Crushed Beaks

London trio Crushed Beaks formed around a mutual fascination with post-punk, shoegaze, and horror cinema, emerging in the mid-2010s behind a forceful, atmospheric style propelled by successive early singles toward their first album, Scatter, issued in 2015. The lineup of vocalist and guitarist Matthew Poile, drummer Alex Morris, and bassist Scott Bowley resurfaced four years afterward with the follow-up full-length The Other Room.

Initially operating as the duo of Poile and Morris, the pair shaped a propulsive yet atmospheric aesthetic across their first releases, among them the 2011 single “Close-Ups/Sun Dogs” and the 2012 single “Grim.” In keeping with their affinity for horror films, the group received an invitation from composer Fabio Frizzi—known for scoring Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead and The Beyond—to lay down their debut album at his Rome facility. Bowley had entered the fold by the time recording began; the resulting album Scatter appeared on the Moshi Moshi label in February 2015. When preparing the next record, Crushed Beaks tracked material inside a converted church in Leeds alongside producer and engineer Matt Peel (Menace Beach, Eagulls). Issued in 2019, The Other Room displayed a broader sonic palette anchored in analog instrumentation.