Discovering this Jackhammer Sound and Dancefloor Alternative Rock of the Band Ashnymph and the Week's Top Fresh Music

Hailing from London and Brighton
Recommended if you like artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
Coming soon A new EP planned for 2026, currently without a title

The two singles released to date by Ashnymph defy easy classification: their own description of their music as “subconscioussion” doesn’t offer many clues. The first single Saltspreader married a jackhammer industrial beat – bandmember Will Wiffen has sometimes been seen on stage sporting a shirt that displays the emblem of Godflesh, icons of industrial metal – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a riff that partly brings to mind the enduring garage rock anthem I Wanna Be Your Dog, before melting into a wall of disquieting noise. The planned result, the group has mentioned, was to conjure highway journeys, “the grinding circulation of vehicles 24-hours a day over vast spans … orange lights at night”.

The subsequent track, the song Mr Invisible, occupies a space between dance music and left-field alt-rock. On one hand, the cut's tempo, layers of hypnotic electronics, and singing that comes either trippily blurred or hypnotically looped in a way that recalls Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all indicate the club floor. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, brink-of-disorder feel and overdrive – “getting that crisp distortion is a personal mission,” the musician stated – mark it out as very much the work of a band rather than a solitary home producer. They've performed around south London’s DIY scene for less than a year, “any venue that cranks the volume”.

But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – from one another and anything else around at the moment – to make you wonder about the band's future direction. Regardless of the form, on the basis of these two singles, it’s probably not dull.

This Week’s Best New Tracks

Dry Cleaning's Hit My Head All Day
“I really require adventures”​, Florence Shaw decides on the group's captivating comeback, but throughout the song's duration – with exhales setting the pace – you feel that she's unsure of the reason.

Danny L Harle – Azimuth (ft Caroline Polachek)
Combining Evanescence's dark flair to the height of trance music – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests dusting off your best Cyberdog wear and heading south west to rave, stat.

Robyn – Acne Studios mix
The music by Robyn for the Swedish designer’s SS26 show hints at her next record, including driving guitar parts à la Soulwax, Benny Benassi-style thrust and the words “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Jordana's Like That
We loved her soft rock album Lively Premonition last year and the US singer-songwriter keeps displaying her stunning facility for chorus writing as she expresses unrequited feelings.

Molly Nilsson – Get a Life
The independent Swedish artist released her latest album Amateur this week, and this song is incredible: a synthetic guitar line thrusts forward rapidly as Nilsson demands we seize the day.

Artemas' Superstar
Post explorations of tired relationships on his hit single I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its underrated parent mixtape Yustyna, the musician of mixed heritage is wretchedly in thrall to his current partner amid icy synth-driven sound.

Jennifer Walton's Miss America
Off an impressive first record, a crushed synth hymnal about Walton learning of her father’s death in an transit lodge, describing her eerie environment in gentle refrains: “Strip mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”

Kristin Bradley
Kristin Bradley

A passionate writer and storyteller dedicated to sharing authentic experiences and insights with readers worldwide.