Night Swimming have released their second EP Melting, Sometimes Bleeding, and it feels like the record where all the threads they have been pulling at suddenly lock into place. The Bath five-piece were already building serious atmosphere on earlier releases, but this EP gives that atmosphere more weight, more shape and more emotional bite. It still has the dusky dream-pop haze and the trip-hop restraint that first made the band stand out, but now it opens out into something bigger, louder and much more immersive.
That makes this a really satisfying follow-up, especially if you have been following the run-up to release. I already wrote about ‘Poison Berry’ and later ‘Nothing Safe Is Technicolour’, and both pieces hinted that Night Swimming were moving into a richer and more fully realised phase. Now that the full EP is here, that instinct feels spot on. These songs belong together. They do not just preview a mood; they build one patiently, then let it swallow the room.
A second EP that feels bigger in every direction
Meg Jones has described Melting, Sometimes Bleeding as a collection of songs about identity, depersonalisation, stilted connection and loss, and that emotional uncertainty runs right through the record. Opener ‘Nothing Safe Is Technicolour’ still makes a huge first impression, beginning in sparse, trip-hop tension before opening into towering shoegaze. ‘Submarine’ keeps things taut and uneasy, with its fractured build and restrained urgency, while ‘Poison Berry’ leans into a hypnotic dream-pop pulse and all the emotional imbalance that TuneFountain picked up on in the earlier single review.
The beauty of the EP is that it does not stay in one register for too long. ‘Hope and Wavering’ strips everything back into an acoustic-led centrepiece, with haunting strings and featherlight vocals that make the song feel devastating without ever tipping into melodrama. Then ‘Dark Clouds’ pushes outward again, into synth swells, fractured drums and atmospheric electronics, ending the record with something more open-ended and unresolved. That push and pull is what makes the EP feel so strong. Night Swimming know when to surge, when to hold back and when to leave space for the feeling to speak for itself.
It also helps that the band sound completely at home in this world now. Peter Miles’ production gives the songs scale without sanding off their intimacy, and Simon Scott’s mastering adds to that sense of depth and movement without overwhelming the softer details. You can hear the band stretching out, but you never get the sense that they are reaching beyond themselves. If anything, Melting, Sometimes Bleeding feels like the moment Night Swimming stop sounding like a promising band and start sounding like a fully formed one.
There is context around this too. Since No Place To Land, Night Swimming have toured with artists including Heartworms, bdrmm, Miki Berenyi and Pale Blue Eyes, and they have steadily built a reputation as one of the more compelling names in this newer wave of dream-pop and shoegaze-adjacent bands. That growth shows here. This EP has confidence in it. Not flashy confidence, but the better kind: the confidence to let songs breathe, to trust atmosphere, and to know that emotional clarity does not need to arrive in the most obvious form to hit hard.
Review
I am really into this EP. It feels like one of those releases where a band you already liked suddenly sounds even more like themselves. Not tidier, not safer, not more “professional” in a boring way, just more locked in. Melting, Sometimes Bleeding has proper sweep to it, but it never loses the intimate ache that makes Night Swimming worth caring about in the first place. It is moody, melodic, a bit bruised and very easy to disappear into.
What I like most is the range of feeling across the five tracks. You get the tension and release of ‘Nothing Safe Is Technicolour’, the inward pull of ‘Poison Berry’, the emotional sting of ‘Hope and Wavering’, and then ‘Dark Clouds’ arriving like a final deep breath you are not quite sure will steady you or undo you. That mix makes the EP feel alive. It shifts, it swells, it retreats, and it never sits still long enough to become predictable.
Honestly, this is just a very strong piece of work. It sounds like a band with taste, control and actual feeling behind what they are doing, which is more than can be said for a lot of records that aim for this sort of atmosphere. Night Swimming have always had the mood, but on Melting, Sometimes Bleeding they have the songs to match it all the way through. For me, that makes this their best release yet.
You can listen to Melting, Sometimes Bleeding here and follow Night Swimming on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
