Jess Makler (unslump.substack.com)
You’ve never heard a band quite like Nape Neck. The Leeds trio play fast, unapologetically scrappy post-punk. Listening to the band is as visceral as sinking into quicksand. It’s like being transported to nightclubs with legends like the Mekons and Gang of Four, moshing and slam dancing to the B-52s.
The group consists of three singers; Claire Adams on bass, drummer Kathy Gray and guitarist Bobby Glew. The trio create twisting soundscapes of acapella whining, jangling instrumentation, and hooting and hollering. The vocalists exist in discordant harmony and chaos, like the frenetic whispers of a bad trip or a strange nightmare.
Prior to The Shallowest End, Nape Neck released a self-titled LP earlier in 2025, a collection of the group’s first two cassette EPs. Their live album Live At Sonic Protest Festival 2023 offered a glimpse of their raw, head rattling live performance—just as striking as their recorded work.
The call and response of “Panacea” reflects the timelessness of Gang of Four’s Entertainment!, the tongue-in-cheek nature of “Tube Man” and “Mosquito” echoing the Talking Heads. More modern groups like Bar Italia and Water From Your Eyes come to mind, putting the “art” in “art punk.”
On a project that never stays still, the songs lose control and give way to an abundance of purely human sound. Is The Shallowest End about the absence of control, or the overarching omnipotence of it?
Perhaps Bobby Glew says it best: “We used the traditional rock music implements to express our non-traditional feelings/ideas and it arrived like this (skating on telephone wires, a horse, a sorting machine).”
Released on Dot Dash Sounds in North America, Red Wig Records in Europe, and OCCII in the Netherlands, The Shallowest End is entrancing, each song’s rhythm and gibberish ghoulishness offering a deeper look into this new world, this new era of no wave music.