Miki Berenyi Trio announce new album "Tripla" out 4th April via Bella Union || Share first single and video "8th Deadly Sin" || UK & European live dates

Miki Berenyi Trio today announce the release of their debut album Tripla out 4th April via Bella Union and available to preorder here. To accompany the announcement, the band have shared a video by Sébastien Faits-Divers combining live footage filmed in Dijon, France with artwork by Chris Bigg for their rousing first single “8th Deadly Sin” – watch HERE – and announced a number of UK/EU live dates which are listed below and here.

Commenting on “8th Deadly Sin” Miki Berenyi says: “Simon Raymonde instantly picked this out as a single and it immediately went down a storm when we played it live. I can’t pretend that I am in a position to lecture others over their green credentials but there’s a broader philosophy in the song that I can relate to – humanity hurtling toward its own destruction, which (to me) applies as much to wars and social intolerance as it does environmental issues.”

A new chapter, a new-line-up, a newly minted sound; Miki Berenyi Trio’s debut album Tripla is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop and Oliver Cherer. The album’s richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognisable vocal, overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world. 

The trio’s dynamic beauty is illustrated by the album’s lead single and opening track ‘8th Deadly Sin’, subtly influenced by dance music but equally driven by a shoegaze-y dynamic, a combination accomplished with finesse and a barrage of gorgeous hooks. The track is coupled with Moose’s eco-protesting lyric, or as he puts it, “the absolute disrespect for Mother Earth.” “D’you understand the mess we’re in?” Miki sings. “So what’s the plan, Action Man? / Silly boys / broken toys.”  

Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer – a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognisable faces of the ‘90s - but the songwriting is entirely a three-way collaboration, as the album title describes: acknowledging the mother tongue of Miki’s father, Tripla is Hungarian for ‘triple’. 

Miki and Moose, who came of age during the era of shoegaze and Britpop in Lush and the equally beloved Moose respectively, arrived here from Piroshka, which the couple formed in 2017 with drummer Justin Welch (ex-Elastica) and bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English). When Mick broke his arm during the tour that followed Piroshka’s second album Love Drips And Gathers, in stepped Oliver, Justin’s bandmate in Aircooled and an eclectic, roving solo artist, under aliases such as Dollboy and Gilroy Mere. 

With Mick moving to America, and Justin busy with session work and live duties for The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Pretenders, Piroshka was put on ice, before the Miki-Moose-Oliver trio came together to play a handful of Lush songs whilst promoting her hugely acclaimed memoir “Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success”. A bout of songwriting sessions followed. “Nothing was planned,” Oliver recalls. “It was more of an organic process.” 

Likewise, the gleaming, gliding MB3 sound. Minus a drummer, the trio incorporated drum machines behind Moose and Miki’s guitars and Oliver’s bass, which led to the addition of more electronic components. Freed too from the logistics of touring with a drumkit, MB3 have seized the chance to regularly play live, including support tours to Gang Of Four and Wedding Present plus regular headline shows, including summer 2024’s US dates, supported by post-punk legends Lol Tolhurst x Budgie. 

Like the album’s two lead singles, the whole LP confronts the traumas of modern life. Alongside ‘Big I Am’, ‘Gango’ laments the misogyny spread by social media. Scored for strings by Piroshka contributor (and Bella Union labelmate) Fiona Brice, ‘Ubique’ also addresses the social ills created online; “oversensitivity and solipsism,” says Miki, “when everyone thinks anything that happens in the world is a personal attack.”

More personal anxieties also come to light. On Moose’s side, ‘A Different Girl’ finds him hoping his and Miki’s daughter has more opportunities to fulfil her dreams than he had. On Miki’s side, earlier single ‘Vertigo’ documents her first experience of depression, triggered by the menopause, whilst ‘Kinch’ (Hungarian for ‘treasure’) encounters the dearly departed, including Miki’s father Ivan and Lush drummer Chris Acland. “It’s tricky finding things that you can write about at this age without sounding maudlin - or dull!” Miki notes. “But we are at that age.”

“But it’s not a depressing-sounding album at all,” Moose vouches. “A lot is really joyous.”

Tripla is completed by a superb mix by Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns On The Lake) and beautiful artwork by Chris Bigg – who designed the sleeves for Piroshka and contributed to all of Lush’s sleeves – incorporating photography from Martin Andersen. But for all the album’s heightened and sophisticated sound, MB3 have gone back to basics, not only recording at home but driving a car packed with their gear, loading in and out of venues themselves. 

“There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Miki.  “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route – we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”

Miki Berenyi Trio have announced a number of upcoming live dates including UK shows as part of Independent Venue Week followed by Rough Trade instore performances in April and a European tour in April and May. All dates are listed below and here.

Friday 17th January – Lewes – Lewes Psych Festival

Wednesday 29th January – Northampton – The Lab

Thursday 30th January – Bristol – Golden Lion

Friday 31st January – Newport – Le Pub

Saturday 1st February – Dartington – Things Happen Here

Sunday 2nd February – Guildford – Boileroom

Friday 4th April – London - Rough Trade East

Saturday 5th April - Liverpool - Rough Trade

Sunday 6th April - Bristol - Rough Trade

Sunday 27th April – Arlon, Belgium – L’Entrepot

Monday 28th April – Colmar, France – Le Grillen

Tuesday 29th April – Paris, France – FGO Barbara

Wednesday 30th April – Lille, France – L’Aeronef

Thursday 1st May – Haarlem, Netherlands – Patronaat

Saturday 3rd May – Liege, Belgium – Reflektor

Tripla artwork and tracklist:

1. 8th Deadly Sin

2. Kinch

3. Vertigo

4. Gango

5. A Different Girl

6. Big I Am

7. Hurricane

8. Manu

9. Ubique