Mandy Indiana - Urgh - VINYL LP

For Mandy, Indiana, the truth is the only way through. On their Sacred Bones debut URGH, the four-piece - vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall - are a force of uncanny nature, grafting together a record that is as much a call to action as a parlay into oblivion and transcendence. Across the ten tracks, the band interpolate their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, forging a template for a brighter future before it fades to black.Much of the album was written during a residency at an eerie studio house in the outskirts of Leeds, then recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester. It was an intense environment partially due to the health issues faced by Caulfield and Macdougall during the writing and recording process.Yet Mandy, Indiana remain uncompromising. Caulfield uses her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between playful and eviscerating. The throbbing siren-sound of InchMagazineInch stands alongside the cut-up vocal fry of Inchtry sayingInch and the shapeshifting ferocity of Inchist halt so,Inch which channels the urgency of protest movements, referencing resistance to the genocide in Gaza while speaking to struggles more broadly, while final track InchI'll Ask HerInch is a deliberate directness calling out toxic boy's club culture and a tenacious reckoning that hangs over the album at large.Although there are still undeniable InchbangersInch (like the frazzled rap of InchSicko!Inch featuring billy woods), URGH often feels hewn with precise cinema. From the bristling techno of InchCursiveInch to the deconstructed feedback loops of InchLife Hex,Inch the album moves between industrial catharsis and cinematic unease, threading a tension that Fair describes as Incha remix of itself.Inch This contrasting palette is bo