Beacon's Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett met at art school, so it's no surprise—but still very impressive—to see their debut album available in an edition of 20 designed by fellow Brooklyn artist Fernando Mastrangelo, who encased the vinyl record in a "seductive yet destructive" sugar cast. There'll be a regular download and CD when The Ways We Separate comes out on April 29th via Ghostly, but something about the sculpture—its meticulous crafting, like Beacon's take on R&B-meets-minimal techno, or the solemn sexiness they both share—really clicks with Beacon's sound. Download their FADER mix, a blend of tracks the pair picked separately, and read an interview about moving from EPs to an LP, Mastrangelo's sculpture and their dance movies.
Download: Beacon's FADER Mix
What did you learn making this album that you didn't know before? GOSSETT: Creating this full length gave us an opportunity to create this larger world for all the things we were making. Being able to realize some of these larger ideas like the cast sugar sculpture, ideas that were on periphery of the music but still completely related was pretty special. MULLARNEY: I learned what it meant to not look for excuses to keep melodies and ideas unfinished, and then where to look for the extra energy to finish them. And I think we learned what it meant to say finally say goodbye, as in, OK, that's enough, nothing more to see here, no more edits, time to step back and let it be.
Why did Fernando Mastrangelo put the album in a sugar sculpture? GOSSETT: He’s a good friend of ours and we wanted to work with him on something really special for this release. His whole practice is based on materials and sugar is a material he has used before. He often talks about the seductive yet destructive space it inhabits. I liked that idea a lot. MULLARNEY: Fern has supported the music for a while and doing this project was an excuse to get us all working together on something we could get excited about. He can amaze and shock people in the best ways with his use of materials, and I think true to form, his choice of sugar for this piece does just that.
What kind of dancers are you? GOSSETT: My sister is a professional dancer and choreographer, so needless to say she received all those genes. MULLARNEY: I'm either embarrassingly bad or embarrassingly good and I only do the embarrassingly good moves in front of my girlfriend. So you’ll have to trust me on that one.
What's your favorite food to cook and how do you make it? GOSSETT: Tacos, usually I pick up but sometimes delivery. MULLARNEY: I'm a horrible cook. I lack any/all reliable intuition so unless I follow a recipe rigidly the meal will be over salted, under seasoned, etc… Everything goes wrong. I stopped eating meat back in February so I do a tofu vegetable stir-fry in a big beautiful wok we own, but it's really not that good. I made the recipe up.
Tracklist:
Aoki Takamasa - Superstring 76
Beacon - Drive (Lord Raja Went for a Drive Remix)
Woody - Lemons
Ayatollah - NAG Champa (The Intro)
Matthew David - Truss
Elefo - Fardarter (Nadus Remix)
DJ Solo - What Have You Done
Heathered Pearls - Left Climber
Lukid - Chord
Beaumont - Verona Beach
Burial + Four Ter - Nova
I. Stravinsky - Pulcinella Suite (edit)
