TTNG Return With Original Vocalist Stuart Smith on Surprise EP ‘Juggling Moves (Beginner)’

Oxford’s TTNG have ended a decade-long recorded silence with the surprise release of a new three-song EP, Juggling Moves (Beginner). It is the band’s first studio material since 2016’s Disappointment Island and the recorded return of original singer and guitarist Stuart Smith.

Smith left TTNG after 2009’s Animals, the debut that established the group’s intricate, emotionally direct take on a sound influenced by Midwest acts like American Football. He rejoined in 2019 for a 10th-anniversary tour celebrating that album, but no new music followed until now. The gap leaves Juggling Moves (Beginner) as more than a reunion footnote; it restores an original vocal identity to a band that had continued without it for two full albums.

The EP lands in a moment when emo and math-rock have again collapsed into shared space, their old genre boundaries less useful than the common interest in angular guitar work and plainly stated feeling. TTNG’s return does not strain to announce itself. It simply puts the original lineup back on record and lets the songs argue their own relevance.