Nick Carlisle Details The Mad Decades LP on The Colour Inverted Records

The geography of a train journey departing from Hilversum provides the clinical setting for the latest output from Nick Carlisle. Due for release on 18 March 2026 via The Colour Inverted Records, the track precedes the forthcoming full-length LP. The new material follows a 2025 output limited to the single “Falling Ice In New York City,” a contribution to Brian Eno’s EarthPercent climate charity.

The arrangement of “Hilversum” utilizes a drum machine sourced from vintage synthesizer documentarian Alex Ball and features bass guitar by Marcus Hamblett, whose credits include work with Bears Den and Rozi Plain. The song’s structure relies on multitracked pianos and motorik rhythms, drawing a mechanical line between the melodic density of ABBA and the propulsion of NEU! and Harmonia. The lyrics detail a collapse of self-assurance—a “suit of armour”—triggered by an encounter outside the protagonist’s habitual environment.

Nick Carlisle is a Brighton-based composer and producer, originally from rural Northern Ireland. His participation in the UK DIY scene began in 2006 with the electronics duo Peepholes (Upset The Rhythm). This was followed by the project Bamboo with Rachel Horwood, the duo Katy and Nick with Katy Davidson, and Lean Logic, a collaboration with Rose Keeler-Schäffeler on Tim Burgess’s O Genesis Recordings. In 2022, the Queen’s Film Theatre commissioned Carlisle to score the 1922 silent film Häxan, a work later performed at the Barbican in London. In our interview regarding his previous LP, Sailors On The Roiling Sea, Carlisle discussed the specific intersection of analog synthesis and the anxieties of digital saturation.

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