NIGHT TAPES SHARE NEW SINGLE “storm”
August 25, 2025 BY Bailey Vigliaturo
London based 3-piece Night Tapes today share new single ‘storm’, taken from their anticipated debut album portals//polarities, which will be released via Nettwerk Music Group on September 26th. To support the album, the band will embark on a lengthy UK/EU, including a headline show at London’s Village Underground. Recent singles have won widespread support from DIY, Notion, Wonderland, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash plus sustained support at BBC Radio1.
Speaking on the new single, Night Tapes say;
“Convenience comes with a cost and annoyance is the price we sometimes pay for connection. Going to see your friend when you’re feeling tired. calling your family when you’re feeling sad, going to the video shoot even if there’s a storm predicted. Taking yourself out anyhow. Or even showing up to the uncomfortable feelings within. The ability to confide in yourself at the right time. Sometimes the things we need to do when a storm is coming are counterintuitive. If there is a tidal wave coming and you’re on a boat on the sea, you need to go into the wave to get on top of it before it breaks. But I feel like most of us would try to ignore the wave for as long as possible, before doing the really scary counterintuitive thing. Our brains are designed to keep us safe, even if that means captivity of some sorts.”
Most bands would say their music is a product of their environment, but it’s true for none more than Night Tapes. On the London trio’s extraordinary, dazzling debut album, portals//polarities, the band take you inside the places and sounds of its creation around the globe. Across the album, you’ll hear a bubbling swamp in Tallinn, Estonia, wildlife and birdsong from Mexico, a Los Angeles police helicopter and more. It’s a deeply immersive and wildly exploratory first full statement from a unique and thrilling act.
Mixing personal and political, Night Tapes’ music thrives on humanity and connection. Making music together in a shared house in south east London, the songs of Iiris Vesik, Max Doohan and Sam “Richie” Richards had to be quiet to avoid disturbing neighbours. “It was about capturing the vibe of the house,” Vesik remembers, then realising that the songs “became time capsules of the different places we were.” For Richards, each song comes with a specific and clear memory of the surroundings in which it was created. “It feels like a flipbook of that time,” he says.
“The album is an exploration of energies and an exploration into my soul. I go into the spectrality of my being and into different polarities within myself. I would like to understand myself and to understand relationships I have with myself and others because I’m trying to change the small things in order to tackle the big ones. I’m just trying to be as honest as possible because lies are prisons. I’m from a country that used to be under authoritarian rule. I am really grateful to have been born in a free country and I value freedom above most things,” Estonian-born Iiris, who was in the womb during the Singing Revolution that freed her country, says of the record.
Three electronic producers with a penchant for analogue, Night Tapes exist in a world that is dreamy and widescreen with plenty of bite. Debut single Forever now sits on 10 million streams on Spotify and became an underground hit through the pandemic. Traditional song structures often handbrake turn into dissonant noise or extended ambient sections, blurring the lines between band and studio project in new and exciting ways.
With portals//polarities, they have made an album that dreams big but is defined by how daringly human and real it is, capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments and happy accidents to make music that feels truly, beautifully alive.
Night Tapes are Iiris Vesik, Max Doohan, and Sam Richards.
Tour Dates
August 9th – Treski Fest, Setomaa, Estonia
August 16th – Langs Akerselva Festival, Oslo, Norway
August 20th – London Lord’s, UK
August 23rd – Lost Village Festival, UK
September 19th – Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg, Germany
October 1st – Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR, USA
October 2nd – The Pearl, Vancouver, BC, Canada
October 3rd – Neumos, Seattle, WA, USA
October 7th – The Independent, San Francisco, CA, USA
October 9th – Bellweather, Los Angeles, CA, USA
October 11th – Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
October 12th – Bluebird, Denver, CO, USA
October 14th – Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL, USA
October 16th – Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON, Canada
October 17th – Bar Le Ritz (PDB), Montreal, QC, Canada
October 18th – The Sinclair, Boston, MA, USA
October 19th – Webster Hall, NYC, USA
October 23rd – Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA
October 24th – 930 Club, Washington, DC, USA
October 25th – Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC, USA
October 26th – Terminal West, Atlanta, GA, USA
October 28th – Basement East, Nashville, TN, USA
October 30th – Studio at the Factory, Dallas, TX, USA
October 31st – Parish, Austin, TX, USA
November 1st – Paper Tiger, San Antonio, TX, USA
November 8th – Iceland Airwaves Festival, Nasa, Reykyavik, Iceland
November 11th – Antwerp, TRIX, Belgium
November 12th – Amsterdam, Paradiso, Netherlands
November 13th – Groningen, VERA, Netherlands
November 15th – Hannover, Cafe Glocksee, Germany
November 16th – Berlin, Urban Spree, Germany
November 17th – Paris, Point Éphémère, France
November 19th – Utrecht, EKKO, Netherlands
November 20th – Rotterdam, Rotown, Netherlands
November 21st – Linecheck Festival, Base Milano, Italy
November 22nd – Dumbo, Bologna, Italy
November 30th – London, Village Underground, UK
December 2nd – Bristol, Exchange, UK
December 3rd – Liverpool, District, UK
December 4th – Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall, UK
December 5th – Manchester, YES, UK
December 6th – Dublin, The Sound House, Ireland
