If this year has been a soul-crushing one for you, then Mega Emotion’s new single Sick Burn is your new mantra. A mantra to pick yourself up, hug your friends, and tough out the vileness that life can throw you.

It’s been a difficult year for Mega Emotion’s Jan, Lisa and Iain too. Facing illness, death and heartache, the friends (since school) have done the only thing they can do in such circumstances; turned up their instruments and bashed the shit out of them until something beautiful and kind emerges to drown out the horrors of the world. The result is a slow-building hymn to friendship and optimism in a totally bleak world.

Mega Emotion play drums and percussion over electronic beats and build walls of sound that loop dirty baselines against pumping synths and scuzzy guitars. They wear floor-length ceremonial robes, with faces dusted in glitter and stars swept through their hair.

The band’s self-released debut BRAINS won Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable on BBC 6 Music. Their demo material has been championed by BBC Introducing and played by DJs including John Kennedy, Mark Radcliffe, Tom Robinson, Tom Ravenscroft, and Nemone.