They Are Gutting a Body of Water — LOTTO
Released October 17, 2025 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre: Alternative / Heavy Shoegaze
Philadelphia’s They Are Gutting a Body of Water — affectionately known as TAGABOW — return with LOTTO, an album that redefines what heavy shoegaze can be in 2025. At once abrasive and melodic, brutal and beautiful, LOTTO embodies the chaos and contradiction of modern existence: a soundscape where distortion becomes emotion, and noise becomes truth.
TAGABOW has always been a band impossible to pin down. Emerging from Philadelphia’s restless DIY scene, they built a reputation for their uncompromising live shows — chaotic, loud, drenched in strobe light and feedback — and their refusal to fit neatly into any genre. With LOTTO, they expand on that ethos, delivering a record that fuses the shimmer of shoegaze, the urgency of post-hardcore, and the grit of lo-fi alt-rock into something entirely their own.
From the opening moments, LOTTO feels like being dropped into a storm mid-formation. Guitars crash and collapse into each other, creating a dense, distorted fog that somehow manages to stay melodic. Drums explode with industrial precision while basslines pulse like a heartbeat on the edge of panic. Beneath it all, frontman Douglas Dulgarian delivers his vocals in a voice that feels half-confession, half-defiance — spoken, shouted, or whispered from inside the noise. His lyrics pull from real life: addiction, recovery, disillusionment, fleeting grace. They hit like diary entries scrawled between breakdowns and small victories.
But LOTTO isn’t just an exercise in heaviness — it’s also an exploration of vulnerability. For every wall of fuzz and distortion, there’s a sudden stillness: moments where the haze parts and melody shines through, revealing the emotional core beneath the chaos. It’s this tension — between violence and tenderness, destruction and creation — that gives the album its depth. The sound is colossal yet human, abrasive yet strangely comforting, like finding beauty in static.
Working again with producer Graham Walsh (known for his work with Holy Fuck), the band recorded LOTTO live to capture that raw, unfiltered intensity that defines their performances. The result is a record that feels urgent and alive — imperfect in the best possible way, humming with electricity and emotion.
At its thematic core, LOTTO grapples with the illusion of control — the way we gamble with life, love, and meaning in a world built on uncertainty. The title itself reflects that idea: luck, risk, and the empty promises of escape. It’s an album about trying to hold onto something real when everything around you is fleeting.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water have always thrived in contradiction — beauty wrapped in chaos, hope buried under distortion — and LOTTO might be their most complete expression yet. It’s a record to be played loud, to be felt as much as heard, the kind that makes walls shake and hearts ache in equal measure.
Loud, unflinching, and deeply human — “LOTTO” isn’t just shoegaze reimagined; it’s catharsis electrified.
© Thusblog
