Melting Vinyl dedicated to bringing creative artists to Brighton & Kent

Melting Vinyl presents:
Lael Neale + special guests
Wednesday 10th March
at The Hope & Ruin
Doors: 8pm
Tickets: £16 + booking fee / £20 on the door
Standing
Age restrictions: 18+

On sale: Thursday 17th September at 10am
Sales are restricted to 6 per customer

In the wake of three critically acclaimed records on Sub Pop, minimalist lo-fi auteur Lael Neale announces As Killers Do, the inaugural self-release under her new imprint Consensual Sound, due November 20th, 2026.

Recorded in the kitchen of a bungalow in Echo Park, Los Angeles, with a Tascam cassette 8-track machine, As Killers Do is Neale’s fourth collaboration with Guy Blakeslee and stays true to the duo’s commitment to minimalism and the raw immediacy and hand-made intimacy of home recording. Totalling a mere 28 minutes, the ten songs on the record offer up a variety of sonic worlds, from echoes of LA’s Paisley Underground and 60’s girl group sha-la-las, to metaphysical proto-punk, timeless outsider folk and Surrealist psych-pop.

A brilliant lyricist, Neale has a unique ability to uncover the extraordinary within the mundane. As Killers Do showcases her ever-evolving crystalline vocal mastery and razor-sharp insights into the human condition. By exploring her struggles on the inner plane against the backdrop of the accelerating chaos and imbalance of our digital society, she alchemises a transformation – from obsessive overthinking and often debilitating anxiety at the start of the record, to a hopeful, grounded and mystical perspective by its end. The quiet intensity of this record serves to remind us that the antidote to anxiety is creativity.

Born and raised in Virginia’s idyllic countryside, Neale brought the high-lonesome sound of her home state with her when she moved to California to pursue music. After years of writing songs on guitar and playing small venues in Los Angeles, she discovered the Omnichord in 2019, which sparked a new creative direction. Working with Blakeslee, she recorded an unpolished collection of songs on a cassette 4-track, which Blakeslee sent to Sub Pop Records in March 2020. The resulting album, Acquainted With Night, struck a chord with listeners during the bizarre days of early 2021.

Star Eaters Delight (2023), deepened the collaboration with Blakeslee, infusing minimalist soundscapes with a heightened electric energy. The album’s subsequent tour included sold-out shows in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Paris, multiple trips across Europe, and a West Coast run supporting kindred spirit Weyes Blood.

Altogether Stranger (2025) led to more acclaim, a sold-out tour of the United Kingdom and opening slots supporting Beach House, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio and Cass McCombs. Between tours, Neale and Blakeslee split time between Los Angeles and her family’s farm in Virginia.

“She’s managed to infuse a very done old female singer-songwriter, emotive approach with fresh abandon. She abandons a lot of the traditional instrumentation and doesn’t often bother with a beat and just kind of lets the whole feeling of the thing go into a place that suddenly doesn’t sound like it’s of the industry.” – Iggy Pop, BBC Radio

For fans of: Broadcast, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Cindy Lee, The Space Lady, Suicide.
New album As Killers Do will be out via Consensual Sound on November 20th.