Photo by Charles Gall

A world filled with as much turmoil and tension demands a turn toward the visceral from Mandy, Indiana. They’ve been here before — before turning the void onto its head with a greater focus on cinematic, rhythmic movements with their 2023 debut full-length, i’ve seen a way, the Manchester experimental industrial dance band’s earliest extended play work brandished harder edges and sharper teeth. “Magazine”, the lead single from their sophomore follow-up and first for Sacred Bones, URGH, reacclimates the four-piece with what we can probably comfortably say is their true nature without loosening their grip on the pulse.

The listen intonates blast beats against raw, crashing drums, screeching synths against violently scraping guitars, and vocalist Valentine Caulfield being torn in two halves. There’s reason behind her juxtaposition of self-medicating salving exhales and inescapable vigilantism, as this is art exorcised from her own experience from being sexually assaulted. “My therapist encouraged me to channel my anger into something productive, so here it is: my primal, screaming call for retribution.” “Je viens pour toi / Alors vas-y cours
/ Je ne te louperai pas / Je viens pour toi,” she shouts in its final moments. This time around, Mandy, Indiana are the big scary thing all of the pieces of shit of the world can’t escape.

Mandy, Indiana’s URGH will be released February 2nd on Sacred Bones Records.