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Drawing on the post-punk and European art rock pioneers of the late 70s and early 80s, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Neu!, Suicide, Swans, The Sick Man of Europe re-tools those influences for the present moment. The same fears, new context. Motorik drum machines propel languid basslines and pulsing sequencers forward; vocals sit somewhere between Ian Curtis' melancholic baritone and something altogether more experimental, phrases repeated like mantras until the words take on entirely new meanings.The name itself is doing serious work, a diplomatic slur first coined in 1833 to describe the Ottoman Empire, more recently applied to post-Brexit Britain. The music carries that same ambiguous, shifting power: a state of the nation commentary for a world where cold war maps are being redrawn and geopolitical tensions are ratcheting upward by the day.
Their debut album on The Leaf Label was one of 2025's most uncompromising and vital underground records. Second album The Intermittent Signal arrives in September 2026.
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Event venue
73 Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1JW, UK, 69 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1JW, United Kingdom
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.