Handle

Handle refresh the jagged textures and confrontational stance of post-punk and no wave for contemporary listeners by weaving in an unusually broad set of influences and delivering performances that verge on chaos. Their 2020 album In Threes showcases twitchy rhythms shaped by disco, funk, Latin music, and Motorik propulsion, while Hermitt’s commanding vocals and the band’s surreal lyrics create an atmosphere that is both gripping and disquieting.

The group came together once the Manchester, England-based post-punk septet Duds disbanded. Former Duds members bassist/vocalist Giulio Erasmus and drummer Nirvana Heire joined forces with vocalist/keyboardist Hermitt, a gender-queer multidisciplinary artist already active in the local art community. In 2018 the trio released Demonstrations, a set of raw recordings that displayed an even more volatile take on post-punk than Erasmus and Heire’s earlier band. Several tracks from that demo collection resurfaced on the full-length debut In Threes, which Mikey Young mastered and which Maternal Voice—the label previously associated with Duds—issued jointly with Upset the Rhythm in March 2020.