London-based psychedelic punk trio Hot Face have announced their debut album, Automated Response, set for release on January 23, 2026, via Speedy Wunderground. Alongside the news comes the album’s blistering lead single, “Pink Liquor.” The record, captured live in a single take at Abbey Road Studios in front of an audience, delivers the raw intensity and unpredictability of their frenetic live shows.

Of the single, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, James Bates, explains:

’Pink Liquor’ is an explosive and raw anti-ode to chaotic hedonism and the madness that follows. A rapid-fire slice of garage-punk that wastes no time. Lyrically, Pink Liquor is a dadaist-collection of vignettes that highlight the unhinged nature of addiction, its chaotic rush and ultimately, it’s consequences. The characters within the song are based upon people whose paths I’ve crossed along the way whose stories reflect those themes – Ugly Joe, for example, was a middle-aged alcoholic satirical cartoonist from the Czech Republic whom I befriended only to find 3 months later that they had died from an overdose. The track is neither a glorification nor a condemnation. It just is.

The journey to Automated Response began in the most chaotic way possible, following a midnight headline set at Left of the Dial in Rotterdam. Producer Dan Carey, who had previously worked with the band on their single “dura dura,” reconnected with them that night, proposing an audacious plan: record a full album in a single day, straight to tape, and close the session with a live audience. Just days later, Carey called the band with an even bigger offer: to make the record at Abbey Road Studios. Accepting without hesitation, Hot Face found themselves in Studio Three, where they tore through the record in a 25-minute session of pure, unfiltered mayhem. The result is a document of the band at their most volatile and alive, mixed by Carey himself to preserve every imperfection, feedback howl, and bead of sweat.

With Automated Response, Hot Face fuse urgency and insight, channelling punk’s chaotic spirit into something both visceral and self-aware. Lead single “Pink Liquor” embodies that tension, a dizzying burst of garage-punk that crashes between pleasure and ruin.

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