Mandy, Indiana – URGH
URGH. A primitive bellow of frustration or anger, the kind of onomatopoeic word you’d expect to see in a comic strip word bubble or a ’60s-era Batman action scene. It’s crude but it’s unambiguous, an expressive eruption from deep within when words are insufficient to give a name to the rage or exasperation. That URGH! is the title of one of the definitive concert films of the punk and new wave era is fitting, its two hours of music charged with a kinetic energy that would overpower most of its performances’ studio counterparts. It’s even more apt name for the cacophonous sophomore album from Mandy, Indiana, an arresting roar of an album and uncompromising set of immaculately sculpted explosions.
With their 2023 album i’ve seen a way, the UK group introduced themselves as a band disinclined to play it safe or tone down their bombardment of sonic shrapnel. But theirs is a brutality with a purpose, a menacing act of protest in the form of an aural assault aimed back at the systems and institutions that bring out the cry of rage from within. Two years ago, vocalist Valentine Caulfield told me they’re “getting those huge, massive, overwhelming sounds to purge whatever’s going on,” and on URGH those sounds are even heavier, nastier, darker and more expansive.
Blistering noise and sheer, overwhelming sound remain Mandy, Indiana’s choice of implements on URGH, but they come in a greater variety of shapes and a broader spectrum of colors. Co-produced by guitarist Scot Fair and Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox, URGH opens with a blast of searing distortion of “Sevastopol,” which is soon submerged in booming bass and Caulfield’s piercing Auto-Tuned vocals. The group pairs the unlikely sound of an acoustic guitar loop with harsh, sputtering beats on “try saying,” while Caulfield delivers a haunting and melodic vocal lead against a more restrained, low simmer of an industrial dirge on “A Brighter Tomorrow.” “Life Hex,” meanwhile, dials up the volume toward something approaching a sludgier and denser form of noise rock, churning and swinging with a violent heft.
As Mandy, Indiana broaden their bombardment, they remain steely in their resolve, intertwining the personal and the political in songs of survival and defiance. First single “Magazine” is one of the most pointed, a “primal, screaming call for retribution,” as Caulfield described it, its clattering percussion and siren-like wails underscoring her call for vengeance against a rapist, her French-sung vocals translating to “Abandon / All hope / Because tonight / I’m coming for you.” Between the skips and screeches of “Dodecahedron,” she beckons a sleeping giant to “stand up and march” against a cruel and corrupt oligarchy. “Le monde Leurs tours d’ivoire ne les protègeront pas lorsque nous détruirons leurs sociétés immondes,” she chants: “Their ivory towers won’t protect them when we destroy their disgusting societies.” They likewise find a kindred spirit in billy woods in the standout “Sicko!”, who wraps his exquisite cynicism around the group’s rapid-fire electronic mayhem: “Waiting in line hoping to get lobotomized/The worse it gets the harder it is to feign surprise.”
URGH is a minefield of violence, menace and discord, but even in its darkest moments, Mandy, Indiana still find a firm grip on a ray of hope. At the conclusion of the the all-pistons-firing fury of “Ist halt so,” Caulfield offers a challenge to the occupants of the ivory towers she references earlier via the solidarity of people awakened into action. “Nous sommes légion… Ils ont essayé de nous enterrer/Ils ne savaient pas que nous étions des graines” (“we are legion…. they tried to bury us, They didn’t know we were seeds”). In moments like this, which are abundant throughout its 11 tracks, URGH provides the most satisfying kind of primal scream.
Label: Sacred Bones
Year: 2026
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Mandy, Indiana : URGH
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