URGH

European noise-rock bruisers Mandy, Indiana are no strangers to high-minded spookiness: Their breakthrough 2023 debut <i>I’ve Seen a Way</i> was partially recorded in a literal crypt and sampled Ari Aster’s wall-crawling horror movie <i>Hereditary</i>, with vocalist Valentine Caulfield quoting the works of Charles Baudelaire over the menacing din. Their follow-up <i>URGH</i>—the band’s first record for Sacred Bones, a label notorious for releasing music that goes bump in the night—adds floor-pounding techno rhythms to the mix, along with a contribution from underground rap scion billy woods. The quartet’s chills-and-thrills preoccupation is still front and centre as well, as Caulfield’s incantations over “Life Hex” take direct inspiration from the 1996 cult classic teen-horror flick <i>The Craft</i>.