Clash Magazine • 10th October 2025

Next Wave #1154: Tough Cookie | Next Wave | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Tough Cookie are more than your average alt-rock band. Currently cutting their teeth among grassroots venues across the country, this Clash writer chats with the band on the last leg of their support tour with punk duo The Pill at Omeara in London.

Clash Magazine • 24th September 2025

"Every Project Feels Like A Bit Of A Reset" Clash Meets Bricknasty | Features | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Multificated, genreless, singular, unique… you’ll have likely seen these descriptions thrown upon every new band or artist cutting through the grain of today’s music industry. But when it comes to Bricknasty, it takes a bit more than buzz words to define what they’re all about.

Clash Magazine • 12th September 2025

Acopia - Blush Response | Reviews | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Melbourne/Naarm trio Acopia are not just another band to lump in today’s burgeoning scene of classically shoegazey, modern anxiety-ridden guitar bands. The group walk their fine line of emotional weight and sonic restraint with poise. On album three, ‘Blush Response’, the band delve deeper into vulnerability whilst building on the fluidity of their multifaceted sound.

The Skinny • 8th September 2025

Baxter Dury - Allbarone review: Dury's best album yet: The Skinny

It’s not often you’ll hear of an artist making the best work of their career by their eighth album. However, with Baxter Dury, this couldn’t be truer...

The Skinny • 25th August 2025

CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY album review: The Skinny

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson’s singular brand of fun and heartfelt emotion glows brighter with every new song she pens. The Irish country-pop heroine’s rise to fame has come incredibly quickly, having released her debut album only three years ago. For some, the pressure can become too much to handle. But for CMAT, on album three Euro-Country, she masters her endearing brand of wide-eyed drama and self-depreciation.

The Skinny • 29th July 2025

CANVAS: Introducing Dundee's newest venue - The Skinny

Venue closures have become tragically common of late. From beloved music stages to popular pubs and restaurants, tough times have hit many businesses across the country, with Dundee in particular seeing many of its nightlife offerings disappear in recent years. This is just one of the reasons which makes its newest opening, CANVAS, so important...

Wonderland • 24th July 2025

nabeel (نبيل) Discuss Their New EP, ghayoom (غيوم)

nabeel (نبيل) is an Iraqi-American project led by Yasir Razek. He moved from Iraq to Virginia in the US as a one-year-old, fleeing from conflict to the country he remains in today as a high school language teacher. He grew up excavating his family archives, a cut-and-paste collage of places, people and times he couldn’t return to – an obsession shared by many children from war-torn homelands. Today, music is the medium that brings him closest to his roots.

The Skinny • 7th July 2025

Wet Leg - moisturizer album review: The Skinny

It’s been four years since Wet Leg began their path to indie superstardom with the bizarre yet utterly infectious Chaise Longue. Just how far they’ve come since (two Grammys, two Brit Awards, half a billion streams) is rather remarkable for the self-proclaimed “oddball” five-piece. Now, with their hotly anticipated second album moisturizer, they’re more fiendishly fun than ever.

The Skinny • 2nd June 2025

Little Simz - Lotus album review: The Skinny

Little Simz is a trailblazer. Many will have first recognised the London rapper and actor via her Mercury Prize-winning album, 2021's Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. But her journey up to now goes much deeper...

Clash Magazine • 9th May 2025

Next Wave #1133: PUNCHBAG | Next Wave | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

If your current music cycle is feeling a little beige, PUNCHBAG are the perfect remedy to shake things up. The South London sibling duo are made up of Clara Bach and her brother Anders. Their fluorescent brand of energetic pop is infectious. Pair this with their pertinent lyrical focus on the line between digital absurdity and real-life issues becoming ever more obscure, they’ve coined their sound as ‘aggressive hopecore’, which makes for a thrilling concoction...

Clash Magazine • 25th April 2025

Cloth - Pink Silence | Reviews | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

There aren’t many bands like Cloth. The Glasgow duo – made up of twin siblings Rachael and Paul Swinton – have a knack for being simultaneously dynamic and intimate. Soft vocals, gritty guitars and abstract rhythms pepper across their previous 2023 album ‘Secret Measure’, released on Mogwai’s Rock Action label, which rightly gained critical acclaim for its distinct strain of gently addictive guitar pop...

Clash Magazine • 24th April 2025

"I Just Needed To Live My Purpose" Emma-Jean Thackray Interviewed | Features | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Few modern figures in UK jazz can compare their rise in stature to that of Emma-Jean Thackray. Her individualistic versatility sprawled across her 2021 debut album ‘Yellow’. Its widespread critical acclaim came as no surprise, with appearances on the likes of Later… With Jools Holland soon following and her position as one of the figureheads in UK jazz scene being undeniable...

The Skinny • 1st April 2025

Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong album review: The Skinny

Many would’ve written off the idea of Black Country, New Road sustaining their buzzy heights of popularity after frontman Isaac Wood left suddenly after their sophomore effort, Ants From Up There. But naysayers should think again. Catalysed by their restless knack for reinvention, BCNR’s new album Forever Howlong proves that the possibilities for this tight bunch remain endless.

The Skinny • 24th March 2025

Sacred Paws - Jump Into Life album review: The Skinny

All good things come in threes, so the saying goes. With the eagerly awaited arrival of Sacred Paws’ third album via Mogwai’s Rock Action label, that sentiment still rings true. The duo of Ray Aggs and Eilidh Rodgers are now older and wiser. So too is their music. Filled with effervescent joy, despite its lyrics of heartbreak and healing, Jump Into Life is pure catharsis in all senses of the word.

The Line of Best Fit • 20th March 2025

Falling Upwards With Sam Akpro | Interview

Transcending his South East London roots as well as the played-out ‘genreless’ tag, Sam Akpro knows exactly who he is and what he’s doing, as Jamie Wilde reports from Peckham.

Clash Magazine • 6th March 2025

Divorce - Drive To Goldenhammer | Reviews | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Divorce are defying the conventions of what a band can be. Their innate balance of humour and heart-on-sleeve sentiment is magnetic. A sense of otherness in their binary-less band environment provides the beat to their diverse heart. Most importantly, their songs are sensational, and their debut album ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ exemplifies this to the full.

Clash Magazine • 21st February 2025

Next Wave #1210: Varas | Next Wave | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

When it comes to music and fashion, cycles of what’s come before tend to repeat themselves, but with a newer, modern edge. With his latest EP ‘Eaten by Worms’, Swedish alt-pop artist Varas is bringing back the effortless cool of the late 90s / early 00s. Think of the dark melancholy of Portishead infused with the alt rock of Jean Dawson… Varas sits somewhere amongst here.

Wonderland • 29th January 2025

Alt rock crusaders Momma Hope To Avoid The Rain

Turbulence, chaos, instability… all words that you wouldn’t usually align with new music. Yet, for Brooklyn based alt rock band, Momma, they’ve turned the negative connotations into something much more positive. They’re led by songwriters, guitarists and co-founders, Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, alongside drummer Preston Fulks and bassist turned band producer, mixer and engineer, Aron Kobayashi Ritch...

The Skinny • 27th January 2025

Brooke Combe - Dancing At the Edge of the World review: The Skinny

Scottish soul music, in a mainstream context, has been spearheaded by Paolo Nutini for roughly two decades. Now, it could be time for someone new to take charge. Edinburgh-born Brooke Combe’s artistic journey has already been quite eventful, despite being 24 years old. Yet, her debut album Dancing At the Edge of the World – post-major record deal – shows a maturity far beyond her years.

Clash Magazine • 13th January 2025

Ela Minus - DÍA | Reviews | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

Opening up is never easy – especially for artists. But more often than not, those who have the capacity to scrutinise and share their most personal facets, are those who resonate with listeners on a level of authenticity that matters most. Colombian singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ela Minus, reckons with this on her second album, ‘DÍA’.

The Skinny • 3rd December 2024

The Skinny's Albums of 2024: Charli xcx, Fontaines DC + more

We polled our music team for their favourite albums of the year, and while their individual lists were hugely varied, one bright green record in particular dominated like never before...

The Skinny • 15th November 2024

Warmduscher album review: Too Cold To Hold - The Skinny

You might think that after four albums, it’d be easy to rest on your laurels as a band. For Warmduscher, this is not the case. Their fifth album Too Cold To Hold sees the self-proclaimed “12-legged groove machine” embrace all things new...

The Skinny • 15th October 2024

Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate album review: The Skinny

Kelly Lee Owens’ brand of pop-leaning techno has been gaining her attention since 2017. With her fourth album Dreamstate, the first release on George Daniel of The 1975’s new electronic imprint dh2, the Welsh songwriter, producer and DJ turns to dreaming as her MO, via ten tracks full to the brim with sonic escapism.

The Line of Best Fit • 20th September 2024

Kaeto: "Any artist should be able to try on different hats and create different things" | Interview

From forward-thinking soundscapes to captivating visuals, and even crafting her own sustainable merch with t-shirts from her local charity shop, as Kaeto prepares to release her debut mixtape INTRO, the boundaries to her creative potential are limitless...