic currents through the system. Ironically, this component provided a lot of warmth and humanness to the music, a kind of fallibility. I fed simple melodic ideas and rhythmic patterns into this bare bones setup and observed the responses, while occasionally guiding the music in other directions. It was like a diagnostic test. At the time I felt that this music was underdeveloped but listening back, I think the Beta tracks add an interesting dimension to the entire Teenages arc. They’re the zygotes.”

The B side of the record is a live performance of the track ‘Teenages’, recorded at London’s Southbank Centre in February 2019. “I had performed this work just a couple of times and this particular one was special”, says Naqvi. “There were microphones up everywhere and you could hear the room bleeding into the sound of the synthesizer.”

Beta will be released as a limited edition on clear vinyl for Record Store Day on April 18th through Erased Tapes but we can already hear a striking track off it, ‘Matic’. Take a listen below.