The rat king phenomena is pretty gross and cool if you don’t know it. It’s a rare instance where multiple rats (through a fair amount of dirt, blood, and feces) get their tails knotted together and are just stuck that way; multiple animals forced to live as one unit. It’s mostly a thing of folklore (most famously in The Nutcracker and, comparatively more recently, 30 Rock) but it grew from real, though rare occurrences and you can find some pretty fucked up pictures of it online if you feel like it.

That’s worth mentioning because it gets across just how perfect a moniker Ratking is for this New York group who blend noise and drone with electronic music and hip-hop to make a combination as freakish yet fascinating as its namesake. Along with clipping. they’re one of the most exciting groups to rise from this new trend of experimental hip-hop and it makes total sense that they’ve shared a stage with Death Grips in the past. They dropped a solid song with Eric Copeland of Black Dice last year to give you an idea of where their musical priorities are, but now they’re getting ready to release their debut album So It Goes this spring which includes a guest spot from King Krule. Below you can listen to the new single “Canal” which has so many different ideas going on at once, but never sags under the weight. Listen below.

So It Goes is out 4/8 via Hot Charity.