🔗 Share this article

The two singles put out so far by Ashnymph resist simple labeling: their own description of their work as “subconscioussion” doesn’t offer many clues. Their initial track Saltspreader married a heavy mechanical drumming – bandmember Will Wiffen has at times appeared on stage sporting a shirt that bears the logo of Godflesh, icons of industrial metal – with retro-style synths and a riff that subtly echoes the Stooges’ garage rock perennial I Wanna Be Your Dog, before dissolving into a mass of eerie audio. The planned result, the group has mentioned, was to suggest road trips, “the ceaseless flow of vehicles all day long over great lengths … orange lights at night”.

Its follow-up, Mr Invisible, occupies a space between club music and left-field alt-rock. For one thing, the cut's tempo, multiple entrancing electronic parts, and singing that comes either trippily blurred or mesmerizingly repeated in a way that brings back Dubnobasswithmyheadman-era Underworld all point towards the club floor. On the other, its intense performance-style shifts, brink-of-disorder feel and fuzz – “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 been playing around the self-made music community of south London for less than a year, “anywhere that will turn the PA up loud”.

But both are exciting and different enough – mutually and anything else around at the moment – to make you wonder about Ashnymph's upcoming moves. No matter what it is, on the strength of these tracks, it’s unlikely to be boring.

Top New Music This Week

Dry Cleaning's Hit My Head All Day
“I absolutely need experiences”​, Florence Shaw decides on their enchanting new track, but across six minutes – with human breath marking time – you feel that she's unsure of the reason.

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

Acne Studios mix by Robyn
The music by Robyn for the the fashion brand's latest show previews her TBA ninth album, including gritty guitars reminiscent of Soulwax, Benny Benassi-style thrust and the words “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Jordana – Like That
Listeners adored her soft rock album Lively Premonition last year and the American artist further demonstrates her impressive hook-crafting ability as she expresses unrequited feelings.

Get a Life by Molly Nilsson
The solo Swedish pop act released her latest album Amateur this week, and this cut is remarkable: a synth-guitar melody thrusts forward rapidly as Nilsson demands we grab life by the scruff of the neck.

Artemas' Superstar
After documenting jaded love and sex on his smash I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its overlooked mixtape Yustyna, the British-Cypriot star is wretchedly in thrall to his latest lover amid pulsating coldwave production.

Jennifer Walton's Miss America
Taken from a notable debut album, a soft synth lament about Walton learning of her father’s death in an transit lodge, tracing her uncanny surroundings in softly sung lines: “Strip mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”