20. Frank Futility - Parry
Frank Futility, the Nevada based band, followed-up their debut album Wicked Habits, Wasted Heart - which was released early 2025 - with Parry. The Reno four-piece, lead by Gina Hoang, pack a shy but sharp punch through dissonant textures and often hushed vocal performances. The dichotomy between sweet and sour is where the edge sits for Frank Futility.
The description of the project on the bands Bandcamp simply reads "guitar music".
19. I’m Sorry Emil
Emo, Screamo, every-o, London's ferocious up-and-comers I'm Sorry Emil set the stage for 2025 with their self-titled debut. Ever-changing. Direction yet to be set. Melting away like a bad mood; bursting into view like a ten-tonner full of battery acid.
The 'woooo''s at the end of the final track are lovely, triumphant. I'm Sorry Emil have arrived.
18. Fennesz - The Last Days of May
Simplicity will catch you off guard. I had a gorgeous time walking around Tynemouth/North Shields back in May(!!) with The Last Days of May as soundtrack. It felt like the world was breathing for me, through me.
It's pretty hard to find where to listen to this(at the time of writing this).
Via Fennesz Instagram, he had this to say: “Microtonality and the decay behavior of strings were important to me. The piece, conceived as a sound installation, is meant to blend into everyday soundscapes and occasionally stand out. However, it can also be listened to at full volume on headphones.”
17. Plusser - citrine
Philly three-piece Plusser released their debut EP citrine back in May. It's 13-minutes in length; bite-size, with plenty of bite. The fuzzy Indie Rock lane that it traverses emanates an unconcerned, slacker feel. Plusser see themselves out the way they came in and close the EP out on the projects lead single, "Old Car".
Check them out, watch them go!
16. No Peeling
Nottingham's No Peeling cast a quirky shadow with the sharp, short and sweet 8-minute treat that is the band's self-titled debut EP.
No Peeling's Bandcamp with relation to the project reads: "Quicksmart, pacey, short attention span throw-everything-at-the-wall-kaleidoscopic punkin spiels with slice of life extrapolations.
7 songs, 8 minutes, 154 ideas. An EP akin to the cheapskate's old canvas, painted over many times as new ears/limbs/ideas/paint/whatever come into the fold.
No messing about, no waiting around, No Peeling.
Pals do punk with klangs, thwacks, bloops, whoops and stories."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
15. Sunforger - Auspices
Montreal's Sunforger provide the shortest project on this list. At 7 minutes in length Auspices does a lot with a little. Sunforger's knack for jangle-filled sonics never fails to impress me.
Down-and-out, but never down and out, will 2026 be the year that the Sunforger camp put a full length out into the universe?
14. pencil - Bohemian Clutter
London five-piece Pencil released their debut project in May. Named after Herman Hesse's 'Steppenwolf', the project does indeed feel like a work of great care, just as a book feels worked over, and over. The Bohemian Clutter EP harbours a pastoral breeze, a slight but swift air. The instrumentals are nicely spaced; the vocals close and intimate. The six-track EP holds a lush, green space within it's tender hands.
13. Glixen - Quiet Pleasures
Hurling hoovers across the universe and sucking up the stars, Glixen's Quiet Pleasures nibbles on the source itself through cascading, cavernous guitars; sweet as sugar vocals and day-mare aesthetics.
Phoenix, Arizona's Glixen more than do the job on Quiet Pleasures.
12. Pebbledash - Four Portraits of the Same Ugly House
Cork six-piece Pebbledash made waves with their debut Four Portraits of the Same Ugly House - what a name. Elements of Folk, poetic leanings and rather large stabs of Shoegaze come together to mesh a caustic web across the project. It would be the first of two EP's during the year.
Corcaigh Abú.
11. thistle. - it’s nice to see you, stranger
Northampton’s thistle. more than impress on their debut project it's nice to see you, stranger. Shoegaze-y and ultimately hazey, thistle. brandish a slab of fizzy delights sure to resonate with the bittersweet fuzz inside your soul.
'Clouds turn grey, but I still think you're the prettiest.'
10. House Proud - Choices
The North East's answer to Post-Punk House Proud released their official debut via Sunderland's Serial Bowl Records. Relentless gigging in recent months, and years, has sharpened the four-piece into a force to be reckoned with. Choices is a testament to said unrelenting period.
'Sleepless nights, I guess that wasn't the plan.'
9. Cataratas en Siberia - Todas las Tardes que Nos Robó el Fuego
Todas las Tardes Que Nos Robó el Fuego is my introduction to Cararates en Siberia. Intricate guitarwork - Math-y. Incredible drumwork - lush-limbed. Often times shrieking, and often time sweet sounding vocals - the best of both. Heavily reminiscent of Deerhunter's "Cover Me(Slowly)", the intro - "Memento Mori" - alone is worth a spot on this list, and don't get me started on the beauty of the title track - it's a real moment.
8. Flooding - object 1
Kansas City three-piece Flooding return after two years away. Flooding have released two full-lengths since 2021, and now we have their first EP, object 1. At times slow-moving, at times rather fast-paced and at all-times heavily emotional, object 1 showcases Flooding within a four-track period. Balancing firmly on the seesaw of Hardcore/Slowcore, with Flooding it can feel like you're being pulled apart by mood and music.
7. Fuzz Lightyear - Zero Guilt
Leeds' Fuzz Lightyear made their debut via Nice Swan Recordings and lathered the music scene in Grungy gristle in the process. Frontman Ben Parry regards the project as "(the) last hurrah as a tried and true guitar band." What this means for the future of Fuzz Lightyear is up in the air, but also rather exciting.
Hopeful, I hear a sound...
6. Giant - El Bicep
Weird-up your world a little with Giant and their debut project El Bicep. 5 tracks in total; 8-minutes in length; off-the-cuff quirks and a range of industrially-splayed antics make El Bicep a must listen for those in search of something a little different; a little wired and wonderful.
Giant. Never small.
5. forty winks - Love Is a Dog From Hell
Pittsburgh's forty winks' blend of Shoegaze-y, noisy, caustic tones comes to fruition on the band's debut project Love is a Dog From Hell(liadfh). It's unforgiving Indie: sweet, but packs a snarky punch.
As per the band's Bandcamp page, here's a slither of information on the project: “Love is a Dog From Hell’ was inspired by the Charles Bukowski book of the same name. It details what it feels like to be a shoulder for someone who can’t give you the same support.”
Crafted Sounds strike gold, yet again.
4. Elm
Sure to clean out your psyche with a whirlwind of sandy delights, Elm whip up a batch of scathing tones on the bands debut project. There's a tenderness to these tracks; a sweet, shy, reserved energy amidst the cacophony of swirling distortion. The debut EP from Elm showcases cavernous, crushing, fuzzy, Grunge-y guitars that rise and dive in rollercoaster-like swirls. The project is packed with hazey, reminiscent riffs which sound as if your best days have passed you by; you hope that they haven't, but the answer is more than likely is cemented shut. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer.
With four tracks, nicely named "1", "2", "3" and "Four", Elm's future is as concise and clear as their ability to name said tracks - there's no time to fuck around.
3. Taurus Judge - A Thing Rolled Up
Yet another Philly export, Taurus Judge exist on the right side of wrong. Gripping the ungrippable, or at least as much as can be achieved - water through clenched fists. A carwreck you can't pull your ears away from, A Thing Rolled Up's wrangled energy will have your teeth curling at the stupidity of its existence - fucking fantastic.
2. punxsutawney - Untitled
Los Angeles' punxsutawney may have produced the best instrumental album of 2025 - and who knows, maybe of the Decade? Their sweeping streams of melancholic, mirage-like meanderings paint the most bittersweet of apocalypse dreams. The world of Post-Rock has a new face to it's frame.
Hope, somewhere in the distance, awaits you.
2026 is sure to be punxsutawney's year....
1. Stratford Rise
Belfast four-piece Stratford Rise released their debut project in May. It took a while to come around to, but anything that's worth it usually does. The time spent coming-around-to is usually the solidifying factor; the glue that holds you to the eventual love for the piece; the struggle which cracks you open to the bond between you and it.
The band have got their own influences, but they've also got their own quirks. The best of the best pull sights and sounds in their favour, absorb them, and then spill their guts for all to see.
I didn't know what to think, at first....