- 2026-01-08
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MUSIC
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IST IST Releases New Song “Obligations”
Manchester-based post-punk band IST IST, consisting of Adam Houghton (vocals/guitar), Mat Peters (guitar), Andy Keating (bass) and Joel Kay (drums), will their upcoming fifth studio album “DAGGER” on February 6, 2026 via their own label Kind Violence Records.
It is their first album in two years, following the 2024 album “Light a Bigger Fire”.
From the album, the band released the fourth and the final pre-release single called “Obligations” on January 7, 2026.
The song is accompanied by a music video, which was directed by Black Rock Creative, featuring longtime friend of the band and London-based singer-songwriter Oliver Marson.
It was written by Adam Houghton, Andy Keating, Joel Kay, and Mat Peters. Produced by Joseph Cross.- The band frontman Adam Houghton said of the song, “With 'Obligations,' I wanted to capture the feeling of being bound to someone who represents both your salvation and your undoing. It’s about how love can feel like duty - something you can’t walk away from even when it hurts. I wanted to explore memory as something that both comforts and strangles, showing how the past can shape who we become. By the end, the narrator isn’t whole anymore, but they’ve accepted that pain and change are part of survival. It’s about transformation through loss - the quiet resilience of being altered by love.”
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The new album comprises 10 tracks, produced by Joseph Cross. It is their most direct album yet and symbolises the driven DIY ethic that has been programmed into their DNA since day dot, Completely self-funded and self-recorded.
The band guitarist Mat Peters said of the album, “We started working on the album as soon as we got back from the European tour in late 2024. The momentum you carry from a tour into the studio is powerful and you're still in that live headspace, so the music you write in those moments tends to be more visceral. You go with the flow a little bit more rather than it being methodical. What you end up with is a collection of songs already primed for the stage.”
Bassist Andy Keating added, “We wanted to make some braver and more brash choices during the recording process. We wanted to make this record for ourselves first and foremost. There was no agenda beyond capturing the post-tour energy and playing the sort of things we wanted to listen to. The result of that is our most direct album since our debut 'Architecture'.”
Photo by trust a fox - source : Apple Music
