The 1975 are missing. Their social media profiles have been deleted or wiped, their website was removed, and then later replaced with news of two headline sets at Summer Sonic this August. Outside of that, there's nothing. Silence. A whole fanbase sat waiting, expecting the band to spark back into action imminently.

Usually, these absences are short - quick wipes ahead of a big, involved, teasing campaign of clues, suggestions, anticipation and rabbit hole like trails, leading to new music. But it's been days, and apart from that one live announcement, nothing.

So, what do we know, and what can we work out? Yes, Dear Reader - don your best deerstalker, grab that magnifying glass, and let the bullshit recommence. Here's everything we can work out about what's going on with The 1975.

On Monday morning, the band's website - the1975.com - went blank. Then, later in the day, their social media platforms all either wiped, or deleted. At the time of press, those profiles are yet to return.

The 1975 have announced two shows this week, despite being largely AWOL. They're going to play Summer Sonic in Tokyo and Osaka on the 20th and 21st August. They're apparently their "live comeback" - though it's not fully clear if they'll be the first shows they'll play of a new era, or simply the first to be announced.

This we know - or at least, they have been. At the start of the year, a flurry of posts arrived from band members and management, showing the band working away in the studio. At the time, it was pretty much confirmed they were working on a fifth album - the follow up to 2020's 'Notes on a Conditional Form'. Something put in stone with the press release that accompanied those Summer Sonic dates.

"The 1975 are currently in the studio in England where they are writing, recording and mixing their forthcoming fifth studio album," it stated. You don't get clearer than that.

And they intend to make it "great", too.

At the back end of 2021, Matty Healy made a surprise appearance supporting collaborator and pop peer Phoebe Bridgers at an LA show. Performing acoustically, he also had a couple of new tracks in tow. Are they from whatever comes next? Not a clue. But they exist.

Alongside the announcement of those new shows came a really rather lush poster. The bold type logo (Univers 93 Extra Black Extended, font fans) also appears on a t-shirt and the skeleton website that reappeared on Tuesday too - perhaps a sign to the aesthetic direction the band will take for album 5.

Said poster also contained a Dirty Hit catalogue number. Long term pop detectives will know these codes are given by record labels to signify a product - be it vinyl, CD, cassette, or sometimes for more creative institutions merch, shows, posters or other miscellanea. This one featured DH01242, which is very interesting indeed.

Why? Well. It's been posted places before. Four months ago, Matty posted something to Instagram featuring it, and it's also previously featured in his bio on the platform.

The same artwork was posted to the Instagram of the band's frequent creative collaborator Samuel Burgess-Johnson too. If you look at the bottom corner, you'll see DH01242 right there.