SINGLE REVIEW: Big Other - Desire In The Other
Manchester’s Big Other take indie rock into hazier, more hypnotic territory with ‘Desire In The Other’, a track that feels equally anarchic and immersive. Released as an anti-love song, it plays with ideas of romance, horror, and disillusionment, even incorporating a sample of philosopher Jacques Lacan discussing death and fantasy. That mix of existentialism and raw energy creates something genuinely absorbing—shoegaze textures crash in with swirling intensity before pulling back to let delicate vocals take centre stage. It’s constantly shifting, never staying in one place for too long, but always maintaining its eerie, dreamlike pull.
The track’s structure is full of movement—howling, distorted guitars engulf the soundscape one moment before everything lulls into something softer and more vulnerable. The vocals chime in with a Cranberries-esque fragility, giving the track a ghostly quality, while the rhythm section keeps everything just chaotic enough to feel unpredictable. The song builds and recedes in waves, constantly playing with contrast, making its momentary bursts of intensity hit even harder. It’s shoegaze at its most textured, blurring the line between beauty and discord with effortless precision.
By the time ‘Desire In The Other’ reaches its dense, noise-rock outro, it feels like it has taken you somewhere completely different from where it started. It’s gritty yet ethereal, structured yet wild—a song that thrives in contradictions. Big Other have crafted something truly striking here, proving themselves as a band that knows how to take indie rock to stranger, more immersive places.
