1003 share ‘The Shapes’, first single from 2026 ‘0.3’ EP

1003 (Photo by Thomas Greffeuille)
Marseille quartet 1003 (stylised I00Ξ) have released “The Shapes“, the first single and video from their upcoming six-track EP “0.3”, due on 30 January 2026 as an autoproduced digital release. The band are an avant-garde pop project drawing on industrial, electro and rock. The new EP follows the three-track debut “1.0”, released digitally on 10 April 2025 via Bandcamp.
“The Shapes” functions as the closing track on “0.3” and, according to the band, was built around an unconventional structure that abandons the usual verse/chorus format in favour of a chain of self-contained sections. The group describe the piece as “abrupt” and heavily syncopated, with a tense rhythmic framework influenced by gqom and then shifting toward a kind of accelerated Afrobeat pulse.
1003 frontman Jessy says that the song’s open structure makes it “never played the same way twice” in concert. He describes the arrangement as the result of close collaboration: Bengold brought lyrics and initial ideas, drummer David Benzazon pushed the rhythmic concept “to its absolute limit”, while Louise and Martin Baudu expanded the sound design and melodic material. The band link the track’s noisy, deconstructed surface directly to the psychological turmoil described in the lyrics.
To accompany this first excerpt from “0.3”, 1003 have released a conceptual performance video using previously unused footage from a forthcoming clip for “The End”. The new video, directed by Florian Castells with choreography by Wild Snow White, shows a mass of dancers struggling within a confined space, used here as a visual metaphor for the tension between social belonging and the difficulty of breaking away from group norms. Jessy explains that the dancers embody an inner “vital force” expressed through movement inside a dark, closed environment, echoing the cave allegory by highlighting how any source of light both reveals and obscures parts of reality.
About 1003
1003 launched on the Marseille scene in 2023 and describe themselves as an “apocalypse from Marseille”. The line-up centres on vocalist and songwriter Jessy Bengold, with Louise Baudu on synthesizers and sound design, Martin Baudu on bass and mixing, and David Benzazon on drums and rhythm programming.
The group first appeared with the single “The Heads”, released digitally in October 2024, before issuing the three-track EP “1.0” on 10 April 2025 as a self-released digital title via Bandcamp. That EP introduced their mix of pop, alternative rock, art rock, electro rock, post-industrial textures and Marseille-rooted electronic influences.
The 2026 EP “0.3” is announced as an autoproduced six-track EP, with “The Shapes” serving as both the closing piece and the public introduction to the new material.
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