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Dec 09, 2024 By Caleb Campbell

Over the past few years, indie outfit lots of hands have been bubbling up from the UK underground with a series of albums, 2020’s mistake, 2021’s there’s someone in this room just like you, and 2023’s fantasy. In that time, the core duo of Billy Woodhouse and Elliot Dryden have been collaborating remotely, assembling their delicate blend of electronic, ambient, and indie folk in a piecemeal exchange of DIY demos. For their forthcoming album, into a pretty room, the pair signed with Firetalk and recorded their first in-person collaborations, writing and recording in Woodhouse’s bedroom studio. The record is a swirl of reworked demos, tender folk meditations, and fractured ambient studio experiments.

The full album is out next month on January 17th. The band have already previewed the record with a series of singles, “rosie,” “game of zeroes,” and “backseat 30,” and today they’re back with another new track, “masquerade,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“masquerade” tones down the jagged edges that colored the duo’s previous two singles, trading in bursts of gnarled distortion for a more pastoral sheen. Woodhouse and Dryden’s vocals whisper and sigh above an echoing expanse of winding guitar lines and a steady drumbeat, recalling idiosyncratic indie touchstones like Alex G or Hovvdy. However, the pair also adorns the track’s margins with a collage of electronic touches, giving the gentle folk sprawl a shimmering, iridescent undertone. The resulting dance of contrasts feels simultaneously spacious and deeply intimate.

Dryden explains of the track’s lyrics, “‘masquerade’ is a song I wrote with the cruel intentions of our government in mind. The ‘masquerade’ part was just the idea that they are whipping up hate towards the most vulnerable people to hide their real aim which is to gain money and power for the upper class (as most politicians do). Also, a masquerade to me is an event that people in high society would join. I was pretty much pleading at the time with people who I thought would have seen through the smoke screen but had sort of let me down by putting blind faith in a party rather than looking at their actual goals which affect the working class and other vulnerable people. I didn’t really want to write a political song because no one wants to listen to that, so I used the masquerade idea to cover it up, which I guess is ironic.”

Check out the song below. lots of hands’ new album, into a pretty room is out on January 17th via Firetalk. You can also find the band’s newly announced UK tour dates below.

lots of hands Tour Dates

Fri. Jan. 24 - Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK @ Cluny

Tue. Jan. 28 - London, UK @ Moth Club

Wed. Jan. 29 - Leeds, UK @ Wharf Chambers

Fri. Feb 28 - London, UK @ Dingwalls *

Sat. Mar. 1 - Manchester, UK @ Rebellion *

Sun. Mar. 2 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *

Wed. Mar. 5 - Birmingham, UK @ Castle & Falcon *

Sun. Mar. 9 - Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 *

* supporting Crywank