dust’s anticipated debut album Sky Is Falling has landed. The group will continue to soar into 2026 with news of a major tour junket across the UK and EU in January and co-headline with The Belair Lip Bombs in North America in March-April. Early December, dust will celebrate the release locally across their December album tour run. All tickets are on sale now. LISTEN HERE + BUY TICKETS HERE.

Aboard a DFDS ferry connecting France to the United Kingdom, Justin Teale, Gabriel Stove, Adam Ridgeway, Liam Smith and Kye Cherry shared an exhausted gaze upon shattered cloud cover, sandwiched between the green planes of Calais and the White Sea cliffs of Dover. In this moment at a loss for words, “the sky is falling” seemed the only way to summarise the phenomenon.

Since their breakout in 2023 and much to their own joy and disbelief, dust have buoyed from inconceivable life moments to the nihilistic lull of coming home and carrying on, despite having the world on their horizon. That phrase would take on new life as a shorthand for the quiet dread of change, signalling the vast opportunity ahead of the five friends.

About the record, dust says, “We wrote most of this debut album between gigs, late nights and weekend sessions in Newcastle. It’s a mix of songs that came together very naturally with some exciting collaboration processes which was new to us. We’ve naturally integrated a variety of genres that we have been listening to and passionate about. We’re very excited to finally deliver it and see how it connects with people. It feels good to have something out there that sounds like us at this moment in time.”

Magnifying the potential that would define dust’s creative paths, “sky is falling” caused pause – a ‘stamp’ for a new phase and mourn a past version of themselves. Born from personal and collective anxieties around fractured relationships, social unrest, the slow collapse of the familiar and growing old in a dilapidating world. Each member brings lived experience and a sharpened artistic vision to the table, pushing songwriting and production into bold, unconventional territory.

At its core Sky Is Falling captures a journey – from uncertainty and nihilism to a fragile kind of peace. Rooted in the blue and teeming with self-inquiry, dust share a concerned meditation on stasis, alluding to the crushing burdens of everyday life. Forged through years on the road, in sharehouses, and deep within the walls of rehearsal rooms, their debut album is a raw yet refined document of a band that lived every second of the record long before hitting “record.”

Musically dark and lyrically terse, the tracklist grows slower with each new song. Veering from frenetic expectation, dust play with electronic experimentalism side-by-side with elusive saxophone arrangements and abrasive guitar lines. Dancing with despair while slouching towards the future they uneasily attempt to define, Sky Is Falling presents the constant search for meaning against the swinging doors of perception and views atop melancholy hill.

Moments like ’Drawbacks’ and ‘Just Like Ice’ pulse with intricate drum patterns and syncopated tension, the latter basking in the purgatory of time in between moments of purpose – “a waiting room for the psyche.” Elsewhere ‘Alastair’ and ‘Two Dogs’ lean into space, tenderness, and the slow unraveling of emotion. ‘Aside’ longs not for the past itself, but for solitude amongst constant acceleration while ‘Fairy’ reflects on childhood naivety.

The group’s practice of refined chaos shines on ‘Swamped‘, while trudging genre-agnostic forays into slowcore and lo-fi pop as the melismatic ‘Restless‘. ‘Day Tight’ offers a critique on self help culture despite being deeply intoxicated with its practice, as ‘Swamped‘ offers a return to the group’s practice of refined chaos. Closer ‘In Reverie’ offers an equally eerie yet reassuring spoken word exhale.

Delivering a deep excavation of the weight we all carry, Sky Is Falling balances dissonance with restraint, tension with release. Immersive, cohesive, and built to be experienced front to back, preferably with a cold beer, a setting sun, or the open road ahead. Celebrate the release with dust this weekend as they take to the east coast for a series of free album signings and performances in Sydney (tonight), Wollongong, Melbourne and Newcastle. More info + tour routing details HERE.