Pickle Darling stitches fragments and half-memories into a compelling and cohesive new album, Bots
New Zealand Pickle Darling (Lukas Mayo) has released their latest album Bots via Father/Daughter Records.
Produced by: Lukas Mayo
Created in their home studio in Christchurch, New Zealand, Bots is the sound of Lukas Mayo pulling apart their own songwriting and piecing it back together in fractured, unpredictable ways. Songs emerged from chopped-up guitar notes, warped voice memos, and drum loops that often pushed their computer past its limits. The result is a record that embraces collapse and imperfection, an album that feels as raw and tactile as a scratched CD-R shared between friends. Where 2023’s Laundromat was polished and pristine, Bots thrives on static, glitches, and deliberate disorder. Drawing inspiration from Four Tet’s Rounds, Neneh Cherry’s Broken Politics, and even the direct pop sensibility of Madonna and Robyn, Mayo has crafted a collection that oscillates between chaos and beauty. Highlights include opener, ‘Obsolete,’ with a voice memo from Ava Mirzadegan, the pop-leaning ‘Massive Everything,’ and the darkly tender lyric from ‘Congratulations Champion’: “You know I’m gonna love you still / Like black mold loves the windowsill.”
Mayo explains:
“After Laundromat, I was tired of ‘the song. I wanted to avoid capturing a performance as much as possible, everything had to be fragments, and I wanted to show as much of the recording and editing process as possible, leaving all the seams exposed.”
Bots is a daring step forward in Pickle Darling’s catalog, proving that sometimes the seams, scratches, and fractures are what make music most alive.
Standout Songs: ‘Obsolete,’ ‘Human Bean Instruction Manual,’ and ‘Massive Everything.’
Release Date: September 5, 2025
7.3
Connect with Pickle Darling:
We’re an independent, ad-free music publication, and we rely on the support of readers like you to keep things running. If you enjoy what we do, consider buying us a beer—every contribution helps us stay focused on bringing you quality music news without the clutter.
More music reviews from the team at The Daily Music Report can be found here.