Discovering this Jackhammer Noise and Clubby Alt-Rock of Ashnymph and the Week's Best New Tracks

Based in London and Brighton
If you enjoy artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
On the horizon A new EP planned for 2026, currently without a title

Both tracks put out so far by Ashnymph resist simple labeling: the band's own tag of the sound as “subconscioussion” provides few hints. Their initial track Saltspreader combined a jackhammer industrial beat – guitarist Will Wiffen has sometimes been seen on stage in a tee that bears the logo of the trailblazing band Godflesh – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a guitar line that vaguely recalls the classic Stooges track I Wanna Be Your Dog, before transforming into a mass of eerie audio. The desired impact, the trio have suggested, was to evoke motorway travel, “the grinding circulation of vehicles 24-hours a day over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.

The next release, Mr Invisible, occupies a space between club music and experimental rock. For one thing, the song's beat, multiple entrancing electronic parts, and vocals that arrive either hallucinogenically distorted or mesmerizingly repeated in a way that evokes Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all indicate the club floor. Alternatively, its forceful live-sounding dynamics, brink-of-disorder feel and overdrive – “making everything sound crunchy is a long-term goal,” Wiffen has said – set it apart as clearly a group effort rather than a bedroom-bound producer. They've performed around the independent music circuit in south London for less than a year, “any venue that cranks the volume”.

But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – mutually and other current music – to prompt questions about what Ashnymph might do next. Regardless of the form, on the basis of these two singles, it’s probably not dull.

The Week's Fresh Highlights

Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day
“I simply must have experiences”​, vocalist Florence Shaw states on their enchanting new track, but throughout the song's duration – with breath sounds keeping rhythm – you get the sense that the motive eludes her.

Azimuth by Danny L Harle with Caroline Polachek
Welding Evanescence goth drama to classic 90s trance – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests dusting off your best Cyberdog wear and making your way to a rave, stat.

Robyn's Acne Studios mix
Robyn’s soundtrack for the Acne Studios' spring/summer 2026 presentation hints at her next record, including Soulwax-worthy grinding guitar, Benny Benassi-style thrust and the verse “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Like That by Jordana
Listeners adored her album Lively Premonition last year and the Stateside musician further demonstrates her stunning facility for chorus writing as she sings about a futile crush.

Molly Nilsson's Get a Life
The one-woman Swedish pop operation dropped the record Amateur this week, and this track from it is remarkable: a synthetic guitar line thrusts forward rapidly as Nilsson insists we grab life by the scruff of the neck.

Superstar by Artemas
After documenting jaded love and sex on his hit single I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its underrated parent mixtape Yustyna, the musician of mixed heritage is hopelessly devoted to his latest lover amid pulsating coldwave production.

Jennifer Walton's Miss America
Off an impressive first record, a soft synth lament about Walton discovering her dad had died in an transit lodge, tracing her uncanny surroundings in softly sung lines: “Strip mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”

Thomas Rodriguez
Thomas Rodriguez

A dedicated marathon runner and certified coach with over a decade of experience in fitness training and nutrition.