Badge Epoch

Max Turnbull, the Canadian musician chiefly recognized for his off-kilter pop output as Slim Twig and his steady partnerships with U.S. Girls, pursues Badge Epoch as a lone endeavor. Emerging from the wider Badge Époque Ensemble—an outfit fusing psychedelic rock, funk, and jazz—Badge Epoch further draws on library music, ambient techno, hip-hop, and additional strands. Once four Badge Époque Ensemble releases had appeared from 2019 to 2021, Badge Epoch entered the picture with the double LP Scroll.

Turnbull launched his recording career as Slim Twig in the mid-2000s, shifting from dissonant punk blues toward heavy psych-pop. He wed Meg Remy of U.S. Girls and contributed regularly to her albums. Other projects he assembled include Tropics, Darlene Shrugg, and the Cosmic Range, a unit that merges electric jazz, Afro-funk, and synth-heavy psychedelia. The Cosmic Range’s first LP, The Gratitude Principle, surfaced in 2016. Turnbull next launched Badge Époque Ensemble, a mainly instrumental, funk-oriented collective assembled with an entirely separate lineup. They delivered their self-titled debut in 2019, followed by two full-lengths and an EP on Telephone Explosion. In August 2021 the same label issued Scroll, a more experimental double LP that Turnbull recorded as Badge Epoch and that enlisted players from both the Cosmic Range and Badge Époque Ensemble.