Mandy, Indiana

A four-piece experimental noise band that formed out of the fertile Manchester scene, the group initially came to fruition after vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Scott Fair met sharing a bill with their former projects. Joined by Simon Catling (synth) and Alex MacDougall (drums), they have together generated a sound that is at once chaotic precision engineered, where chance operations are manipulated into percussive geometries, and gnarled guitars sit in thickets of distortion around which vocals spin knots of lyrical repetitions. Mandy, Indiana draw on the broad sonic palette of experimental noise music, from drum machine snaps to white noise, sprung synths and pulsing bass to lo-fi scuff. The band’s soundworld is completed by Caulfield’s lyrics that tell of fury and fairytales. Though painstakingly crafted, where Mandy, Indiana thrives is the unexpected – and the resulting album sounds like nothing that has come before it.