Mandy, Indiana – URGH

Mandy, Indiana have signed to Sacred Bones and announced their new album "URGH", which will be released in February 2026. 2026 will see the release of the first single "Magazine".

For Mandy, Indiana, the truth is the only way. On "URGH", their first album on Sacred Bones, the quartet - consisting of vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synthesizer player Simon Catling and drummer Alex Macdougall - present themselves as a force of uncanny nature who have created an album that is as much a call to action as it is a journey into oblivion and transcendence. Throughout the ten tracks, the band weaves their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, creating a template for a better future before everything sinks into darkness.

Much of the album was written during a residency in an eerie studio house on the outskirts of Leeds and then recorded in Berlin and Greater Manchester. It was an intense environment, due in part to the health issues Caulfield and Macdougall struggled with during the writing and recording process. Still, Mandy, Indiana remains uncompromising. Caulfield uses her voice as a distorted instrument and weapon, oscillating between playful and devastating. The pulsing siren tone of "Magazine" sits alongside the choppy vocal fry of "try saying" and the shifting ferocity of "ist halt so", which channels the urgency of protest movements, referencing resistance to the genocide in Gaza while addressing broader struggles, while final track "I'll Ask Her" is a deliberate directness denouncing toxic boy club culture, and a stubborn reckoning that hovers over the entire album.

Though there are still undeniable "bangers" (like the ragged rap of "Sicko!" featuring Billy Woods), "URGH" often feels like precisely carved cinema. From the effervescent techno of "Cursive" to the deconstructed feedback loops of "Life Hex", the album moves between industrial catharsis and cinematic unease, spinning a tension that Fair describes as a "remix of itself". This contrasting palette is both a necessary aspect of the album and the underlying link. Although "URGH" is deeply personal, it reflects the violent, broken state of the world. Caulfield's lyrics grapple with violence, systemic indifference and the ubiquity of pain, but also emphasize moments of beauty and solidarity.

"URGH" belongs in the physical world, and the artwork by Carnovsky, featuring an anatomical illustration by Andreas Vesalius, emphasizes the album's visceral exploration of the body and its limitations.

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