Driving Through The Night with Night Tapes

Music

Having a close friendship with your household is always a bonus, but match that with a creative relationship and its something even more special. Housemates and bandmates Night Tapes hail from South East London and is the result of the trio – Max, Richie and Iliris – having evening jams at home.

Influenced by the atmosphere of London at night, as well as the positive and negative attributes of living in such a fast-paced yet open-minded city, the group’s output is reflective and airy, resulting in their own lo-fi take on dream pop.

Their first release came out last year via Haider’s Breaker Breaker and now they’re making their return to the label after what we can imagine has been, in musical terms, a pretty productive lockdown for the group.

Following the release, they put your behind the wheel and on a journey through the twilight hours, providing a perfect soundtrack to those late night drives…

Follow Night Tapes. Buy Download Spirit.

LISTEN

Linkwood - Love Lost

Max: The simplicity of this track really gives you space to let your mind wander and I’ve yet to play this track on a long drive without it feeling profoundly relevant. I challenge anybody to crate a bigger synth patch. It sounds like the sky is falling down. ‘Love Lost’ is the gold standard for electronic minimal.

Linkwood - Love Lost

Max: The simplicity of this track really gives you space to let your mind wander and I’ve yet to play this track on a long drive without it feeling profoundly relevant. I challenge anybody to crate a bigger synth patch. It sounds like the sky is falling down. ‘Love Lost’ is the gold standard for electronic minimal.
Underworld - 8 Ball

Max: This track will forever be timeless to me. I had vivid memories of jamming in the living room to this for hours as a kid and then lost track for years, couldn’t find it for the life of me. Last week I finally found it and have been playing it non-stop. The outro has some of the most beautiful guitar playing I’ve ever heard.
Deerhunter - Helicopter

Iiris: I heard this song for the first time in Uni when we were driving through the night in the South of the UK. It became one of my favorite songs of all time. The combination of the textures and the light mood juxtaposed with dark lyrics gets me every time. Sparkling underwater indie journey.
Madonna - Drowned World / Substitute For Love

Iiris: This is one of the few tunes I remember from pre-school childhood. It was one of my faves then and I was brought back to it when I rediscovered this and the whole album a few years ago. So badass that this slow ambient tinged tune was an actual Madonna single. The layers of drones and synths that orbit around her voice, the subtle, yet grounding beat, and dark blue vibes make it one of my fave songs of all time. Hippie moms, man.
Flying Lotus - Getting There (Feat. Niki Randa)

Richie: This song blew my mind when I first heard it. When we were 17 me and Max idealized Flying Lotus. He was like a gateway drug into electronic music! I remember driving to parties in Max’s Skoda with this album on full blast, the bass overwhelming the car’s small 90s speakers. The textures were so impossibly
intricate and the songwriting so primal and mysterious. This was a song that lived in the early hours of the morning, in the shadows of neon signs and 2 am haze.
Mulatu Astatke - Tezeta (Nostalgia)

Richie: Over lockdown, I’ve been dreaming of a late evening in June. In London, people seem to celebrate these first warm summer nights. I used to work just off Brick Lane. After my shift, I’d sit on a beat up planter outside, light a cigarette, and watch people heading to the bar across the road. This song takes me back to those moments; The darkening sky, the smell of petrol and perfume, the hum of traffic, and distant sirens. London drifting into the night.