NEW SINGLE: Twilight of Civilization
- Nick Maclean
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Today SNAGGLE feat. ALI BROS released a second single "Twilight of Civilization" from our upcoming record "FOUNDATION" inspired by ISAAC ASIMOV's iconic FOUNDATION universe. Written as a lament of the collapse of Asimov's great galactic empire - a pivotal development in his highly celebrated literary masterwork - "Twilight of Civilization" depicts the fall of Trantor, the once shining capital of an empire that gave humanity peace and stability for millenia. In it I hope you hear the mournfulness and the gravity of a fallen civilization amid the chaotic struggle for survival once the myth of a permenant and secure galactic order had been completely shattered.
Marcus Ali plays a KILLER solo in this one, deftly navigating changing time signatures and explosions alike, beginning with a sorrowful lament but later embodying the pandemonium of the riots that lay waste to centuries of progress. The whole ensemble is in stunning form, making a difficult tune sound effortless while leaning deeply into the emotionality I was hoping we'd capture. Brownman Ali, Marcus Ali, Jay Yoo, Matt Gruebner, and Adam Mansfield - I am so proud of and grateful for you dudes!
It's hard to release a tune about the unravelling of society as depicted by one of science fiction's most prescient writers and not remark at the parralels in our world. The USA was our Trantor, a linchpin in the most stable and secure world order ever seen in human history. By electing a mewling and sociopathic toddler, and filling their government with wolves and incompetents, we're seeing the dissolution of a constancy that many of us will have taken for granted our whole lives. I'm very proud of Canada's leadership and I'm grateful to live in a country that still thinks something of 'expertise' and 'experience'; that the people at the helm ought to be ADULTS - and sane ones at that. May they serve as a beacon through the chaos... elbows up!
WATCH the YOUTUBE VIDEO
STREAM/BUY TWILIGHT OF CIVILIZATION
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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
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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 TWILIGHT OF CIVILIZATION
“Twilight of Civilization” chronicles the fall of Trantor, the once-glorious capital of science-fiction grandmaster Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION universe. Centuries of slow, almost imperceptible decline culminate in the collapse of a galactic empire that had endured for millennia - a pivotal development that pitches humanity into an epistemic dark age; generations of chaos, barbarism, and suffering. "Twilight of Civilization" lingers on grief and unease while capturing the desperate struggle for survival that follows the shattering of a peace and stability once thought eternal.
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.
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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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