Mandy, Indiana at Brudenell Social Club
Johnny James, Managing EditorBook now
Mandy, Indiana
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
In these cheery, optimistic times, who’d have thought that musical brutalism would be having a moment? Emerging from both band and electronic scenes, sounds built on pressure and abrasion are cutting through. Maybe it’s a mirror held to the world, or maybe it’s the release we need from it. Either way, Manchester’s own Mandy, Indiana sit right in that current, returning with their second album and a live show at Brudenell Social Club.
Mixing industrial textures, squalling feedback and contorted electronics, Mandy, Indiana’s debut album i’ve seen a way landed with force. Tracks like ‘Pinking Sheers’, ‘Peach Fuzz’ and ‘Injury Detail’ were both chaotic and precision engineered, with chance operations shaped into percussive geometries and gnarled guitars buried in thickets of distortion. Around it all, Valentine Caulfield’s French vocals spun tight, disorienting knots. It established a sound that felt confrontational and bodily, making them one of the most exciting bands to watch live in Manchester and far beyond.
The Brudenell date follows the release of URGH, the band’s second album, cued for release in early February via Sacred Bones Records. Co-produced with Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, the record was written across Berlin, Greater Manchester and an intense residency on the outskirts of Leeds. Turning from escapism towards protest, URGH also marks a shift in how the band operates, with all members now actively contributing to the songwriting.
On URGH, bristling techno eruptions like recent single ‘Cursive’ sit alongside scorched, confrontational tracks such as ‘Magazine!’, which draws directly on Valentine Caulfield’s experience of sexual assault and the anger and exhaustion of recovery. Singing in her native French, her voice functions as a distorted instrument – physical and weaponised – as the band lurch between restraint and eruption.
With just two singles released so far, the new material already carries weight. It’s deeply physical and unflinching, reflecting a violent, fractured world shaped by systemic indifference and pain. Yet rather than collapse, the music pushes forward with grim clarity, turning endurance into defiance.
The full thing drops on 6 February, giving you plenty of time to sink your teeth in before the Brudenell show.
