FOLLOWING a steady start, that saw them take almost two years to arrive at their debut EP, fewer Cumbrian bands have been busier than Deep Sands in the 18 months since.

Already they've finished up their third release - an as-yet-untitled mini-album - though it's still some way off its official release date.

The Barrow stoner rock trio have taken the unusual route of disguising its identity until each song has had its own unveiling.

"We always like trying out different ways of sending out new material, and because we’re massive fans of physical media we’ve kept this project a secret of sorts," says bassist Simon Killip.

"I’m a massive collector of physical albums on CD and vinyl, and I believe it’s just as important as the music itself, which is why I do paintings for our releases.

"Even though vinyl is back in a big way, I still think the physical side of things is somewhat lost in today’s world.

"So the idea behind TheUntitledShortcut is to promote that and make a little club out of it."

That's the alias the record is going by for now. Those who buy the CD or vinyl will be let in on the secret right away, but the band will continue to release one track each month before the big reveal on August 18.

The idea is to get people behind the project early, and to act as an incentive to pick up a copy.

Now a mainstay of the Furness live scene, Deep Sands have picked up a local following since their first live show almost three years ago.

Their two previous releases, 2015's debut Catalyst For Change and last year's Endless Reflection, came in quick succession, and it's testament to how much they're enjoying themselves that this third one - reviewed here - is close behind.

Simon continues: "We’ve had a consistent run of studio sessions since we’ve been Deep Sands - we’ve had material come out annually, and we really like doing it that way.

"We’re definitely a live band first, but because we constantly write a lot of songs, and are keen to focus on finding “our sound”, we enjoy documenting it."

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Of course, they say that the new release is the best yet - all bands do - but they've been keeping some of their strongest material back until the time was right.

The five tracks that are on the way still sound like Deep Sands - guitarist and vocalist Lewy Rampton and drummer Jake Holmes completing the line-up - but the progress over the past two years is clear.

"The thing about this project is it was a very, very relaxed and enjoyable experience," says Simon.

"It helps that we have such a great friend who’s awesome at recording our stuff; James Carling knows exactly what we want from a song and gets us 110 per cent. He’s as much into this type of music as we are, and for that he gets the best out of us, and the songs really benefit from it.

"Carling has learned leaps and bounds on how to get the right sounds, from when we first recorded with him on Endless Reflection, it was staggering to watch.

"And this time around, this mini-album was going to have the kitchen sink thrown at it from our end. We put, what we thought were, our best songs on this thing.

"We have songs like, our first single, Over & Over, and Without You Lately on here, which have been in our set-list since we first started the band. We’d never recorded them in the past, even though we thought they were some of our strongest tunes, because we didn’t feel the time was right to record them.

"So when it became time to make this, we really wanted to capture us at our absolute best.

"We also have some pretty fresh stuff on here and stuff that has progressed with us over the years.

"It has us at our heaviest, as well as our most experimental, and even though we are constantly moving forward with ideas, I really think this is the best representation of our sound so far."

Deep Sands' new mini-album is available to purchase via deepsands.bandcamp.com and will be available to stream and download from August 18.