The critically acclaimed and award winning instrumental recording duo, Hot Mustard, has begun to roll out material from their forthcoming sophomore album Seconds, which is scheduled for release March 31st, 2023 (Color Red). Featured in Relix's '5 Artists You Should Know About', Glide Magazine, Jazz Weekly, and taking home the Charleston City Paper Music Award for "Up and Coming Artist of the Year" in their hometown, HM has begun to turn heads with their clever quality of audio/visual creation. In reverence of golden era boom bap hip-hop/60s/early 70s funk/soul and library style music, the duo meticulously carves out interesting compositions rooted in sounds that feel familiar enough to invoke nostalgia but also contain the depth to conjure intriguing new worlds.
"Nickel Empire," the third musical offering from the forthcoming LP, features frequent collaborators Jordan McLean (Antibalas) on trumpet and Dave “Smoota” Smith (TV on the Radio) on trombone, and also marks the debut appearance of Belgian-born New Orleans cellist Helen Gillet whose commanding performance weaves together the narrative structure of the track extraordinarily.
The animated music video was created by band member Jack Powell (Opus Thimble), whose visuals are best described as truly sui generis, sometimes drawing comparison to Terry Gilliam (Monty Python). "Nickel Empire," which becomes available on Feb 10th, 2022, serves as an excellent sneak peek into the new album and cements another brilliantly imaginative piece into the growing HM body of work.
"I wanted to do a piece about mental health," says Powell, "as I've gotten older I have faced the sometimes painful realization that I need to drastically shift my way of life and thinking. I let some things that were once a lot of fun outlive their rewards. The video is just one small aspect of that; it's about cleaning the castle of negative and destructive thoughts."
