New Music: A Mess – PULL PUSH

A Mess describe their music as “50% Pop, 50% Punk, 100% Riot,” and PULL PUSH lives up to that billing in spades.

The Copenhagen-based project performed three times at the 2026 edition of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival, and it is easy to see and hear why A Mess – vocalist/guitarist Dorte Hartmann with Per Gerhard Jørgensen on drums – were in such demand.

PULL PUSH has an indestructible Riot Grrrl core, with the guitars and drums adopting an assertive, confrontational attitude. Hartmann’s vocal adds verve to the lyrics, in large part attributable to her vocal similarity to Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna and Metric’s Emily Haines, direct and emotional, but never weak of heart. And given the song’s subject matter, it really needs the latter to push its message through the emotional pain barrier.

“I’ve been trying to put into words how a person I really admired and respected suddenly turned against me and even hold a position of power,” explains Hartmann about PULL PUSH. “I was suddenly in a toxic relationship that I couldn’t seem to escape. In the end I did; I kicked back, I whipped ass.”

A Mess are already conforming live dates for 2027 and will appear at Orange Blossom Special Festival in Germany next May.

Get info on that and the freshest music and gig news from A Mess on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. PULL PUSH is out now on Rookie Records and can be heard on Apple Music and Spotify.