Snapped Ankles are an English,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band, incorporating elements of

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

and

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

. They signed to

The Leaf Label The Leaf Label is a British independent record label based in Yorkshire, England. Initially an electronic music label, releasing mainly instrumental music, the company's approach now features artists spanning jazz and post-punk. History The Le ...

in 2017 and have released five albums, two EPs and numerous singles to date. The band members' identities are unknown, due to the fact that the group performs in

ghillie suit A ghillie suit is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble the background environmentsuch as foliage. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of burlap ( hessian), cloth, twine, or jute sometimes made to lo ...

s, but they claim to be "forest folk...descended from the trees".

History

Formed in East London in 2011, the band began performing at DIY nights creating live improvisations by chopping up 1960s films before sequencing and augmenting them with synthesisers. The band released their first single, "True Ecology (Shit Everywhere)", in December 2012, on Ears Have Eyes records. Their next release came in early 2015 with "I Want My Minutes Back", issued on white label, and reissued in 2017 as their first release on

. From 2015 to 2016, they performed in Daniel Oliver's participatory performance show 'Weird Seance'. In May 2017, they performed a live session on

Marc Riley Marc Riley (born 10 July 1961) is an English radio DJ, alternative rock critic, musician, and former music businessman. He currently presents on BBC Radio 6 Music. Formerly a member of The Fall, he co-owned a record label, In-Tape, and also w ...

BBC 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

show. The group's first release specifically for The Leaf Label, 12-inch EP ''The Best Light Is The Last Light,'' was released in June 2017, with debut album ''Come Play the Trees'' following that September.

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

described the album as "propulsive and angular", praised it as "the embodiment of the weird, wonderful and true ecology of it all, presented by a bunch of folks dressed like ditches" and compared the band to "a pagan Can or a forested

Fall Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemispher ...

Loud and Quiet ''Loud and Quiet'' is a British bi-monthly music magazine that focuses on new music from underground indie, alternative, electronic and hip hop artists. History and profile The magazine was founded in January 2005 by Stuart Stubbs as a home-print ...

describe the album as "hyperactive post-punk for the ailing state of the nation" and "bounding forward uncannily like The Fall's recent work". In December 2017, Electronic Sounds placed the album at number 9 in their top 30 albums of the year and The Quietus at 14 in their list of 100. Snapped Ankles released ''Violations'', an EP of cover versions, for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

2018. It was released on limited edition vinyl and featured songs by

The Fugs The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver (musician), Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy ...

, Can,

Joey Beltram Joey Beltram (born November 6, 1971) is an American DJ and record producer, best known for his pioneering singles "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm" and for remixing Human Resource (band), Human Resource's "Dominator (Human Resource song), Dominator". ...

and The Comateens. Their second album '' Stunning Luxury'' was released on

on 1 March 2019. Described as a "10-song

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...

style takedown of modern capitalism" and "a stridently political album that loses neither its sense of humour nor its capacity for bangers", the album's themes and settings are based in the city and suburbs rather than the forests of 2017's ''Come Play The Trees''. The album's lyrics attacks gentrification and other aspects of modern city life.

placed the album at #16 in their Albums Of The Year 2019. The band's first live album, ''21 Metres to Hebden Bridge,'' was released in September 2020. Named after the distance between the pool table and stage at The Trades Club in

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Calderdale district of West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Upper Calder Valley, west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden W ...

, where it was recorded in October 2019, the album was released for the delayed Record Store Day 2020. Snapped Ankles' third studio album, ''Forest Of Your Problems'', was released on

in July 2021. It was

Rough Trade Rough Trade may refer to: *Rough Trade (shops), London record stores *Rough Trade Records, a record label from the stores *Rough Trade Books, a publishing house from the label *Rough Trade (band), a Canadian new wave rock band * "Rough Trade" (''Am ...

's Album of the Month, and they described it as the group's "most spellbinding potion of woodwose krautrock to date" and a "bewitching and hypnotic incantation with swirling melodies, primal rhythm and feral funk that harks back to the feeling of possessed mania of Can or Joy Division."

gave the album 8/10 and described it as a "

Goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

-meets- The Fall soundworld that perfectly captures the group’s psychotic, eerie vision". ''Hard Times Furious Dancing'', the band's fifth studio album, will be released on

on 28th March 2025.

Music, imagery and live performance

The band perform in "

shamanistic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

costumes" and their live performances include elements of performance art and art-rock. Their unique live show is known for "whipping audiences into a manic, frenzied, ecstatic state." The Leaf Label describes the band's sound as "primal motoric rhythms, the rush of

white noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, i ...

and post-punk angles; an aural onslaught played out on homemade log synths, electrified guitars and sticks beating hell on taut animal skin". ''

'' called them "a band defying convention at every turn and toying with their own mythology as they see fit". In the same article, the band describe ''Come Play The Trees'' as " avinga bunch poppy, post-punk groove tracks, but then we've got some songs that are made just using the single oscillator log-synths. They're sort of non-songs". They go on to say, "when you've got an instrument that can only make one note, long or short, and barely make a tune at all, it feels like a political statement about going back to these situations where we had to be based in places that barely had locks on the doors and where we were using PAs and drums kids made out of bits that we cobbled together. That's what I like to see in a band. I want to see bands that have thrown it together, rather than having all the new gear from

Denmark Street Denmark Street is a street on the edge of London's West End running from Charing Cross Road to St Giles High Street. It is near St Giles in the Fields Church and Tottenham Court Road station. The street was developed in the late 17th centu ...

". The band also cites the diverse influences of

Morris dancing Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers in costume, usually wearing bell pads on their shins, their shoes or both. A band or single musi ...

, Old Norse texts,

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

, Lightning Bolt,

Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...

and London warehouse parties.

Discography

Albums

* ''Come Play the Trees'' (

, 2017) * '' Stunning Luxury'' (The Leaf Label, 2019) * ''21 Metres from Hebden Bridge'' (The Leaf Label, 2020; RSD 2020 leaf green vinyl limited edition) * ''Forest of Your Problems'' (The Leaf Label, 2021) * ''Forest of Your Problems (Parasite Sessions)'' (The Leaf Label, 2021) * ''Hard Times Furious Dancing'' (The Leaf Label, 2025)

EPs

* ''True Ecology'' (Ears Have Eyes, 2012) * ''The Best Light Is the Last Light'' (The Leaf Label, 2017) * ''Violations'' (The Leaf Label, 2018) * ''Four to the Forest Floor'' (The Leaf Label, 2018)

Singles

* "I Want My Minutes Back" (The Leaf Label, 2017) * "The Invisible Real That Hurts (Danalogue Dirty Orbit Mix)" (The Leaf Label, 2017) * "CIA Man (NSA Man Violation)" (The Leaf Label, 2018) * "Drink and Glide" (The Leaf Label, 2019) * "Rechargeable" (The Leaf Label, 2019) * "Letter from Hampi Mountain" (The Leaf Label, 2019) * "Rhythm Is Our Business" (The Leaf Label, 2021) * "The Evidence" (The Leaf Label, 2021) * "Shifting Basslines of the Cornucopians" (The Leaf Label, 2021) * "Raoul" (The Leaf Label, 2025) * "Pay the Rent" (The Leaf Label, 2025)

References

External links

Snapped Ankles Official Website

All Music

Leaf Label Page
{{Authority control English post-punk music groups Musical groups established in 2011 Punk rock groups from London Masked musicians Unidentified musicians 2011 establishments in England