by Jess Makler (unslump.substack.com)
Manchester/Berlin-based Mandy, Indiana reflect the vicious, fragmented state of the world on their latest, standing with solidarity and rage as they chronicle systemic failure amidst deeply personal pain.
Sung predominantly in French, Mandy, Indiana’s sweaty, gothic, noise-laden Sacred Bones debut URGH is a visceral confrontation with injustice and anguish. While working on the album, two of Mandy, Indiana’s members were faced with their own mortality. Drummer Alex Macdougall had surgery for a hernia, and after the doctors found a lump, had half of his thyroid removed. Lead vocalist Valentine Caulfield lost most of her vision in one eye. Still, the band persisted through 10-hour recording sessions, fighting a battle of EBM-influenced hardcore, cutting lyrics abrasively alive.
“Magazine,” the lead single, is an urgently intense techno brain melter fueled by Caulfield’s brazen rage as she calls for retribution against a rapist. “Abandonne tout espoir,” she sings, “car ce soir je viens pour toi” (‘Abandon all hope, because tonight I’m coming for you.’).
“Dodecahedron” urges action against a corrupt oligarchy. “Sicko!” is rife with the cynical rap prowess of billy woods, whose rhymes hammer against a cartoonish-synthesizer patch as he criticizes with the line “harm reduction is hiding the body so they can keep hope alive.” Final track “I’ll Ask Her,” and the only one in English, is an intentional, searingly earnest call-out of misogyny, of protecting sexual predators through silence.
It’s not just the messaging that fuels this album, but the searing, unapologetic instrumentation. Industrial, spine tingling beats, mechanical glitches, and vocals compressed to their maximum. Body thrashing, skin melting goodness. Distorted vocals, Scott Fair’s guitar and production skills (with co-production from Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox), Simon Catling’s totally inorganic synthesizers.
URGH is a bracing, anxious, and important listen. “De Paris à Gaza et sous les oliviers / Viendra justice pour tous ou justice pour personne” (‘From Paris to Gaza, and under the olive trees / Will come justice for all or justice for none’), sings Caulfield on “Ist Halt So”. This is what punk music should be: unafraid to speak truth to power, and to do so with dignity and dynamism.