Frightened Rabbit & Editors members unveil Mastersystem

When we saw Mastersystem pop up on the poster for this year's Electric Fields festival, our interest was piqued. New band? Old band we can't find anywhere online? All-day Sonic the Hedgehog marathon on the big screen? Turns out we were right to go digging, as today it's been revealed that Mastersystem is the new project from two pairs of prominent indie brothers – Justin Lockey of Editors, James Lockey of Minor Victories, and Grant and Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. 

The result of the collaboration, if debut track Notes On a Life Not Quite Lived is anything to go by, is a scuzzy, bruising grunge throwback that borrows elements from each of the brothers' projects. Describing the band's upcoming debut album Dance Music to Stereogum – who premiered Mastersystem's debut track – Scott Hutchison says the record deals with "restlessness and dissatisfaction, both as a counterpoint to the exuberance of the music and as an obvious reference to the angst and tension I heard in the grunge and fuzz of my teenage years. This is not the angst of a teenager, however. This is the anxiety of a man in his mid-30s, and for a lot of this record I found myself wrestling with the ways in which I am not quite doing life right."

News of the new project comes as Frightened Rabbit gear up for a string of shows celebrating the tenth anniversary of their seminal second album, The Midnight Organ Fight, while Editors release their latest album Violence on 9 Mar. Dance Music is out on 4 Apr via Physical Education Recordings; Mastersystem play a string of UK gigs this April and May, and play Electric Fields festival at Drumlanrig Castle, 30 Aug - 1 Sep. 

Mastersystem UK tour dates:

25 Apr – The Deaf Institute, Manchester
26 Apr – The Cluny, Newcastle Upon Tyne
27 Apr – The Art School, Glasgow
28 Apr – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
30 Apr – O2 Institute 3, Birmingham
1 May – Oslo, London