Dog Race at Oporto

Part post-punk grit, part gothic spectacle, Dog Race are a strange and compelling presence in the UK’s alt underground. Following buzzy sets at The Great Escape and Dot to Dot, the Bedford-and-London-based five-piece arrive at Oporto this September in support of their debut EP, Return the Day – a five-track spiral into burnout, inner chaos and emotional stasis.

Led by magnetic frontwoman Katie Healy, Dog Race specialise in dark hypnosis. Think operatic vocals, modulated guitars, and synths that flicker like faulty strip lights. Their aesthetic owes debts to The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus, but there’s something sharper and more restless in the mix: a twitchy energy, a dread that never quite resolves. As Healy puts it, these songs are “born from sleepless nights, intrusive thoughts, and the quiet war between the mind and the world around me.”

Return the Day is uneasy and absorbing – all breathless synths, coldwave textures and heavy theatricality. ‘The Leader’ conjures cultish dread in icy tones, while ‘It’s The Squeeze’ and ‘40 Winks to Wyoming’ blur anxiety with abandon, earning praise from BBC 6 Music and The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano, who ranked the former #11 in his Best Tracks of 2024: “Everybody watching who is into some weird shit, especially stuff that has a bit of a goth edge to it… this track has really stunned me. Unreal vibe.”

Live footage suggests they’re even more potent in person. Healy performs like a woman possessed, and the band channel their unease into something physical – wiry, dramatic, and right on the edge. We’re looking forward to this one.