Speedial share dual singles ‘Perfume’ and ‘One Half’
The four-piece return with two intense tracks.
Photo: Leo Cicero
London-based four-piece Speedial are back with their viscerally intense pair of singles Perfume and One Half. The tracks, their first since their 2025 debut EP, were previously released on vinyl only at their sold-out Brixton headlining show in May. The singles are a slow-burning affair with plenty of shoegaze-inspired driving guitars, frantic drumming and ethereal vocals. Each song very much feels like two sides of the same coin. It’s clear to see why they exist as a pair as they segue seamlessly into one another.
Perfume begins with melodramatic marching drums pounding away underneath a Midwest emo-style spoken-word intro. There’s an eerie saxophone bubbling away on top as the band takes their time cranking up the tension. It all sounds like a slow-burning breakdown as the song gets more and more claustrophobic. As the chaos dies down, the ethereal vocals sound haunted. It’s impossible not to be on the edge of your seat listening to this. You are simply just waiting for it all to break apart and explode again. Speedial sound like they are channelling a demented version of Slowdive as they exclaim “I know you have eyes for another one.”
The band is comprised of dual vocalists Serena Garrod and Millie Kirby, with Garrod describing Perfume as being “about empathising with someone that hurt me, because I had hurt someone in that same way before.” Whereas the next track, One Half, is “one of the many songs I wrote about my mum. The song explores how she’s hurt me, not trying to erase that but to be empathic towards it and acknowledge how much care she extends to me at the same time.”
As the chaos of Perfume dissipates, One Half opens with some gorgeous, fingerpicked guitar and beautiful vocals. The contrast between the tracks is stark and yet entirely fitting. The marching drums return, but they are quieter and more subdued. It is almost trancelike. Just as you are ready to exhale though, the song bursts into another cacophonous instrumental passage full of dirty, driven guitars. Each song exists seamlessly with the other, and it’s hard to imagine listening to each of them separately when they fit together as one whole piece so perfectly.
Speedial are masters at keeping listeners on the edge of their seats. The command of their music is almost orchestral. As a listener, you never know where the song is heading next. Listening to Perfume/One Half feels like being taken on a journey. It is intense, operatic and thrillingly tense. It’s not often you get to say that about a single.
Perfume/One Half is out now.
