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The term ‘indie’ in the music industry has become so ambiguous it has practically become as subjective as the meaning of life. Whichever way it is defined, it is still a massive part of the music industry in the UK and across the globe.

Originally, indie referred to how an artist distributed their music. Over the decades, it became a catch-all term for artists sharing the same sonic off-kilter edge; and, of course, the same moody yet inexplicably cool aesthetic. Indie, as a genre, only came around as the result of experimental artists in the 70s wanting to bring a new sound to the airwaves; instead of solely hoping for commercial success after appeasing one of the major record labels.

Indie artists adopted punk ethos they started to push the boundaries of pop. Instead of commercialising their sound, they pushed it into post-punk, shoegaze, synthpop, Britpop, avant-garde, noise rock and dream pop arenas. For all that separates bands such as Sonic Youth, the Cure, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Joy Division, Elliott Smith and Radiohead, there is still so much that ties them together, namely their attitudes and the loud discordant style.

Along with the bands, iconic venues such as the 100 Club in London, the Hacienda in Manchester, and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow had a pivotal part to play in the traction of independent artists and music. New Indie labels, such as Rough Trade and Factory Records, were amongst the first record labels to truly embrace and encourage experimentalism and authenticity in the artists they scouted and signed – taking New Order and Joy Division as a prime example.

It may have been a while since there was an indie breakthrough act as successful as the Arctic Monkeys, but indie music has far from lost its resonance. Besides, Monkeys won over 42 awards and sold over 20 million records, so that’s going to take some beating, and they’re certainly not the only indie artists currently thriving.

The Welsh indie rock icons, the Manic Street Preachers, celebrated their first number 1 album in 23 years with the release of Ultra Vivid Lament in 2021. The Tarantino-Esque Liverpool outfit, Red Rum Club, released their debut album in 2019, and got to number 14 in the official album sales chart with their album, How to Steal the World, in 2021. Perhaps most impressively, the world’s first CryptoPunk rapper, Spottie Wifi, made just under $200k in album NFT sales in 90 seconds this year.

T-Mos the Scribe wrapped his rap bars around indie folk ingenuity in ‘Adored’

Posted on 21 September 2023

In the standout single, Adored, from his debut EP, I Think I Love Myself,  the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, T-Mos the Scribe, wrapped his spoken word rap verses around intricately melodic indie folk instrumentals to deliver a hit of pure poetic innovation.

With a soundscape that hits the cathartic spot with as much precision as Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, it is all too easy to lock into the up-and-coming independent artist’s quick-witted cadences as they use the power of metaphor to evoke sticky-sweet visceral emotions.

Using the fact that everyone wants to be adored, which was probably how the Stone Roses’ hit I Wanna Be Adored became a timeless indie playlist staple, T-Mos the Scribe conjured something sublime with the seminal track on his debut release, which was written, created, and produced completely independently.

Adored is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Marygolds transcended space and time with the blues in their indie Americana single, Time Machine

Posted on 19 September 2023

The Louisville, Kentucky-hailing indie Americana outfit, Marygolds, made light melodic work of stripping away the past few decades and bringing a bygone era back to life in the standout single, Time Machine, from their eponymous 2023 EP.

Everything rests mellifluously easy on the timbre of the vintage bluesy guitar chords, which shimmer with early ’60s nostalgia as they drive the evocative instrumental arrangement under the gospel-esque vocals which reach the epitome of old-school soul. With the intimacy infused into the massive roots-wrapped production that could rival Father John Misty’s masterful work, Time Machine is so much more than an ode to the past; it’s a ticket back to soulfully sepia-tinged sanctity of it.

Perhaps even more remarkably, even though Marygolds left no clues to their 21st-century habitation behind in the cinematic gravitas of their work, their reverence for roots music didn’t come close to resounding as archaic. The outfit comprised of progenitors of modern blues is definitely one to watch.

Time Machine is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The existential indie dance pop icon Saynt Ego augmented grief in ‘Big Mad World’

Posted on 19 September 2023

The indietronica icon in the making, Saynt Ego, strengthened the foundations that his legacy will undoubtedly rest upon with his double A-side single, Looking 4 U – Big Mad World.

While the vocals sing a bitter-sweet goodbye, the augmented-with-funk melodic lines pull you to transcendence and acceptance in Big Mad World. The chaos of the universe is efficaciously encapsulated in the hypersonic soundscape, and all the assurance you will need that you can overcome any obstacle on your healing journey lingers in the lyricism, which rings with melancholy standing alone. Within the anthemics of the indie dance-pop hit, the candour-fuelled verses are awakening poetry, which alludes to the tragedy of obsession with earthly escapism.

Penned after losing his best friend to suicide, Big Mad World tracks cosmic themes while being underpinned by the grief of knowing that the human experience can’t always be traversed with resilience alone.

Occupying a middle ground between Cigarettes After Sex and ABBA, Saynt Ego found plenty of room to assert his authenticity in the self-produced release, which was written by Will Retherford and the airwaves on September 8th.

Stream Big Mad World on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The masters of funked indie rock melodicism Kinda Joke questioned ‘Where Is Home’ in the shimmering nostalgia of their latest single.

Posted on 18 September 2023

Kinda Joke brought a touch of playful panache and lashings of shimmering 80s nostalgia to their standout indie funk pop single, Where Is Home, taken from their debut LP, Cat Alarm.

If you can envisage the middle ground between Reverend and the Makers and the Midnight, you’ll get an idea of what awaits from the masters of indie rock melodicism and funky rhythms. With an atmosphere that enraptures from the first groove pocket-carving bassline and enough hooks to necessitate the hook, line and sinker metaphor, Kinda Joke’s ear candy couldn’t be more radio-ready.

Where Is Home is the sixth single to be released by the international trio; the German, Italian and Spanish flags all fly under the banner of the outfit which originally formed in Munich, where they discovered after jamming with each other that their sessions were somewhat reminiscent of an intoxicated Phil Collins-Coldplay-Dave Grohl amalgam.

Where Is Home is due for official release on September 15; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Movment made us pious to the post-punk rancour in their latest single, I Believe in Noise

Posted on 15 September 2023
https://soundcloud.com/movment/i-believe-in-noise-single

If you fell for the rancour of the Fall and Public Image Limited, prepare to be consumed by the latest darkwave post-punk hit, I Believe in Noise, from Ireland’s most ensnaring powerhouse, Movment.

With the manifesto-esque lyricism, the unfaltering conviction in the vocal lines and the sirening synth lines that effortlessly coalesce with the angular stings from the lead guitars, Movment bred a dark and murky atmosphere within I Believe in Noise. But as the track title would lead you to believe, there’s salvation oozing from every chord.

If you have a hard time believing what you hear and see in our post-truth reality, I Believe in Noise will give you a place to put your faith that resistance isn’t futile. Adam Curtis couldn’t have written the hit better himself.

I Believe in Noise follows two successful studio LPs and the Red Death Sessions EP and harbingers the disquietness to come in the third album, Reinvention, which will be released on the 24th of November via EPITRONIC.

I Believe in Noise will be released on September 15; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jay Hofman unveiled an enrapturing self-deprecating indie electro-pop earworm with I Can’t Sing

Posted on 14 September 2023

Thankfully, the title of Jay Hofman’s latest single, I Can’t Sing, isn’t a disclaimer for the dire vocal performance that will defile your ears as soon as you hit play. Instead, the self-deprecatingly sweet funked-up indie electro-pop hit shares a dilemma that every non-muso diehard romantic will have been stung by, the compulsion to write and sing a love song despite a discernible lack of musical talent.

Maybe ironically, maybe entirely purposefully, the Polish singer-songwriter who is currently residing in the UK crafted the kind of love song that everyone who is lucky enough to be head over heels will want to put on a playlist for the objects of their desire. By switching between rap-style spoken word verses and auto-tuned harmonies in the chorus, even if there was weight to the claim that Hofman can’t sing, it would never have soured the soundscape that is as electrifying as a Daft Punk hit.

I Can’t Sing debuted on September 8th; fall in love with it via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

McKay exhibited cybernetic sickness in their indie folk punk single, Plugged

Posted on 14 September 2023
https://soundcloud.com/mckay-608898721/plugged/s-KL9ziCSNpVD?si=96964519eb94489d9d6a39b352cda082&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

If the Beatles psychedelically strode across Pavement’s indie rock obscurity and checked into the Neutral Milk Hotel, the sonic result would groove in the same vein as McKay’s single, Unplugged.

The indie folk punk outpour of raw striking rancour inhibits nothing as the track veers from kaleidoscopic psychedelia to gritty instrumentation and lyrical volition that allows you to feel the inward visceral frustration that encompasses our inability to be a perfect portrait when the landscape that surrounds us warped by increasingly digital dystopia.

I’m pretty sure we can all relate to the exposition of how toxic dopamine habits compel us to stay hooked up to all the wrong lifebloods and leave us at further odds with ourselves. Given the evocative immersion Plugged provides, it is no surprise that McKay has become one of the hottest indie acts in the Nashville scene.

Plugged will debut on September 14; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

All isn’t fair in love and war in millar’s indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground

Posted on 12 September 2023

By drawing parallels between blood sports and romanticism in her indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground, the up-and-coming London-based singer-songwriter, millar, delivered a striking exposition of how nothing is fair in love and war when unsuspecting diehard romantics are forced to play by the rules of mind games.

As the atmospheric space progressively shifts from light to dark in the same vein as The Neighbourhood, Cigarettes After Sex and Perfume Genius around the strikingly angular indie guitar work which bears reminiscences to Slowdive and the driving backbeat that gives the single a punchily vindicating energy, hunting ground, is one of the most stunning UK indie tracks to spill up from the underground in 2023.

We can’t wait to hear where millar’s candour and inexplicable talents in euphonically visualising melancholy take her next.

hunting ground was officially released on September 1st; stream it now on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sentia released the most seductive synthscape of the summer with ‘Make You’

Posted on 11 September 2023

Sentia’s latest single, Make You, kisses you through a cosmic installation of smooth analog synth-swathed rock grooves, comprised of velveteen guitars and basslines that funk up the seductively seminal reimagining of alt-rock just enough to put you on a proggy star-roving plateau of pure euphonic appreciation.

If you gave Editors the sex appeal of Alex Cameron, you still wouldn’t come close to what Sentia have crafted in their hit that encompasses the kind of carnal desire which leaves your psyche rife with indecision as the prospect of taking a chance leaves the line between right and wrong obscured with wanton lust.

With their consistently evolving discography, the iconic anomalies of the Australian alternative scene are increasingly hard to pin down, but considering that all their synthscapes are underpinned with sheer sonic beguile, fool on you if you want to force them into a pigeonhole choked with uninspired assimilators.

Make You hit the airwaves on August 18; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream Optimist sugared sonic soul before pouring it into their spacey synthpop single,  Think Gently of Yourself

Posted on 9 September 2023

Silence the maleficence of your inner critic with the latest interstellar indie space pop escapade, Think Gently of Yourself, from Dream Optimist. If Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips never fails to pull at your heartstrings and stir your soul with unabashed positivity, the same viscerally sweet reaction awaits when you hit play on the seminal single from Dream Optimist’s 15-track LP, Seven Day Love Challenge.

Atop the twinkling Grandaddy-esque keys and around the chamber strings, the questioning and pervasive with doubt lyricism leads you on an affirming odyssey of a journey through the cosmos, with the consolingly compassionate vocals acting as a star-roving guide.

The Oakland, CA-residing songwriter and composer, frequently voyages between synthpop, bedroom pop, chamber pop and a myriad of other genres when penning his hits for his ‘low head count collective’. Before breaking into song crafting for the airwaves, the collective’s head honcho, David Marc Siegel, honed his talents in art-punk outfits and as a composer for ad music, theatre music, musical theatre, and short films, which goes a fair way in explaining how he settled on his cinematically spirited sound that will take you as high as the transcendent register on the vocal harmonies.

Stream Think Gently of Yourself by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast