Dino Gala’s New Single “British” Will Make You Feel A Bit “Fucked In The Head”

Allston-based band Dino Gala released their newest single “British” yesterday, February 18, and if you haven’t heard of the band yet you need to get on it ASAP.

“British” is the band’s fourth single, following a double they released in 2021 “Run It Back / Fire Escape” and later a single “Fun Fair”. Dipping their toes in plenty of different genres (like emo, shoegaze, indie, and some pop punk elements even), Dino Gala is well rounded and full of surprises. They first came across our radar through tiktok (where singers Martin Kessler and Alex Massey often post acoustic covers) last February, and we’ve been keeping a close eye on the band since.

“British”, while being noisier and grungier than the singles that came before, contains a lot of the same melodic rhythm present in the other Dino Gala songs. It’s really the use of this melodic sway (even on the more upbeat songs) that pulls all of Dino Gala’s songs together. The use of both vocalists is also really impressive. Kessler and Massey bounce off of eachother in this song in a way that makes it almost impossible to separate them into separate parts; the vocals on this track are one cohesive, erratic, haunting thought.

Another way “British” stands out from the previous singles we’ve become familiar with is in the lyrics. While previous Dino Gala songs told stories of mending relationships, and navigating romantic situations, “British” takes a much darker turn. The main screamed section being “you had a bad dream now you sleep with a knife / and it's in bad taste to try to give you advice / so get this / there's no return from just how low that you've gone / it's real no takebacks now you have to live with what you've done”. Lyrically, this song is really unnerving. Not only for the clip we’ve shared above, but for the next line in which Martin Exclaims “what the knife for, think you’re goin psycho” — the listener is left to fill in the blanks between sleeping with a knife under your pillow and wielding it against the narrator during the next verse. What happened? What was the nightmare that caused all of this? What did this person do that they now have to live with? The narration of this story over the droning guitar fills your a brain in a way that makes you yourself feel a bit “fucked in the head”, as if you’ve been pulled in and are now living inside of this song, and seeing everything that’s being talked about. The song really manages to get under your skin, and into your bones somehow. It’s a really cool and uncomfortable feeling at the same time, and it’s really impressive for them to be able to do that.

Overall, we cannot say enough good things about Dino Gala. The music they’ve been putting out since just last spring has already been incredibly impressive and unique. We cannot wait to see what they’d be able to do with a longer release, and how that might sound.

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