For over two decades, Xiu Xiu has reigned as one of the most unrelentingly inventive acts in experimental music. Led by Jamie Stewart and now operating out of Berlin, their music is a study in extremes, cycling through emotional and sonic intensities with a disarming ease: Stewart’s quiver-to-bark vocals strutting and shivering in Angela Seo’s kaleidoscopic production, disorienting as it is irresistibly visceral.

Beloved across scenes for their prolific output, gonzo explorations of darkness and experimental ferocity, this is music for those gnawed-out by life’s horrors yet unable to avert their gaze. Their 17th (!) album »13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips« showcases their by-now signature blend of unflinching emotional honesty soaked in a sheen of industrial pop maximalism, shimmering with synth-heavy glam and pulsating percussion that still drips with peeled-back vulnerability. It’s a beautiful invitation to their gleaming, distorted world, leading you shrieking and sobbing unto the dance floor.

• 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips, by Xiu Xiu

• 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips, by Xiu Xiu