Blood Red Shoes

Formed in Brighton in 2004 around Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell, Blood Red Shoes belongs to a tense, direct strand of British rock at the crossroads of indie rock, garage rock, noise rock and post-punk. The duo — guitar, drums and vocals responding to one another without trying to thicken the sound artificially — emerged in the mid-2000s with a string of singles and tours that established them on alternative stages across Britain and Europe. They developed a concise songwriting style built on abrasive riffs, short melodies and often frontal energy, with a marked taste for contrasts between rhythmic tension and clearer vocal lines. Their discography reflects this evolution: Box of Secrets (2008), Fire Like This (2010), In Time to Voices (2012), the more stripped-down Blood Red Shoes (2014), and then Get Tragic (2019) and Ghosts on Tape (2022), which stretch the formula toward greater mobility — between dry rock, darker textures and an openness to more electronic moods. Over the years Blood Red Shoes have kept the duo format while evolving their production and the balance between punk immediacy and a more atmospheric approach.