Mammal Hands: Circadia
ACT

The absence of a bassist from Mammal Hands' lineup doesn't destabilize its sound—pianist Nick Smart's bass patterns provide the requisite foundation—but it does make it less conventional. On its sixth album and first for the German label ACT, the English trio presents an identity that's as unusual as its piano, saxophone, and drums configuration. There's jazz, certainly, but the rhythms animating the music have little in common with traditional swing; instead, drummer Rob Turner powers the nine tunes with grooves grounded in post-rock and drum'n'bass. In keeping with a title that suggests change and renewal, Circadia signifies a new chapter for the band, with Turner, well known in British jazz circles for his tenure in GoGo Penguin, taking over from Jesse Barrett, who left in 2024. The critical third member is Nick's brother Jordan, whose saxophones are all over the record.

On this set, laid down during March 2025 at Giant Wafer Studios in Wales, the trio's approach is less centred on using a compositional blueprint as a springboard for soloing but instead revolves around musicians collectively embroidering a structure with their playing (it's telling that the compositions are credited to the group as opposed to individuals). Often a tune will build upon Nick's scaffolding, the opening “Window to Your World” a case in point. After an intro of minimal chords establishes mystery, Turner enters with the kind of frothy breakbeat pattern one might encounter on an early Squarepusher release. As the pianist's contribution elegantly expands, Jordan's sax surreptitiously surfaces to impose itself floridly on the performance. With all three operating at high-intensity, the piece explodes dizzyingly into a gloriously ecstatic Mammal Hands statement. Less frenetic is “Helios,” a dreamier ballad-styled expression buoyed by Nick's lilting folk phrases and his sibling's syncopated filigrees. The ominous tinge of the opener re-emerges in “Alia's Abandon” in the brooding piano part, sax melody, and swooning pulse, though it isn't long before Turner shifts it into overdrive with furious drumming, Jordan and Nick the relative calm at the storm's centre.

The group smartly offsets high-velocity pieces with ones that let listeners catch their breaths. Placed between the fury of “Paper Boats” and “Forgotten Friend,” for example, “Fallow Tide” calms the nerves by sprinkling gentle piano chords with electronic textures and faint birdsong. Emblematic of the group's open-minded sensibility, “Submerge” concludes the set on a dramatic, even somewhat sinister note with ominous sax offset by sparkling acoustic piano and a driving funk-rock groove. The trio's sophisticated writing demands playing at a high level, but the three meet the challenge handsomely. The performances sound like live takes, which makes their high-wire wail all the more impressive for being so tight and locked-in. Some outfits start to slow down and lose inspiration over time. Not this one: fourteen years on from the group's 2012 debut Animalia, Mammal Hands shows no signs of depletion in its physical or creative energy.

March 2026