The Messthetics and jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis have joined forces for a new album, out March 15 via Impulse! Records. The lead single from The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis is “Emergence,” and you can hear it below.
Former Fugazi members Joe Lally and Brendan Canty formed the Messthetics with guitarist Anthony Pirog in 2016. A self-titled debut followed two years later, and the group’s second album, Anthropocosmic Nest, came out in 2019.
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis connected in 2022 for “Fear Not.” Upon the track’s release, Lewis exclaimed in a press statement, “The Messthetics are friends at this point and collaborating with them over the years has now brought us to another high point of musical bonding and purely unapologetic energy!”
Lewis also discussed performing with bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty in a new statement. “The way I revere them is the same way that I revere playing with Jamaaladeen Tacuma or playing with William Parker,” he said. “It’s a certain road experience that you can’t get in school.”
Read about James Brandon Lewis’ Eye of I in “33 Great Records You May Have Missed: Winter/Spring 2023.”
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis:
01 L’Orso
02 Emergence
03 That Thang
04 Three Sisters
05 Boatly
06 The Time Is the Place
07 Railroad Tracks Home
08 Asthenia
09 Fourth Wall