Target pres.: Batbait + Hi Mum

Who are Batbait, and how do they make music that is so intense and strangely beautiful? (Because if we finally let rock music speak for itself, it would most certainly say that it wishes to be played by Batbait.) A sound that is far more than distorted guitars and driving rhythms. Here, sound unfolds that doesn't just scratch the surface but reveals deeper layers. Glitter in the noise. Against the Glotz. When the patriarchy falters, Batbait's sound echoes. Accessibility is renegotiated when they shred their songs. DIY here is not a style, but lived reality. The four musicians uncompromisingly develop their own musical language, free from conventional boundaries: distortion, swathes of reverb, and clicking rhythms intertwine to form a complex, multi-layered experience. Music, lyrics, visual art, and aesthetics shape their work, in which self-determination and independence are placed at the center. Batbait show how rock music doesn't simply need a lot of space, but can be loud and angry, yet at the same time reflective, joyful, and sensitive. In the fusion of sound and content, a sound emerges that defies all rock sub-genre boundaries and goes its own way – radical and independent. Between power, nonchalance, and understatement: After their first album 'Dirty Clothes' (Irascible Records, 2022) now follows 'Working in The Garden' (Irascible Records, 2025). Meanwhile, at Batbait's, pasta even boils in cold water. DIY attitude, slacker romanticism, and the flirt with the MTV heydays – a familiar aesthetic that somehow just won't die and finds another pro-argument in HI MUM from Nuremberg. The quartet masters the play with loud-quiet dynamics just as well as the combination of carefree pop harmonies and the obligatory walls of guitar. A pleasant feeling of familiarity, in which nostalgia nonetheless remains only a side note. For that, the songs are too urgent and the attitude too relaxed. Lyrically, the gaze wanders, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes semi-joyful, through a colorful box of emotions comprising personal experiences, enigmatic encounters, and pop-cultural references. Whoever needs genres for sound classification should get a concrete idea with the terms Alternative, Shoegaze, Indie, and Grunge. The vibe is thus clear – HI MUM deliver it maximally fresh.