Bathing Suits

Born out of the DIY party scene in their Leeds hometown, Bathing Suits’ earliest rehearsals took place in the same basements as their homemade club nights: tiny spaces transformed by blaring PAs, rumbling subwoofers and elaborate lighting rigs. That environment remains central to the band’s sound, where live instrumentation is treated with the physicality and intensity of club music. The recipients of The Great Escape’s Steve Strange Award last year propelled them from underground gems to unabashed ones to watch.

Their debut EP, ‘KILL BATHING SUITS’, is out now via Underplay Recordings. Across five tracks recorded and produced by Benny Howell, AKA Leeds and Berlin-based DJ and producer DJ Subaru, the band move between the seven-minute noise-trance sprawl of ‘Empathy’, the battering feedback and big-beat propulsion of ‘I Can Be A Freak’, and the four-to-the-floor ferocity of ‘Swan Princess’. Later this year they tour with Man/Woman/Chainsaw and Yard Act.