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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.

Tom Waits Meets Ricky Martin in THE Astrolabe’s pop mood elevator,  Lovers

Posted on 13 October 2024

THE Astrolabe became the superlative king of cosmic pop sex appeal with his latest single, Lovers. If you thought Ricky Martin’s Livin la vida loca was sonically seductive, brace yourself for the affectingly aphrodisiacal energy of Lovers, which alchemises Latino rhythms with Bowie-esque space dust and jazzy grooves, creating a genre-fluid tour de force that sweeps through the soul with maximum volition.

Following a prelude that nods to Kraftwerk, the Athens-hailing innovator’s vocals croon into the mix, allowing you to imagine how Waits’ discography would have unfolded if he was just as adept at wrapping his gruff timbres around pop hooks. In the choruses, the peerless singer-songwriter proves he’s equally comfortable in a more harmonic register as his vocal notes soar with the brass section.

We are officially obsessed with THE Astrolabe and his endlessly uplifting cultivated sound that goes beyond setting a tone; his ability to command your entire mood is second to none. For your own sake, get him on your radar.

Lovers started serenading the airwaves on October 3rd; get hot under the collar with it by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tariq.B entered the melodic rock pantheon with his single, You Keep My World Alight

Posted on 12 October 2024

Tariq.B joined Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell in the pantheon of rock evocateurs with his latest melodic rock emotional awakening, You Keep My World Alight, which will unearth feelings you didn’t know lingered in the sediment of your soul.

The song’s title cleverly underplays the vivid romanticism and raw pop-rock melodies that pulse at the heart of this panorama of raw, vulnerable passion which once and for all proves that romance isn’t dead in our era proliferated by strands of superficial connection.

You Keep My World Alight is an undeniable attestation to how the Pakistan-born, Southwest London-residing artist has mastered the art of acoustic sensitivity; every guitar chord hits a raw nerve as the progressions flow with cinematic sepia-tinged imagery and the warm glow of alt-90s tones.

Famed for his live performances across the UK, international airplay and plaudits from BBC Introducing, Tariq.B is well on his way to filling stadiums as wholly as he fuels souls with his sound. He’s a rare artist who instantly makes you feel at home in his honeyed and honed vocal timbre.

You Keep My World Alight is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Enter the Abyss: Michael Beirne’s Dark Folk Descent in The Doctor.

Posted on 11 October 2024

If you thought dark folk couldn’t get any darker, Michael Beirne’s seminal single, The Doctor., takes the listener to the genre’s most shadowed corridors. Taken from part 1 of his two-part LP The Haunted, The Doctor. is part of a larger chapter narrating an emergence from depressive, anxious, psychotic & sinful patterns of thought into hope & forgiveness.

Drawing inspiration from his Catholic faith, Beirne fuses religious iconography with motifs from avant-garde compositions which echo Glenn Branca, creating an eerily electrifying soundtrack to your darkest installations of introspection.

Vocally, Nick Cave meets Jim Jones to instil intensity around the pseudo-rap cadences which serve as dark sermons, resonating through the brooding production through which Michael Beirne cements himself as one of the most fearless figures in the contemporary alternative folk scene.

His ability to fuse experimental soundscapes with deeply personal themes, all while avoiding the genre’s clichés, shows just how much he’s evolved since his early days of experimentation.

The sombre tones may be all-consuming, but Beirne’s ability to make the descent into the abyss feel like a cathartic act of faith is nothing short of divine.  If this is what Beirne can accomplish while staring into the void, we can only imagine what’s next.

Stream The Haunted Album, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 in full on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Through the Wire: The Poetic Resonance of Mike Maurice’s ‘Telephone’

Posted on 11 October 2024

Mike Maurice’s latest single, ‘Telephone‘ intercepted the static of formulaic melodies by belying the minimalist instrumentalism with the profound euphony in the production. Nestled within the contours of indie folk and brushed with Americana hues, telephone orchestrates an ambient symphony where the instrumentals speak as profoundly as the lyrics.

Maurice’s skill in merging soul-stirring acoustic layers with his poignant narrative stitches together a sonic space where the deeply, almost shamefully, personal transmutes into the universally relatable.

telephone intertwines the melancholy of isolation with a lyrical richness that peaks with the confession, “I want the truth so bad I’d even lie.” This line alone encapsulates the dual nature of truth and deception, weaving them into the fabric of the affecting release, which was born through a collaboration between Mike Maurice and Danny Black of Good Old War and a pedal steel player from Gregory Alan Isakov’s ensemble.

From the rustic town of Biddeford, Maine, Mike Maurice has made a name for himself, coming out of the shadows of the John Mayer and Bon Iver comparisons. Maurice, alongside his seven-piece ensemble, continues to foster a sense of community at each performance, their collective sound reverberating through venues renowned and intimate alike.

Telephone will be available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube, from October 11th.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

MINERVA SYSTEM synthesised an installation of stylistic sublimity with their alt-rock/trip-hop hybrid, Undermind

Posted on 9 October 2024

MINERVA SYSTEM is a fractured yet symbiotically tight collective, threading their diverse life strands into the dense fabric of their latest single, ‘Undermind’. With members scattered from London to Devon, from St. Petersburg to the indeterminate coordinates of their drummer, the online outfit crafts sonic installations that are as expansive as their geographical spread.

‘Undermind’ is a descent into the ethereal, echoing the otherworldly aura of Bjork with an execution that plays havoc with rhythmic pulses. MINERVA SYSTEM manipulates time signatures with trip-hop precision while maintaining a mellifluous melodicism that binds the chaos into coherence. Discernibly, few artists know how to create equilibriums of sonic serenity and visceral intensity as adeptly as MINERVA SYSTEM with their skill in soaking sounds with raw emotion.

As the track progresses, it metamorphoses; midway, it shifts gears into a 90s-alt-rock-tinged crescendo that wouldn’t be amiss in a Garbage tracklist. This crescendo is a stark, gritty counterpoint to the track’s smoother beginnings, illustrating the band’s versatile command over their sound palette.

If they continue to produce hits in the same vein as Undermind, their rise from the underground is inevitable. They’ve clearly mastered the dark art of sonic scintilaltion; watch this space.

Stream Undermind on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Micah! is California dreaming in their latest alt indie pop release, STAY UP

Posted on 7 October 2024

You don’t need Micah!’s bio to tell you that they’re a Cali-residing artist, you can hear it in the dreamy warmth of the hazy melodies in their latest alt-indie-pop single, STAY UP, which teases nuances of hip-hop into the mix with sharp pseudo-rap cadences in the verses.

After honing their songwriting, recording and production skills for a decade, STAY UP is a catharsis-soaked culmination of all the time invested in their unflinching dedication to carve out a niche that listeners will want to nestle into time after time.

Fans of the deliciously delirious tonal palettes alchemised by NewDad, Jibba, Just Mustard and other contemporary indie icons in the same vein will find endless appeal in STAY UP, which is yet another attestation to Micah!’s potential that has already been actualised after the artist opened for Snoop Dogg and hit the 1 million stream mark on SoundCloud.

STAY UP was officially released on September 19; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kickstart your rhythmic pulses with Scott Cook’s alt-rock kaleidoscope of poetic innovation, The Author

Posted on 7 October 2024

With ‘The Author’, Montreal’s Scott Cook served an electrifying synthesis of gritty guitar riffs reminiscent of the Manic Street Preachers and the ethereal synth overlays akin to Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’. In the cacophony of the saturated with banality modern music scene, the single is a rare slice of accordance.

Cook’s voice, an instrument in its own right, weaves through the tight instrumental arrangement, anchoring and elevating the melodies with his poetic lyricality which is just as sharp as his guitar hooks in the track which filters the colour of psych pop-rock harmonics into the alchemic cocktail which invites you to lose yourself in its euphonic bliss.

The arrangement’s dynamism is palpable, with ebbs and flows that create eager anticipation for the next burst of momentum and the catharsis it bestows.

Scott Cook proves with ‘The Author’ that his musical evolution is not just ongoing but accelerating. Drawing on an eclectic palette that spans genres and eras, he reflects on contemporary life with a candour that Morrissey would struggle to match. If he released this hit in the 90s, he’d be at the top of the charts.

The Author was officially released on September 23rd, stream the single on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Atrionix painted a neon-lit skyline in his synthwave score, Nights

Posted on 5 October 2024

Sinking into Atrionix’s, standout single, Nights, is so much more than hitting play on an instrumental score; it is diving headfirst into a neon-drenched skyline after dusk.

Short, yet undeniably affecting, the retro-futurist single sets a high bar for anticipation of what’s next from the promising artist. With just over a minute of runtime, Atrionix, the stage name of 19-year-old Londoner Rahul Dasgupta, proves that brevity can indeed be the soul of wit—and of intrigue.

Nights sweeps you up in a rush of synth waves, echoing the energy of a city that never sleeps, each note painting streaks of light across the dark canvas of the listener’s imagination.

After earning his stripes as a pianist, violinist and guitarist at a young age, Rahul had naturally progressed into electronic production by 12; his creative ambitions and passion for sound palettes have never faltered. With his sights now set on becoming a hitmaker and his production style as honed as Empathy Test’s, his career path is going to be paved in gold.

Don’t mistake Nights as a short and sweet instrumental, recognise it as a bold statement of what’s to come from one of the most promising up-and-coming artists on the scene today.

Stream Nights on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Al Coffey became sad boy synth-pop royalty with his latest single, I Get Sad

Posted on 4 October 2024

The UK’s most evocative icon of queer sad boy synth-pop, Al Coffey, overloaded the airwaves with mesmeric melancholy with his latest single, I Get Sad. Each vocal note reverberantly hums as it drips honey over the nostalgia-soaked synth hooks that take you back to the 80s via a route never taken.

Imagine the chord progressions of Nick Cave fused with a Chris Isaak-esque atmosphere lit up by the neon lights of The Midnight and The Weeknd, and you’ll be close to getting an idea of how much of a sanctuary I Get Sad delivers as it runs through the reprise, ‘I get sad and you’re the reason why”.

Just as sharp as Josh Savage’s hits, I Get Sad is the ultimate attestation to Al Coffey’s ability to paint striking vignettes with his synth strokes. With his mission to make 2024 his breakthrough year, now is the time to transplant the affecting ingenuity of Al Coffey on your radar. Following the release of I Get Sad, there are teasings of live performances and more hits in the pipeline.

Stream I Get Sad on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The renegades of shoegaze revolution, interail, emerged as an unreckonable outfit in their debut single, red

Posted on 3 October 2024

With their debut single, red, the independent alt-rock outfit interail went beyond dropping the first track in their repertoire. The Northwest UK-hailing four-piece collective established themselves as the renegades of rock’s impending revolution, impending under their juggernautical volution.

Undercurrents of grungy shoegaze permeate the artfully chaotic tour de force, guaranteeing that getting swept up in the tides of red is non-optional as piercingly tumultuous percussion punctuates the laments of the distorted guitars beneath the vox, which oscillate between emulating everyone from Julian Casablancas to Thom Yorke to Orlando Weeks before heightening the evocative sting of the unique inflexions as the track gears towards its viscerally intense hardcore-tinged outro.

Not one moment of red allows you to feel comfortable within the progressions; the dynamic chameleon shifts in pace and tone are enough to leave your nerves frayed and your rhythmic pulses in knots.

The bar couldn’t have been set higher with their debut track; if you’re sick of assimilation-driven shoegaze, prepare to be adrenalised by the walls of sound in red.

Stream red on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast