Browsing Tag

Alternative

Nick Cody and the Heartache: We Are the Many – Euphony-Rich Folk for the Empathic Masses

Posted on 12 April 2026

Against the backdrop of a fractured Britain, Nick Cody and the Heartache orchestrated a folk-infused uprising in their latest single, We Are the Many. Hailing from the creative hive of Leeds, Cody is a writer who has long earned nods from scene heavyweights like Chris Catalyst, yet this latest ensemble feels particularly vital.

The track redresses the ‘masses against the classes’ energy of the Manics within an accordance of euphony-rich harmony. Alongside Cody’s rallying, Billy Bragg-esque vocals linger the diaphanous timbre of Liz Hanks. Having previously lent her cello and vocal weight to legends like the Pet Shop Boys, Liz Hanks softens the blow of this protestive serenade. She takes the sting out of the inequity which necessitated the release, reminding listeners that some souls still swim in empathy. The radiance of the harmonies in this cathartically pure single is diametrically opposed to the angst found on the other side of the socio-political spectrum, instilled with a grace Reform voters could only hope for. It is a sonic sanctuary for those tired of the status quo.

Taken from the upcoming album, Sweet Songs & Bitter Truth, the track will also feature in the film All Kinds of Crazy.

We Are the Many is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Precious McKenzie: For the Love of God – A Visceral Gonzo-Style Tour De Force of Secular Derision

Posted on 23 March 2026

With their unorthodox approach to genre styling and lyricism that frequently borders on Machiavellian nihilism, Precious McKenzie has reached their sardonic zenith with their latest single and debut gonzo-style music video, For the Love of God. The Manchester-based independent artist continues to push further into their own angular, confrontational corner of alternative music, building on the attention drawn by earlier releases and carving out a space that feels wilfully abrasive in all the right ways.

Through visuals that are as affrontingly visceral as the sonic aesthetic, which swaggers between the intersections of Mansun and the Manics, (Richey era obviously), while augmenting the echoes of indie by salaciously teasing in the timbres of early 00s metal, Precious McKenzie delivered a harbingering exposition on how salvation is just another vice for people who move through life replacing one addiction with another.

Angular guitar notes pierce the vocal-forward production with math rock-esque rhythmic cerebralism as refrains of “You found God at the bottom of the bag” and “Collapse the walls then Heaven calls” become as instrumental to the mercilessly secular derision of people who fall into the hollowness of piety. The track lands as a personal tale of friendship lost first to drugs and then to religion, framing both as different faces of the same emptiness people spend their lives trying to fill.

If you’re clinging to dogma or your dealer’s burner number, this cataclysmic tour de force is going to sting.

For the Love of God is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Amber Jade Smith is a siren in a dark electro-pop storm in her latest experimental release, Echo

Posted on 28 December 2025

Amber Jade Smith scintillated moody cinematography into her alt-electronica serenade with the void, Echo. The track spills from the edge of emotional reckoning, carrying the same gravitational pull as the most spiritually-charged entries in the back catalogues of Björk and Enya. Yet Smith’s sonic language is unmistakably her own, voiced through harmonies that hover like haunted memories over stormy swells of orchestration.

Written during a period of brutal emotional excavation, Echo never veers into overwrought despair. It deals in pensive release—one that uncoils through the aching pull of strings and spectral synths, rather than lyrical overexposure. There’s strength in Smith’s stillness. Her harmonies hum with grief, yet move with the weight of resilience. The track doesn’t lurch for hooks or drama; it trusts the listener to follow the quiet unravelling. The filmic augmentation sharpens rather than distracts, allowing the rawness to bleed in at the edges without theatricality.

Now based in the South West of England, the Welsh singer-songwriter re-emerged after a long silence, having wrestled through one of the most difficult years of her life. Echo, recorded at Momentum Studios, marks her return after a two-year hiatus. It captures the ache of imbalance; the fear that affection won’t be returned, the loneliness that lingers after patterns have become too familiar to escape.

Smith’s sound lives in the space where ambient meets emotional exposure. She builds rooms for feelings too heavy to name. In Echo, she created a cathedral for heartbreak.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Dopamine is Spiked with Jagged Emo Hooks in Donate Your Friends’ Earworm, Sage

Posted on 31 October 2025

Donate Your Friends should be classified as a protected alt-rock species, especially after the release of their latest single, Sage, which hooks into the emo angst of the 00s with sharp melodic hooks. It takes a rare kind of artist to deliver nostalgia that hits with pure, gratifying euphoria instead of derivative pastiche, and it just so happens that the powerhouse is made up of them. The jaggedly bouncy anthem is guaranteed to deliver pure dopamine to anyone who remembers when music was still on MTV and wearing skate shoes and black nail polish was enough to get you bullied.

The same sense of psychological precariousness rattles through the production that nestles into the lo-fi atmosphere of Y2K independent pop-punk protagonists, but there’s a sense of Machiavellian maturity within Sage in the way that it takes unfeigned rage and delivers anthemic energy you can pour your scorn into and get some sanctity through resonance back.

The Louisiana-hailing four-piece, formed of Gunnar Magnus, James King, Blaise Davison, and James Cook, has been leaving its mark on stages from packed-out bar gigs to high-profile slots supporting Jimmy Eat World and Craig Owens of Chiodos. They’ve created a name for themselves as alt renegades with a tight live set, an ear for infectious melodies, and a refusal to let the golden age of alternative fade without a fresh kickback, and it’s going to leave an indelible mark.

Sage is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.

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

Leannán Sídhe by Ava Brogan Unleashed Hyper-Ethereal Electricity into the Forests of Folktronica 

Posted on 3 August 2025

Ava Brogan proved that if no one’s claimed the hyper-folk crown yet, it’s hers to wear and wield. With her seminal single Leannán Sídhe (just can’t stay away), she tugged at the veil between ancient Ireland and the modern electronic undercurrent and flooded the senses with glimmering ethereal intensity.

There’s an avant-garde obscurity to the release, but it doesn’t push listeners away; it lures them in with a mystifying pulse that dances between psychedelic playfulness and primal sensuality. Brogan never tried to cage her authenticity for palatability. The chaotic energy is potent, but never unruly, as the track shapeshifts through whimsical electronica, traditional harping, and guttural bass, swaddled in a sonic femininity so vivid you can almost feel it glitter on your skin.

With roots grounded in Irish tradition, shaped by her upbringing performing in Ceili bands and Grupa Ceoil’s, Brogan’s current sound is drenched in the spirit of Tír na nÓg and charged with the queerness of a new generation. The influence of Kate Bush, Britney Spears, and Caroline Polachek doesn’t eclipse her voice, it simply feeds the undercurrent of audacity that surges beneath her spellbinding production.

Leannán Sídhe (just can’t stay away is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Clay Goodman Injected Alt-90s Nostalgia with Hook-Heavy Shoegaze Swagger in Such Fun

Posted on 1 August 2025
Clay Goodman

Alt-90s nostalgia oscillates through Such Fun, the seminal hit from Clay Goodman, who brought hooky euphoria to dazed and reverb-drenched shoegaze guitars by intersecting the ethereal chaos with bites of cross-Atlantic alt-indie. There’s a bit of 90s Britpop swagger nestled into the mix with the infectious appeal of Teenage Fanclub; it’s the kind of track you hear and think, why the fuck hasn’t this been done before?

Goodman can sleep easy at night knowing he’s eked innovation from some of the most revered alt-indie genres without reducing himself to pastiche. If tracks with any substance went viral, everyone would be humming the ascending harmonies in the chorus that sweeten the frenetic drums that intensify the definitive alt-90s anthem.

With the Grandaddy-esque synths that peek into the mix towards the outro, marked by the distortion of casting aside a guitar, Clay Goodman ticked every alt-indie box with Such Fun, which carries just the right amount of semi-sardonic flavour to seduce misers out of their gloom.

Raised on rock royalty and driven by an obsession with songwriting, the Virginia-based artist knew early on he was meant to soundtrack the disillusioned daydreams of listeners craving something real. With this track, he more than delivered.

Such Fun is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.


Review by Amelia Vandergast

AboveMe Turned Insomniac Confession into Turbulent Salvation with ‘Sleep Talk’

Posted on 14 July 2025
https://soundcloud.com/tombrunello

Anyone with an affinity for the cathartic chaos that only no-holds-barred alternative genre fusion can deliver will want to start gravitating around AboveMe with his seminal release, Sleep Talk, taken from the LP, Later Nights. The track opens as a future-forward glimpse of intimacy into AboveMe’s world and unravels into a saturated yet augmented lo-fi confession. Before you know it, the opening salvo disintegrates into a composition that claims the middle ground between Sleep Token, Muse, and Deftones, as AboveMe’s diaphanous vocals drift over a disquieting atmosphere that teeters on the brink before waves of bass-swathed dubstep disrupt any sense of quiescence. Harmonic breaks dart through cataclysmic bursts of alt-electronica, placing AboveMe as a serious contender for the title of 2025’s fiercest innovators.

Yet, none of the progressions within Sleep Talk feel like experimentalism for distinction’s sake. Every twist and turn in the track visualises the precariousness of a mind that refuses to slip out of frantic lucidity. What you get is pure passion, with every emotion bled into the sonic architecture, resulting in an alternative cut that sways between chilling, dark, and undeniably cathartic. This one’s a must for those who crave unfiltered expression, technical mastery, and the adrenaline spike that only genreless alt chaos can supply.

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

tongueshy Mapped the Agony of Existential FOMO on a Post-Punk Folk Frequency in ‘Come Along’

Posted on 19 June 2025
tongueshy

If Debbie Harry took her vocal talent on a sojourn to folk-rock territory and tinged the tonal atmosphere with the chill of 80s post-punk, it would result in a soundscape as phenomenally original as Come Along, by tongueshy which sets the bar for how much life can be poured into sound.

While there’s some brashy discord in the mix and a frenetic folk pulse joined by searing angular guitar lines, Come Along still paradoxically instantly feels like a consoling home as you listen to tongueshy pour out her rejection angst into the release, which is by far the most authentic sonic signature that I’ve seen scribed across the airwaves this year.

tongueshy is the solo vehicle for Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jazeen Hollings, who layered the track from the ground up with rhythm guitar, synth, bass, lead, and vocals. While her studio work delivers raw lo-fi urgency, her live sets are stripped bare. Just her, an acoustic guitar, and whatever she needs to get off her chest. Her commitment to confronting heartbreak and self-discovery with sardonic transparency folds into her sound as tightly as the heartbreak that birthed the project. After a break-up, a cross-country move, and a crash landing back in her childhood bedroom, Come Along didn’t arrive—it demanded to exist.

If you get the opportunity to see her in an intimate space, consider yourself blessed. With her ability to speak beyond her lyricism and lock straight into the soul, she’s a diamond in the rough.

Come Along is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via the artist’s website. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trust is a loaded gun in Jasno’s Midwest rap-rock requiem Cowboy

Posted on 15 June 2025

Jasno turned venom into catharsis in their latest single, Cowboy, a snarling dissection of the serpentine personas that smile while twisting the knife. By drawing from the sharpened theatricality of emo’s former front runners and strapping Midwest motifs to experimental bursts of rap-tinged alt-rock, the Michigan-based outfit brought new dimensions of ferocity to the subgenre. With lyrics that gnash and compositions that shapeshift across cinematic symphonics and raw rhythmic catharsis, Cowboy is the kind of track that leaves scars worth showing.

From the offset, the volatility floods in, but never at the expense of finesse; it’s all part of the sonic storm Jasno conjure with precision and intention. The spacey synth lines arc like spacecraft across scorched landscapes, while the vocals hit like a threat and a prophecy rolled into one. The band’s full commitment to pushing genre boundaries is writ large in their sonic DNA, but Cowboy hits differently. It’s a revenge anthem for anyone who’s ever had their trust mocked and their kindness misread as weakness.

From the unforgiving lyrics to the skyscraping delivery of the crescendo, Jasno went beyond proving their ability to command any stage. With two full-length albums and three EPs already under their belts, the DIY trio are known for dominating any line-up they’re thrown into, regardless of genre. Now deep into production for their third album, Jasno’s upward motion looks less like a climb and more like combustion.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast