Laurie Black – Noisebleed (2026)
Laurie Black’s industrial sound makes her a darker, electronic version of Lily Allen. But if you care to dig deeper into Black’s music, she has more in common with Goldfrapp, St Vincent and Gary Numan. Noisebleed is Black’s first full-length since Angst Music, which was released in 2023.
Black is a classically trained pianist and has been described as the “lovechild of Victoria Wood and Gary Numan”. Her lyrics aren’t the normal type you’d expect to hear on a pop record: “How many tampons do you need for six women in space for eleven minutes’, she proclaims on ‘Deadspace’. They certainly make you take notice of their clever use of satire.
It is clear that Black is very knowledgeable about her weapon of choice, the synthesiser. She has her own one-woman show titled Deadly Synths, where she celebrates her love of electronic music. She can even boast that she supported 80s legend Adam Ant on his 2022 ANTICS tour.
There are highlights aplenty to be found here. One is ‘Lemons’, which has an intense and distorted drum and bass beat. Think of it as a relative of ‘Disconnect’ by Becky Hill & Chase and Status. It is a motivational anthem which contains the delightful lyric: “When life gives you lemons, then you use them to squeeze in your enemy’s eyes“.
‘Taste Like Blood’ is another impressive track, with a pulsating dark industrial beat. The chorus features yet another lyric which demonstrates Black at her creative best: “I want to scream / I want to shout / Open my mouth / My tongue falls out“. Black’s songs can turn on a sixpence; the frequent changes in tempo keep the listener on their toes. The album’s opener, ‘Axis’, has loads going on in it. It ends up morphing into a dance style, but there are also nice rock guitars.
With the track ‘Rewilderness’, we are treated to a nice tempo with handclaps layered over 80s-style synths. Vocally, Black is also able to put a shift in, and this is best shown on the album’s closer, ‘Whale Bones’. This is her most striking vocal on the album. The track is very ambient and has a captivating, dense production.
Black is a force to be reckoned with in contemporary electronic music. Her output is so varied that there’s something for everyone here to enjoy. Black loves incorporating distortion and stuttering beats in her songs, and some would make fantastic film scores. I can’t really think of anyone comparable to Black’s exciting electronic music right now, which, coupled with her imaginative and humorous lyrics, makes her one to watch. Noisebleed is an album of obsessively constructed synth-pop which hits you like a freight train.
Learn more about Laurie Black on Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.
This artist was sent to us by Obsidian PR.
