Erotic Secrets of Pompeii have always thrived in the strange borderlands, the places where humour curdles into menace, where the grotesque becomes unexpectedly beautiful, where the modern world feels like a fever dream you’re only half‑convinced you’ve woken up from. Their new single “Crowstepper” (out 14th May via Republic of Music and Wipe Out Music) drags you deeper into it.
After two relentless years touring the UK and Europe, and fresh from securing British Phonographic Industry funding through the Music Export Growth Scheme, ESOP are entering a new phase. Festival slots at Dot to Dot, ArcTanGent, and Haldernpop are already locked in, and the band seem intent on using this momentum to push their world-building even further.
“Crowstepper” feels like a creature rather than a song, a twitchy, shiny‑object‑stealing trickster stitched together from Jungian shadow selves, psychopomp folklore, and the band’s own absurdist lens on modern life. It’s part satire, part escape hatch: a surrealist guide offering a way out of the doomscroll, while simultaneously mocking the very systems that created it. Religion, self‑help culture, toxic online behaviour, nothing is safe, but nothing is treated with cynicism either. ESOP’s world is too playful, too knowingly bizarre, to fall into nihilism.
Musically, the track slinks rather than struts. There’s a swampy low‑end groove that feels humid and alive, needling guitar lines that jab at the edges, and a cowbell that absolutely refuses to behave. Hooks pile on top of hooks until the whole thing teeters on the edge of collapse, but never quite tips. Fans of Viagra Boys, Primus, and Modest Mouse will find plenty to chew on, but “Crowstepper” is unmistakably ESOP: theatrical, crooked, and catchy in ways it has no right to be.
If you’ve crossed paths with Erotic Secrets of Pompeii before, you’ll know they don’t do half‑measures. Their debut Mondo Maleficum (January 2024) introduced a band broadcasting straight from the “forbidden zone,” and its follow‑up Pitchfork Libra (October 2025) expanded that universe into something stranger, sharper, and more ambitious. Both records earned them critical praise, BBC Radio 6 and Radio X airplay, and festival appearances at Boomtown, The Great Escape, Shambala, and Bearded Theory — not to mention support slots with Heavy Lungs and Electric Six.
Right now, they’re mid‑tour promoting Pitchfork Libra, with some dates already behind them and a handful still to come. If you’ve never seen ESOP live, this is the moment: the shows are chaotic, theatrical, and oddly communal, like being invited into a secret society that doesn’t take itself seriously but takes the art very seriously indeed.
“Crowstepper” feels like a signal that ESOP are leaning even further into the world they’ve been building across two albums. It’s grotesque and gorgeous, funny and unsettling, and somehow still wildly accessible. If this is the doorway into their next era, it’s one worth stepping through.
PITCHFORK LIBRA TOUR 2025
23/04 – Brighton – The Brunswick
24/04 – Cardiff – Fuel Rock Club
25/04 – Exeter – Cavern
26/04 – Southampton – Suburbia
30/04 – Newcastle – Star & Shadow Cinema
02/05 – Northampton – The Lab
03/05 – Guildford – Star Inn
23/05 – Dot to Dot Festival – Bristol
06/06 – Sentient Rash Festival - Stroud
07/08 – Haldern Pop Festival – Germany
22/08 – ArcTanGent Festival – Bristol
Crowstepper artwork