Touching on climate change, 8th Deadly Sin establishes the trio’s mindset beautifully. Opening like Underworld covering Slave To The Rhythm, its slashing guitars and fluttery electronics propel the kind of infectious chorus that Lush made sound effortless at their best. Kinch takes a more inward-looking and melancholy slant, layering delicate electronics to frame reflections on death and jabbing grief that invoke the losses of Berenyi’s father and Lush’s Chris Acland. “I grew older and I grew away,” Berenyi sings in that unmistakable voice, but the suggestion that past haunts linger registers clearly and affectingly.



As the album proceeds, confessionals and outward-looking plaints unfurl with fluent, expressive dexterity. Sometimes Tripla recalls the small-hours midlife anxieties of a record like Suede’s Night Thoughts, as when Vertigo touches on depression over soothing exhalations of electronica. Sometimes it skews younger and lighter, as on A Different Girl’s warm hymn of hope for Moose and Berenyi’s daughter. Meanwhile, the biting thrust of Lush’s Ladykillers is revitalised in a choppy new-wave funk framework for Big I Am, a sharply observed takedown of Andrew Tate-era toxic masculinity.


Throughout, the three-person set-up provides room for manoeuvre and surprise. The agitated sound clash and throbbing bass of Gango, the Ladytron-ish Hurricane and the dubby sci-fi lollop of the lyrically light-footed Manu all showcase pleasingly lateral ways of thinking, freed from any need to worry about writing hits or observing the parameters of established scenes – be they Britpop or shoegaze. Ubique brings the record to a swooning close with a strings-enhanced (courtesy of Bella Union regular Fiona Brice) reflection on internet-era solipsism, but the MB3’s spirit of mutual discovery suggests a more open-minded outlook, one that’s neatly summed up in a wryly optimistic lyric from Vertigo. “Want to learn from past mistakes,” sings Berenyi, “but still believes there’s more to make.” On the strength of this fine merger of minds that come together on Tripla, more would be most welcome.

(Record Collector)