Discovering the Jackhammer Noise and Dancefloor Alternative Rock of Ashnymph and the Week's Top Fresh Music

Hailing from the UK cities of London and Brighton
Recommended if you like Underworld, MGMT, Animal Collective
On the horizon An as-yet-untitled EP, to be released in 2026

Both tracks released so far by the group Ashnymph are hard to categorise: their personal label of their work as “subconscioussion” provides few hints. Debut Saltspreader combined a pounding industrial rhythm – bandmember Will Wiffen has occasionally been spotted on stage wearing a T-shirt that displays the emblem of the trailblazing band Godflesh – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a guitar riff that subtly echoes the enduring garage rock anthem I Wanna Be Your Dog, before transforming into a wall of disquieting noise. The planned result, the trio have suggested, was to suggest road trips, “the ceaseless flow of vehicles 24-hours a day over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.

The subsequent track, Mr Invisible, occupies a space between dance music and left-field alt-rock. For one thing, the track’s rhythm, strata of mesmerizing synths, and singing that comes either trippily blurred or mesmerizingly repeated in a way that recalls the classic Underworld album era all indicate the dance space. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, near-anarchic character and fuzz – “getting that crisp distortion is a personal mission,” Wiffen noted – mark it out as very much the work of a band rather than a solitary home producer. They’ve been playing around the self-made music community of south London for less than a year, “any venue that cranks the volume”.

But each is thrilling and unique – mutually and anything else around at the moment – to prompt questions about Ashnymph's upcoming moves. Regardless of the form, on the evidence of Saltspreader and Mr Invisible, it’s sure to be engaging.

This Week’s Best New Tracks

Hit My Head All Day by Dry Cleaning
“I simply must have experiences”​, Florence Shaw decides on their enchanting new track, but over six minutes – with human breath marking time – you feel that she's unsure of the reason.

Danny L Harle's Azimuth featuring Caroline Polachek
Combining Evanescence's dark flair to classic 90s trance – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests dusting off your best Cyberdog wear and dancing the night away, right away.

Robyn – Acne Studios mix
The music by Robyn for the Swedish designer’s SS26 show teases her upcoming ninth album, including gritty guitars reminiscent of Soulwax, energetic beats like Benny Benassi 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 Stateside musician continues to show off her remarkable skill with choruses 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 cut is extraordinary: a electronic guitar part jerks forward at hardcore punk pace as Nilsson insists we grab life by the scruff of the neck.

Artemas – Superstar
Following tales of weary romance on his megahit I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the British-Cypriot star is hopelessly devoted to his current partner amid icy synth-driven sound.

Jennifer Walton's Miss America
From one of the year’s standout debuts, a soft synth lament about the artist hearing of her father's passing in an hotel near an airport, describing her eerie environment in softly sung lines: “Shopping plaza, illegal trade, anxiety episodes.”

Gary Owens
Gary Owens

A forward-thinking writer and tech enthusiast with a passion for exploring the intersection of innovation and human potential.