One dark night in the dingy upstairs of a London pub, Grundy le Zimbra and Simon Mastrantone conducted an experiment in harmony, handclaps and distortion. By flickering candlelight something melodious and monstrous was created, a handful of spectators the only witnesses to the birth of the beast.

With the echoes of that sinister evening still in the air, the pair stomped and clapped their way around the country, bonding over a love of grunge and ghosts. The pair poured their hearts and limited resources into the Play Dead EP: a collection of four ‘ramshackle tidbits’, wrapped in hand-made sleeves, showcasing their trademark blend of lo-fi experimentalism and pop sensibility. It soon sold out, garnering a wealth of praise.

Along the way, the band were embraced by the House of Strange: a collective, a band and most importantly a recording studio. It was there they began to piece together their first album, co-producing with Head of the Household, Ash Gardner, whose experience behind the desk with everyone from Three Trapped Tigers to Mumford and Sons to Stricken City lent focus to the band’s lofty ideas.

The sessions initially produced two singles: the relentless wall-of-sound of ‘NatWest Tower’ and the wry, Cuomo-esque ‘Sylvia’ (the latter being picked up by BBC6 and XFM along the way). Yet these two songs only hint at the scope of the final album. Never Sleep retains The Woe Betides’ characteristic love of melody and harmony, but is altogether more ambitious, bombastic and louder than their earlier output. Using every tool they could beg, borrow or steal, the band have peppered each song with rusty pianos, dusty organs, tired mellotrons, found percussion and their old friend: the trusty handclap.

Though more adventurous in spirit, the ten songs on Never Sleep remain deceptively simple. New single ‘This Head, This Heart’ condenses all that the album has to offer in a tidy three-and-a-half minute package of bizarre squelchy beats, gnarled fuzzy bass and aggressive down-tuned guitars. The beast has grown up, but at its core beats a heart full of harmony, handclaps and distortion.

Never Sleep is out now on CD and download.

The Play Dead EP is sold out but available on download.