A Chorley Band’s Debut Album, with Radio Interference Re-Recorded Through a Portable FM Set
Eel Feeling by Hauspoints opens on 88.3 ONFM, 80 seconds of radio transmissions and shouted vocals. The band built the whole debut album around a faulty FM transmitter in frontman Palmo’s car. They then re-recorded every burst of interference through a small portable radio, so none of those noises are stock audio.
Hauspoints have the title track of Eel Feeling in the playlist below, among the grunge and alternative rock this desk keeps close. The album came to RockRevival.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Press play, then keep reading for where the band came from.
British Post-Punk Bands Reached the Top Five of the UK Albums Chart in the 2020s
British post-punk has had a busy decade. Squid formed in Brighton in 2016 and came up through the Windmill scene. Their debut album, Bright Green Field, came out on Warp Records in May 2021. It then went to number four in the UK.
Meanwhile, Yard Act made their version of that noise in the north. The Leeds post-punk band formed in 2019, three years after Squid. Their debut, The Overload, entered the UK Albums Chart at number two in 2022, and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize that year.
The template is much older. The Fall formed in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, in 1976. Mark E. Smith’s caustic lyrics and half-sung, half-spoken delivery ran over abrasive, repetitive guitar. As a result, the band became one of the most prolific acts of the original post-punk movement. Since then, that northern line of dry, talky, guitar-driven rock has never really gone away.
Hauspoints came out of the lockdown years. Palmo has said the band began as a studio project with guitarist Rob Clarke as those lockdowns ended. Later, it grew into a full live band.
Hauspoints Began as a Lockdown Studio Project in Chorley and Grew Into a Live Band
The members had been friends for years and had played in their own bands before. Between them, they also count around 80 years of playing. Meanwhile, the name came from a conversation about school house points and how they push children to compete with each other.
The current line-up has Palmo on guitar and vocals, and he also tinkers with radios. Rob Clarke also plays guitar and sings. Nik Brierley plays bass, synthesisers and miscellaneous noises, and Charlie Hartley plays drums. In a 2024 interview with RGM, the band said they had only recently stopped being a six-piece with two drummers.
The catalogue built steadily. The Bloody Interference EP arrived in February 2023, and Mystic Sons covered it. The singles Hear No, See No and Meat Bingo followed in July and August 2024. Then Eel Feeling came out on 21 September 2024, with ten tracks across 38 minutes.
Two Studios, a Trumpet and a Portable Radio
The recording split between two rooms. Rob Whiteley recorded and produced sessions at Whitewood Studios in Liverpool, and the band recorded the rest themselves at Big Mon Studios in Chorley. In addition, Nick Hulme adds trumpet to Hear No, See No, Two Pounds Of Dirt and Head To Toe. Finally, the album came out through Crackedankles Records.
The radio bursts sit among a wide range of sounds. Obscure Sound heard a title track that swings between dreamy and raucous, spoken word over thumping bass on Meat Bingo, and synth touches on Catflap. In an interview with Cage Riot, the band explained that the interference really passed through a portable FM radio. Palmo has also said that the lyrics come from a northern view of how absurd modern life is, written with dry humour.
The band launched the record at Chew’s Yard in Preston on 21 September 2024. Six days after that, they played Sunbird Records in Darwen. Their most recent single, FFS, arrived in May 2026.
Yard Act, Squid and The Fall Sit Around Eel Feeling by Hauspoints
Yard Act are the northern peers. They proved that a post-punk band from the north of England could still reach number two on the UK chart. Hauspoints work the same alternative rock ground from a Lancashire base, with more noise and more jokes about the radio.
Squid are the arrangement match. For example, their line-up includes brass and a drummer who sings, and their records set guitars beside those extra parts. Eel Feeling does something similar, with Nick Hulme’s trumpet on three tracks and synthesisers from Nik Brierley.
The Fall are the ancestor. Obscure Sound heard Catflap as a cross between The Fall and LCD Soundsystem, with a repeated hook in the Talking Heads mould. So anyone who knows the Prestwich band’s repetitive guitar and talky vocals will hear the family resemblance in this alternative rock record.
From the RockRevival.News curator team: “Play 88.3 ONFM straight into Hear No, See No. Every burst of interference passed through a real portable radio before it reached the record. The noise then leads straight into the second track’s opening beat.”
Stream Eel Feeling and Follow Hauspoints Across Platforms
Stream Eel Feeling on Spotify or buy it on Bandcamp. Then follow Hauspoints on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, their YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook. You can also visit the band’s official website.
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