B-Side Guys

Jack Powell and Nick Carusos close their third album Monster Season with a track that functions as both musical farewell and meditation on impermanence. “Melt The Wind” assembles its emotional weight through the same collage methodology that defines Hot Mustard’s approach—layering Jordan McLean’s trumpet arrangements over Via Mardot’s otherworldly theremin, while Helen Gillet’s cello shifts between bowed contemplation and percussive urgency.

The song operates on Powell’s stated philosophy of “assemblage art at heart,” drawing from hip-hop production techniques to create what he describes as musical collage. This approach allows each contributor space to breathe while serving the larger emotional arc. McLean’s Afrobeat-influenced brass work provides structural backbone, while Mardot’s theremin creates the kind of fluid, sliding harmonies that suggest both vintage sci-fi soundtracks and pedal steel guitar’s lonesome wail.

Powell’s description of the track as “sad but beautiful” captures its essential quality—grief processed through collaborative creation rather than solitary suffering. The visual component, built from Kate Barattini’s oceanic murals, reinforces this theme of transformation through artistic partnership. What emerges isn’t standard melancholy but something more complex: acceptance rendered through carefully orchestrated chaos.

The production benefits from contributions by musicians who’ve worked with everyone from Arcade Fire to Sharon Jones, creating a density that rewards close listening without overwhelming casual engagement. Helen Gillet’s cello work particularly stands out, building tension through restraint before releasing into passages that feel both composed and spontaneous.

“Melt The Wind” succeeds as album closer because it embodies Hot Mustard’s core strength: turning individual expertise into collective expression. The track doesn’t simply end Monster Season—it completes an argument about how artistic collaboration can transform personal loss into shared experience, leaving something valuable behind even as the moment passes.