Modern Guilt

Modern Guilt are a five-piece band based in Camden but with roots in Scotland, Sweden, London and the South Coast. They’re made up of Jaz (lead vocals/guitar), Andreas (guitars/backing vocals/keys), Scott (drums/backing vocals/percussion), Mikey (guitars/producer), and Marc (bass)

*banner image credit: Keith Duffy

The single launch for You Know You Are back in May sold out at Paper Dress Vintage in London. Let’s check it out:

You Know Who You Are

The effortless cool of The Strokes is forged alongside the playfulness of Supergrass. From Jagger to Coombes to Casablancas (The Strokes), frontman Jaz Struts with a self-assuredness and the kind of care-free abandon that made the aforementioned instant stars in bygone times.  

Counterproducts

Counterproducts are a five-piece band hailing from Goole in Yorkshire. They consist of Josh (vocals), Milo (lead guitar), Lilli (rhythm guitar with backing vocals), Sonia, and Evan.

Still just teenagers, they have only released two singles. Let’s check them out:

Battleships

Frontman Josh reaches into Wunderhorse’s soul and rips out a sublime vocal. The kind that hammers away at the heartstrings until they bleed!

Pushing rock music forward are Milo’s beastly riffs that howl into the ether desperate for a place to fit in and soon, they shall!

Lilli’s vocals are less a backing accompaniemtn and more duel to Josh’s lead. With Charlotte Cooper’s (The Subways) spirit in her heart, she deploys a joyously antongnistic counter to Josh’s penchant for the heartfelt.

Running Down the Clock

As if ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ was reimagined by a supergroup of Wunderhorse, Foo Fighters, and Thin Lizzy. Grit, groove, and glorious chaos.

Raw, primal, and animalistic, Rock music has found its newest icons!

ALCHMEY

ALCHMEY are a five-piece from Derbyshire made up of brothers Peter (Lead singer) and Phil (Bass), Ollie (Guitar), Tom (Guitar) and Brad (Drums).

*image credits: Crossfield Content.

Let’s check them out:

Euphoria

The rolling hills of Kula Shaker and Paul Draper-esque (Mansun) vocals ooze their way to hearts and minds before sharp, snappy vocals cut through.

From the expansive to the immediate, ALCHMEY take chances and moulds the disparate together.

What We Made It For

What begins as sombre, melts away to indie lullaby status come the chorus. The seeds of something big that can unite big crowds have been sewn.

The Daltons

The Daltons are a four-piece from Yorkshire. They’re made up of Lucas Lorrimer (guitar & vocals), Alfie Hedges (guitar & vocals), Jamie Edwards (drums), and Charlie O’Brien (bass).

*banner image credit: Mike Hamp (Mike’s Photography__)

Let’s check them out.

Lazy People Seek Comfort (Prospect Studios Rehearsal)

The sound of wayward souls finding purpose through rock ’n’ roll. There's a warming brutality to their jagged edges. The kind that will stop you looking to the past!

Raw, unadulterated, and unchained, the Daltons have arrived!

The Daltons · Lazy people Seek Comfort (Prospect Studios Rehearsal)

Jagged edges cut through the noise, raw and unpolished, just the way truth should sound. Then comes the solo — wild, unchained, burning with the kind of intensity that could set the night on fire.

Fly Off The Handle (Prospect Studios Rehearsal)

The echoes of the greats loiter but never loom. The Daltons have found a way to nudge rock ‘n’ roll’s wheel forwards and create majestic havoc!

The Daltons · Fly Off The Handle (Prospect Studios Rehersal)

Whiskey Promise

Exhilarating rock ‘n’ roll! Death or Glory. Do or Die. Live Forever. This is the sound of a band catching fire!

The Daltons · Whisky Promise (Live - Leeds)

Daydreamers

Daydreamers are a four-piece from London. They’re made up of Riley (vocalist), Aurora (bass), Jay (drums), and Marco (guitar).

To date, they have toured with Sea Girls and have graced festival stages at The Great Escape, Latitude, TRNSMT, and Reading & Leeds.

Let’s see what they have been up to:

We Don’t Need to Do Forever

The crisp pop sensibilities of Blossoms combine with the early 10s indie of Bombay Bicycle Club and latter-day Courteeners to create a lush counterpoint to the current guitar scene.

This is sure to cut through!

Good Intentions

A master class in lo-fi reflective indie. Pulling on heartstrings, offering hope through examining the past, it’s what indie guitars were born to do!

Call Me Up

A runaway success on Spotify! With over 13 million streams, it’s easy to see why. Slick basslines and ethereal guitars are destined to soundtrack summers forevermore.

Red Light Camera

Red Light Camera are a four-piece band hailing from Birmingham.

*banner image courtesy of This Feeling

Earlier this year they played the Isle of Wight Festival and are set to headline Dead Wax in their home city on the 25th October.

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Heartbreak Girl

Boisterous jingle-jangle guitars and infectious vocals unite on this free and easy indie single. The angelic side of Dodgy links arms with the frivolity of The Lathums on this infectious gem.

Round the Corner

The indie-funk of The Clause, the immediacy of Franz Ferdinand, and the spirit of ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ combine before the guitars erupt to a chaotic climax.

Click the image below for tickets to the Dead Wax show:

shortstraw.

Hailing from Coventry shortstraw. are led by punk-poet Erin West. Championed by Hak Baker, they’ve already supported The Libertines and Soft Play.

Let’s check them out:

Dot Cotton

Sound the alarm, punk, grime, and nu-rave unite on this guttural anthem. Small in stature, massive in cultural capital, shortstraw. have delivered a vicious reset to the alternative music scene.

Sods Law

The rousing rumble of Jamie T  and the undercurrents of Dan le Sac vs Scroobious Pip are lit up by West’s vocal. It may lack the heavyweight sonic of ‘Dot Cotton’, but it’s drowning in bullish resilience to keep it interesting.

Sodden Pelt

Sodden Pelt are a London based five-piece consisting of Paddy Hornby (guitar/ lead vocals), Matt Broadbent (guitar), Mike Hinchcliffe (bass), Miranda Gray-Aragoneses (violin), and Tom Griffiths (drums).

*banner image credit: Spela

image credit: Spela

What began as Hornby’s solo project during the pandemic quickly evolved into a full band. Within a year, they were regularly rehearsing at their shared home in Lewisham.

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Honey For A Doctor

They’ve taken past several years of post-punk and pummelled it through a prism of gutter-folk music to churn something new and beautifully disgusting.

Ragged and deranged, frontman Hornby evokes the spirit of Nick Cave, the purity of Pete Doherty, and the violence of Mark E Smith.

A Struggling Afternoon

Melodically far more fluid, but they manage so many twists and turns it could also be a mini folk-rock opera. Hornby’s vocal recalls the gothic mayhem of Faris Badwan (The Horrors) and the poetry of Nick Cave as the band takes you on a rapid-fire cinematic journey to the gates of despair.

Niall Logue

London-based singer-songwriter Niall Logue embarked on a solo career in 2025. Logue used to front the criminally underrated Lacuna Bloome in the ‘10s and lit up shows for us at the New Cross Inn and This Feeling at Nambucca.

image credit: Scot Hall

He has been working closely with Bess Atwell producer Michael Smith on his upcoming debut album ‘The Oh So Sonic Sound-Wave’.

Let’s see what he has been up to:

 From the Heart

Older and wiser, Logue professes “I don’t wanna turn back time” but his ability to turn a paisley guitar groove remains prominent.

Reflective, melancholic, and with the woozy spoken word of James Yorkston now infiltrating his songwriting, Logue’s new sound pulls from a much richer tapestry.

Out of Hand

Church organs lend this melody a joyous, soaringly righteous sonic. Logue serves up twists and turns a galore on this elegant moonlit slice of majesty.

Peace of Mind

Big in heart like Embrace but with the introspective precision of Andy Bell and the thoughtful nodes of Low.

Bendricks

Bendricks are a four-piece from Barry in Wales. They’re made up of Mitch Griggs (lead singer / rhythm guitar), Dom Griggs (lead guitar / backing vocals), Rhys Greening (bass), and Aaron Abraham (drums).

Formed just over a year ago, Bendricks began as a spark of inspiration from lead singer Mitch, whose passion for songwriting led him to recruit close friends. Greening was instructed to join the band and ask for a bass for Christmas despite having zero experience. It wasn’t until Mitch’s brother joined on lead guitar that band was fully realised. Now, where have we heard that dynamic before?

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Listerine

The early playfulness of Blur is injected with aggression on this firesome single. Hints of early Kasabian ooze through Mitch’s vocal whist Greening’s basslines groove to a place between the recent wave of post-punk and early 00s US indie.

Missile Talk

Mitch Griggs’ vocal cadence has found its feet here. From the poetic to the spiteful, Griggs wraps his distinct delivery around his brothers’ guitars with a unique guile.

Brother Dom’s skill set has also expanded. His solo on ‘Listerine’ was raw; now, it's intensely divine!

Laughter

Laughter are a five-piece from London. They’re made up of Frank (guitar), Lou (guitar), Mai (vocals), Marky (bass), Roddy (drums).

The band began when Frank and Lou started experimenting with Ableton, creating beats before transitioning into rock music and eventually forming the band.

Let’s see what we’ve been up to:

The Wheel

MBV meets Tame Impala on this mesmerising slice of shoegaze. Everytime they threaten to spin off into MBV’s crushing fog, Kevin Parker’s influence drags toward the light with Mai’s eloquent vocals.

The guitars from Lou and Frank in the closing stages bring the best of Black Keys to the equation, giving their rock-cum-shoegaze the magic ingredient.

Group Bonding

The leather-clad rebellion of BRMC locks horns the distorted visions of Working Mens Club as shades of light and dark collide.

Mai’s vocal seeps into the soul with the restorative and life-affirming charm of Miki Berenyi. Effortlessly graceful!

Slumber

Slumber is a band based in East London. Alex (also known as Standish – vocals), Luke Whorriskey (guitar), Isabella Eggen (synths), Bailey Heslop (guitars), Pip Russon (bass), and Sam Meredith (drums) met after attending gigs and realised their shared sense of isolation and unique optimism could lead to better things.  

*image courtesy of the band

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Days Like These

What Wunderhorse started, Slumber look set to catapult further. Graceful pop instincts, chaotic dirge-ridden guitars and teenage angst lyrics catch fire on this divine outsider anthem.

1993

Whorriskey, Heslop, and Egan serve up distorted guitars and warped keys, allowing Alex’s Tony Wright-esque (Terrorvision) vocal to give them their most radio-friendly single to date.

Julian Casablancas (I Wanna Rock a Pair Like)

A joyous ode to a time when bands rocked skinny jeans and converse with a fag in one hand and a red strip in the other!

Their lo-fi garage-cum-indie rock has the carefree abandon that can only come from youth and tight friendships. Loose, knowing, and freeing, they seem to be on to a sure thing!

The Sophs

The Sophs are a six-piece from LA made up of Ethan Ramon (vocals), Sam Yuh (keyboards), Austin Parker Jones (electric guitar), Seth Smades (acoustic guitar), Devin Russ (drums), and Cole Bobbitt (bass).

They recently signed to Rough Trade Records, having been personally courted by Geoff Travis himself.

*banner image credit: Eric Daniels

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Sweat

The lo-fi indie of Grandaddy and Electric Soft Parade’s debut ‘Holes in the Wall’ trips along, joyously aimlessly, until the explosive rage-fuelled climax.

Death in the Family

Tinged with EMO and Grunge, they lean into the melodic howls of Weezer. Parker-Jones’ guitars shed the lyrical pain with almost euphoric blasts.

For The First Time

Their most urgent song. The guitars flitter from the innocence of The Libertines to the wayward souls of Pavement, but it is frontman Ramon’s vocals that steal the show. Bedding in between Hull’s Matt Edible and Seafood’s David Line. His raw but poetic delivery strikes a powerful coming of age tone with which to legions of fans will soon go into battle for!

 Click the image to buy the hit debut novel from Wrestletalk’s Oli Davis.

Lydons

Lydons formed in Midlands in 2023 and consist of Finlee, Liam, Dyan, Joshua, and Sonny.

They’ve been championed by John Kennedy and members of Wunderhorse, and were recently supported by Pastel in Birmingham.

Let’s check out the debut single produced by the legendary Gavin Monaghan (The Twang / MOSES / Rosa Caelum) at the Magic Garden Studio in Wolverhampton.

Tongue

A guttural beast of a single! The brutal vocals range from gut-wrenching howls to intense spoken words; both are blessed with the essence of ‘4 Real’ that most bands profess but lack.

The gothic tinges of the guitar lines cut through the angst-ridden fog with an adroitness of touch that’s way beyond their fledgling status.

Masi Masi

Masi Masi is a Bradford-based solo artist. On his latest single ‘The Rain’, he was joined by James Kirk on drums and Adrian Padilla on guitars and producer duties.

*image courtesy of CDP Radio PR

Last month, he took the Isle of Wight Festival by storm on the This Feeling stage and is set to do the same at this month's Beat-Herder Festival.

Let’s see what he has been up to:

The Rain

Brooding with attitude, they take indie classicism down a warped path fraught with danger and eerie encounters.

She’s Trouble

Lo-fi but luscious. introspective but welcoming. The dual vocals intertwining themselves as one with the ease of the first throes of falling in love with the the one.

Marketplace

Marketplace are a five-piece band from Hartlepool. They’re made up of Evie Rhodes (vocals/guitar), Joel O’Beirne (vocals/bass), Jack Purcell (guitar), Matthew Short (synth/vocals), and Ross Dixon (drums).

*Photo Credit Rob Irish

In May, they completed a UK tour which included The Great Escape festival and in July, they made their way to Y Not Festival.

Let’s see what they have been up to:,

Gooey Eyes

The lush sun-kissed indie joy of Camera Obscura is given an injection of urgency to conjure a sound worthy of everyone's attention this summer!

Ethereal guitars chime alongside Rhodes’ heart-crushing vocals to announce Marketplace as indie-pop's next stars.

Contact Sports

Taken from the same EP as ‘Gooey Sports’, this offering soars like Desperate Journalist and tumbles like Fightmilk, but instead of punk and gothic-tinged guitars, they use joyous pop.

Standard Sound Project

The former Institute's frontman and melody maker, Reid Currie, is back with his new band Standard Sound Project. The band are based in Coventry and consists of Reid (vocals & guitar), Ryan (guitars), Danny (bass), and Ben (drums).

*banner image courtesy of the band

They’ve supported The Rifles and Marseille in their short time together, so let's check them out:

Demon Mind

As urgent a guitar record as you’ll hear in 2025. Reid Currie’s vocals are blessed with great drama; he allows the weight of the world to come crashing down before his and Ryan’s guitars begin to fight back.

The solo, a mammoth release of emotion, pulls from the forlorn intoxication of War on Drugs and the ecstatic defiance of All The Young.

Forever Now

Their debut single was a natural bridge from Currie’s work with The Institutes. Big breezy vocals search for euphoria whilst the guitars kiss the sun. Tinges of Blossoms’ pop sensibilities infiltrate their expansive sound, providing a joyous clash of styles.

An Gof

An Gof are a four-piece from the Cornish town of Penzance. They’re made up of Jamie (drums), Rave (bass), Joe (guitar/words), and Jack (words/guitar).

*image credit: Iris Tanner

With punk's DIY ethos coursing through their veins, this band boasts, without question, the best Spotify bio out there.

Let’s see what they have been up to:

Heath/Cliff

The thudding basslines and stomping drums of Soft Play’s (Slaves) are contrasted with the melodic howls of Shame’s debut album. Playful yet bullish, punk blends with rock ‘n’ roll, as An Gof obliterate two seemingly separate scenes into one, theirs!

Hello, World!

Crying the Neck

The purity of Mick Jones’ Carbon/Silicon oozes from this stripped-back opening before they launch into a riotous affray. The haunting backing vocals signal a band yearning to be more than just another post-punk band. There’s a sense of destiny to An Gof’s musicality. The kind that knows it belongs on main stages.

Acetate

Acetate are a four-piece band from Leeds. They’re made up of Ryan Megson (vocals & lyrics), Oscar Bigger (guitars), Ethan Faulkner (bass), and Luke Burgess (drums).

*image credit: Char Bartle

Last week they released their new single ‘Know Best’ and b-side ‘Mine For The Take’, let’s check them out:

Known Best

A furious blast of raw uncompromising indie-punk indebted to power of the Arctic Monkeys debut album. ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ may loom large, it's Faulkner’s crunching basslines and Megson’s ability to take his vocal from venomous to wayward in a couplet that leaves the lasting impression.

Mine For The Take

A defiant struggle to break free from melancholy to euphoria. Megson’s vocal lands between Hutch Harris (The Thermals) and Jamie Boyle (The K’s) and carries you from the dark to light with a deftness way beyond his years.

Formal Sppeedwear

Formal Sppeedwear are a three-piece hailing from Stoke-on-Trent. They consist of Beck Clewlow (bass, vocals, & synthesisers), Charlie Ball (guitar & synthesisers), and Connor Wells (Drums, guitar, & synthesisers).

*image credit: Jacob Sweetmore. Courtesy of Melodic Records.

Let’s see what they have been up to:

A Dismount

The glory days of Yeasayer and Little Comets reimagined through the warped prism of Gary Numan.

Awkward and awry, but like MGMT, they make it cool af and something the mainstream is going yearn to be a part of sooner rather than later!

Bunto

Slick basslines build the foundation for Clewlow to unfurl a divine David Byrne-esque vocal. Meanwhile, Ball and Wells drums have a bowed muscularity, which makes Mick Ronson sound like he was in Devo.