Originally formed in Tresco, the second biggest island of the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, UK, an island famously known as “The Island of Lost Souls,” and now currently based in Richmond, UK, the self-described psychedelic, garage noir duo West Wickhams — Jon Othello and Elle Flores — named their project after an imagined rival gang to British punk style icons The Bromley Contingent, a group who followed Sex Pistols and whose style was largely influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music. 

Their overall aesthetic is influenced by a wide range of goth and horror sources including the work of Mary Shelley, Whitby Abbey, Edgar Allan Poe, Andy Warhol, abstract painting, film noir and more. 

Back in 2022, the duo released two EPs, their debut EP Consider Her Way, which featured the brooding, The Cure-meets-Cocteau Twins-like “Consider Her Way.” They quickly followed up with their sophomore EP Magenta, which featured the slick The Cure-meets-New Order-like “This Is a Hang Up,” one of the more dance-floor friendly tracks of their growing catalog.

The British outfit start 2024 with the recently released effort, Vivre Sa Vie. The album’s latest single “The Conformist” continues a run of material clearly indebted to 80s goth and post-punk — but with chiming percussion, which adds a subtle bit of bright beauty to the generally dark, brooding air.

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it’s conformity,” the duo say of their latest single.

The accompanying video is based among edited stock footage of two dangers — rendered in stark and trippy negative, as though they’re dancing amongst the cosmos.