Adult DVD

The Arc of Adult DVD

The pivots — what forced Adult DVD to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Bedroom Demos and Club Reworks

   Stuck inside during 2021, Hanson and Lonsdale started tossing digital tracks back and forth, resulting in the early Bandcamp drop 'FOMO' and their first streaming blast 'Broken English'. The pair quickly dragged in four more bodies to make it a full, functional six-piece outfit before closing out the year with the 'Broken English: Remix EP'. It proved early that they cared as much about sweaty warehouse club culture as they did about guitar-driven indie grit. You can hear the raw, unfinished urgency of two guys trying to outrun lockdown boredom through synthetic loops.

2. 02

   The Extended Play Workout

   Between 2023 and 2024, the band shifted from an internet novelty into a punishing touring unit with the back-to-back EPs Fountain of Youth and Next Day Shipping. Tracks like 'Bill Murray' and 'Doomsday Prepper' put their sarcastic Northern humor squarely over driving sequencer lines and jagged rhythms. Blackburn's production work behind the desk started pulling sharper textures out of the synth rigs while Newell and Manson locked down a ruthless rhythm section. The sound completely shed its bedroom origins and became loud, relentless club-punk.

3. 03

   The Fat Possum Leap

   Riding the momentum of a 2025 Glastonbury appearance on the BBC Introducing stage, the band inked a deal with Fat Possum Records in early 2026. Rather than handing the keys to an outside producer, they holed up at The Nave Studios in Leeds to self-produce their self-titled full-length debut Adult DVD. Anchored by the lead single 'Real Tree Lee', the record sounds heavier, meaner, and fully committed to its relentless synth-punk blueprint. It stands as proof that they did not need external industry gloss to deliver a full-length knockout.

Influences

• LCD Soundsystem — James Murphy established the blueprint of grafting acerbic, deadpan vocal snark directly onto motorik four-on-the-floor club arrangements. You hear that exact tension driving Hanson's cynical talk-singing over the sequencer pulse on 'Do Something'. It is the golden standard for rock guys who would rather sweat in a disco.
• New Order — They pioneered the raw conversion of northern English post-punk into club-ready sequencer pop after Joy Division fell apart. George Manson's melodic, high-riding basslines throughout Next Day Shipping pull directly from Peter Hook's playbook. They carry that same gray, industrial grit straight onto the dancefloor.
• The Fall — Mark E. Smith's tradition of ranting working-class observations over stubborn, repetitive grooves is foundational to modern northern post-punk. Hanson mirrors that abrasive, repetitive lyrical delivery on tracks like 'Bill Murray', treating mundane modern dread with pure sarcasm. It keeps the band grounded in British barroom grit instead of slick pop pretension.
• Underworld — Karl Hyde and Rick Smith bridged the gap between pub-rock roots and massive nineties acid techno anthems. Adult DVD takes that same approach to extended electronic builds, layering Williams and Lonsdale's synth hooks until the tracks hit festival-scale euphoria. You catch it plainly in the repetitive, hypnotic build-ups on 'Real Tree Lee'.
• Devo — Their robotic, paranoid synth-punk framed consumerist modern misery as a chaotic joke wrapped in rubbery sequencer riffs. Adult DVD lifts that exact nervous energy on 'Doomsday Prepper', treating end-times dread like a dance party. The jerky, frantic synth textures come straight out of the Akron basement school of art-punk.