Mastersystem

Formed in 2016 by musicians drawn from Frightened Rabbit, Minor Victories, and Editors, Mastersystem earned early descriptions as an informal supergroup. The project originated in Berlin after Scott Hutchinson and his brother Grant, both of Frightened Rabbit, crossed paths with Editors guitarist Justin Lockey and Justin’s sibling James, who also plays in Minor Victories. Because each participant remained tied to preexisting band schedules, the newly assembled quartet waited two full years before issuing its first recordings. In 2018 the group signaled the arrival of a debut album by unveiling the single “Notes on a Life Not Quite Lived,” and later the same year they delivered the full-length Dance Music, an album whose dense, distorted textures nodded toward nineties grunge. Throughout 2018 the four musicians supported the record with a run of headline dates across the United Kingdom.