Brand new music video from Digging for Kanky

Coming out of North Manchester, Digging for Kanky have been building an atmospheric sound that blends various styles into an immersive sonic world. Formed in 2019 by childhood friends Ben Powell and Adam “Smithy” Smith, joined by Kat Brown, the project lands somewhere in the overlap between melodic vocal work, rap phrasing and the slow groove of trip hop production. Even their name carries a sense of tension, drawn from local folklore about a 19th-century grave robber known as “Old Kanky,” a reference that adds to the shadowy aesthetic they capture in sound.

Ben and Smithy come from backgrounds where music was always present, shaped by their upbringing on North Manchester estates. Ben’s path led him into the events industry, while Smithy remained embedded in grassroots music, working with underprivileged youth in the community. That combination of perspectives feeds directly into the project, loosely tethering it to reality while allowing it to stretch into more abstract, cinematic sphere.

Before Digging for Kanky took form, the pair spent years experimenting, producing in bedrooms and moving through different bands without a fixed direction. It wasn’t until they reconnected with a new perspective that their debut single “Dead in the Water” arrived in 2019, followed by “Gone Tomorrow” and the EP Alice the next year. Since then, a run of singles and collaborations with artists including Jade Parker, D’Lyfa Reilly, Kaiden Nolan and Gnasha has continued to expand their adventurous musical output.

Now they return with “Wide Open,” the third single from their upcoming album titled Raining Stones, a track that ventures further into the darker corners of their shared sonic vision. Thematically, it explores the idea of selling your soul, not as a literal act, but as a reflection of ambition and the quiet compromises that come with it, distilling the moment where resistance fades and where the pressure to move forward outweighs the instinct to hold back.

“Wide Open” is forged with an intricate balance between minimalist restraint and driving energy in the powerful vocals and heavy drums. Set up by a belted vocal sample, the sweep of strings and rustle of metallic drums forms a melancholic scene as smooth rapped bars enter above. Jumping into a punchy beat-driven energy as Kat’s alluring voice takes over to spin delicate melodic leads above, the pulse of bass and steady march of percussion casts a dark trip hop-focused soundscape cut with brooding vocal performance.

With references to the devil, the reaper and the underground, the track leans into religious imagery, but always symbolically and that sense of controlled tension carries through into the visual world surrounding the track. Directed by Viltė Vitkauskaitė, the music video extends the same symbolic language, reinforcing the idea that the “devil” isn’t an external presence but something internal, tied to choice and consequence. That context plays out in dramatic scenes on screen to deliver a gripping visual pairing for the band’s enthralling new single, resulting in another epic release from this exciting act.

Watch the music video for Wide Open below

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