thistle. - backflip EP

REX RECS

Northampton-via-Manchester's thistle. - no caps when you spell the band's name -  made moves in 2025 with the release of their it's nice to see you, stranger EP. Just under a year removed, and now under REX RECS, we're yet again blessed with the three-piece's newest efforts, the backflip EP. It was produced, recorded and mixed - outside of "tied" - by Macks Faulkron at REX Studios. thistle. is Cameron Godrey (guitar/lead vocals), Carey Judwyn Rushton (bass/vocals), Lewis O’Grady (drums). I caught them during Independent Venue Week in Newcastle back in late January. Fiery and fierce is the best way to describe it - you can read my review of the gig here.

backflip opens with "pieces", maybe the most catchy single released in the projects run-up. That synth-y bit during the chorus moves the soul in ways which words can only hope to. It taps into this monumental shift; this heart-string thing - stretching time-and-space and embellishing it with a heavily sentimental sprinkling of haze. A sullen-sprite leads the charge.

'Pull me apart and piece me together
Make me the perfect kind of person
Don't turn around'

Firmly within the realm of Noisy Indie Rock, thistle.'s sound exists just on the outskirts of Shoegaze; they dip their toes in, but never fully submerse themselves. The abrasiveness is there alright, but it's a facet rather than a means.

'The light in your eye makes me nervous'

The hurt in your voice makes me crumble. The scars on your flesh makes me wonder.

thistle. are a great combo of brain and brawn; might and light. Caustic dirges. Pits of ashy filth. Dusty air and elsewhere mental spaces.

Speaking on the project, thistle. had this to say:
"We came to write this EP in a strikingly opposite headspace, at least. It was more like, how do we start again from scratch? We know less than ever about what we want to make and how do we do it? We invited new forms, writing practices, production styles, and we’ve ended up with something more idiosyncratic than our prior release. That being said, it’s more holistic. It holds more than just our worst feelings."

"backflip in slow motion" is the 47-second breeze to reset the EP. When released in November of 2025, "tied" felt more like an extra to it's nice to see you, stranger in the thistle. timeline. Alas, looking backwards, it was the first single in the run-up to backflip.

Rattling bass in "mean eye" sounds like it shakes the frame that it came from; forces itself out of its own creator. With this flu that I'm currently nursing, the fuzz is extra fuzzy; the dissonance is extra dissonant-y . My brain feels like it's being tickled by a man with cotton-tipped fingers - Edward Cottonfingers or some shit.

'Like that, like that, like that, like that...'

In my opinion, the EP is bookended by its strongest tracks in "pieces" and "city, name".

Said "city, name" houses this real buttery bassline; the sort that jingles in yr brain all day - yr throat will hum it out without you being aware of it mid-everything. It's a catchy way to close out the project - leave 'em with an earworm.

'City's burning blueeeee'