In September 2024, Overmono launched their ever-evolving Pure Devotion live show, tweaking and morphing their body-shifting music to enhance its emotional potency as they toured globally. Those two words – Pure Devotion – could have been printed on a cherished clubnight flyer that’s bluetacked to a bedroom wall or safely stored in the attic, and it’s a mantra which encapsulates the driving sentiments of Overmono: love, honesty, and dedication.
Sharing the name, spirit and ethos, Pure Devotion - the second album from brothers Tom and Ed Russell - is Overmono’s most ambitious musical statement to date; one set to cement their status as one of the defining dance music acts of the decade. It was first conceptualised in October 2024, during a casual chat over coffee in Ed’s kitchen about the Roland SH–2, an analogue synthesiser released in 1979, which Tom had gifted to Ed for his birthday. The brothers were struck by their appreciation for the sonic power of hardware from the 70s and 80s. They also realised that the limitations of vintage equipment could give them a sense of focus, that it could help them create music which is unapologetically direct, and that they could merge analogue synthesisers with contemporary computer technology to make the sound feel new.
A month later, Tom and Ed embarked on a secluded writing trip to Iceland, with just two synths and an FX unit. As they looked out at snowy mountaintops and a fast-flowing river, they began work on Pure Devotion: an album created by beautiful imperfections, machine malfunctions, and happy accidents, and harnessed by the unflinching confidence Overmono have gained since their breakthrough as one of the defining dance music acts of the 2020s. “The first approach with anything on the record was always: how can we achieve this in a physical way?” says Ed. “Everything came really naturally. And then it was a long process of fucking about and having fun.”
When a DJ drops an Overmono track, the crowd instantly knows who they’re dancing to. Together, Tom and Ed have created an unmistakable sonic language. Their pummelling beats and chest-rattling basslines provide the hard exterior for beautifully tender chords – a juxtaposition visually represented in Overmono’s artwork by the doberman, an often misunderstood dog breed that has an intimidating reputation but a tendency for affection when treated well. Overmono’s topline vocal melodies, sourced via samples and in-studio collaborations, feel both sweet and poignant, and they’re often warped to sound like ghostly voices from blurry memories of the rave. On Pure Devotion, Tom and Ed have refined and expanded on their distinctive musical palette.
It’s hard to pinpoint any explicit references to other records on Pure Devotion. Instead of taking direct inspiration from other musicians, Tom and Ed studied maverick production techniques. They researched Sylvia Massy’s innovative work with Tool and System of a Down. They admired the bold attitude of the French touch movement, as well as Geoff Barrow’s laborious experiments with Portishead. Having read Simon Reynold’s post-punk book Rip it Up and Start Again, they were excited by the impulsive rule-breaking of the era, sending them down a rabbit hole which led to them sampling the obscure late 70s Birmingham band Fast Relief on Pure Devotion opener Lockup – which is destined to be an instant rave classic.
Secluded writing trips are key to the Overmono story. Having previously established their credibility in underground music circles, the brothers first began to crystallise the Overmono sound while on a retreat together at a rural cottage near the Welsh town of Abergavenny, where no one ever knew they were making music together. “Ever since that first Wales trip, we've been actively looking for that isolation,” Ed says. “There's a really nice feeling of pure creative freedom and relaxation.” Following their 2024 Iceland trip, two more Pure Devotion writing sessions took place at Udra Studio in Galicia, a green and mountainous region in northern Spain with a dramatic Atlantic coastline. With the absence of distractions, outside opinions or conventional structures to their days, Tom and Ed’s unconventional creative instincts were uninterrupted, and inspiration often struck in the studio late at night.
On Pure Devotion, you’ll hear a crash cymbal which has literally been baked. To morph the cymbal’s sound, Tom and Ed sanded it down, then smothered it with a mulch made of coffee grounds, salted crisps and vinegar, and then they put it in the oven overnight. “It looks degraded, and it sounds degraded,” Tom says of the desired results. “It sounded like no other crash we'd heard. You could spend hours, even days, trying to dial that sort of sound in with a plug-in.” On mid-album, tender tracks Barum and Mialon – which feel like the sonic equivalent of stepping away from the dancefloor for a moment to inhale the cold night air – the drum machines were recorded into the computer, then channelled through a massive Marshall stack and a train station announcement speaker which was in use somewhere between 1925 and 1935. While recording Barum, Ed found himself holding two dummy mics close to his face, playing around with the way the sound bounced off his bone structure. There’s a profoundly poignant feeling in the crumbling chords of Adre, a sound which was achieved by overwhelming a cheap Behringer FX unit to the point that it ran out of data, so that its reverse reverb reset no longer functioned properly.
Pure Devotion is an album of confidence and conviction, and so many of the musical ideas came to Tom and Ed effortlessly. But that’s not to say that they’re not total perfectionists. For Knight in Shining Prada, a collaboration with John Joseph Holt, they immediately knew they had a great song when they paired a voice note from the revered poet with a powerful chord sequence they’d written on Prophet analogue synthesiser in Spain. But to ensure John’s vocals thrive within the framework of the track, they meticulously chiselled away at 83 different versions.
“He’s got such an incredible way with words,” Tom says of John’s contribution, which he originally wrote while walking his dog near his home in The Fens. “And it's deeply personal to him, but there's something that's so free-flowing and natural about it, and maybe not overworked or overthought.” Ed added, “As soon as he sent it to us, it all just felt so perfectly familiar, it was one of those ones, where we’re sat in the studio, and the hair is standing up on our arms.”
When writing the lyrics, John had thought about Tom and Ed’s relationship as brothers, drawing on his own memories of his late brother. “My brother Thomas Edward Holt had an incredibly adventurous soul. He was a carpenter, a photographer – an artist in the truest sense. He took his own life on January 10th, 2017, aged 31. It will be ten years next year, and to make something so positive out of something so crushing means everything.” John said when asked about the collaboration, “Thomas loved to dance, so the thought of people dancing to his tune is the greatest gift. May it remind people of loved ones they have lost and bring them closer to their hearts. If we play it loud enough, do you think they will hear us in heaven?”
On Pure Devotion, Overmono reunite with the Chattanooga-based singer Kindora. Having discovered her music during a Bandcamp deep-dive, Overmono sampled her voice on tracks such as 2022’s Gunk and Cold Blooded (2023), and they’ve since nurtured a friendship. This led to Kindora recording original vocals for “Even Angels Ghost”, blessing the track with her warm and sweet melodies.
On the album’s life-affirming closer After the Rain, Overmono blend vocals from two songs by pop experimentalists Smerz. “I think Smerz’ topline writing is second to none,” Ed says. “And tonally, their voices are amazing.” Across their discography, the Norwegian duo of Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt have artfully communicated modern intimacy with elegance and restraint, maintaining cool vocal delivery as intense feelings brew in their lyrics. On After the Rain, Smerz’ voices are recontextualised by the optimism of Overmono’s swelling chords, serving as reassurance that healing comes after heartache.
Overmono will release Pure Devotion on 7th August via XL Recordings, the label to whom Ed sent demos to when he was 15-years-old and now the duo’s long-term home. It’s the follow up to 2023’s acclaimed debut Good Lies, a record that honoured UK club music’s deep legacy while optimistically leaping towards its future, uniting Tom and Ed Russell’s urges for mind-blowing experimentalism with an unpretentious desire to make an immediate connection. Over the next two years - freshly energised by the album’s cultural impact, critical buzz and commercial success - the Welsh brothers kept hitting milestones: closing Glastonbury’s West Holts stage, selling out London’s 10,000 capacity venue Alexandra Palace, headlining and curating Manchester’s Warehouse Project, and touring around the world.. Similarly, the songs from Pure Devotion will be soundtracking mass euphoria at Overmono’s live appearances throughout 2026 and beyond, including a huge sold-out show at the Old Royal Naval College, an iconic world heritage site which sits by the River Thames, on the day of the album’s release.
With a fanbase which ranges from fresh-faced clubbers who’ve just become enamoured with nightlife, to veteran ravers who still hold their dancefloor memories close to their hearts, Overmono have delivered a record which resonates in living rooms and on headphones and car stereos, as well as the world’s biggest and best sound systems. It’s an album which cherishes the humanity of music in an era of increasing artifice. It chooses emotion over desensitisation, and it embraces craft instead of efficiency. It’s a labour of love. Pure Devotion. Could it have been called anything else?