Today, Octave Cat—an electronic side project featuring Lotus’ bassist Jesse Miller, Dopapod‘s keyboardist Eli Winderman, and drummer Charlie Patierno—released a brand-new live album dubbed Live From The Simulation.
Known for their infectious grooves, the fusion trio started in 2016 after Miller and Winderman realized they shared a mutual appreciation for vintage keyboards and analog synths. Since their inception, the band has sporadically released music, though 2018 has seen Octave Cat tour more extensively across the US, with long winter and spring runs already under their belt and a number of performances scheduled for this summer.
Live From The Simulation was recorded over several nights during Octave Cat’s past tours this year. As Jesse Miller shared in a press release:
We started Octave Cat as a studio project in the summer of 2016. Live shows were sporadic, wedged into rare weekends when our other projects were off. In the first few months of 2018, though, we had the chance to play 17 shows, and it really helped us tighten up our live sound and experiment with different ways grooves and improvisation methods.
Live From The Simulation is a product of those times, with the album offering up a snapshot of the band’s current sounds as it continues to dial in with repeated performances. It offers a true sampling of the band’s abilities, showing the group’s penchant for tight improvisation and broad musical stylings, which range from more jazz-dance hybrids to heavier electronic tunes.
The nine-track live album offers up three tracks from Octave Cat’s self-titled debut album, a rendition of the band’s new single “Precarious”, and the songs “Coins” and “Analog Improvisation”, which highlight the band’s more electronic side and feature Miller moving from the bass to the modular synth. Live From The Simulation also contains two covers: Nirvana‘s “Lithium” and Khruangbin‘s “Maria Tambien”. As Miller shared about the live album’s borrowed songs, “For covers, we look for material that is well-suited for trio voicing with strong melodies. … Nothing quite like having a crowd sing-along to a grunge anthem with a jazz trio.”
You can listen to Octave Cat’s new live album, Live From The Simulation, below. You can also catch the band on the road, with their upcoming tour dates listed below. You can keep up with news and releases from Octave Cat here.
