Mandy, Indiana – URGH

From the first serrated riff on Sevastopol it's clear that Mandy, Indiana aren't softening up on their first album for Sacred Bones. Written in an “eerie” studio house outside Leeds doesn't give the same enigmatic appeal as the crypts and caves where they recorded their 2023 debut, but the results are just as frenetic and punishing.

Simon Catling's synths are used to constant disconcerting effect, even when conjuring something resembling a club beat as on Cursive and Magazine. But don't get too comfortable as the electronics are generally subsumed into a vortex of noise or choked-off cries. Most songs strike with intensity from the off, but even in quieter moments the band know how to put you on edge; take A Brighter Tomorrow which drops its sirens in favour of a foreboding trip-hop drumbeat and disembodied vocals.

All songs are sung, rapped or screamed in French so you might not always know exactly what's going on, but the pervasive mood of pain and suffering makes it perfectly clear (and the odd word that doesn't require a translation like 'mortalité' or 'génocide'). The exception is the closing I'll Ask Her, which features a frantic spoken-word takedown of misogynistic culture over gripping noise (reminiscent of aya).

Whether shouting over martial drums, whispering behind thick, smoky synths or rapping against a razorwire guitar, URGH is an exercise in harrowing noise; unapologetically visceral and all the better for it.

Listen to: Magazine, I'll Ask Her