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“Rage bait” was the Oxford Word of the Year in 2025. Yes pedants, I’m fuming too: that’s two words. But it’s an apt term for the furious new offering from Manchester-formed band Mandy, Indiana.
Urgh, stylised in capitals, is the follow-up to their debut I’ve Seen a Way, which came out in 2023 and won plaudits for its abrasive qualities. The quartet — originally known as Gary, Indiana until their former record label persuaded them to change name from that of the US city — make an uncompromising blend of noise-rock, industrial music and techno. Vocalist Valentine Caulfield is sometimes at the forefront of the racket, other times she fights to be heard within it. Originally from Paris, having moved to Manchester as a student, she mostly uses French for lyrics.
Their new songs continue as before, but even more effectively. Guitarist and co-producer Scott Fair uses his instrument to add thick slabs of feedback or curtly insistent refrains. Synth player Simon Catling creates ominous low-end frequencies and scuzzy distortion. Precisely programmed beats are accompanied by ferocious live drumming by Alex Macdougall.
Caulfield gives shape to the audio overload with pointed lyrics about injustice. “Magazine” is a fantasy of revenge against a male sexual assailant, conducted in a rising tone of dread. She resembles a demonic spirit in “Life Hex”, which makes use of a sampled spell for levitation from supernatural horror film The Craft. Underground rapper Billy Woods guests on “Sicko!”, a violently wracked satire about societal and medical illness. A catchy synth riff jangles through it like a diseased version of LMFAO’s frat-party anthem “Sexy and I Know It”.
“Ist Halt So” is the closest that the album gets to outright agitpop. Caulfield declares in French that “your anger is mine” and talks about humanity and solidarity, “from Paris to Gaza” — but the song’s title, German for “that’s just how it is”, strikes a harder, more disenchanted note. Rather than inciting us to get angry, as rage-baiters do, Urgh captures the visceral feeling of being possessed anger, shot through with a streak of black humour.
★★★★☆
‘Urgh’ is released by Sacred Bones
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