Night Tapes to Release Deluxe Debut Album and Play Outside Lands, Austin City Limits
The London trio's debut album PORTALS//POLARITIES receives a deluxe edition, with Capitol Hill Block Party also on the lineup.
London electronic trio Night Tapes released a deluxe edition of their debut album PORTALS//POLARITIES on July 24, expanding the record with three new tracks — 'to be free,' 'swim,' and 'the crest of the wave' — available now digitally. The band is also set to perform at several major festivals and events this summer and fall, including CAPITOL HILL BLOCK PARTY, OUTSIDE LANDS, and AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, with additional US dates in Miami and Pioneertown.
The band has also announced a handful of US shows this fall, including Austin City Limits, Miami, and Pioneertown. Night Tapes is also confirmed to play Capitol Hill Block Party, Outside Lands, and Up In The Sky festivals this summer. Tickets are available at nighttapesmusic.net.
The new singles extend the soundscape of the record. By blending electronica, trip-hop, and shoegaze, portals//polarities is a record that floats between defined genres.
The album received critical attention from NME, DIY, Notion, Wonderland, The Line Of Best Fit, and Clash, plus sustained support at BBC Radio 1. The record culminated in a sold-out show at London's Village Underground. Night Tapes has since completed a North American tour and an extensive festival run through the summer and into September.
Night Tapes are Iiris Vesik, Max Doohan, and Sam Richards. Three electronic producers with a penchant for analog, Night Tapes exist in a world that is dreamy and widescreen with plenty of bite. Traditional song structures often handbrake turn into dissonant noise or extended ambient sections, blurring the lines between band and studio project in new and exciting ways.
Mixing personal and political, Night Tapes' music thrives on humanity and connection. Making music together in a shared house in southeast London, the songs of Iiris Vesik, Max Doohan, and Sam 'Richie' Richards had to be quiet to avoid disturbing neighbours. 'It was about capturing the vibe of the house,' Vesik remembers, then realising that the songs 'became time capsules of the different places we were.' For Richards, each song comes with a specific and clear memory of the surroundings in which it was created. 'It feels like a flipbook of that time,' he says.
'The album is an exploration of energies and an exploration into my soul. I go into the spectrality of my being and into different polarities within myself. I would like to understand myself and to understand the relationships I have with myself and others because I'm trying to change the small things in order to tackle the big ones. I'm just trying to be as honest as possible because lies are prisons. I'm from a country that used to be under authoritarian rule. I am really grateful to have been born in a free country, and I value freedom above most things,' Estonian-born Iiris, who was in the womb during the Singing Revolution that freed her country, says of the record.
Debut single 'Forever' now sits on 10 million streams on Spotify and became an underground hit through the pandemic.
With portals//polarities, Night Tapes have made an album that dreams big but is defined by how daringly human and real it is, capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments and happy accidents to make music that feels truly, beautifully alive.
Tour Dates
*Festival Appearance
June 25 – Electric Forest – Rothbury, MI*
July 4 – Tartu Punch – Tartu, Estonia
July 11 – KiKuMu – Jäneda Õppekeskus, Estonia
August 6 – King Concert Summer Series – Jackson Hole, WY*
August 7 – Up In The Sky Festival – Aspen, CO*
August 8 – Capitol Hill Block Party – Seattle, WA*
August 9 – Outside Lands – San Francisco, CA*
August 13 – Sziget Festival – Budapest, Hungary
August 30 – Shambala Festival – Northamptonshire, UK
September 4 – Brighton Psych Fest – Brighton, UK
September 5 – Manchester Psych Fest – Manchester, UK
October 3 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX*
October 8 – Zeyzey – Miami, FL
October 10 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX*
October 15 – Pappy & Harriets – Pioneertown, CA
portals//polarities — Deluxe Album Tracklist
1. enter
2. television
3. to be free
4. swordsman
5. lemon tree midnight
6. babygirl (like n01 else)
7. pacifico
8. tokyo sway
9. masterplan
10. helix
11. patience (waiting for the setting sun)
12. leave it all behind, mike
13. storm
14. wayfarer
15. swim
16. the crest of the wave
Photo Credit: Ruta Puzaite
Photo Credit: Ruta Puzaite
