Not happy with being one half of the most celebrated and successful Brighton bands in recent years, Mark Breed and Kristian Bell have been working on a side project away from The Wytches. Simply titled Mark and Kristian Band, the offshoot project released the double A-side You Call that Rock n Roll / Eleven Days back in 2018. The duo have now returned with two more songs titled ‘Birthday’ and ‘Key to My Door’.

Signed to RayGun Music, the project is far less refined and more laid-back than their Wytches output, and the band state that, “There was no pressure. It’s a purely fun studio experiment”. ‘Birthday’, in particular, is a languid gem that evokes Scott Walker meets Ennio Morricone vibes with its bleak yet far-reaching palate of sonic guitar licks. While ‘Key to My Door’, the shorter track of the two, falls somewhere between Mac DeMarco and Kurt Vile’s stoner-rock and 60s psychedelia.