As soon as Dry Cleaning finished their debut album New Long Leg – critically acclaimed across the board and number four in the UK album charts – they immediately set about moving fowards. Having already started writing their second record before their first was released, they proposed to producer John Parish that they spend twice as much time on the follow-up, Stumpwork. 

Listen to the album and you can feel that increased boldness - vocals which coil tightly around deft and complex riffs, great meshes of instrumental texture and the willingness to launch into full-on abstraction. It is a heady mix that is entirely Dry Cleaning’s own, distinguishing from their contemporaries. “We felt more confident,” says guitarist Tom Dowse. “We could see the bigger picture and knew where to focus our energy more efficiently.”