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Indie Punk

ANIMAL FEARS delivered philosophy through aural brutality in their noise punk juggernaut, Here Fear

Posted on 20 December 2025

ANIMAL FEARS come out swinging on Here Fear, a single that treats anxiety as something physical, something you can feel scrape along your ribs. The Berlin-based band take the philosophical idea that we’re all beasts with burden, and they snarl straight through it. The track drags existential dread from the shared subconscious and sets it loose inside a synthesis of indie, noise, no-wave and post-punk that feels confrontational, and fiercely awake.

Here Fear moves with immersive theatrics that pull you into its strange little world fast. The absurdist stomp recalls Green Jello’s unhinged spirit, while the sheer physical drive mirrors the primal force of Oh Sees and the frostbitten tension of post-punk’s avant-garde edge. ANIMAL FEARS channel that energy into razor-sharp strokes of sound, stacking heavy-as-a-juggernaut’s-fist instrumentation into a clattering surge of intent. The noise feels purposeful, almost visual, like something rattling behind the eyes rather than blasting from a stage.

What makes the track hit harder lies in its emotional clarity. The band convert unease into motion, letting dissonance tip into release and vulnerability howl rather than whisper. Vocals cut through with a raw urgency, circling themes of alienation, pressure, and modern anxiety without softening the impact. There’s momentum, a sense of shared conviction, and a live-wire unpredictability that speaks to an underground mindset built on tension and atmosphere rather than neat resolution.

Here Fear is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Riot Grrrl met biblical disobedience in Ammonite’s fuzz-drenched Sidewinder

Posted on 4 November 2025
Ammonite

Ammonite deserve to sit in the annals of Riot Grrrl history alongside L7, Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill as they shape the future of the sonic movement after the drop of their electrified with scuzzy visceral angst single, Sidewinder. With a few Sleater-Kinney-esque harmonies thrown into the rancorous assault for good measure and a solo that proves few bands can show as much mettle as Ammonite, Sidewinderis an anthem of pure, adrenalised volition. It drags you into the momentum instead of pulling you along with it; there’s no going through the motions here, just a hellbent mission to deliver catharsis through a culturally eclectic tableau that demands you throw your inhibitions to the wayside to make room for the manifestations of authentic, unapologetic desire.

The lyricism cuts through reverberant distortion with poetic defiance as the hook “shake that troubled tree” refrains like a ritual incantation, while the desire coiled in the final verses arrives untamed and vital. I can’t name one other band which can turn desire into a riot and build a temple out of distortion.

Drawing on imagery from William Blake and biblical mythology to throw off the mantle of forbidden love, Sidewinder vibrates with natural joy while climbing out of shame’s shadow. Ammonite recorded the single in their home studio Chimney Hawk Studios, with Selena Benally behind the board and on guitar and bass, Erin Frisby writing and leading vocals, and Alyson Cina percussively igniting the track.

Sidewinder is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Passenger to Tamworth soundtracked the absurdity of aggression with the alt-punk protest, ‘Rockets Over Russia’

Posted on 3 November 2025

Passenger to Tamworth let the snark of alt-punk sink its teeth in with Rockets Over Russia. Dissections of geopolitical absurdity blaze past at a frenetically dizzying pace, matching the speed at which the next atrocity gets buried beneath the last. Between the commentary on twisted warmongering trajectories and the confrontational rhythmic pace, the track’s spoken word punk laureate flings himself into a new cerebral arena of protest music with a bass-driven roar.

Through a raw refusal to sanitise outrage, Rockets Over Russia delivers nihilistic clarity via chaotic satire, though it never leans into self-indulgence. The production is purposefully stripped, giving the wryly observed lyricism room to land and sting. There’s a flash of The Stranglers in the rubble-strewn noise, but Passenger to Tamworth carries it closer to home for fans of Fontaines D.C. and Kneecap who crave something that cuts a bit closer to the bone. It’s music that confronts the war machine while acknowledging the exhaustion of shouting into a void.

The single arrives as part of the debut EP, The Fates Lead Him Who Will… The Unwilling They Drag, released via One Fat Dog Records. Across five snark-heavy tracks — including Constantinople, Straight Bar, Cans and No Opera in the Cayman Islands — Passenger to Tamworth plays high-functioning cynic, lobbing irony-laced truth bombs that invite you to laugh, rage, or neck another can just to cope. After years of protest punk losing its edge to polish, this hits like a battered amp plugged back into a purpose.

Rockets Over Russia is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The JB Project Delivered a Garage Blues Rock Meditation on the Lack of Salvation in Consumerism with ‘Consumption’

Posted on 22 September 2025

As far as expositions on capitalistic consumerism go, few feel as affecting as the vintage-timbred, harbingering grooves in The JB Project’s latest single, Consumption. With lo-fi indie punk aesthetics lending a languid weight to the lament and garage blues licks adding the depth of decades, the track mourns how people have become so blind they only see the glow of adverts, chasing idealised selves they’ll never reach because consumerism only ever feeds the architects of material fantasy.

Within the six-minute track, which takes the free-flowing form of an impassioned jam session, razor-sharp songwriting cuts through the haze and hands you a moment to reflect. You’re invited to sink into the slow-burning rhythms and, for a moment, snap out of the trappings of vapid luxury.

JB’s path to this point was anything but straightforward; after earning his degree in contemporary, urban and popular music at Columbia College Chicago, he turned away from fractured bands and endless creative compromises. Teaching himself guitar, recording, and production, he now creates music that rejects rigid structures, allowing emotion to lead. Each track is a personal invocation, recorded with enough truth and soul to move listeners on a deeper level.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Runaway Child Gave Nostalgic Pop Punk its Cathartic Bite Back in Breaking Up Everything

Posted on 25 August 2025

Runaway Child hit the nostalgic pop punk ground running with their debut hit Breaking Up Everything. With a little more visceral conviction and gnarled guitar distortion than you’d find in a 00s emo playlist, Breaking Up Everything reels you in with its razor-sharp hooks and refuses to let your attention slip as you roll with the punches of cathartic destruction.

As an anthemic declaration of how Runaway Child has exactly what it takes to break the mould, shatter expectation and revive a scene still crying out for fresh hits of vindication, the track is a baptism of fire and fury. The snarling hooksy set new foundations with pit-worthy bounce that was designed for sweat-soaked floors and collective release.

Formed in 2024 by long-time friends Robbie James and Dan Rhys, Runaway Child built their ethos on friendship, chaos and choruses that demand to be shouted back. Their debut EP explores fractured identity and the turbulence of coming of age through three explosive tracks, tied together by a tattered bear painted in symbolic colours. But Breaking Up Everything was the ultimate inaugural introduction to an outfit intent on dragging alt-rock into a new storm.

Breaking Up Everything is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 


Review by Amelia Vandergast

Boy by As Rome Burns: A Defiant Punk-Laden Anthem Against Patriarchal Poison

Posted on 22 January 2025

While punk, as a concept, is becoming increasingly harder to define, there’s no denying that it runs thick in the veins of the debut single, Boy, from the London-based sharp-witted antagonists, As Rome Burns.

With an unmistakable cerebral echo of The Fall drifting around the crunched chords that pulsate feverish energy into the anthemic melting pot of punk, grunge and indie, the protestive exposition of patriarchal violence and how it poisons the well of modernity knows exactly what trigger points to press and hits them hard enough to bruise.

If you could imagine what the Offspring would sound like if Mark E Smith, Rage Against the Machine and IDLES had some creative input, you’ll come close to getting an idea of what As Rome Burns delivered with their explosively authentic first foray onto the airwaves.

Boy is so much more than a mash of influence and contrasting genres; the inaugural release became a conduit of the artist’s ethos to throw progressive punches and stand against the threat of societal regression while allowing their raw originated sound to ramp up the visceralism of the socially conscious messaging.

Stream the debut single from As Rome Burns on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Flying Hearts reached the epitome of affecting with their acoustic punk outpour of grief, Bury Me in England

Posted on 9 November 2024
Flying Hearts

The UK duo Flying Hearts reached the epitome of affecting with their acoustic punk single, Bury Me in England, which puts Frank Turner to shame when it comes to rendering visceralism into an acoustically accompanied narrative.

The tenderness of the indie-tinged melodies juxtaposes the urgency within the vocal delivery, which mourns the loss of singer-songwriter Joe Wenman’s best friend. There are few greater tragedies than a life lost too soon, and that rings deafeningly true through this fitting tribute to the connection shared. The elucidation of the pain that’s left behind will resonate with everyone who knows how it feels to be left with everything-wrenching emotion and find themselves at a loss with how to contend with it.

With lyricism which pierces the psyche with an exposition on the fragility of life and everything we can so easily take for granted and Flying Hearts acting as a beacon for the disenfranchised, the duo will undoubtedly break major ground with this release given the disillusionment-imparting times we are all enduring in our own way.

Bury Me in England was officially released on November 8th and is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via Flying Hearts’ official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lewis Shepperd primed the masses for a clash against the classes with ‘Council Estate Reject’

Posted on 5 July 2024
Lewis Shepperd

Lewis Shepperd is set to viva la revolutionise the airwaves with his latest single, Council Estate Reject; whichever way the UK election swings on the day of the release, the scathed synthesis of indie, punk, rock, and Britpop will prime the masses for a long overdue revolt against the elite classes. Instead of placing faith in populist politicians and the façade of democracy, tune into this scintillating sonic insurrection.

The hypercharged punk pulse fed through the propulsive basslines and antagonised tempo of the percussion sends sparks of kinetic energy through the frenetic release which captures the collective sense of ennui, fires shots at the mindless monarchists, and evokes an insurgent riot. The three-minute liberation from the dystopia of our age is a sanctuary of electrifying escapism away from the misery that breathes down the neck of the working class.

So, if you miss when John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ was fiction and the media didn’t solely serve to sink us into subordination, find the ultimate outlet in Council Estate Reject. The embodiment of the punk ethos filtered through an indie rock lens with croons far more seductive than Johnny Rotten was ever capable of, delivers a high-octane shot of vindication which amplifies in potency when the guitar solo slashes through the palpitatingly sweet production.

Council Estate Reject will be available to stream on all major platforms from July 5th; stream it via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Diablofurs’ Vampires of Rome will sink its teeth into the heart of any power pop fans.

Posted on 21 October 2023

Imagine Sonic Youth came to fame on this side of the Atlantic, they displaced their distorted guitars with analogue synths, and punky power pop ran in the veins of Goo, and you will get an idea of what Diablofurs consummately concocted with the lead single, Vampires of Rome, from their forthcoming album, Welcome to the City of Fun.

The deeply affecting atmosphere in the verses of Vampires of Rome, which holds an alchemic candle to Echo and the Bunnymen, makes the crescendos even more sonically transcendent to experience. While just about anything with a hook gets labelled as an earworm in these lazy days of music journalism, the infectious appeal of Vampires of Rome is far too intoxicating to experience once. From the first shoegazey rings of euphonic bliss from the guitars in the intro to the Teenage Kicks-y energy when the track reaches its momentum, the nostalgic sense of fabled romanticism will sucker diehard romantics and those whose souls haven’t been stirred viscerally since the 80s.

After receiving critical acclaim from Vive Le Rock, being lauded and spun by 6 Music and BBC Introducing and performing unforgettable shows at Rebellion, the Nottingham-based outfit is set to take the scene by storm with their sophomore release.

Pre-order the sophomore LP, which is due for official release on October 27, from Rough Trade and ensure it sells out as fast as the debut album.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hybridic indie punks Junior Bill painted an anthemic picture of injustice with ‘Boys from Jungle’

Posted on 4 February 2023

With socially conscious lyrics as hard-hitting as the ones penned by Bob Vylan, Kid Kapichi, Meryl Streek, Junior Bill are way ahead of the trend of cuttingly observational and compassionate lyricism in their latest single, Boys from Jungle. Punk boomers who bemoan the wokeness of contemporary punk may want to save their blood pressure spiking by looking away from the hit that advocates the rights of asylum seekers and paints a stark picture of the injustice that greets them when they arrive on our blighted shores.

Rather than skating by on their lyrical wit alone, Junior Bill concocts awakeningly volatile alt-indie instrumental ensembles that are lightyears away from the usually brashy swagger of UK indie rock. With off-kilter guitars that wouldn’t be out of place in the alt-90s no-wave movement and the post-punk nuances tearing through the rhythm section, getting wrapped up in the hybridic punk aesthetic is non-optional.

Boys from the Jungle is the first single from their forthcoming debut album, Youth Club!, which more than has the potential to become the UK alternative album of the year.

Boys from Jungle officially released on January 27th. It is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast