Starcleaner Reunion Return With Dreamlike New Single ‘Lay On Plastic Moment’

NYC indie favourites Starcleaner Reunion have unveiled ‘Lay On Plastic Moment’, the latest preview of their debut album Umbrella, arriving 25 September via Take Care Records. Alongside the single comes a striking new video, plus a run of US tour dates this autumn.

Blending hazy art-pop, psychedelic textures and a restless experimental edge, Starcleaner Reunion have built a reputation for making music that feels both familiar and otherworldly. Their latest single, ‘Lay On Plastic Moment’, leans into that tension, capturing the strange pull of returning to a place once called home.

Directed by Siân Lathrop and Patrick Drummond, the accompanying video drifts through glitching snapshots of distant cities and deserted beaches, with vocalist Jo Roman appearing as a persistent, ghostlike presence. The result mirrors the song’s themes of memory, displacement and the fragile feeling of finding your way back to yourself.

Roman describes the track as a reflection on returning to New York in 2023 after growing up there before moving away with their family — and the complicated process of reconnecting with a city that once felt entirely familiar.

“Coming back to New York was at first exciting, but finding my grounding here was something that proved to be difficult,” Roman explains. “I spent my time re-navigating familiar corners of the city... there were always reminders that I can overcome whatever sadness I had around that time.”

The single closes Umbrella, an impressively self-produced debut that sees Starcleaner Reunion push their retro-futurist pop sound into increasingly strange and colourful territory. Across 11 tracks, the band stitch together poetic fragments, sonic collage and shimmering melodies, all anchored by Roman’s entrancing vocals.

https://youtu.be/kjcHNty7nD8?si=F_pHXNQoGh-4kagw

It’s a sound that has already attracted plenty of attention. The FADER praised the band’s songs as “as big as universes”, while Stereogum highlighted their “elegance and nonchalance”. So Young, Paste, Consequence and FLOOD have also singled out the band’s distinctive blend of psychedelia, noise, jangle and experimental pop.

Now, with Umbrella on the horizon, Starcleaner Reunion are taking that world on the road. The band will play a headline run across North America this September, followed by October dates alongside Blondshell and Bully.

Formed by four friends from Springfield, New Jersey, Starcleaner Reunion — Jo Roman, Pat Drummond, Neil Torman and Adam Kenter — first began playing together in various configurations after meeting in high school. United by a shared love of Brazilian psych, C86 jangle and ’90s noise, the group eventually solidified in 2022 following Drummond’s move to New York.

After releasing their debut EP Club Estrella in 2023 and Café Life in 2024, the band have continued refining their kaleidoscopic approach to songwriting and production. Umbrella marks the next step: bigger, stranger and more ambitious, without losing the instinctive chemistry that has connected the band since their teenage years.

Starcleaner Reunion’s Umbrella is out 25 September via Take Care Records. ‘Lay On Plastic Moment’ is out now.