Chalk - Live at The Fleece, Bristol - 22nd April 2026

Although it’s only a few weeks old, Chalk’s debut album Crystalpunk deserved a better response.

The culmination of five years’ work by the duo of Ross Cullen and Benedict Goddard, it’s a glorious melting pot of every electro-outfit of note over the last three decades, all sloshed together to create something urgent, muscular and entirely their own.

So it’s no surprise that they can successfully translate it to the live stage (with exceptionable help from drummer Fion McAleavey), but even then it fails to prepare for the abrasive, electro-punk storm that follows.

With elements of Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Aphex Twin and Underworld, it’s a cacophony of electronic punk.

The trio make a muted entrance before opening with the marauding ‘Tongue’. Built on Depeche Mode-esque synths, it swaggers malevolently despite going through a sequence of changes.

https://www.live4ever.uk.com/chalk-live-at-bristol-fleece-review/