[1][2] After a self-released 33 EP in 2009 and a limited seven-inch single "Lucia, at the Precipice" in February 2010, the band signed with Matador Records.

[6] Esben and the Witch formed in 2008 when Daniel Copeman moved from Southampton to Brighton and met Thomas Fisher and they began making some music, eventually they decided they wanted a vocalist and held auditions which were unsuccessful.

Thomas Fisher bumped into his old friend Rachel Davies, who had just graduated from Brighton University, and asked her if she would like to join the group and she accepted.

The album was critically acclaimed and went at number 13 in the UK Indie Chart, Allmusic awarded it three and a half stars out of five, calling it "a promising and often captivating debut".

No amount of splashing can scrub that out" giving it 7/10,[13] and Clash said "...everything about this album is bigger than what has gone before and reveals an energised band with a real belief in what they’re doing.

Wash The Sins... proved to be the band's final album with Matador, announcing their departure alongside their PledgeMusic[15] campaign in February 2014.

The band's music has been described as "electronic dubstep soundscapes"[16] and "Radiohead without the mithering, goth stripped of unnecessary melodrama", with Davies' vocals compared to Siouxsie Sioux and PJ Harvey.

With A New Nature, Rachel Davies alluded to wanting to have a less electronic feel with further emphasis on the rock element of the band.