Discovering the Pounding Noise and Clubby Alt-Rock of the Band Ashnymph and the Week's Top Fresh Music

Based in London and Brighton
If you enjoy Underworld, MGMT, Animal Collective
On the horizon An as-yet-untitled EP, to be released in 2026

The pair of releases shared up to now by the group Ashnymph are hard to categorise: their own description of the sound as “subconscioussion” leaves listeners guessing. The first single Saltspreader blended a pounding industrial rhythm – member Will Wiffen has occasionally been spotted on stage sporting a shirt that features the symbol of industrial metal pioneers Godflesh – with old-school electronic keys and a guitar line that subtly echoes the Stooges’ garage rock perennial I Wanna Be Your Dog, before melting into a wall of disquieting noise. The planned result, the group has mentioned, was to evoke motorway travel, “the grinding circulation of vehicles around the clock over great lengths … orange lights at night”.

The subsequent track, the song Mr Invisible, falls between nightclub tunes and left-field alt-rock. Firstly, the song's beat, layers of hypnotic electronics, and vocals that arrive either hallucinogenically distorted or hypnotically looped in a way that brings back Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all suggest the club floor. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, edge-of-chaos quality and distortion – “getting that crisp distortion is a personal mission,” the musician stated – distinguish it as very much the work of a band rather than a solitary home producer. They've gigged around the independent music circuit in south London for less than a year, “anywhere that will turn the PA up loud”.

But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – from one another and contemporary releases – to make you wonder about the band's future direction. Whatever it is, on the evidence of Saltspreader and Mr Invisible, it’s probably not dull.

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Nicholas Church
Nicholas Church

A tech writer with a passion for AI and digital transformation, sharing insights from years of industry experience.