doops Unleashes Debut Album 'the space between'

Reading’s doops arrive with The Space Between, a debut album that thrives in tension — between noise and nuance, instinct and intention. It’s a record that feels lived-in rather than laboured, where ragged psychedelia rubs shoulders with wiry post-punk propulsion. There’s a loose-limbed confidence at play, recalling the desert-hardened grooves of Q.O.T.S.A while twisting them through a distinctly UK lens — part sweatbox chaos, part wide-eyed introspection. It’s no surprise Clash have already clocked the band’s “ragged psychedelia meets post-punk hybrid”; doops sound most alive when they’re teetering on the edge.

Recorded in fragments — impromptu drum sessions at Brighton’s Farm Road Studios before being painstakingly assembled, mixed and mastered by the band themselves — the album wears its DIY ethos proudly. Tracks like ‘Idle Hands’ and ‘Fever Tree’ snarl with fuzzy immediacy, while darker, more suspended moments on ‘Forget-Me-Not’ and ‘Falling’ allow the band to stretch out into murkier, more atmospheric territory. There’s a restless sense of movement throughout: grooves lurch, dynamics snap, and melodies surface just long enough to pull you under. It’s this push and pull that makes the record feel so human — imperfect, volatile, and compelling.

Lyrically, The Space Between marks a shift inward. While surrealism and metaphor still linger, the focus sharpens on the unease of growing older — the weight of responsibility, the quiet dread between moments of momentum. That emotional undercurrent gives the album its backbone, grounding the band’s expansive “wall of sound” in something personal and resonant. With backing from Radio X, BBC Introducing, and a growing list of tastemaker nods, doops are clearly gathering pace — but this debut isn’t about hype. It’s about capturing a band mid-transition, standing squarely in the space between who they were and who they’re becoming.