🎧 Approved: Freak Slug

Freak Slug, the eclectic project helmed by Mancunian multi-hyphenate Xenya Genovese, mixes elements of dreamy alt-pop with a distinct 90s nostalgia, blending sweetness with just enough edge. Genovese’s moniker itself seems to embrace her sound’s curious, offbeat charm, capturing both whimsy and bite.

Leading her debut album is the single ‘Spells’, a track that prowls with a serpentine bassline and a nervy electronic pulse. Influenced by Gorillaz, it’s a song “for the lovers and the I-don’t-knowers”, an anthem for anyone caught between bliss and bewilderment. 

In recounting the song’s genesis, Genovese explains, “‘Spells’ is a track I made with Alex from Jadu Heart and it’s the first song we ever made together on the album. We worked fast together in a hyper environment where the sun was shining through the windows and I was stealing his cigarettes smoking in the garden in excitement from making the song”.

Her debut album, ‘I Blow Out Big Candles’, drops on 8 Nov, promising a record that feels both warmly familiar and refreshingly strange.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Spells’ below