Punch Card LP

Formal Sppeedwear, a three-piece out of Stoke-on-Trent, signed to Manchester’s Melodic Records in 2023, a label that has been running since 1999. Punch Card is their debut full-length after a 2024 self-titled EP, built on post-punk and synth-pop touches that critics keep tracing back to Japan, early DEVO, and the Speaking in Tongues-era Talking Heads, while Beck Clewlow’s lyrics work by association rather than story. One reviewer flagged "Wait (Hatchet Gets a New Hide)" as a possible song-of-the-year contender and singled out the cello-laced closer "Friedrich Backs Up Nothing" for its atmosphere.