DITZ, NEVER EXHALE

Since forming in the mid-2010s, Brighton-based noise rock and post-hardcore band DITZ have built a reputation for their abrasive sound, chaotic live shows, and unfiltered intensity. With Never Exhale, their second full length, they sound sharper and more deliberate, shaping their intensity with clearer purpose.

The record came together between tours, written and recorded in brief windows of time that gave the songs their restless charge. Vocalist Cal Francis said it felt like being on a game show, grabbing the first idea that surfaced before moving on, and guitarist Jack Looker described the pace as hectic in a way that kept the music alive, giving the record its constant push and pull between dissonance and patience. Beneath that tension runs a deliberate mood, a “sense of menace” that Francis considers essential to what they do. “I love it when bands can sort of scare you with a bit of music.” Looker added that their goal isn’t chaos for its own sake, but something closer to a psychological thriller, music that lingers and unsettles rather than overwhelms.

Francis wrote the lyrics as a stream of consciousness, later reshaping them into something more abstract and open to interpretation. He drew from the Bible, not as a matter of faith, but as a source of storytelling and shared language, noting its influence on Western tropes. The result is writing that moves between surrealism and reflection, where personal thoughts blend with cultural noise. The songs also draw from literary corners, with traces of Joseph Conrad, Kafka, and Kurt Vonnegut appearing like pieces of dream logic. Looker called Never Exhale "spooky," and Francis leaned into that feeling, saying that patience and space in the songs became their own pressure release.

There’s something cathartic about listening to Never Exhale. It forces a release of something I didn’t realize I needed and I found myself drawn to the album for reshaping my expectations of where an album can take me. In this regard, Never Exhale works as a complete experience, so follow the band’s advice and listen to it as an album, not in a playlist. Just remember to exhale.