Experimental trio Taupe comprises saxophonist, composer, and arranger Jamie Stockbridge (Agbeko, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, John Pope Quartet and more), drummer, composer, and improviser Alex Palmer (Logan‘s Close, Blue Giant Orkestar, Pippa Blundell, SMIRK, and more), and guitarist and electronic musician Mike Parr-Burman (Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and a variety of projects including Dome Riders and more).
Taupe has performed at jazz festivals, punk clubs, and venues in the UK and Europe. They have opened for Deerhoof, Melt Banana, and Richard Dawson, and have been featured at the 12 Points! Jazz Festival and selected for Jazz North’s Northern Line. In 2023, they received the PRS International Showcase Fund Award to perform at the Sharpe showcase festival in Slovakia.
Lemonade Tycoon is announced by two sets of repeated blasted phrases, before the rhythm kicks in, and it is this slightly offset beat that pervades the single, creating a slightly off-kilter dynamic that works well at engaging the mind.
The title , Lemonade Tycoon, is a nod to the classic business simulation game of the same name, where players run a lemonade stand and try to make profits, but really, the sound has nothing to do with a game. It is intense and unique, enhanced by a live drum improvisation in the final sequence, captured via a saxophone clip-on mic and routed through saxophonist Jamie Stockbridge’s intricate effects pedal chain, creating a spectral echo. It is here where the lemonade reference makes sense, as it is sparkling and chaotic like shaken lemonade, simultaneously precise and unruly.
If ever a track screamed skronk, it is this one. Beautifully balanced, Taupe work together to create music that encompasses free jazz with punchy, repeated phrasing that works it way into the mind, like a relentless drill. The switches from precise, intricate phrases to turbulent, chaotic lines are seamless.
They describe their music as having ‘wonky charm‘ and that is perfect to describe this joyfully noisesome, beautiful music that gets into your psyche. There is a crazy section where sax and guitar cross swords in rhythmic interpretation that makes for a bonkers conversation, including pulled back timings that add to the sense of controlled chaos of the track. It is a track that starts as one thing and by the end is something different but equally, turbulently glorious.
This single is fun, free, dynamic, and completely beautiful.
Lemonade Tycoon is the single release ahead of Taupe’s third album, waxing | waning, which will be released in March 2026 by the Czech label Minority Records.
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