Margate duo Thandii (Jessica Berry and Graham Godfrey) have announced a companion album Come As You to pair with their recently announced album Dream With You. This second LP completes their sophomore offering; two contrasting albums that celebrate duality, polarity and dissonance.

The two albums are slated for release on September 2nd via their own label, HaloHalo, with limited edition vinyl run also available from Rough Trade. Come As You, the lead single from the latest album, is also released now. The song marks Thandii’s fourth release of the year, with the band describing the track as “an anthem for the introvert; a riotous declaration of celebrating your identity and owning who you truly are despite social norms.”

The albums each have a distinct flavour of their own. Dream With You is built on cassette-tape-driven lofi beats, art-pop melodies and soulful piano breaks. Whilst Come As You explores more experimental song-form that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Broadcast or Stereolab album. Jessica’s voice is the transcendent, ethereal form that shapeshifts between the realms of the two statements; dancing playfully through falsetto harmonies, confessional spoken word, then transmuted into detuned alter egos and haunting choirs.

It’s no surprise that duality is central to what Thandii is all about with the pair co-writing, co-recording & co-producing from their seaside studio HaloHalo in Margate, Kent; their workflow centred around collaboration with each other. Thandii escaped London nearly a decade ago, their sights set on creating a means for prolific expression, without the distractions that the city can bring.

They first made waves with their debut album A Beat To Make It Better in 2023. The album gained somewhat cult critical acclaim long after its release, with listeners luxuriating in the unusual sound collaged from offcuts of Soul, Lo-fi Hiphop & Psych. Thandii’s world comes bolstered by collaborations with esteemed artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, Inflo, SAULT, Joy Crookes, Jordan Rakei, and Little Simz.

Thandii describe their sound with the Filipino word "Halo-Halo," meaning "Mix-Mix." “It is a genre collage,” they explain, much like the Filipino dessert of the same name, where sweet potato lives side-by-side with beans and evaporated milk. “It sounds like it wouldn’t work… but trust us, it does,” they add. This challenging aspect of flavor combination is echoed in Thandii’s musical style. With these albums, they aim to show that individual, distinctly different identities can coexist harmoniously. The binary has a lot to answer for in today’s world, but their message is one of nuanced love, compassion and understanding within disparate ideologies.

For Thandii, 2024 is poised to be the year the duo steps out from the shadows and into the light.