HOT MUSTARD – “MELT THE WIND”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE
With a couple of new tracks fresh out of the kitchen, ‘Birdwatcher’ and ‘Hall of Giants’, Hot Mustard continues their service with ‘Melt The Wind’ (OUT 5/29/25), the final single from their third full length album. The track will serve as the closer of the Monster Season album (OUT 6/13/25), the final course paired with an emotionally charged animated music video created by Opus Thimble, visual art moniker of Jack Powell, who alongside bassist Nick Carusos form the Hot Mustard duo. They two have steadily built a loyal following thirsty for their cinematic retro-boom-bap-soul-funk style which is heavily fueled by the dynamic horn arrangements of legendary NYC trumpeter Jordan McLean (Antibalas) featuring Dave “Smoota” Smith (TV on The Radio, The Bogmen) on trombone. Making another alluring contribution to Monster Season is the enigmatic Via Mardot whose theremin parts resemble a synthy pedal steel producing fluid slidey harmonies alongside dramatic tubular bells strikes. New Orleans cellist Helen Gillet builds with her bow before erupting into fiercely funky plucked passages deep in the track while drummers AJ Hall (John Cleary and the Monster Gentlemen, Left Field Drum Breaks, Alchemist) and Wes Powers hold down the percussion precisely.
For the ‘Melt The Wind’ music video, Powell departed from his typical public domain sources, and instead pulled from paintings of local muralist Kate Barattini whose oceanic themed works are bright, colorful and delightfully surreal. The video uses Barattini’s painting style to draw the viewer into a state of joyful bliss, before digging deep into heavier themes of loss and grief. A bittersweet, masterful work that once again illustrates the deeply intertwined nature of Powell’s visual work with the Hot Mustard sound, his wild, unpredictable and often transcendental imagination adding profound meaning, context and connectivity to the musical experience.
With Monster Season, the band’s third full-length album, the prolific duo have truly created a chef d’oeuvre, rife with all the ingredients that HM have become renowned for. “Hall of Giants” kicks off the album with Carusos’ signature pocket bass over crunchy boom bap drums that provide the perfect foundation for soaring horn melodies as well as the first taste of Mardot’s theremin and tubular bells which reappear in striking fashion on the far end of the album. “Trick Shot” is another perfect example of some of the intricate and refined rhythm guitar work by Powell, who’s percussive and canorous playing breathes life into every composition.
ARTIST QUOTE
“Kate and I almost connected on another project years prior and had kept an ongoing conversation about a collaboration; when this track came along, it felt like the right piece to use her artwork to tell a visual story. In one of our early conversations, we had talked about grief and I knew that I wanted the video to feel really sad but beautiful, so I let those things guide the process. That’s how this piece of music feels to me, it’s the end of the album and often endings are sad but we still have the journey to reflect on – and even when we don’t get that, we can try to leave something for others. That’s what this whole project is about to me.” ~Jack Powell
Hot Mustard
Monster Season
(Independent)
Release Date: June 13, 2025
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