Diving into this Pounding Sound and Dancefloor Alt-Rock of Ashnymph and This 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 An as-yet-untitled EP, to be released in 2026

The two singles shared up to now by Ashnymph defy easy classification: their own description of their music as “subconscioussion” provides few hints. The first single Saltspreader combined a pounding industrial rhythm – member Will Wiffen has occasionally been spotted on stage sporting a shirt that bears the logo of industrial metal pioneers Godflesh – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a guitar line that partly brings to mind the classic Stooges track I Wanna Be Your Dog, before dissolving into a wall of disquieting noise. Its intended effect, the group has mentioned, was to conjure highway journeys, “the endless movement of vehicles around the clock over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.

The subsequent track, the song Mr Invisible, sits somewhere between club music and experimental rock. Firstly, the track’s rhythm, strata of mesmerizing synths, and vocals that arrive either trippily blurred or hypnotically looped in a way that recalls Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all suggest the dancefloor. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, brink-of-disorder feel and fuzz – “making everything sound crunchy is a personal mission,” Wiffen has said – distinguish it as very much the work of a band rather than a lone electronic artist. They’ve been playing around the self-made music community of south London for under a year, “any spot with loud speakers”.

But each is thrilling and unique – from each other and contemporary releases – to spark curiosity about the band's future direction. Whatever it is, on the strength of these tracks, it’s sure to be engaging.

This Week’s Best New Tracks

Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day
“I simply must have experiences”​, singer Florence Shaw declares on the group's captivating comeback, but over six minutes – with breath sounds keeping rhythm – you perceive that the motive eludes her.

Danny L Harle – Azimuth (ft Caroline Polachek)
Welding Evanescence goth drama to classic 90s trance – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth hints at reviving your rave outfits and dancing the night away, stat.

Robyn – Acne Studios mix
Robyn’s soundtrack for the the fashion brand's latest show teases her upcoming ninth album, including Soulwax-worthy grinding guitar, Benny Benassi-style thrust and the lyrics “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Jordana – Like That
Listeners adored her soft rock album Lively Premonition last year and the Stateside musician keeps displaying her remarkable skill with choruses as she sings about a futile crush.

Molly Nilsson – Get a Life
The solo Swedish pop act released her latest album Amateur this week, and this song is remarkable: a electronic guitar part jerks forward at hardcore punk pace as Nilsson demands we seize the day.

Artemas – Superstar
After documenting jaded love and sex on his smash I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the UK-Cypriot artist is completely captivated by his new flame amid pulsating coldwave production.

Miss America by Jennifer Walton
From one of the year’s standout debuts, a delicate electronic ballad about Walton learning of her father’s death in an transit lodge, mapping the strange setting in softly sung lines: “Shopping plaza, illegal trade, anxiety episodes.”

Patricia Gibson
Patricia Gibson

A tech enthusiast and writer passionate about exploring the intersection of design and emerging technologies.