Have you ever gone into your favorite restaurant and noticed something really surprising on the menu, like special item you wouldn’t even begin to associate with your established list of favorites? We had that same feeling for a split-second when reading the press release for the latest, and potentially greatest batch of tunes from Halifax’s Wot Gorilla?.
If you’re into expressive and experimental math music, Wot Gorilla have been an easy favorite for a few years now. So when we saw that they’d be incorporating sax into their sound, eyebrows were indeed raised. But not in a cynical way – if anything, it was more of a “go for it, can’t wait to see it.”
And now, here we are with a new single and the announcement of Stay Home, essentially WG?’s second LP. The album comes out in February via Drongo Records, and you can understand why even though it’s self produced, they wanted to make sure it gets an extra lifeline. They’ve got a trove of excellent EP’s and singles to their name, but this one sounds bigger and bolder than ever. It’s darker, it’s more proggy, and has twice the amounts of twists and turns of their earlier material, which was already considerable.
Check out “Young Man’s Game” below:
Also here’s way more background courtesy of said press release via Bandcamp:
“Stay Home’ marks a sharp, self-produced evolution for Wot Gorilla? It was recorded entirely by the band, with mastering by Joe Gibb (digital) and Pete Maher (vinyl). The band’s unique brand of math-rock is louder, leaner and more precise than ever, incorporating post-hardcore intensity and pop sensibility with new warmth and bite. “Wot Gorilla? have always thrived on tension — between precision and chaos, melody and math,” says Haigh. “Stay Home is the sound of us reconnecting with why we started this band in the first place.” The album distills over a decade of angular riffs, complex rhythms and melodic urgency into their most cohesive statement yet.
The process of creating ‘Stay Home’ was slow and steady, to say the least. Drums were laid down over two intense days at Hope Mill Studio in Manchester — but only after weeks of painstaking click-track mapping and tempo-change planning, ensuring every twist and technical left-turn landed exactly where it needed to. From there, the rest of the album took shape in far less conventional surroundings: guitars, bass, vocals and experimentation were tracked between Grant’s house and the band’s rehearsal space over nearly three years. Some of the music dates back to before the pandemic, which meant the gradual, DIY recording process became a way of rediscovering songs that started life in a different world. The title ‘Stay Home’ — shared with a key track on the record — nods to that isolation period: not just the literal instruction of lockdown, but the inward focus required to rebuild momentum when the scene went silent.
With full control over their sound, Wot Gorilla? weren’t afraid to chase new tones, push arrangements and refine performances until they clicked. That freedom meant technical hurdles, late-night breakthroughs, and the odd existential “What time signature even is this?” moment — but resulted in a record made by Wot Gorilla? stretching every muscle they’ve built since 2009.
Formed in 2009 in Sowerby Bridge, Halifax, Wot Gorilla? have carved out their own corner of the UK’s math and post-hardcore scene with a wiry collision of intricate rhythms, melodic hooks and restless energy. Veterans of Reading & Leeds, 2000trees, ArcTanGent, Live at Leeds and StrangeForms festivals, they’ve shared stages with the likes of Vennart, The Get Up Kids, Delta Sleep, Cursive and Rolo Tomassi, earning a reputation for tight musicianship and dynamic live shows.”
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