Gary Indiana - 'Alien 3'

When people think of Manchester in a musical context, it’s easy to understand why they would see it as a city that’s happy to rest on its laurels. Afterall, its heyday was 30 years ago, yet there’s still bands happy to rehash and recycle the same swaggering yet tired aesthetic that populated the city’s clubs all those years ago. Look beneath the surface however, into the murky waters of the Mersey or the Irwell, and you’ll find a different breed of band entirely. 

While the Northern Quarter might well have become the next Deansgate, replete with stag dos and Instagram-able décor, there are still clubs and venues that keep their freak flag flying, and as such, there are the bands that need to play them too.

One such band are Gary, Indiana, a trio whose idiosyncratic brand of post-punk fuses elements of noise and psych, contorting them to create something both uncompromising and utterly beguiling. Inspired as much by cinema and their city’s industrial DIY spaces as they are bands like Giant Swan or Girl Band, the trio succeed in creating their own dystopic soundscapes in which they’re all too happy to relish. 

Their latest single ‘Alien 3’ follows in much the same vein as their previous three releases, though this is no bad thing. Six minutes of dark and pulsating post-punk, it unfurls slowly as the track progresses; its metronomic drumbeat pulling the track towards its conclusion amongst throbbing electronics, above which singer Valentine Caulfield delivers the almost spoken lyrics in her native French. 

Of course, by the very nature of the track, and indeed the nature of Gary, Indiana themselves, what they’re doing won’t appeal to everyone, but it doesn’t have to, and perhaps most importantly, doesn’t want to. Leftfield? Maybe. Uncompromising? Certainly. But in a city that often feels in danger of losing touch with what made it special to begin with, Gary, Indiana are keeping that spirit well and truly alive.  

Words by Dave Beech

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