Mike Lindsay – Mercury Prize-winning producer, co-founder of UK acid folktronica band Tunng, and one half of electronic alt-psych duo LUMP with Laura Marling – shares new single “kachumber” and announces a run of September headline tour dates, culminating at the iconic ICA in London on 15th September. Mike Lindsay’s debut solo album ‘supershapes volume 1’ is out 14th June via Moshi Moshi Records.

The first instalment in a series of records that explore “the miraculous in the mundane”, volume 1 looks widely at “everyday domestic objects, especially tables, coffee table books, and the daily rituals that shape us, heavily focusing on the majestic in the domestic”.

Taking its title from the Indian salad of the same name, new single “kachumber” finds Lindsay narrating a full Kachumber salad recipe, inspired by the Dishoom Indian cook book which lives on his kitchen shelf.

Of the song’s inspiration, Mike Lindsay said:

It’s about the magic of creating something in the kitchen whilst listening to the radio. It’s a zen like feeling and extremely cathartic whilst also being creative. The Alchemy of blending ingredients to create something greater than the sum of its parts. The salad has personality.

On the accompanying video for kachumber, Lindsay explains:

The kachumber video was made by Ben Edwards (aka Benge). Shot entirely on VHS in his kitchen and edited in his video lab at his Memetune studio in Cornwall, the majestic patterns were created with feedback loops on vintage video editing hardware which really brought out the magic within the simple moments of the salad conjuring.

During its conception, Lindsay had initially envisaged someone else singing the main vocal line; reaching out to a hero of his…

I sent this song to Robert Wyatt to see if he would like to sing it, or write his own version. I got a very sweet reply saying that I was right to send it to him as he was once going to make a whole album of recipe songs, none as good as this one (so sweet). He then went on to ask if it was me singing, and if so, he thought my voice fit the song perfectly.  It was an incredible response from a hero of mine – he gave me confidence in my own voice!

At first, Lindsay had thought ‘supershapes volume 1’ would be purely instrumental. As time went on though, Lindsay felt the songs were still missing a voice, as he explained: “The more the songs developed as instrumentals, the more I could imagine the tones of Anna B Savage. I had already worked with Anna on her album in|FLUX which was a wonderful experience. She is a true poet of the everyday emotions. Over four or five days together in my new studio in Margate, the supershapes started to come alive!”

Then he brought in multi-instrumentalist Ross Blake, bringing breathy woodwind and soft saxophones which weaved through the analogue polyrhythmic shapes. “I had also just worked with Robert Stillman on the Nick Drake cover of ‘Saturday Sun’ I did with Guy Garvey,” he recalls. “Robert is an incredible saxophone player and musician. He has this beautiful thick and warm wild tone. I asked him to come in for a couple of days to bring his magic to the shapes.”

Others came on board too, including drummer Adam Betts, who Lindsay had seen play as part of Three Trapped Tigers, Squarepusher’s Shobaleader One, and his own Colossal Squid solo drum show in Margate. “I thought perhaps he could bring something to the shapes, which of course he did, weaving in and out of the sampled objects.”

Lindsay built the foundation of ‘supershapes volume 1’ at his 120-year-old dining table. Inspired by his wife Lily’s MA studies in fine art, Lindsay mulled over the idea that objects have memories and their own consciousness.

“Who else sat round this perfect rectangle, with kids and hopes and friendship? / And who else smeared errant gravy off it with their fingertips?” sings Anna B Savage’s on the album’s third track and thematic guide “table”. From an ordinary household object appears a rich seam of history and emotion, the table given its own agency, and a century’s worth of secrets…

Other influences included “contemporary productions like Foodman’s ‘Yasuragi Land’, a Japanese experimental manic scatter sample electronica artist who blows my mind. Kate NV: I love her bass sounds and twisted melodic rhythms. Also, I was listening to Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s ‘Keyboard Fantasies’” Lindsay continues.

“This record is one that I’m very proud of,” he concludes. “I hope that people are immersed by the record and feel the journey. I hope that they give their own table some love.”

Mike Lindsay’s new solo album ‘supershapes volume 1’ is out 14th June via Moshi Moshi Records. New single “kachumber” is out now. Mike Lindsay will tour the album this September, dates below.

LIVE DATES

14th June – Rough Trade East, London
15th June – Where Else?, Margate
10th September – South Street Arts, Reading
11th September – Strange Brew, Bristol
12th September – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds
13th September – Mono, Glasgow
15th September – ICA, London

Debut solo album ‘supershapes volume 1’ out 14th June via Moshi Moshi Records