Caustic, cerebral and bizarre, LICE have spent their early years flirting with mainstream acclaim while remaining British punk’s constant outliers. Often a tight-fit for traditional punk fans, LICE have cultivated a devoted following amongst seekers of more transgressive, unusual guitar music.

Emerging from Bristol’s vital avant-garde scene, the group shot to prominence with incendiary DIY headline shows and supports for The Fall, The Fat White Family and Girl Band. In 2017 they became Big Score Records’ first release with standalone single ‘The Human Parasite’, winning their first national press and 6Music support.

In 2018, the band’s arch-advocates IDLES (who took LICE as their support on the Brutalism and Unity tours) released LICE’s ‘early-years’ collection through their label Balley Records. This Double EP, ‘It All Worked Out Great 1+2’, won critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian, The Quietus and Loud and Quiet, who declared them “the most exciting, inspiring and genuinely deranged new guitar band in the country”.

Purged of their old material, LICE’s more fervently experimental new music (set for release in 2020) draws EBM, industrial and minimalism into driving art-rock. Taking cues from science fiction and early-20th century polemicists, their innovative lyrics subvert the conventions of popular satirical music with character arcs and absurdist vignettes. Upending the punk landscape their earlier work saw them associated with, LICE are a project commensurate to these militant years.