Exploring the Pounding Noise and Clubby Alt-Rock of the Band Ashnymph and the Week's Best New Tracks
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Recommended if you like artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
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The pair of releases released so far by Ashnymph defy easy classification: the band's own tag of their work as “subconscioussion” doesn’t offer many clues. The first single Saltspreader married a heavy mechanical drumming – guitarist Will Wiffen has at times appeared on stage wearing a T-shirt that bears the logo of the trailblazing band Godflesh – with vintage-sounding synthesisers and a guitar riff that vaguely recalls the classic Stooges track I Wanna Be Your Dog, before transforming into a wall of disquieting noise. Its intended effect, the trio have suggested, was to evoke motorway travel, “the endless movement of vehicles all day long over great lengths … orange lights at night”.
The next release, Mr Invisible, falls between dance music and unconventional alternative rock. On one hand, the track’s rhythm, layers of hypnotic electronics, and lyrics that appear either trippily blurred or mesmerizingly repeated in a way that brings back Dubnobasswithmyheadman-era Underworld all suggest the dancefloor. On the other, its powerful concert-like energy, brink-of-disorder feel and distortion – “achieving a crunchy texture is a personal mission,” Wiffen noted – distinguish it as clearly a group effort rather than a solitary home producer. They've performed around south London’s DIY scene for less than a year, “any spot with loud speakers”.
But the two tracks are vibrant and distinct – mutually and contemporary releases – to make you wonder about the band's future direction. Whatever it is, on the strength of these tracks, it’s sure to be engaging.
The Week's Fresh Highlights
Dry Cleaning's Hit My Head All Day
“I absolutely need experiences”, vocalist Florence Shaw states on their enchanting new track, but throughout the song's duration – with human breath marking time – you get the sense that she can’t work out why.
Azimuth by Danny L Harle with Caroline Polachek
Merging gothic intensity to classic 90s trance – right down to the lyric “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests digging out your Cyberdog attire and making your way to a rave, stat.
Acne Studios mix by Robyn
Robyn's composition 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”.
Like That by Jordana
We loved her soft rock album Lively Premonition last year and the American artist further demonstrates her remarkable skill with choruses as she laments her latest hopeless infatuation.
Molly Nilsson's Get a Life
The one-woman Swedish pop operation dropped the record Amateur this week, and this track from it is incredible: a electronic guitar part jerks forward at hardcore punk pace as Nilsson demands we take control of life.
Artemas – Superstar
Following tales of weary romance on his hit single I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the UK-Cypriot artist is hopelessly devoted to his latest lover amid driving coldwave beats.
Miss America by Jennifer Walton
From one of the year’s standout debuts, a soft synth lament about Walton learning of her father’s death in an hotel near an airport, describing her eerie environment in gentle refrains: “Strip mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”