Diving into the Pounding Sound and Clubby Alternative Rock of Ashnymph and This Week's Best Fresh Music

Originating in the UK cities of London and Brighton
For fans of Underworld, MGMT, Animal Collective
Coming soon An as-yet-untitled EP, to be released in 2026

The two singles shared up to now by the group Ashnymph defy easy classification: their personal label of their work as “subconscioussion” doesn’t offer many clues. The first single Saltspreader married a jackhammer industrial beat – member Will Wiffen has occasionally been spotted on stage sporting a shirt that displays the emblem of Godflesh, icons of industrial metal – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a riff that subtly echoes the classic Stooges track I Wanna Be Your Dog, before transforming into a wall of disquieting noise. Its intended effect, the trio have suggested, was to suggest road trips, “the ceaseless flow of vehicles all day long over huge distances … nighttime orange glows”.

The subsequent track, the song Mr Invisible, occupies a space between dance music and left-field alt-rock. For one thing, the cut's tempo, multiple entrancing electronic parts, and singing that comes either trippily blurred or spellbindingly cyclical in a way that recalls Dubnobasswithmyheadman-era Underworld all suggest the dance space. On the other, its forceful live-sounding dynamics, near-anarchic character and overdrive – “making everything sound crunchy is a personal mission,” Wiffen has said – set it apart as very much the work of a band rather than a solitary home producer. They’ve been playing around the independent music circuit in south London for a short time, “any spot with loud speakers”.

But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – mutually and contemporary releases – to spark curiosity about what Ashnymph might do next. Regardless of the form, on the basis of these two singles, it’s unlikely to be boring.

The Week's Fresh Highlights

Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day
“I absolutely need experiences”​, Florence Shaw decides on their enchanting new track, but over six minutes – with exhales setting the pace – you get the sense that the motive eludes her.

Danny L Harle – Azimuth (ft Caroline Polachek)
Merging gothic intensity to the height of trance music – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth hints at digging out your Cyberdog attire and heading south west to rave, stat.

Robyn's Acne Studios mix
Robyn's composition for the the fashion brand's latest 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's Like That
Critics praised her album Lively Premonition last year and the American artist keeps displaying her impressive hook-crafting ability as she sings about a futile crush.

Molly Nilsson's Get a Life
The solo Swedish pop act dropped the record Amateur this week, and this song is remarkable: a synthetic guitar line surges ahead with punk speed as the singer urges we grab life by the scruff of the neck.

Artemas – Superstar
Following tales of weary romance on his hit single I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the UK-Cypriot artist is wretchedly in thrall to his latest lover amid pulsating coldwave production.

Jennifer Walton's Miss America
From one of the year’s standout debuts, a delicate electronic ballad about Walton discovering her dad had died in an hotel near an airport, mapping the strange setting in softly sung lines: “Strip mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”

Melody Christensen
Melody Christensen

A tech enthusiast and writer with a passion for exploring emerging technologies and their impact on society.

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