Exclusive Track Premiere: ‘Escapements,’ Beacon

ABOVE: BEACON. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHAD KAMENSHINE.

As its title Escapements suggests—an escapement is a regulator installed within clocks to transfer energy at a constant pace—Brooklyn-based duo Beacon’s forthcoming album is heavily inspired by the concept of time. The titular track, which we are pleased to premiere below, features a harp-like underlying electronic beat topped with Thomas Mullarney III’s sultry and lofty vocals. 

“The song started with us running an arpeggiator through this old Kawai K1M sound module,” Beacon’s other half Jacob Gossett tells us. “We stumbled across this patch that immediately got our attention.” That specific sound patch now opens “Escapements” and can be heard throughout the remainder of the track. “With the idea of escapements, we were thinking about this disorienting link between the construct of time and the imperfect mechanisms designed to record it,” Mullarney continues. “Looking back, I realized that this is in some ways mirrored the more surreal lyrical approach I had taken.”



Escapements
(out February 5 via Ghostly International) marks Beacon’s sophomore LP. In 2013, the pair released The Ways We Separate, which was followed by remixes and L1 (2014) and preceded by the EPs For Now and No Body (both 2012).

L1 was made in direct response to a full year of touring L1,” Mullarney says. “We wanted to release some of the frantic energy that we fed off of while performing live. Escapements picks up on many of those musical themes while demonstrating a more patient approach to songwriting.” Gossett echoes Mullarney’s sentiment when he says, “We’ve grown as producers and songwriters, and I believe that is a direct result of allowing ourselves to not be bound by genre. L1 was the start of this stage in our writing, and Escapements takes it to a more realized place.”

ESCAPEMENTS WILL BE RELEASED FEBRUARY 5, 2016 VIA GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL. FOR MORE ON BEACON, VISIT THE DUO’S WEBSITE.