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Grandmaster is the Austin collective that turned a real-life run-in with an online con artist into a costumed, cult-themed live show, a 10-to-11-piece crew built by Nick Leon, Blaise Eldred, and Connor Mizell with players pulled from Acid Carousel, Hey Cowboy!, and The Cuckoos. They call it medieval funk, ritualistic funk, party prog, and it lands exactly there: Earth, Wind & Fire horns and Parliament-Funkadelic harmonies welded to John Williams fanfare and old Nintendo scores. Nolan Potter produced the self-titled debut, out May 3, 2024, and Austin handed them Best New Act for the year that followed.
Our connection is simple: we loved this record enough to give it a Levitation Edition. We are pressing the self-titled Grandmaster on Goldmine Swirl vinyl, limited to 100 copies, the kind of one-off we save for bands we want more people to hear.
What gets us is how much story this band crams into 40 minutes without ever dropping the groove. The cult narrative is right there in the songs, sinister undertones tucked under arrangements so animated and full-bodied you almost miss the indoctrination happening in real time. The horns hit like a fanfare, the harmonies stack like a choir that has read too much occult paperback, and the whole thing moves. For a debut, the confidence is almost rude.
The Austin Chronicle clocked the same thing, framing it as a concept record that walks you through the stages of cosmic-cult indoctrination, a positive read closing on a wry warning not to drink the Kool-Aid. Our one honest nudge: the lore is so dense that a first spin can blur where one chapter ends and the next begins. Give it two and it snaps into focus.
That depth is exactly why it earns wax. A record this committed to its own world rewards the format that makes you sit with it, side to side, no skipping. On Goldmine Swirl, limited to 100, it is the kind of debut you want to own before everyone else catches on.
Recommended if you like: The Black Angels, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Osees.
