Sex Mask

Over the past three years, Sex Mask have steadily built up their credentials both as established punk innovators and as a wild live act. Down Under, the Melbourne trio are storming through every radio station with tracks of the calibre of “How To Be Cool At Parties” and “Birds” (2023) and are unerringly positioning themselves on high-traffic playlists with tags such as post-punk, industrial, goth, and noise rock. Whilst none of these terms quite captures the Sex Mask sound perfectly, the influences are at least as diverse as claimed. The music is often underpinned by gritty distortion, with cool, grooving synths and guitars seeping into a rhythmic foundation that works at any tempo. At times a Taoist enigma, then a manifesto for outsiders, and in the next moment a Jungian reflection on the unconscious, the lyrics by singer Ry Gray are also an amalgam of inspirations. Both musically and lyrically, the stylistically confident trio have – almost off the cuff – established a dance-punk sound all their own, for which they have already been celebrated from SXSW in Sydney to the UK’s Great Escape Festival. Anyone who listens to the manically banging EPs “No Love” and “Body Broker” (2025) will immediately get the picture. After they unfortunately had to cancel at short notice last year, their debut with us is finally here. Be sure to fasten your seatbelts.