Think about the one person who has seen you at your worst and stayed in the room anyway. British electronic duo JOY (Anonymous) wrote a song for that person. It came out on 18 September 2026, alongside news that two headline nights at Hackney Church in London had sold out within hours.
A third night, on Saturday, 31 October 2026, has since been added to meet demand. The duo’s schedule runs through London this month and Europe in February 2027 with no Asian stop on it, so for listeners in Singapore the single is the way in, and it’s streaming now.
Meet Henry and Louis
JOY (Anonymous) is Henry Counsell and Louis Curran, and their origin story explains a lot about why their gigs vanish so quickly. Their 2021 debut album, Human Again, was built from recordings of pop-up performances the pair held on London’s South Bank during lockdown. It’s a record made in public, with whoever happened to turn up.
The 2023 follow-up, Cult Classics, leaned harder into the dance floor, moving through euphoric house and disco with serotonin at its core, as descriptions at the time put it. Two EPs came next: Carry Me Higher in 2023 and Joyous People (South East Corner) in 2024.
They keep good company too. The duo co-wrote and co-produced JOY (Nobody Ever) with Fred again.., and they appear beside him, Skrillex, Four Tet, and Duskus on Glow. Club music that leaves room for feelings has had a strong few years, as anyone who remembers the summer of Charli XCX’s BRAT will tell you, and these two have been working that seam since before it was fashionable.
A Chorus About Being Witnessed
The new single is quieter than its title suggests. Gentle melodies sit under soft, understated vocals, and the opening line is someone asking permission to keep a friend company: “Hi there, I’m gonna come and sit in here too.” From there the lyrics describe sitting “beside your brain for a minute” while anxiety loops, and noticing “all the tiny wins” the other person can’t see.
That’s a very specific kind of love song. Nobody gets rescued or fixed here, because all the narrator does is stay in the room, and that’s why the chorus feels earned when it arrives.
The duo say that chorus is “both a statement about the shit we feel every day, but also about having a person who makes you feel all of those things.” They tie it to Margaret, who appears in the song’s visualiser and found freedom with a partner later in life. In their words, it’s the moment of being able to say: “Wow, I’ve found someone who makes me feel everything I’ve felt in life, and makes me feel witnessed.”
Witnessed is the word doing the heavy lifting, and the pair are clear it isn’t reserved for romance. “Whether it’s your partner in crime, your romantic partner, or the people you put in your life to hold you accountable, we all have people who make us feel something,” they explain.
Start With the Source Version
The single arrives with a second recording, the source version, which the duo’s team describes as a different perspective on the track and a closer look at how instinctively the pair work. It’s the one to play first.
Midway through, the singing gives way to spoken advice that sounds like a voice note from a friend who has been through it. “Hold hands with the ones you love. Call your mum,” the voice says, before pushing back on the idea that your days are short: “Life is long.” It’s disarmingly plain, and plainness is harder to pull off than a big drop. There’s also a video on YouTube for anyone who wants pictures with their feelings.
3 Nights in a Church
Hackney Church is the East London venue hosting all three headline shows. The Saturday, 24 October and Friday, 30 October nights were the two that sold out within hours, and the 31 October date followed. They come after a sold-out London residency at The Jazz Cafe earlier this year, so the appetite was already on record.
The duo’s team calls the live show immersive, spontaneous, and deeply communal, with the line between artist and audience deliberately blurred, built on live musicianship and electronic production. Given that Human Again was built from recordings of the duo’s pop-up performances on London’s South Bank during lockdown, that description fits the duo’s history.
New Label, Bigger Rooms
This single is also the first release under a new deal. JOY (Anonymous) is the inaugural signing to a joint venture between Futures Music Group, the independent label collective founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies and Avenue A’s Dave Wallace, and UK-based Common Knowledge, which girl in red manager Ben Blackburn founded in 2021. Futures is distributed worldwide by Virgin Music Group.
The road schedule matches that ambition. The pair spent late September supporting Jamiroquai’s DJ sets in Colombia and Mexico, and February 2027 puts them in front of Ezra Collective’s crowds on seven European dates. The two consecutive nights at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels are the pick for travelling fans, because a double booking gives you a second shot at getting in.
🗓️ Date: Saturday, 24 October 2026 (sold out); Friday, 30 October 2026 (sold out); Saturday, 31 October 2026 (added date)
📍 Location: Hackney Church, London, UK
🎵 New single: JOY (Shit You Make Me Feel) and its source version, out since 18 September 2026
🌍 2027 dates supporting Ezra Collective: 13 February, Columbiahalle, Berlin; 16 and 17 February, Ancienne Belgique, Brussels; 19 February, Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne; 20 February, AFAS Live, Amsterdam; 23 February, Le Transbordeur, Lyon; 24 February, Zénith, Paris
Two rooms sold out within hours for a duo whose biggest statement this year is a soft-spoken song about sitting beside a friend, which says plenty about what people will pay to feel in a crowd. Readers with London or Europe plans should look for the Hackney Church and Ezra Collective dates on the duo’s official channels, and everyone else can stream JOY (Shit You Make Me Feel) today, source version first. Then call your mum!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of JOY (Anonymous).
Read us first on Google: add DANAMIC as a preferred source and our stories show up more in your Top Stories and AI results.
