Mixtape #129


Ghent trio Steiger took us by storm with their exhilarating music, both composed and improvised, amalgamating various genres and influences. A mainstay in the Belgian jazz scene with an adventurous inclination, the outfit of Gilles Vandecaveye, Kobe Boon and Simon Raman sit at the intersections of jazz, rock, pop, classical and electronic music. They are constantly in search of exciting new sounds, and their recent album, The New Lady Llama, is clear proof of that. So we’re ecstatic to start August with the superb mixtape they put together for us, offering a glimpse of their wide range of influences. Dive in below!

  1. Múm – The Ballad Of The Broken Birdie Records [TMT Entertainment / Tugboat Records]
  2. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Solari [Commmons]
  3. Tapes Cuts Tapes – Petrol Blue [Heavenhotel]
  4. Espen Reinertsen – Tvilepause [SusannaSonata]
  5. Andrey Petrov – Office Romance Soundtrack
  6. Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi [Island Records]
  7. Deerhoof – Criminals of the Dream [Polyvinyl / Upset! The Rhythm]
  8. The Space Lady – Humdinger [Night School]
  9. Tim Hecker – That World [Kranky]
  10. Sea Urchin – Mish Hata’ref tesHa [Bokeh Versions]
  11. Coma World – No Focus [Byrd Out]
  12. Oneohtrix Point Never feat. Iggy Pop – The Pure and the Damned [Warp]

Steiger share new single, ‘Absolution of a French Fry’, from upcoming album

Photo: Leon De Backer & Gerd De Kinderen

The New Lady Llama, the new album from Steiger, is getting excitingly close to release day. As with previous efforts, the Ghent trio continue to explore the outer margins of jazz, and disparate territories and influences through composition and improvisation. On the upcoming album, Steiger “aimed for compact songs and a stronger emphasis on sound exploration and an experimental production process”, explains the press release. “They completely left behind any genre limitations and in this way created an even more distinctive sound.”

After sharing the first astounding taste from it, ‘Lambda’, Steiger are teasing it again with new single ‘Absolution of a French Fry’. Take a listen below.

The New Lady Llama is out on April 9th through Sdban Ultra

Steiger share first single off upcoming album, The New Lady Llama

We’ve been eagerly waiting for a full-length album from Steiger, after they took us by storm with their collaborative Brick Smoke Basement EP released last November. The Ghent trio of Gilles Vandecaveye, Kobe Boon and Simon Raman have now lifted the lid on its follow up, The New Lady Llama. Through composition and improvisation, Steiger continue to explore the outer margins of jazz as well as disparate territories and influences from contemporary music to electronica and pop, “yet remain faithful to the genre’s long-standing core principle; that of a flexible transformation”, as the press release describes.

We’ll have to wait until April 9th for The New Lady Llama to be out through Sdban Ultra but Steiger have already shared an astounding taste off it, ‘Lambda’. We’ve been playing it over and over again and if the single is anything to go by, we are in for a treat.

Steiger release new EP Brick Smoke Basement

We’ve had a growing love for Belgian label Sdban Records from the moment we laid our ears on the fine crop of artists and albums they have been putting out. The latest release to take us by storm comes from Ghent trio Steiger who released last month a collaborative EP with Australian composer, improviser and producer Joe Talia entitled Brick Smoke Basement. As with their previous material, the trio of Gilles Vandecaveye, Kobe Boon and Simon Raman continues to experiment and explore disparate influences from jazz, rock and pop to classical and electronic music,  through both composition and improvisation. Stemming from three residencies at Vooruit (Ghent), Flagey (Brussels) and deSingel (Antwerp), “this collaboration was a true dialogue”, describes the press release, “with Talia granted the freedom to remodel/remix the material that the band designed during their residencies.”

Brick Smoke Basement precedes a full-length album set for release next year and we’ll keep an eye out for that. Now, for an exhilarating taster of what they are offering, listen to the EP track ‘Malinka’ and head over to Bandcamp for the full treat.