Browsing Tag

Alt Electro Rock

Tune Out of the Static and Into Cerebral Absurdity with Pontus Peace’s Alt Indie Earworm, ‘MEDIA (A Love Song)’

Posted on 17 May 2025

If you’re looking for synth-driven alt-indie that scratches your itch for cerebral sound, use the fangs in Pontus Peace’s latest serpentine coalition of salaciously swaggering and tinged with sardonic sweetness vocals, garage rock guitar riffs and synths that inject indietronic idiosyncrasy into the eccentric mix. ‘MEDIA (A Love Song)’ doesn’t hold your hand through the dissection of modern affection and information overload—it strangles complacency with a wry smile while marching listeners deeper into its neurotic groove.

Beyond one step beyond the likes of Royal Blood and Highly Suspect, Pontus Peace synthesises the angst of post-punk into an anthem of alt-rock volition that writes a poisoned love letter to modern media and its increasingly unavoidable smothering presence, which ensures that even if you’re nowhere near the static of a TV, you’ll still be ensnared in some capacity.

Pontus Peace isn’t concerned with trend-chasing or sonic appeasement. Since their formation by Cornish drummer/vocalist Joel Nash alongside fellow drama school alumni, they’ve forged their own post-dystopian dancefloor. The four-piece may look like they stumbled out of a volleyball-themed fever dream, but their sound bites through with precision. From saxophone embellishments to lacerating lyrical insight, they’ve fine-tuned absurdity into a force worth listening to—and thinking with.

With the same sense of intellectualism and a few shared sonic tendencies as ILikeTrains, which pull through in the spoken word segment, Pontus Peace is evidently on the right trajectory.

‘MEDIA (A Love Song)’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Syion Unleashed a Dark Electro Rock Aphrodisiac with ‘the brat in me comes alive’

Posted on 20 March 2025

Syion has always operated in a euphonic league of his own, but the brat in me comes alive is a seductively dark electro rock invitation into the world of one of the most original artists in the UK. With whispered vocals as sensuous as the indie-tinged trip-hop-adjacent instrumentals, he delivers catharsis by the smorgasbord, inviting his ever-growing fanbase to envelop themselves in hypnotically arcane, spectrally scintillating reverie. There’s the sense that Syion is a true artist, one who can manipulate emotions at will and alchemically express himself beyond sound and syllables. If you thought Deftones were sexy, prepare for the ultimate aphrodisiac when you hit play.

As an English singer-songwriter, performer, musician, and producer, Syion seamlessly fuses dark alternative pop, folk pop, dance, and downtempo electronica with bold, boundary-pushing creativity. His album, Introspections of a distorted mind, plunges into social commentary and personal exploration while painting across a diverse sonic spectrum.

the brat in me comes alive is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Go down the downward spiral with Daniel Antonio’s dark electronic rock debut, everything I touch

Posted on 25 November 2022

Any fans of Blue October, Celldweller, and Three Days Grace will be gripped with the evocative raw candour that complements the turbulently dark electronic rock aesthetic in Daniel Antonio’s debut single, everything I touch.

For infectious appeal, the debut fuses pop hooks with glitchy electronica and down-tuned guitars. With the bilingual lyrics adding yet another repeat-worthy facet to the track that exhibits Antonio’s fearless vulnerability equally through the lyrics and vocals, every time you listen to everything I touch, the immense sensory experience becomes that little bit more visceral. The single was written to encapsulate a relatable dark downward spiral that made losing touch an inevitability and admirably as an admission of fallibility.

Away from the music industry, the Sheffield-based solo artist starred in the BAFTA-nominated film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – which explains the colossal cinematic touches in his debut. He also provided backing vocals for Ed Sheeran & Bring Me the Horizon’s earworm, Bad Habits, which hit number 3 on the UK charts. If this single doesn’t chart too, I might start a riot on his behalf.

Everything I touch will be available to stream from November 25th. Catch it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Graffiti Welfare tells his anxious coming of age story in the trippy meditative alt-electro album, Revolving Shores

Posted on 23 June 2022

Revolving Shores is the gravity-defyingly meditative debut album from the up-and-coming artist and producer Graffiti Welfare. After appearing on the airwave in 2018 through his EP, Into the Soul of Space, which has been extensively playlisted & lauded by critics, the Austin-born, Denver-based artist let the world in on his coming of age anxiety.

Regardless of your age, there is ample resonance in the LP that explores the profoundness of loss in context to perceptions of reality. As someone who has only recently lost their mum after a long illness, I’m pretty reasonably qualified to attest to the efficaciously comforting gentle tenacity in the 10-track release.

Revolving Shores gently eases you in through the minimalist melodic opening score, To Be It, which almost rings with neo-classic cinematic atmosphere, then cruises right on into my personal favourite, Just Follow, which reflects the feeling of unravelling as you lose direction.

DejaBlue picks up a little more melancholy through its genius titular metaphor for carbon copy ennui before Good News flirts with elements of coldwave EDM. What is easily the biggest experimental triumph the album, Synesthesia, dips into far more indie territory, with nuances of post-punk in the chilling, stabbing and distorted angular notes. SeaShell as the closing single was an all too efficaciously entrancing way of ensuring that Revolving Shores doesn’t leave you without sticking to your synapses first.

Graffiti Welfare Said

“Revolving Shores evolved from watching my childhood fade into the unknown as grandparents and friends passed away while I was coping with coming-of-age anxiety. By day, I was trying to finish my thesis and escape the clutches of graduate school with my sanity intact.

By night, I wanted to make sense of everything by creating something sincere, unique and tangible. Each track represents a lucid perspective that builds from the last, guiding a quiet meditation towards the unknown and back into waking life. Rinse, float, repeat – cause who knows where you will wake up next?”

Revolving Shores was officially released on June 17th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify and SoundCloud.

To keep up to date with the latest releases from Graffiti Welfare, follow him on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gangster of the Galaxy feat Ariana Rodriguez beguile with their stormer of an electronic alt-rock track, Take Me.

Posted on 26 October 2021

Ariana Rodriguez is on a mission to bring emotion back to music; in her collaboration with Gangster of the Galaxy, the Floridian singer discernibly succeeded; the dark undertones in Take Me create the perfect contrast against the innocence in her light, evocative vocal timbre.

While Ariana Rodriguez’ vocals rest between Portishead and Evanescence, Gangster of the Galaxy brings urban alchemy into the mix over the progressive dark beats which start with bass-dripping discord before twisting into a feat of alt-rock, not all too far from Linkin Park’s sonic palette.

For any dark trip-hop fans, Take Me will feel like home from the first hit.

The radio edit of Take Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast