Adulkt Life

Adulkt Life is a London punk band with a storied pedigree. Singer Chris Rowley was a vocalist for Huggy Bear in the '90s and guitarist John Arthur Webb played with the dynamic 2010s band Male Bonding. Together they make music that's a bracingly modern take on agit-pop and punk. Accompanied by two digital fanzines, their debut album, Book of Curses, was issued in late 2020. After releasing a split single with METZ in 2022, their second album, There Is No Desire, materialized in 2023. The pair met in the early 2000s when the ex-Huggy Bear member struck up a friendship with Webb as he helmed the counter of the Covent Garden branch of the Rough Trade record shop. Years passed before Webb realized Rowley had been a member of the seminal riot grrrl band, then more time went by before Webb asked Rowley if he'd like to play in a band together. Rowley had given up music after Huggy Bear, but was intrigued enough to give it a go. Their initial get-togethers proved inspiring, and the band was born. Drummer Sonny Barrett, who was born a few years after Huggy Bear's 1994 demise, joined up and the group played their first show. Soon after, they added bassist Kevin Hendrick, a former member of Male Bonding who was now making music under the name Middex. The band developed a sound that was inspired by the frenetic punk of Huggy Bear, the angular punch of Male Bonding, and the various terrors and frustrations of modern life. The trio wasted little time recording their songs, and American label What's Yr Rupture? signed on to release their debut album. Titled Book of Curses, it was mixed by Webb, mastered by Mikey Young, and released in November of 2020. Adulkt Life released two new songs on a 2022 split-single with METZ (including a song called "Book of Curses" that was not included on their album of the same name) and the next year shared their sophomore set There Is No Desire. The album was recorded in just seven hours and was issued by independent label Jabs in the United States and Voltage in Germany.
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