Listen to Lorde’s Battles and Fugazi-inspired old band

Lorde fans have dug up material from a band Ella Yelich O’Connor used to feature in. They’re called And They Were Masked, and they released an album called ‘Characters’ back in 2012.

Ella features on vocals including ‘Piece of Mind’ and ‘Sands of John’, the former being a jerky, disjointed, slightly proggy number that’s a little out of time but intriguing all the same, given it’s the complete opposite of ‘Royals’’ sleek minimalism.

On their Facebook page, the band cite influences ranging from Bloc Party to Battles to Massive Attack to PJ Harvey. The Fugazi and Battles influence is plain to hear, too.

Listen to the ‘Characters’ album via Bandcamp below.