Mandy, Indiana have unveiled their latest single, 'Sicko!', featuring rapper Billy Woods, ahead of their upcoming album 'Urgh'. The track pairs the band's intense noise-rock sound with Woods' distinctive hip-hop vocals, accompanied by an experimental video created through social media-inspired short films. The release highlights the Manchester-based band's evolving collaboration across genres.
Mandy, Indiana, the Anglo-French noise-rock outfit based in Manchester and Berlin, shared 'Sicko!' on February 3, 2026, as a preview of their second album, 'Urgh', set for release on February 6 via Sacred Bones Records. The single diverges from previous tracks like 'Magazine' and 'Cursive' by building on a pounding techno framework overlaid with industrial-adjacent sounds and Billy Woods' expressive vocals. Woods, the Brooklyn-based rapper known for his work with Armand Hammer and Backwoodz Studioz, adds a unique dimension to the record, as the band noted in a press release: "We wanted to create something with an artist we love, who’s been inspiring to us. Woods is such a unique voice in hip-hop, his words are so expressive and this track definitely adds a different dimension to the record."
The accompanying video experiments with fragmented viewing habits shaped by social media. Seven filmmakers contributed 30-second segments riffing on the theme of 'sickness', montaged together to form a full visual narrative synced to the song. The band explained: "Social media has changed the way we consume art and music, often meaning that we rarely see a full music video in the way it was intended to be experienced. For ‘Sicko!’ we wanted to try something different, leaning into the way people consume art on social platforms... It was an experiment to see what a music video might be like if we present distinct, often conflicting, visual styles side-by-side."
'Urgh' marks a collaborative effort from all four members—vocalist Valentine Caulfield, drummer Alex Macdougall, guitarist Scott Fair, and bassist/guitarist Lewis Haywood—in songwriting, with production by Fair and Gilla Band's Daniel Fox. Written during a residency on the outskirts of Leeds and recorded in Berlin and Manchester, the album reflects personal challenges, including multiple surgeries for Caulfield and Macdougall. Caulfield's lyrics address themes of sexual assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain, creating a personal yet worldly reflection.
The band will support the release with a tour starting in March 2026, including UK shows in London, Leeds, Glasgow, and Liverpool, followed by European dates in France, Germany, Denmark, and more. NME has praised 'Urgh' as an anticipated 2026 release, noting its clattering intensity and boundaryless energy, building on their 2023 debut 'I’ve Seen A Way', which NME described as glowing with experimental, urgent post-punk.
