Exploring this Jackhammer Sound and Dancefloor Alt-Rock of Ashnymph and the Week's Best New Tracks

Based in the UK cities of London and Brighton
If you enjoy Underworld, MGMT, Animal Collective
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The two singles released up to now by the group Ashnymph resist simple labeling: their own description of their music as “subconscioussion” provides few hints. Debut Saltspreader blended a jackhammer industrial beat – 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 riff that partly brings to mind the enduring garage rock anthem I Wanna Be Your Dog, before melting into a mass of eerie audio. The planned result, the band has indicated, was to suggest road trips, “the endless movement of vehicles 24-hours a day over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.

The subsequent track, the song Mr Invisible, sits somewhere between dance music and left-field alt-rock. For one thing, the track’s rhythm, multiple entrancing electronic parts, and singing that comes either hallucinogenically distorted or hypnotically looped in a way that recalls Dubnobasswithmyheadman-era Underworld all suggest the dancefloor. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, edge-of-chaos quality and distortion – “making everything sound crunchy is a long-term goal,” Wiffen has said – mark it out 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 a short time, “any venue that cranks the volume”.

But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – from each other and contemporary releases – to make you wonder about the band's future direction. No matter what it is, 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 her band’s beguiling return, but over six minutes – with breath sounds keeping rhythm – you get the sense that she's unsure of the reason.

Danny L Harle's Azimuth featuring Caroline Polachek
Combining Evanescence's dark flair to the height of trance music – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests reviving your rave outfits and making your way to a rave, stat.

Robyn's Acne Studios mix
Robyn’s soundtrack for the the fashion brand's latest show hints at her next record, including Soulwax-worthy grinding guitar, pulsating rhythms in the Benassi vein and the lyrics “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Jordana – Like That
Listeners adored her record Lively Premonition last year and the US singer-songwriter keeps displaying her impressive hook-crafting ability as she sings about a futile crush.

Get a Life by Molly Nilsson
The solo Swedish pop act put out her new album Amateur this week, and this song is remarkable: a synth-guitar melody surges ahead with punk speed as Nilsson insists we seize the day.

Superstar by Artemas
Post explorations of tired relationships on his smash I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the UK-Cypriot artist is hopelessly devoted to his current partner amid driving coldwave beats.

Jennifer Walton – Miss America
Taken from a notable debut album, a soft synth lament about Walton learning of her father’s death in an hotel near an airport, tracing her uncanny surroundings in softly sung lines: “Retail area, shady transaction, nervous fits.”

Joseph Miller
Joseph Miller

A tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in telecommunications and community networking.

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