Like last week’s AQ, the reasons for our tardiness in presenting our fifth edition of Out of Step are the same.
With fingers crossed that our recent IT troubles are behind us, on the flipside, the slight delay has given us the opportunity to include several releases that dropped over the past 10 days.
It’s been hard to narrow our list down to 10. In comparison with the early months of years gone by, it’s clear that the EP is gaining some serious momentum. And looking ahead to the coming weeks and months, the pace won’t drop.
For now, though, here’s what’s been dominating the decks at the end of December, and the beginning of 2026.
Achers: Bottom of the Hill
Everything Sucks Music
Following their 2024 demo release, London’s Achers return with an EP that is mighty timely.
Guitar music across the U.K. so far this year has felt somewhat dull, but with the panache that Achers bring to the table on Bottom of the Hill, it’s from the corners post-hardcore where the most vibrant new music derives.
Hankering for some early At The Drive-In? Fine, but before you rifle through the collection for In / Casino / Out, stop with Achers’ Bottom of the Hill. This hits flush, and as they ready a trot up and down the country for some shows, be sure to stick your head in to see what all the fuss is about.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
DELREI: Wicked Wicked Ways
Projekt Records
Following his 2023 LP, Desolation and Radiation, Alessandro Mercanzin returns under the DELREI banner with the three-track EP, Wicked Wicked Ways.
Featuring vocalist Collin Hegna (Federale, The Brian Jonestown Massacre), these songs are desert-inspired Americana laced with cigarettes and whiskey. Think Chris Isaak and The Black Angels trading blows. But with DELREI at the helm, the journey darkens the further one delves.
This is rock music built for soundtracks. All humid guitars and western echoes that reach far and wide, as Wicked Wicked Ways sees DELREI thrive in the vast lands.
Out April 13. Pre-order here.
Dialect: Full Serpent
RVNG Intl.
Following 2024’s Atlas Green, Andrew PM Hunt returned in January with Full Serpent. Material written during the Atlas Green sessions, however Full Serpent possesses its own distinct musical code and language.
Hunt has always been the architect of shimmering soundscapes, and on Full Serpent, he shares some of his best. Wild collages where every single note glitters. It’s Hunt guiding us to new places within his pulsating sound world, and what unique places they are.
Described as “a vision of a post-collapse world”, while this is captured perfectly throughout these six compositions, on the flipside (at least from an optimist’s point of view), Full Serpent is the sound of the future. There really is nothing like it out there, and despite the screaming hellscape we’re currently navigating, Hunt provides something warm that imbues hope.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Craven Faults Interview: “I always appreciated being in the background”
Inland Years: The Bunker Sessions
Self-released
Following his excellent 2025 LP, Keep Your Eyes Ahead on the Road, to little fanfare, Ryan Daniels rounded out the year with The Bunker Sessions EP.
Ultimately, the three tracks on The Bunker Sessions are a continuation from the splendour of Keep Your Eyes Ahead on the Road. Lou Barlow inspired lo-fi through the lens of jangle-pop, and the results are grand.
Alongside Merseyside’s Pete Power, currently Daniels is carving out some of the best lo-fi ditties in the business. And hopefully 2026 will see some more of it from a songwriter who’s always evolving and surprising us.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
oWo: Emerger
Self-released
Following last year’s Tunnel of Vision EP, Sydney’s oWo make it a short turnaround with Emerger.
This is early ’00s indie-rock homage of the most delightful kind. Bands like Further and Bird Blobs playing around Sydney’s inner suburbs on a Saturday night when the beer was cheap and you could smoke indoors. Yeah, they were good times, and through these songs, oWo help you re-live them.
Having said that, the three-piece move forward here. Slightly removed from their previous works – led by the beautiful closing track, Weather Making – on the back of Emerger, it’ll be interesting to see where they lead us to next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Pelican: Ascending
Run For Cover Records
Following their excellent 2025 LP, Flickering Resonance (which landed in our Top 50 Albums of the year), Pelican returned in January to offer up some odds and ends. While Adrift and Tending the Embers were self-released in 2024, Ascending’s eponymous track makes this release too good to leave on the sidelines.
Written during the Flickering Resonance sessions, Pelican have always had a knack for writing huge tracks tailor-made for isolated releases, and Ascending is the latest in what is a fizzy breeze block of post-metal euphoria.
Also included is an alternative version of Cascading Crescent, featuring Thursday’s Geoff Rickly on vocals. And together with other three tracks, it’s surprising how this all comes together so cohesively.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Trigger Object Interview: “These sounds are my feelings in a really raw way”
Sirsé: Lullaby for a tree / Chiaroscuro
Bonambi
Revealing somewhat of a first for Sun 13, Sirsé, the project of Ghent-born Amsterdam-based multi-instrumentalist, Sophie Schiettekatte, releases a double EP.
Lullaby for a tree / chiaroscuro is said to bring together two interconnected bodies of work. Through a series of carefully sculptured compositions, consisting of sparkling harps, soothing wordless vocalisations, field recordings and cello from Felix Thiemann, there’s a slowly evolving sound world that Schiettekatte orchestrates here.
On a rich bedding of sound, Schiettekatte teleports you to tranquil milieus on lullaby for a tree / chiaroscuro. In a similar vein to Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore’s recent collaboration release, both dovetail nicely with each other.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Thee Oh Sees: Cara Maluco
DEATHGOD CORP
It’s nice when music comes out of the blue; even better when it’s Thee Oh Sees providing it. (Starting with Cara Maluco artwork, which will be hard to top for the rest of the year.)
It helps when John Dwyer and Co. have the tunes to match, in what is the best slice the band has served up for years (probably since Smote Reverser). Led by the eponymous track, a slow grinding, diesel-powered kraut-rock that would end up on the band’s best of compilation, there’s no let up here.
Forever shape shifting, Cara Maluco finds Thee Oh Sees playing to their greatest strengths. Sunken as deep into the groove as they ever have been, here’s hoping the future holds something similar.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Trauma Ray: Carnival
Dais Records
Last year Manchester’s Gorilla in support of Touché Amore on their U.K. / European tour, and Trauma Ray put on one of the lives performances of the year. I hasten to use the word banger, but it’s probably no other way to describe it. Their music just hits.
This is a band that works harder than most, and on the back of their excellent 2024 LP, Chameleon, the Fort Worth, TX band return with the excellent Carnival.
For all your atmospheric, dirge-gaze requirements, Trauma Ray are the one-stop shop. You simply don’t need to look anywhere else, and Carnival doesn’t change that. Most bands would fail to write another Chameleon, but on the back of Carnival, Trauma Ray remain on their ascent.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Snakeskin Interview: “We always find the best way to move forward”
Wino na: sleep & glisten
Amoursisterhood
Bordeaux, France songwriter Wino na was another that landed late in 2025 with her sleep & glisten extended play.
From slowcore to shoegaze and campfire folk, sleep & glisten feels like an overarching tourism of sound. Here, Wino na, handpicks and re-imagines things from her record collection in real time. It’s supremely Wino na, though, with a lo-fi hybrid that gives these songs a loner rock feel.
It’s songcraft akin to a security blanket. You think you’ve heard these songs before, except you haven’t. It’s shadowy stuff, and here’s hoping there’s more of it from one of the more promising guitar-based projects around.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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