After last week’s local election results in the U.K., it would be easy to just give up the ghost. Any hope left for the country, just about lost, as Reform’s rise to power in the next general election looks more and more likely with each passing day.
Unless you were hiding under a rock, the results at the local level were expected. For the last decade, the masses have been susceptible to the sound bite politics of the right. Not just in the U.K., but all across the world. The same eventualities littered across Europe and, most recently, Australia, as One Nation continues to gain traction at frightening speed.
In the U.K, it leaves Labour at a dangerous crossroads. Some would even suggest in ruins, as a party with no backbone or nous has actually failed the same people they once offered so much hope. Like Reform’s spine slowly constructed by defective Tories, do those on the left flank of the Labour Party do the same and jump ship to the Green Party? Will it change things that much? Perhaps not in the short term, but with such a fierce appetite for change, something has to happen, because the current system is just about broken beyond repair.
With all the dissolution, for us optimists at least, it’s the small victories that keep one going. A trite pivot, no doubt, but in the case of new music, the thriving nature of the EP is one of them. Growing stronger every week, like our Weirdo Rippers and Albums Quarterly features, our latest Out of Step edition has some omissions, simply due to sheer numbers. (We’ll pick them up next time.)
For now, though, here’s what’s been the pick of a very good bunch over the last couple of months.
A.Gris: Gris
GÉOGRAPHIE
Guilty pleasures are nothing but a bullshit social construct. Put another way, I’ve always thought synth-rock was kind of lame. Until A.Gris’ debut EP, Gris filled the ears…
Of course, I was wrong, because anything can be done right, and when it is, it’s there to be enjoyed. The French band’s debut EP included, unlocking something in the mind that overwhelmingly seals the deal in all facets of I previously thought were redundant.
A.Gris are the kind of band that should be storming the gates of pop music and FM airwaves. Their debut release finds them dynamically stitching together synth and electro with acoustic-based noodlings to wonderful effect. Get Gris in your ears and just smile.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Big League: Windanswagger
Bellissimo Fingers
Following their 2024 LP I Thought Thunderbolt, Melbourne’s Big League return with Windanswagger.
It’s indie-rock that puts a smile on the dial. Big League. All nice and breezy, carrying on from the days when the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever were on the cusp of conquering the world, Big League are a band everyone needs in their collection.
And there’s plenty more Melbourne flavour on Windanswagger, too. Remember Gersey? Well there are some nice echoes of them too in what feels like a release destined for being the soundtrack to your road-trip along the Great Ocean Road. And it feels damn good!
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Bullseye: Bullseye
Ever / Never Records
With the pedal steel enjoying a healthy revival, there’s been a swathe of country-rock acts from all across the world spruiking about being drunk and waiting for that elusive train to nowhere. Thankfully, Bullseye aren’t one them.
I’m always dubious when city slickers opt for some twang and double denim, but on Bullseye’s eponymous debut EP, there’s something that runs deeper than all of that. And, of course, it helps when the tunes hold up, which they emphatically do.
The four-piece, led by principal songwriter, Jake Barczak are conjurers of something sun-drenched that swallows up the dread. But Bullseye don’t necessarily discard the latter. Instead, they use the darkness as a vessel to get where they need to. A bit like Drive-By Truckers, and equally, they utilise it to great effect.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Luca Cimarusti Interview: “Your best teachers are going to be your collaborators”
Annie Hogan: Tongues in My Head
Downwards
The London-based underground lifer returns with an EP that sits somewhere between the smokey vibes of Crime & The City Solution’s early narcotic folk meanderings and Einstürzende Neubauten’s wonderful escapades on ALLES IN ALLEM.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The artist has an association with both, but on Tongues in My Head, Hogan finds a space in the world of new music that nobody has previously inhabited. And she does it with aplomb with synth-based gothic-tinged post-punk designed for wider audiences than it’ll probably reach.
But it will matter little. With Hogan’s place in underground folklore already cemented, Tongues in My Head is yet another victory lap.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Ida: Truxtun Park
Numero Group
Whether it’s rarities or a reissue is neither here nor there. It’s Ida, and quite simply, more people should have them in their lives.
The New York veterans are immune from mediocrity and Truxtun Park doesn’t buck the trend. Containing songs originally released on a split 7″ in 1996, these four songs encompass the Ida experience. It’s the kind of band you want to be in. An inspiration, only if in front of your bedroom mirror…
Truxtun Park is a wonderful snapshot of a band that have one of the great discographies that continues to hide away in the shadows. It shouldn’t be this way, but for those already engrossed in the Ida story, this is another enthralling chapter of it.
Kailas: 11
Cruel Nature Records
The most forward-thinking post-rock during this decade has often come from Eastern Europe, and Kailas are the latest to shine a light into these corners.
Consisting of Eva Porating, Daria Samo and Arash Ghasemi, the trio’s debut 11 falls between the cracks of a full-length and an extended-play. It’s merely splitting hairs, but for the sake of including the upper echelon in the OoS broad-church, it gets the nod here.
Think The Dead C and Sir Richard Bishop trading ideas somewhere in the bowels of a Turkish hash den. The result? Something brooding and minimal as Kailas explore every grain of sound. 11, a journey about less being more, and following it, I can’t wait to hear what this trio delivers next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Alexander Hacke: Blast – Distorted Memories: From Einstürzende Neubauten to Symphonic Drone
Claus Mattheck: Chapter 8
Cruel Nature Records
The whole Sprechgesang thing is thankfully dying a slow death. However, Claus Mattheck sits outside of the diabolical sham the likes of Yard Act and plethora of others have been peddling all across the world, essentially blunting the edges of what Sleaford Mods have achieved.
Following on from 2021’s Uniform Stress, Chapter 8 sees Mattheck leaning more into the realm that Slint conquered than any of the aforesaid sound-alikes. There’s a bit of diesel-fueled guitars at play too, making this kind of an outlier, with strong suggestions that there is more mileage to gain in the near future.
In the meantime, though, Chapter 8 rests nicely in the stomach. Like an appetiser as we await the main course, which I for one, hope arrives sooner rather than later.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
No Peeling: EP 2
Wrong Speeds Records
Another year, and another where there’s more new music from No Peeling. The Nottingham five-piece releasing EP2, which is a nice continuation from last year’s EP1, only better!
This is egg punk at its very finest. Again, clocking in at under 10 minutes, Sophie Diver’s illuminating stories are inspired by looking out the window during the soul-destroying endeavours of the nine-to-five. It feels fantastical, but it’s not. Real life mundaneness through the lens of whip-smart wordplay? Sorted.
To the point where No Peeling may just be the most exciting band currently in the U.K. underground. Their songs, just about enough to drag you through the mire of your Monday to Friday.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Soviet Dust: Soviet Dust
Bellissimo Fingers
Ever wonder what a tussle between Mission of Burma and Guided By Voices would have sounded like? The answer might just be Soviet Dust.
The Brisbane outfit, led by Andrew Bower and backed by his The Valery Trails bandmate, Dan McNaulty, and guitarist Luke Spreadborough share their self-titled debut EP, which is an assortment of ’80s and ’90s indie-rock and post-punk delights cherry-picked from the record collections. And it’s rather pleasant on the ears, with some sprinkling of later-era Wire, too.
The trio gallops far and wide here, with undoubtedly more to come. Soviet Dust, hitting in all the right places.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Serge Rogalski Trio: This is Not a Blues
Self-released
And now for something to melt the mind by way of Paris’ Serge Rogalski Trio. Featuring Gael Petrina (bass / double bass) and Enablers’ Sam Ospovat (drums), This is Not a Blues sees the trio intersect jazz with free-rock. And it’s fucking tight!
Also with an appearance from Gael Horellou on alto saxophone on closing cut, La Ramiro, Serge Rogalski Trio hoist you up from the dinner table to the dance floor, then upstairs to the grimy rock club.
It’s all here over these five songs. And with more to come in 2026, This is Not a Blues is where to get dialled into Rogalski’s world.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Trem 77: Reflective
Self-released
The Bristol producer has been no stranger throughout other parts of S13 so far in 2026, and on Reflective, Trem 77 now joins the OoS pantheon.
This is a part of Trem 77’s evolving sound world where they sound at their most comfortable. A lysergic sound bath that has you sifting through the collection for Seefeel’s Quique, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better EP in the world of electronica this year.
With all proceeds going to, in Trem 77’s words, “this worn torn world”, suffice to say Reflective is for a worthy cause. But sonically, it illuminates the freedoms for those of us privileged positions to both listen to music and, indeed, write about it.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
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