They Are Gutting A Body Of Water - Lotto (Album Review)
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Written by Jeremy Blackmore
Photo: Brian Karlsson
After flirting with electronics and ambient sounds, experimental Philadelphia shoegazers They Are Gutting a Body of Water go back to basics on ‘Lotto’, their fourth studio album. It’s an uncompromising, unflinching, confessional record with menacing, fuzzy, scratchy guitars. Clocking at just over 27 minutes, there’s not an ounce of fat here.
Tired of a world of artifice, frontman and founding member Doug Dulgarian vowed to make an album rife with perceivable mistakes and ebbs and flows with “the most humanity I can place on one record.”
Opener The Chase sets the template. After the faint chimes of church bells welcome the new year, the album erupts with blazing guitars recalling the hours Dulgarian wrestled with fentanyl withdrawal on January 1, 2025, before finding relief in the face of his partner, bassist Emily Lofting – “my girlfriend up high in miracle's castle.”
The intensity of the music matches the deeply visceral lyrics detailing “the dark disease lined across my sweaty forehead”. It’s stark and painfully honest.
There is a brief lull mid song before a final spoken word section, Dulgarian intoning over an eddying guitar riff as he questions which future he will embrace. It sets out his mission statement for ‘Lotto’ lyrically and musically: “Living in truth is a practice, and it’s never too late to get real again.”
But amid the relentless maelstrom of sound, there are chinks of light, subtler lo-fi moments where the guitars are stripped back momentarily, allowing space for Dulgarian’s lyrics to make themselves heard and subtle melodies to reveal themselves. Chrises Head, meanwhile, provides a brief interlude at the album’s midway point, built entirely around synthesised vocals. The anthemic Sour Diesel features a chiming riff, while lead single American Food builds among swirling, AutoTuned vocals against a backdrop of tape loops and samples.
‘Lotto’ closes with Herpim, the story of a mid-air emergency. As the plane shakes violently, synths build towards a crescendo, distorted guitars underlining the tension. Eventually, “after what feels like an hour of conversations with God / The wheels touch the asphalt / And the whole plane claps.” Like the pilot, TAGABOW nailed the landing.
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat February 07 2026 - DUBLIN Whelans
Mon February 09 2026 - GLASGOW Classic Grand
Tue February 10 2026 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Wed February 11 2026 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Thu February 12 2026 - BRISTOL Exchange
Fri February 13 2026 - LONDON ICA
Sat February 14 2026 - LONDON ICA
Sun February 15 2026 - BRIGHTON Daltons
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