Tripla

Albums of the Year 2025: #46 A new chapter, a new-line-up, a newly minted sound; Miki Berenyi Trio’s debut album Tripla is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop, and Oliver Cherer. The album’s richly layered, imaginative, and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognizable vocal. Overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world, Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer – a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognizable faces of the ’90s. The songwriting is entirely a three-way collaboration, as the album title describes: acknowledging the mother tongue of Miki’s father, Tripla is Hungarian for ‘triple’. Miki and Moose, who came of age during the era of shoegaze and Britpop in Lush and the equally beloved Moose respectively, arrived here from Piroshka, which the couple formed in 2017 with drummer Justin Welch (ex-Elastica) and bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English). When Mick broke his arm during the tour that followed Piroshka’s second album Love Drips And Gathers, in stepped Oliver, Justin’s bandmate in Aircooled and an eclectic, roving solo artist, under aliases such as Dollboy and Gilroy Mere. With Mick moving to America, and Justin swamped by session work and live duties for The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Pretenders, Piroshka was put on ice, before the Miki-Moose-Oliver trio came together to play a handful of Lush songs whilst promoting her hugely acclaimed memoir Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success. A bout of songwriting sessions followed. “Nothing was planned,” Oliver recalls. “It was more of an organic process.” Likewise, the gleaming, gliding MB3 sound. Minus a drummer, the trio incorporated drum machines behind Moose and Miki’s guitars and Oliver’s bass, which led to the addition of more electronic components. Freed too from the logistics of touring with a drum kit, MB3 have seized the chance to regularly play live, including support tours to Gang Of Four and Wedding Present (twice) plus regular headline shows, including summer 2024’s US dates, supported by post-punk legends Lol Tolhurst x Budgie.