NEW SINGLE: The Mule
SURPRISE! The first single from SNAGGLE feat. ALI BROS' upcoming record FOUNDATION has now been released, giving a first taste of an album that has been in the works since 2023!
I've long been a huge science fiction fan. When I finally made my way through the 15 incredible books in ISAAC ASIMOV's iconic FOUNDATION universe, I was so struck by his ideas, his world building, and his incredible insights into humanity, that it started to seep into my writing... and 2 years later I had an album's worth of material inspired by this genius of science fiction that the incredible musicians in SNAGGLE subsequently brought to life.
I'm so god-damn proud of my band: Brownman Ali, Marcus Ali, Jay Yoo, Matt Gruebner, and Adam Mansfield, you guys are all incredible. These monstrous musicians got deep inside of my tunes before letting their own personalities SHINE and push those tunes to new heights. The playing on this track and on the wider record is truly incredible and - to me - feels like it's all steeped in Asimov, it feels like every musician took the time to understand deeply the story that was being told. There is no greater gift for a composer than that. I love you dudes dearly.
I have a very special thank you to my producer Brownman Ali. Every single time we do a record together I feel like I just have to gush at what an incredible producer you are and how somehow this experience was even better than the last... and SOMEHOW that just keeps being true over and over. BROWN, my brother, you have outdone yourself yet again on this one. You've brought creative and inventive ideas to the table in SPADES and have pushed this project in directions that I both would never have dreamed of, and now that we're here, couldn't have imagined going any other way.
If you've caught us on tour then you have some idea of what you're in for... but this record is going to be very different from anything I've put out previously. The influences here are literary and I felt that this project - to a much more explicit degree than any other I've done - needed to TELL A STORY. At Brown's urgings we've augmented the tracks narratively so that it almost feels like a chapter from a book while still keeping the incredible performances that the band did in-studio front and centre as they deserve to be. The results I think are stunning and I hope you do too.
This first single depicts one of Isaac Asimov's most infamous antagonists - THE MULE - a despotic and tyrannical mutant with terrifying abilities and an appetite for conquest. Brownman's solo on this track is a dark and burning odyssey - a true embodiment of manipulative villainy complimented by some near telepathic interactivity from Adam Mansfield on drums... almost like there is some mind control involved! Do not miss it!
WATCH the YOUTUBE VIDEO
STREAM/BUY THE MULE
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Nick Maclean - keys/synth
Brownman Ali - electric trumpet
Marcus Ali - electric tenor sax
Jay Yoo - electric guitar
Matt Gruebner - electric bass
Adam Mansfield - drums
Luisito Orbegoso - campana, claves, shaker, triangle special guest
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Brownman - producer (Browntasauras Records)
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Revolution Recording - recording studio (Kim Cooke, booker)
Stephen Koszler - head tracking engineer
Luke Schindler - assistant tracking engineer
Josh Bowman - mix engineer (Bowman Sound)
Josh Bowman - mastering engineer (Bowman Sound)
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Thom Varey - camera lead, director of photography
Brittany Farhat - camera crew
Matthew Fong - camera crew
Max Jones - still photography
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Toronto Arts Council - funding
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Browntasauras Records - record label
Noah Vig-Fernandes - assistant to the producer
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ABOUT THE MULE
“The Mule” is a sonic portrait of power imposed through emotional domination. In science-fiction grandmaster Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION universe - spanning 15 novels in total - the Mule is a mutant conqueror whose ability to manipulate human emotion allows him to bend individuals, societies, and entire civilizations to his will. The composition simmers with paranoia & unease, steadily gathering force before erupting into a climax that feels less like violence than subjugation: an irresistible presence rewriting minds, loyalties, & history itself. Dark, volatile, & deeply unsettling, “The Mule” translates psychological conquest into sound.
Led by JUNO-nominated and 10X Global Music Award-winning pianist and composer Nick Maclean, the Toronto-based SNAGGLE feat. ALI BROS delivers an all-original electric-jazz experience that moves from haunting introspection to explosive intensity. Drawing upon the exploratory traditions of Weather Report, the Brecker Brothers, and Snarky Puppy, the ensemble now undertakes its most ambitious project yet: FOUNDATION, a new album of electrifying works inspired by Isaac Asimov’s legendary saga, bringing one of science fiction’s greatest & most enduring literary universes vividly to life through sound. FOUNDATION is due for release in October, 2026 on Browntasauras Records.
At the front line are the ALI BROS: trumpet virtuoso Brownman Ali (Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Jay-Z, Randy Brecker) and his brother, saxophone heavyweight Marcus Ali (Matt Dusk, Jason Wilson, Mr. Something Something). Behind them, an elite rhythm section of Toronto electric-jazz heavyweights drives the sound forward: Jay Yoo on guitar, Matt Gruebner on bass, and Adam Mansfield on drums. Strategically, Maclean has deliberately folded every member of BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO into SNAGGLE, forming the ensemble’s core nucleus. Renowned Latin percussion master Luisito Orbegoso also makes a guest appearance.
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ABOUT ISAAC ASIMOV's FOUNDATION UNIVERSE
Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION Universe took more than half a century to fully coalesce. Beginning with his robot stories in the 1940s (later collected in I, Robot), it expanded through the Robot Series (4 books), the Galactic Empire Series (3 books), and finally the Foundation Series (7 books). At its conceptual heart is psychohistory: a fictional mathematical science capable of predicting the behaviour of enormous populations and charting humanity’s path through the collapse of a galactic civilization. This extraordinary 15-book literary saga traces the rise and fall of a galaxy-spanning empire, exploring themes of power, prediction, social collapse, and human agency that remain strikingly relevant today.
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