Pickle Darling - Bots (CD)
Pickle Darling has always existed just outside of the periphery. In a heightened time of fast music, algorithmic consumption and rapid virality, Lukas Mayo (they/them) has remained focused on the album. Their discography is a reflection of their creative evolution, and they deliberately look for ways to push sonic boundaries from release to release.
Since debuting with Bigness in 2019 followed by Cosmonaut in 2021, Mayo has curated a catalog that is deeply personal and strangely tactile, where tiny, unexpected details—an off-kilter loop, a whispered aside, the warmth of an old Casio—become as crucial as melody itself. Their 2023 LP Laundromat was a precise and polished expansion of that world, a record that felt like it had been carefully placed behind glass.
Their forthcoming fourth album, Bots, by contrast, is unruly and full of static: a collection of songs that feel like they could only ever exist on scratched CD-Rs passed between friends. Self-recorded in their home studio in Christchurch, New Zealand, it finds Mayo taking a scalpel to their own songwriting. Songs were stretched, chopped, reversed. Some ideas started as "unlistenable garbage" before morphing into something unexpectedly beautiful. If a song felt too straightforward, Mayo had to mess it up. That friction of old and new, organic and digital, melody and noise is what drives Bots.
Drawing inspiration from a strange, scattered lineage: Four Tet’s Rounds, The Books, Neneh Cherry’s Broken Politics, The Wrens’ Three Types of Reading Ambiguity, but also the emotional directness of 2000s pop like Madonna’s Ray of Light and Robyn’s Body Talk, the result is an album that feels like a glitch in the system, pushing against past constraints while embracing the weird, beautiful mess of making something new.
“A clutch of tiny gems-many tracks hardly longer than a minute - but leaving you reeling.” - MOJO
“Pickle Darling looks to the sky, elevating their songwriting prowess with a rounded-out sound and lyrics that combine specific moments with broader existential feelings.” - Bandcamp Daily
Available as:
Shockwave Swirl Purple & Sky Blue Vinyl (Limited to 500)
4 Panel Digipak CD
First orders include a very limited Comic Book - available for CD and Vinyl while stocks last!
Tracklist:
1. Obsolete
2. Violence Voyager
3. Earthshaped
4. Congratulations Champion
5. Human Bean Instruction Manual
6. Steps
7. Massive Everything
8. Infinite Trolley
Pickle Darling has always existed just outside of the periphery. In a heightened time of fast music, algorithmic consumption and rapid virality, Lukas Mayo (they/them) has remained focused on the album. Their discography is a reflection of their creative evolution, and they deliberately look for ways to push sonic boundaries from release to release.
Since debuting with Bigness in 2019 followed by Cosmonaut in 2021, Mayo has curated a catalog that is deeply personal and strangely tactile, where tiny, unexpected details—an off-kilter loop, a whispered aside, the warmth of an old Casio—become as crucial as melody itself. Their 2023 LP Laundromat was a precise and polished expansion of that world, a record that felt like it had been carefully placed behind glass.
Their forthcoming fourth album, Bots, by contrast, is unruly and full of static: a collection of songs that feel like they could only ever exist on scratched CD-Rs passed between friends. Self-recorded in their home studio in Christchurch, New Zealand, it finds Mayo taking a scalpel to their own songwriting. Songs were stretched, chopped, reversed. Some ideas started as "unlistenable garbage" before morphing into something unexpectedly beautiful. If a song felt too straightforward, Mayo had to mess it up. That friction of old and new, organic and digital, melody and noise is what drives Bots.
Drawing inspiration from a strange, scattered lineage: Four Tet’s Rounds, The Books, Neneh Cherry’s Broken Politics, The Wrens’ Three Types of Reading Ambiguity, but also the emotional directness of 2000s pop like Madonna’s Ray of Light and Robyn’s Body Talk, the result is an album that feels like a glitch in the system, pushing against past constraints while embracing the weird, beautiful mess of making something new.
“A clutch of tiny gems-many tracks hardly longer than a minute - but leaving you reeling.” - MOJO
“Pickle Darling looks to the sky, elevating their songwriting prowess with a rounded-out sound and lyrics that combine specific moments with broader existential feelings.” - Bandcamp Daily
Available as:
Shockwave Swirl Purple & Sky Blue Vinyl (Limited to 500)
4 Panel Digipak CD
First orders include a very limited Comic Book - available for CD and Vinyl while stocks last!
Tracklist:
1. Obsolete
2. Violence Voyager
3. Earthshaped
4. Congratulations Champion
5. Human Bean Instruction Manual
6. Steps
7. Massive Everything
8. Infinite Trolley
Info columns
PRE-ORDERS
Flying Nun only debits your account for a pre-order when it has actually landed in our store. We believe this is fair because supply can often be unreliable - availability and release dates frequently change without notice. Pre-order with Flying Nun and you can cancel any time prior to the product arriving at our store.
OUT OF STOCK ITEMS
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SHIPPING
Flying Nun offers free shipping in Aotearoa New Zealand on orders over $80. We have record stores in both Auckland and Wellington and will ship your record from whichever store is nearest. We aim to pack send your order next business day. Pick ups are also available from both stores.