Night Tapes Announce Debut Album ‘portals // polarities’ out 9/26; New Single “pacifico” out now

Today, elusive London based 3-piece Night Tapes announce their anticipated debut album portals//polarities, which will be released via Nettwerk on September 26th. The band also today share new single “pacifico” and announce plans for a UK tour, including a headline show at London’s Village Underground.

Speaking on the new trip-hop inspired single, Night Tapes say:
“‘pacifico’ was written after our friend returned from Mexico (San Jose del Pacifico) and told us stories about how beautiful it was. It’s about our idea of Pacifico – like a state of mind you can reach, as we still haven’t been there. This is our homage to 93 ‘til infinity by Souls of Mischief.”

Most bands would say their music is a product of their environment, but it’s true for none more than Night Tapes. On the London trio’s extraordinary, dazzling debut album, portals//polarities, the band take you inside the places and sounds of its creation around the globe. Across the album, you’ll hear a bubbling swamp in Tallinn, Estonia, wildlife and birdsong from Mexico, a Los Angeles police helicopter and more. It’s a deeply immersive and wildly exploratory first full statement from a unique and thrilling act.

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 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.

Three electronic producers with a penchant for analogue, Night Tapes exist in a world that is dreamy and widescreen with plenty of bite. Debut single “Forever” now sits on 10 million streams on Spotify and became an underground hit through the pandemic. 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.

With portals//polarities, they 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.

Night Tapes are Iiris Vesik, Max Doohan, and Sam Richards.