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Liverpool

The Dive Sank Transatlantic Teeth into Angular Indie Post-Punk with their Earworm, Don’t Let Me Waste It

Posted on 24 August 2026

There is a fierce new contender in the battleground of Northern indie rivalry in the form of The Dive; the Liverpool alt-indie outfit has nailed transatlantic indie reformation through the deliciously melodic, angular, hook-rife hit, Don’t Let Me Waste It. Formed in 2023, the band channel the voltage of New York post-punk, the early 2000s indie moment and classic 60s melodic pop into something primed for a much wider field.

There is a garagey energy echoing the anthemics of The Strokes, tinges of Interpol in the atmosphere that swells around the guitars, and a voice that echoes with the same emotive depth as Thom Yorke across the adrenalized progressions that are screaming to pour into a festival crowd from the mainstage.

After taking time away following two singles last summer, The Dive return with rebuilt momentum and a sharper command of their identity. While plenty of indie bands are painting by numbers in pursuit of infamy, The Dive has arrived with an exhilarated rush of guitar-driven alchemy, knowing exactly how to control tone and tempo to leave you feeling almost feral as you brace for the crescendo in the chorus.

When Don’t Let Me Waste It drops, there will be no single more worthy of being ahead of it in the charts, which, coming from a Mancunian muso, is pretty high praise.

Don’t Let Me Waste It is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bill Ryder-Jones Intimacy Meets Suicide-Esque Synth Haze on Louie Miles’ With the Sun

Posted on 9 August 2026

Louie Miles brought one of the most consoling alt-indie signatures we have heard spring up from the underground to our radar this year with his latest single, With the Sun. The Walsall-born, Liverpool-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer has been recording himself since he was 11; now, as a fully-fledged and mature artist, his teeth have been cut to a practically Great White bite.

With the Sun resolves in the same kind of artful indie intimacy that makes Bill Ryder-Jones’ solo work feel so devastatingly close, carried by hushed vocals and instrumentals that sound like the sonic equivalent of sun-bleached old photographs. Miles pulls thematic emotion from quasi-lo-fi, saturation-heavy distortion, giving his unique art form a distinct pull far beyond the fray of indie experimentalists borrowing components of another artist’s panache.

The influence of Elliott Smith, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead and Daniel Johnston sits naturally inside the release, more spiritual ancestry than cosplay. Miles pursues sentimentality, honesty and childlike creativity, then stains it with enough fuzz and orchestral shadow to keep the sweetness from evaporating.

Everything within With the Sun feels painstakingly alchemised to the nth degree. It is the kind of music you’d hope to have someone to lean into if you heard it live, especially as Suicide-esque, diaphanously fuzzy synths bleed into the outro.

With the Sun is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Louie Miles – Falling Dreams: Arthouse Indie Rock with Synth-Bleached Light and Cosmic Soul Dissent

Posted on 22 June 2026
Louie Miles

With sustain languidly drifting from the piano strings, rays of synthesised light bleaching the production, and synth lines strobing urgency into Falling Dreams around the slow-burning drift of vocals, the opening of the latest masterstroke by the already intensely distinguished Louie Miles is magnetically mesmeric.

As a cocktail of the arthouse-esque atmospheric sublimity of Suicide, the heart wrenching vocal timbres of The National, the emotively vulnerable transcendence of The Flaming Lips and the spacey pedigree of Grandaddy juxtaposed with the complexity of Radiohead, Falling Dreams is one of the most kinetically caressive singles I’ve ever had on my radar; the way it builds into a garagey vortex of soul-dissenting cosmic cacophony quite honestly made my lungs falter.

From Walsall and based in Liverpool, Miles has been recording himself since the age of 11, pursuing sentimentality, honesty and childlike creativity through a self-sufficient world of songwriting, production and multi-instrumental detail. His orbit includes live work with Astles, Bill Ryder-Jones, Rianne Downey and Palco, yet Falling Dreams proves his solo language stands with its own strange gravity.

Clearly, being in the same orbit as Bill Ryder-Jones has left Louie Miles affected; their sonic signatures may scribe completely different languages, but both artists use raw emotion as a catalyst for quasi-meditative resonance.

Falling Dreams is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

credits Pushed Alt-Country Away from Indie Landfill with the Rose-Tinted Sting of Evergreen

Posted on 1 June 2026

If any contemporary band is worthy of being the ambassador for Liverpool’s culturally rich indie scene, it’s credits, who turned their latest single, Evergreen, into a session in soul-deep sublimity, carried by quasi-prophetic grace in the lyrics and the way they are projected into the expanse of alt-country, 90s indie, and Americana.

Put an Americana twang against the soaring choruses of Gold Against the Soul-era Manic Street Preachers and the introspective candour of Mansun, and you arrive at the dusky alchemy of credits, a band paving their way away from indie landfill with pure sonic gold.

Nothing in the production is overblown, giving Evergreen the intimate lack of pretence that became synonymous with college radio rock, yet credits place each note in euphonic suspension, creating a cinematically visual, radio-ready feather in their cap. Pedal steel, jangly guitar chimes, and Jay Morris’ reflective storytelling turn the track into a rose-tinted reckoning with a past love that still rattles around the mind like an address you remember too well.

The Liverpudlian power-pop songsmiths wear the lineage of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Neil Young, James Taylor, and Laurel Canyon harmony with open devotion, while production from Ben Harper and mixing from JB Pilon keep the single rooted in the future of indie. Whoever said you can’t have the best of both worlds?

Evergreen is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

ARCHAEA scorched the proverbial leeches in their standout hard-rock hit, Parasite,

Posted on 14 February 2026

When ARCHAEA unleashed Parasite, the hit from their Burn EP, it felt like being dropped into a live wire. The hooks are overdriven to the nines, throwing off the kind of heat that leaves you wondering if you’re feeling electricity or volatility. The way they blur the lines between hard rock, grunge and pop punk feels like they’ve found a pressure point in the genre and pressed until it throbbed with something timeless for anyone who has knelt at the rock altar and grown tired of tending to leeches.

The full band flex comes through in the way each instrumental steals its moment, whether it’s the swagger in the riffs, the rhythm that feels strangely aphrodisiacal, or the intricately breath-stealing bursts that hit without telegraphing themselves. Their technical chops cut exactly where they mean to, and the centre of it all sits a voice that feels ready to tear its way out of the underground entirely. The vocals tease the eruption of the choruses in a way that feels oddly intimate, far more charged than most Tinder dates.

ARCHAEA formed in Liverpool in 2021 when the world felt like it was grinding its teeth, and they channelled that collective tension into a heavy, volatile sound shaped by the influence of Metallica, the alt leanings of Stone Sour, and the melodic intoxication of Avenged Sevenfold. Fronted by Dave Morgan, with Lewis Crosby and Alex Harris on guitars, Peter Mansfield holding down the low end, and Cal Deaves behind the kit, they’ve already turned heads across the Northwest with their live shows. They’ve got a sound strong enough to dissolve the Manchester vs Liverpool rivalry; can I pay them more of a compliment than that?

Parasite is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

90s Nostalgia Spiralled into a Darkly Psychedelic Fever Dream in Goth Milk’s Standout Single, Cough Syrup Purple: 

Posted on 4 February 2026

Goth Milk cracked open their standout single, Cough Syrup Purple, with the swagger of 90s boy bands wired straight into the atmospheric charge of Gary Numan and Depeche Mode. The Merseyside duo do exactly what their moniker hints at, yet they take it further by plunging headlong into an infectious fusion of hedonic EBM shivers, distortion-heavy guitar textures, and a frenetic breakbeat Drum n Bass-esque crescendo that blows the hinges off any expectation of a pedestrian pace. The track is a technicolour detonation of impulsive rhythm and psychedelic saturation, delivered with the kind of ego-less vocal fearlessness that makes their sonic universe feel entirely unfiltered.

As the oscillations build, the hit grows more labyrinthine, shaking loose any sense of predictability while keeping its centre fixed on pure ingenuity. Goth Milk exhibit an instinctive command over their sound, threading their influences through a high-octane synthesis of rave-tinted exuberance and shadow-soaked pop sensibility. The way they reimagine nostalgia into something fevered, hot, and utterly alive adds a delirious, spectral shimmer to the release, turning the track into a warped little portal into their own world of dark disco from space. It is a headrush of a listen, steeped in immediacy and anchored by the impulsive charm that fuels the entire Like the Taste EP.

Formed in Merseyside by Zach Tellett and Guy Anderson, the psychedelic-pop duo spent a year developing their first official EP through constant experimentation, lifting influence from electronic, rock, funk, and hip-hop while stubbornly refusing to settle into a single lane. Their sound pivots between club culture and live-band energy, creating landscapes thick with big beats, stacked synths and guitars, and the kind of catchy vocal hooks that coil around your attention and tighten their grip. Cough Syrup Purple sets the tone for their restless creativity while the rest of the EP sprawls into quieter jazz-infused corners, rock climaxes, sarcastic funk rhythms, and disco-leaning grooves.

Cough Syrup Purple is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

When the Morning Comes unveiled BERENA’s firebranded Neo-Soul fever in full bloom

Posted on 1 February 2026

BERENA pour grooves that spiral their way through the kaleidoscope of colour, warmth and soul on When the Morning Comes, a constellation of pure feeling from the Liverpool-based Neo-Soul powerhouse. After a scintillating stream of reverb leaks into your synapses, the guitar licks prove that with BERENA, harmonic transcendence always arrives with a firebranded fever. Their latest single is shaped with the kind of decadence that compels you to move to it, no matter how many times you have soaked in the richness of their tonal command. The hypnotic constellation of ambience they chose to serve as the middle eight folds seamlessly into the melting pot of expansive influences that touch and tantalise the sound orchestrated by the six-piece act who choose to take Liverpool and beyond by soul instead of by storm.

The depth behind that sound speaks to how the collective formed. Emerging from the creative pool of university life, BERENA grew into a six-strong unit anchored by the classically trained vocals of Josie Lomax. The rhythm section of Daud Kay and Tom McNally reinforces the foundation with prog-rock grooves fused with Latin nuance. Guitars from Sam Devonport and Isaac Tingay add experimental textures shaped by blues-rooted instinct, while Charlie Corry steers the melodic core with jazz-schooled command.

.Following their debut single, Just a Boy, and their self-produced 2025 EP On-Set, When the Morning Comes confirms that their boundary-pushing ethos is far from spent.

When the Morning Comes is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Smiling Jackals flipped the mirror on our schadenfreude in Freakshow

Posted on 8 November 2025

Smiling Jackals rolled out the alt-rock Freakshow with their latest single, which has made its way from the 90s to our epoch, which still thrives upon the exploitation of punching down the most disenfranchised. Decades have passed, we still haven’t learned our lesson, and Smiling Jackals’ social dissection is just as cutting as the day it was penned. Sounding like it came out of Chris Cornell’s studio, the atmospheric intensity of the grungy retaliation to televised misery drags you in by the scruff of your neck, uses the distortion to make you stand unguarded against the thematic core of the track, instilling you with deep shame you’ve ever felt schadenfreude every time you declare something as cringe on TikTok while you pretend that humiliation is cultural execution.

With a sense of visceral volition that stands up against The Holy Bible era of The Manics, Smiling Jackals are one of the only bands on this side of the millennium strong enough to carry us through the inertia of modernity. After more than a decade apart, they’re back in the same place, same room, same raw energy. Older. Louder. Sharper. Their third self-released single on their label, Smalltimeville Records, shows no signs of mellowing. Originally written in the late 90s during the peak of tabloid talk show voyeurism, Freakshow finds new relevance in an age where shame is monetised and streamed, not just consumed but performed.

Freakshow is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 
Review by Amelia Vandergast

It’s all written between the (guitar) lines in Neil Potter’s alt-indie-rock tour de force, ‘Shipwrecked’

Posted on 22 September 2025
Neil Potter

Neil Potter feels like a rare exception in the era where revering guitarists for their skill is almost over; if we’re going to make one, it’s for him. His unique way of translating technical skill into vibrant expressive progressions in Shipwrecked makes the guitar lines a viscerally exhilarating force in themselves.

The supersonic arrangement was moulded to melt minds and rhythmic pulses at will through the monolithic interplay between indie, pop punk and classic rock, which results in a track that allows you to imagine what would happen if Guns N’ Roses, Jimmy Eat World and Suede met in the middle and waged war through sonic volition alone. You’ll either want to make sure you’re sat down or ready to dive into a frenzy-charged pit when you hear this when it is dropped on September 22nd, serving as one of the first hits from Potter’s upcoming LP, Out of the Fjords and Into New Found Lands – a 13-track release which swings from full-band and orchestral arrangements to stripped-back cuts that showcase what he does best.

After 14 years running a music tuition business and performing covers across the North West under agency contracts, Potter is finally stepping into his own. While he mostly plays live with an acoustic setup, looping vocals and striking his guitar for percussion, Shipwrecked proves how much electricity he can generate when turned up full-blast.

Discover more about Neil Potter via his official website & connect with him through Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Liverpool’s Smiling Jackals bared their teeth to unleash the symphonically cerebral allegory, Monster

Posted on 9 August 2025

With their sophomore single, Monster, Liverpool’s Smiling Jackals pulled no punches while stitching a cerebral thematic weight to a sonic storm that sways between precision and abandon. The track carries the fever of something ancient and unrelenting, the kind of menace that stalks from the shadowed corners of the mind. Fear, envy, and jealousy writhe in the lyrics, personified and made tangible by the force of the instrumentation.

Post-rock and metal converge in a way that feels ritualistic, yet wild with intent, like a pact signed in blood between melody and chaos. Guitars snarl, percussion crashes like war drums, and the arrangements surge with the majesty of something orchestral while remaining jagged enough to tear through complacency. In the eye of the storm, there’s an unshakable melodic grip, a sense that even as the walls close in, the music offers its own brand of salvation.

Inspired by Jacques Callot’s Invidia, the single’s artwork underscores the arcane nature of the piece, making it as much an aesthetic statement as a musical one. With Monster, Smiling Jackals summon the shadows, name them, and give them a soundtrack potent enough to make you look them in the eye.

Monster is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud. 
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Review by Amelia Vandergast