When Jazz and Punk Collide to Create a Tense, Manic Masterpiece

Weird Music Wednesday: “Anti-Bird-Spike-Bird-Nest” by Taupe

May 27, 2026

On their third full-length album, waxing | waning, Glasgow-based trio Taupe continues their noble mission of making music that sounds like malfunctioning household appliances. Comprising Mike Parr-Burman on guitar and electronics, Jamie Stockbridge on saxophones, and Alex Palmer on drums, the band has spent over a decade refining a sound that sits comfortably—or rather, uncomfortably—at the intersection of avant-garde jazz, math-rock, and punk. Following 2017’s Fill Up Your Lungs and Bellow and 2020’s Not Blue Light, this record marks a distinct shift in the trio’s trajectory. They haven’t calmed down, but they have somehow figured out how to organize their chaos into an even more formidable structure.

Where earlier releases sometimes felt like a blitz of ideas thrown at the wall to see which ones would make a dent, waxing | waning shows a band in complete control of their erratic impulses. The group operates with an almost telepathic level of communication, pivoting instantly from hyper-precise, mechanical interlocking rhythms to wide-open free jazz. There is a newfound patience here, too, best exemplified by the expansive, nearly ten-minute title track. Instead of hitting the listener over the head immediately, they allow eerie electronic atmospheres and skeletal percussion to simmer before exploding. It might not be the ideal soundtrack for a relaxing Sunday morning, but for anyone who appreciates the fine art of organized musical destruction, it is an absolute necessity.

How would I go about picking the “weirdest” song on a record this wholly weird, you ask?… Well, I usually try to find the one that most closely resembles normality so the weird hits harder. And in this case, the crown jewel of this collection is the masterfully titled “Anti-Bird-Spike-Bird-Nest.” Named after the organically rebellious real-world phenomenon of urban birds stealing anti-roosting spikes to build fortified homes, the song functions as the perfect distillation of everything Taupe does best. It opens with an urgent, jittery conversation between guitar, saxophone, and drums that perfectly mimics the anxiety a creature trying to survive in a hostile concrete jungle would feel. The track takes harsh, jagged, and otherwise unwelcoming musical elements and meticulously weaves them into something brilliantly musical. The band dials up the fuzz and electronic manipulation, turning a complex, high-brow jazz improvisation into a glorious, visceral racket that feels triumphant in its own stubborn defiance.