Hük laid another layer of sleazy Northern electro-funk on the alt scene with their latest single, The State We’re In, a psychedelic, grime-glossed experiment that lets the madness pool and settle under your skin. Through serrated guitar licks, cold synth flashes and drum patterns that punch holes through the rhythm, they channel the sound of institutional fatigue and post-identity collapse into a soundtrack worthy of a kitchen-sink apocalypse. The vocals grind through it all with deadpan disdain, half-theremin preacher, half-northern street poet, dragging you into a malaise-soaked narrative of modern disillusionment.
There’s a full mind-glitch moment when the electroclash groove collides with the woozy psych-rock grind, sounding like a Sleaford Mods fever dream turned up in the Brighton fog with nothing left to lose and everything left to howl about. That heady mix of Manc and Leeds blood in the band bleeds out through the John Cooper Clarke nods and Half Man Half Biscuit echoes, but the sound is entirely their own unholy conjuration. The DNA might be post-punk electro-funk, but the result feels more like Dirty Harry falling into a dimension where reality is warped by analogue static and cynical dread. No ego. No pretence. Just raw creative ambition and enough offbeat sleaze to make your teeth itch. With Rob Bennett on vocals and guitar, Jo Wadeson on bass and backing vocals, John McElroy weaving in the synths and samplers, and Paul Gunter pounding the beat into the pavement, this Brighton-based quartet has no business being this sharp, but 2025 seems to be their year for striking.
The State We’re In is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
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Review by Amelia Vandergast