Discovering this Pounding Sound and Dancefloor Alternative Rock of the Band Ashnymph and the Week's Top New Tracks
Originating in the UK cities of London and Brighton
Recommended if you like artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
Up next A new EP planned for 2026, currently without a title
The pair of releases put out to date by the group Ashnymph resist simple labeling: the band's own tag of their work as “subconscioussion” leaves listeners guessing. Debut Saltspreader married a heavy mechanical drumming – member Will Wiffen has sometimes been seen on stage sporting a shirt that displays the emblem of the trailblazing band Godflesh – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a guitar riff that vaguely recalls the Stooges’ garage rock perennial I Wanna Be Your Dog, before melting into a barrier of unsettling sound. The planned result, the group has mentioned, was to evoke motorway travel, “the ceaseless flow of vehicles around the clock over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.
Its follow-up, Mr Invisible, falls between dance music and experimental rock. Firstly, the cut's tempo, layers of hypnotic electronics, and singing that comes either hallucinogenically distorted or hypnotically looped in a way that brings back Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all suggest the dance space. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, brink-of-disorder feel and overdrive – “getting that crisp distortion is a long-term goal,” Wiffen noted – mark it out as clearly a group effort rather than a bedroom-bound producer. They’ve been playing around the independent music circuit in south London for a short time, “any spot with loud speakers”.
But each is thrilling and unique – mutually and contemporary releases – to make you wonder about Ashnymph's upcoming moves. Regardless of the form, on the strength of these tracks, it’s sure to be engaging.
Top New Music This Week
Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day
“I really require adventures”, Florence Shaw decides on the group's captivating comeback, but across six minutes – with exhales setting the pace – you feel that the motive eludes her.
Danny L Harle – Azimuth (ft Caroline Polachek)
Welding Evanescence goth drama to peak 90s trance – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – the track implies reviving your rave outfits and heading south west to rave, right away.
Robyn's Acne Studios mix
Robyn’s soundtrack for the Swedish designer’s SS26 show hints at her next record, including driving guitar parts à la Soulwax, pulsating rhythms in the Benassi vein and the verse “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.
Jordana – Like That
We loved her album Lively Premonition last year and the American artist continues to show off her impressive hook-crafting ability as she laments her latest hopeless infatuation.
Get a Life by Molly Nilsson
The independent Swedish artist put out her new album Amateur this week, and this track from it is incredible: a synth-guitar melody jerks forward at hardcore punk pace as Nilsson insists we take control of life.
Artemas' Superstar
Post explorations of tired relationships on his megahit I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its underrated parent mixtape Yustyna, the musician of mixed heritage is hopelessly devoted to his new flame amid driving coldwave beats.
Jennifer Walton – Miss America
Taken from a notable debut album, a delicate electronic ballad about Walton discovering her dad had died in an airport hotel, describing her eerie environment in tender incantations: “Shopping plaza, illegal trade, anxiety episodes.”