LTW new band faves, ‘Ishango Bone release new single – ‘The Agency’
76 years after its discovery in Central Africa, the Ishango Bone is giving rise to a new wave of speculation in present-day Manchester.
Ishango Bone are back with ‘The Agency’, the explosive follow-up to ‘Doughnuts Never Ending’, dropping Friday 24 April – a fast-moving, dancefloor-ready track built on pounding beats, warped samples and hooks that have already been setting off their live shows.
A three-piece electronic alt-rock band, Ishango Bone were formed in 2024 by long-time collaborators Casey Bell, Sonny Baker Royleand Alec Waters.
With grunge-inspired guitars, rich, cult-like vocal harmonies and atmospheric dance beats, the trio are influenced by bands ranging from the Prodigy, Pixies and Beastie Boys to contemporaries Sorry, Jockstrap, and Mary in the Junkyard.
“The Agency is a take on conspiracytheory, alluding to an X-Files-style cover-up operation which seeks to distract us,” says Sonny. “This Agency markets alien abductions scandals and dreamworld escapism to deal with our less than perfect lived experience. Fallacies that tend to fall away at the pull ofa thread, leaving us in our home towns with little to no agency to bring about positive global change, but still, we yearn for what ‘The Agency’ offers us – escape.”
The Agencywill be available on streaming platforms on 24th April. Listen here.
See the band live:
Sunday 24th May – MewsFest, Great Northern Warehouse
Friday 29th May – Big Hands, Manchester
Saturday 5th July – Drybeck Festival, Cumbria
Wednesday 8th July – Eagle Inn, Salford
Friday 17th July – Llamapalooza, Manchester
“Ishango Bone have come up with a sound that is somehow gloriously original and highly addictive. In an overcrowded space, the band have found something truly original and quite startling and yet also oddly commercial or commercially odd.”(John Robb, Louder than War)
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