SLAP RASH release debut EP
SLAP RASH
RELEASE DEBUT EP 'CATHERINE SPECIAL'
AND SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR 'GRIEFCASE'
CHECK IT OUT HEREhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Va0VyOXvq0
Having caused a stir with their two singles 'Griefcase' and 'This Note Is Useless', the Manchester based duo SLAP RASH have just released their debut EP 'Catherine Special', out now on Open Tab / Fire Talk Records.
To celebrate the release, they have served up a killer video for the single 'Griefcase' which you can watch here
They're also about to kick off a run of dates with label mates Mandy, Indiana which starts tonight at Manchester's White Hotel. Full dates below!
Dive in the full EP here
SLAP RASH, the brother-sister duo of Amelia and Huw Lloyd, make music that reverberates from the core of the body. Based in the experimental hub of Manchester (where the pair both relocated for university), since forming in 2019 the band has released a slew of gripping singles that reflect their growing reputation as a visceral live act. New EP Catherine Special was recorded in the Warren Studio in Sheffield and harnesses the band’s unbridled energy alongside threadbare industrial experimentations. The first collection of songs they recorded all together in a session, the tracks exude the pair’s obvious synergy, orchestrating an engrossing soundscape while only incorporating bass, drums and minimal electronics. Huw’s bass playing deftly paints in at least one guitarist, while Amelia then grounds the track with her drums and carries it forward with her vocals.
There’s a sense of deeply physical motion throughout the EP: a unified, cohesive sonic barrage that also leaves room for release. "Palm to palm, embalm / give your body,” Amelia ruminates on “This Note Is Useless,” which see-saws through vigorous baselines and a particularly dynamic vocal performance, while the revved-up scrappiness of opener “Photo Fit” details how people’s depiction of their identities online rarely matches the truth (“loopholes and data”). SLAP RASH are their most compelling given their attention to balancing a punk ethos with carefully employed restraint: one moment in the seconds of silence within “Griefcase,” which reflects on cyclical patterns of past destruction, as well as the oscillating tempo that explodes into noise on “Denial.”
It’s this multidimensional ethos that sets the band apart. Huw is an avid chess player in his spare time, and there's a masterful ease in which every bit of the EP fits together. Every rhythm feels succinctly placed, and although it’s a world away from the classical viola that Amelia was trained in from a young age, the two's inherent understanding of how to build a world through noise has already landed them support slots from the likes of Mandy Indiana, Surfbort, Melt Banana and more. The band has found a home in DIY spaces while already sounding larger than life: both disarmingly raw and expressively forceful, Catherine Special marks the debut of a band filled with the ability to claim their place in the world with uttermost intention.
Tour dates
27th October - The White Hotel, Manchester *
28th October - The Hug & Pint, Glasgow *
29th October - Xerox, Newcastle *
31st October - Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield *
1st November - Dareshack, Bristol *
2nd November - The Green Door Store, Brighton *
4th November - Bodega Social, Nottingham *
* w/ Mandy, Indiana
