DIRTEY CLASSY started playing back in 2020, in their basement studio in a funeral home in Amsterdam. Combining their wide range of rock influences, from the Chili Peppers to Led Zeppelin with a splash of Deep Purple and a dash of Muse, or, if you will, Zappa. Their unique line-up of three guitarists, rotating bass duties, and a drummer quickly led them to write a beautifully eclectic array of songs. Ten-minute slow blues, funky rock, psychedelic soundscape-chaos-sauce: they did not back off in any way and were ready to share this fresh approach to guitar rock with the world – whenever allowed by lockdown rules.

After two years, they finally recorded their self-titled debut EP at IJland studios. It was a perfect resemblance of what Dirtey Classy was at the time: from the synth-enhanced thumping darkness of She Falls Down to the upbeat rocker The Getaway, topped up with their signature song: Officer Wonder, a happy contemporary marriage between ska and rock ‘n roll, still the highlight of their shows.

Happy with the music, not content with the sound of their EP, Dirtey Classy dove right back into IJland, this time with a clear mission: record Dirtey Classy as Dirtey Classy should be. Guitars plugged in, count-in and let’s go. Into The Big Unknown is the result – a forty-five-minute-long celebration of music, an album that stays true to Dirtey Classy’s absolute rejection of genre-rigidity, but where the end of each song only leaves you yearning for the next – or for a replay of the last.

Into the Big Unknown’s first single is 2004. It’s a three-and-a-half-minute express train of a rocker, with lyrics touching on despair and Spongebob and repetition – a sharp critique on society, one might say. Mosquito will follow soon: a rolling riff, a groovy verse, and a chorus you can’t get out of your head. This is how rock should be: energetic, sweaty, with a surprise twist when it's needed.