Mermaid Chunky + Bada Duüm + Sunfish Starfish

“Stunning.” – Clash
“A beautifully ritualistic trance.” - The Guardian
“The most magical single of the year so far.” - KCRW’s Travis Holcombe

Freya and Moina are two visual artists and musicians from Stroud and South London, places where they importantly found communities (Stroud’s SVA and the capital’s Total Refreshment Centre) of like minded people just as willing to chase down an idea to its possibly illogical conclusion. And it is in the collective and the idea of participation that Mermaid Chunky really clicks. This is a party, a collective dance, made all the better with more: people, ideas, layers, kick drums, recorders, saxophones, frogs.

To wit, the album’s first track and first single, “Céilí,” named after a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering and dance, which builds from a simple recorder line into a swelling, warm burst of major chord dance music. Goosebumps or check your pulse.

Further down the rabbit hole, “Chaperone” is almost boardwalk electro, like Fischerspooner on a ferris wheel; “Frogsporn” and “Nature Girl” are mucky, trippy dirges filled with stalactites of synth and squelch; “Tiny Gymnast” is a kaleidoscopic waltz into the night. Hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen.

You might be wondering how DFA Records, all the way over in cynical Brooklyn, entered the picture. There was a day a few years ago, sun shining in full Springtime splendor, when James heard something while waiting for a coffee down the street from the office. It sounded simple yet deceptively complex: a dance track, but one where the one - that anchoring first beat in a measure - could be heard a thousand different ways. Frustrated and interested, he Shazamd the song, playing at the shop from an episode of Zakia’s Questing show on NTS, and brought it back to the office, where we all listened to it about fifty times. (The song was “Friends,” from Mermaid Chunky’s VEST EP, released in 2020. It led to an invitation to open for LCD at Brixton Academy in 2022. Mermaid Chunky has also played live alongside The Comet Is Coming, Alabaster Deplume, Snapped Ankles, and many others.)

Thus began our search for Mermaid Chunky. A quest it has been and a quest it will always be.

bada duüm
(pronounced bah-dah-doom) is a one-woman electronic act from Essex. Heavy on the beats + the bass it’s doomy but joyful - experimental mashups of techno, baile funk, hip hop & industrial that you can dance to. Spring 2025 saw debut ‘duumtape vol 1’ released via bandcamp along with diy videos for 2FRJOYMTHRFUCKR + HEKA, which was followed by a UK Summer tour with Snapped Ankles.

‘Chopped rhythms like stampeding stallions across the tundra.. electronic howling to summon the Gods’ - Contrails Zine

‘bass heavy beats and bleeps and it moves around enough to keep it interesting.. gets higher pitched and then drops into dub madness’ - Fighting Boredom 

https://badaduum.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/badaduummusic/
https://www.youtube.com/@badaduumtv

SUNFISH STARFISH
Inspired by nature and forged between the walls of a school library, Sunfish Starfish craft very loud soundscapes for supernatural environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU84Fb_ZDY8
https://anticipatingnowhere.bandcamp.com/album/brimful-of-escher
https://www.instagram.com/sunfish_starfish/

Less