The Early is Alex Lewis (guitars, synthesizers) and Jake Nussbaum (drums, electronics). The two began playing music together in high school during the apex of the “post-rock” moment and fixated on acts like Do Make Say Think, Jim O’Rourke and Tortoise. Reunited in Philadelphia in 2019, the two have spent the past seven years reinventing their shared musical language, infusing the textural grandeur of post-rock with the communicational intimacy of jazz improvisation, the patient grooves of minimalism, electronica, and drone. Their latest release, Cusp EP (Island House Recordings) was described by The Old Grey Cat as “a weather map” featuring “wind, rain transitioning to snow (and back again), rumbles of thunder cruising uncomfortably close, and god rays... It’s rock. It’s jazz. It’s noisy. It’s intense.” 



Press for I Want To Be Ready:
“Drifty, minimalist jazz fusion soundscapes that hum, drone and rumble like the atmosphere of a clockwork city... blends Sonny Sharrock-like guitar squeals and mesmerizing drum patterns and clattering metal over beds of droning synthesizers.” - Record Crates United

“Lewis feeds curling notes and feedback streams into a swirl of loops... Nussbaum’s drumming cycles a continuous array of changing colors through persistent grooves... The LP’s tracks shuffle between looseness and intricacy, generally most involving when they manage to combine both at the same time.” - The Wire

Press for Cusp EP:
“The three pieces on it sound very much like one piece, only an instant of white space drop out to indicate where tracks begin and end. And yet, there is a progression to them, as the session moves from jingling, glistening minimalism to primal propulsive jazz rock, to a dream-fugue finale decked with Patrick Shiroishi’s saxophone.”- Dusted

“It takes its time sifting through thickets of scrabble before building to a churn of decaying chords and collapsing beats that carrom into the guest’s spiralling lines.” - The Wire

“Succumb to the waves of mind-melting experimental rock and art rock improv that flow into your ears from The Early’s latest offering... This is turn out the lights late at night, headphone music.” - Twisted Soul

“Sounds the way I imagine a weather map would if, indeed, weather maps were translated into notes and chords.” - The Old Grey Cat

Press for Impatient:
“Deftly elemental... sprawling tundras of white noise, rumbling guitar fuzz and hypnotic beats.” - Record Crates United

“A rainstorm of electric sound.” - WXPN

“A stream of grandeur, illuminating hidden messages filtering through angular arrangements and textured percussive waves.” - Foxy Digitalis
 
Music available at Bandcamp.
Instagram @TheEarlyBand
Email: theearlyband [at] gmail [dot] com
Sign up for our mailing list!
Image Credit: PJ Agbay