Discovering the Pounding Sound and Dancefloor Alt-Rock of the Band Ashnymph and the Week's Top Fresh Music
Hailing from the UK cities of London and Brighton
If you enjoy artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
Coming soon A new EP planned for 2026, currently without a title
Both tracks shared up to now by Ashnymph resist simple labeling: the band's own tag of their work as “subconscioussion” leaves listeners guessing. The first single Saltspreader combined a jackhammer industrial beat – guitarist Will Wiffen has sometimes been seen on stage wearing a T-shirt that displays the emblem of Godflesh, icons of industrial metal – with retro-style synths and a guitar riff that partly brings to mind the classic Stooges track I Wanna Be Your Dog, before transforming into a mass of eerie audio. The planned result, the trio have suggested, was to conjure highway journeys, “the ceaseless flow of vehicles all day long over great lengths … amber lights after dark”.
The subsequent track, Mr Invisible, falls between club music and experimental rock. On one hand, the track’s rhythm, strata of mesmerizing synths, and singing that comes either psychedelically smeared or hypnotically looped in a way that recalls Dubnobasswithmyheadman-era Underworld all indicate the dance space. Conversely, its intense performance-style shifts, near-anarchic character and fuzz – “making everything sound crunchy is a lifelong ambition,” Wiffen noted – set it apart as undeniably a band creation rather than a lone electronic artist. They've gigged around south London’s DIY scene for less than a year, “any venue that cranks the volume”.
But both are exciting and different enough – from each other and anything else around at the moment – to prompt questions about Ashnymph's upcoming moves. Whatever it is, on the evidence of Saltspreader and Mr Invisible, it’s sure to be engaging.
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