Bristol’s Late Stay Ultra Girls release debut single ‘Like Washing Sieves’, a striking first statement from multi-instrumentalist Tim Burden as he steps out from years of collaboration into something far more exposed.
After a decade immersed in Bristol’s diverse musical ecosystem, Burden pivots away from the safety of shared projects and into a sound that feels deliberately off-balance. The result is a kind of “wonky” art-rock, restless, textural, and unafraid of excess.
Produced by Stew Jackson, known for his work with Massive Attack, ‘Like Washing Sieves’ thrives on contrast. An immediate, towering synth hook gives way to something darker and more skeletal, before swelling into dense, guitar-driven crescendos. There are echoes of Mogwai in its scale, offset by moments of stark piano intimacy reminiscent of Nina Simone.
A persistent thread of feedback runs through the track, refusing resolution, while Burden’s lyrics drift between the surreal and the sharply observed, odd, off-kilter images grounded by emotional unease.
Burden explains: “There’s a real scuzz to the record which I love. Stew’s worked with Massive Attack for decades so it’s not exactly surprising that he’s got an ear for the darker textural side of things, but I fell in love with how he sculpted the whole track into this huge wall of noise. There’s a feedbacking guitar that starts about a minute in and doesn’t stop until the end, which has no right to sound as good as Stew managed to make it.” Continuing to talk about the track, Burden says: “I wrote the music to the chorus of Sieves when I was 15 years old on an out of tune piano that a family friend stole from Portishead Nautical School (now defunct) and delivered unannounced to my bemused parents. 15 years later I wrote the line ‘like a homeless hermit crab in a soup can bedding down, it seems you’ve got a rotten case of falling in love’. 6 months later I finished writing the song, 2 years later I recorded it and now here we are.
The song’s a hot mess to be honest. I think it’s about craving love and hating the idea of needing love. I think it’s about thinking love is really stupid and yet also being furious that you don’t get to be stupid with everyone else. There’s a girl in there I think, when is there not? Or maybe it’s just about crabs. I like crabs.”
With more singles planned across 2026, Late Stay Ultra Girls looks set to continue exploring that uneasy space between noise and vulnerability.