SACRED PAWS

Sacred Paws have a natural inclination not to take things too seriously. You can hear it all the way through a conversation with its two members, guitarist Rachel Aggs and drummer Eilidh Rodgers, punctuated by rolls of giggles and thoughtful pauses, and you can hear it in the light touch they bring to their music, a jangly blend of indie pop full of fizzing world rhythms and bright horns.

Shimmering guitar riffs dance between snappy beats and swooning melodies that will have crowds committing to far more than a simple head-bob. “I think we’d get bored if it was too slow,” Eilidh says. “We’d never want to play something live that people couldn’t dance to. It would feel really strange to us. It’s kind of the whole point.”

AUTOCAMPER

With buckets of melancholic charm and a cardigan collection that would make even Stephen Pastel blush, Autocamper are the perfect pop antidote to Manchester's predictable post-punk machismo. Their new single Summertime / Ken Hom, effortlessly captures the jangle pop spirit of the '80s—without the C86 revisionism. Driven by a relentlessly melodic organ and a spare, scratchy guitar jangle, both tracks exemplify Autocamper's fresh and exciting UK-meets-NZ pop sound.

SASSYHIYA

Sassyhiya  (pronounced “Sassy Hiya”) were formed when Helen and Kathy, real-life partners and co-songwriters, joined up with Pablo and Neil (drums and guitar). Helen had previously been in Boys Forever and Basic Plumbing, collaborating with much-missed Veronica Falls musician Patrick Doyle. She and Kathy then formed Barry, a stripped-down queercore outfit, with Bart McDonagh (The Male Gays) and Mark Amura (My Executive Dysfunction). Sassyhiya feels like a culmination of all these elements, hitting the sweet spot between post-punk and indie pop. They know their way around a melody but still keep it wonky, with influences ranging from the Breeders and Broadcast to Dolly Parton.

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