Having first appeared on the live circuit at the tail-end of 2023, The Itch’s pairing of undulating dancefloor fillers and disenchanted pop songwriting has quickly seen their name passed from one gig goer to another. While limited music has been released thus far, word-of-mouth continues to spread about an act tessellating New Romantic and rave influences on the capital’s sticky-floored circuit.

Native James is an alternative-rap artist from Ipswich, UK, who transcends genre boundaries, melding hip-hop, grime, punk, rock, metal, and garage into a unique sound that is distinct as it is magnetic.

With an impressive blend of raw energy and lyrical power, Native James has carved his own path, captivating audiences at some of the UK's most iconic festivals and live events such as the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds Festival, and on-stage as special guest with Skindred. Native made a huge impact being booked as a solo grime artist, but instead turned up to Reading Festival with a full band ready to cause chaos in the alternative scene with his hard-hitting live performance.

He has since garnered the attention of BBC Radio 1's Alyx Holcombe, Daniel P Carter, and Nels Hylton, as well as features in Kerrang! Magazine, and has been nominated for a Celebmix Award 2025. He was recently nominated for his first MOBO award for Best Alternative Music Act and continues to make waves, representing Black culture, metal and rap as an infusion to include everyone.

The Sophs arrived out of the great blue yonder,” say Rough Trade co-founders Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee of the label’s newest signing, LA six-piece The Sophs. The band’s brutal honesty, flamingly intrusive thoughts, and broad genre-spreading caught their attention instantly.

Rough Trade heard creativity, variety, and a “don’t expect me to act pretty” sentiment that could land The Sophs — frontman Ethan Ramon, Sam Yuh (keyboards), Austin Parker Jones (electric guitar), Seth Smades (acoustic guitar), Devin Russ (drums), and Cole Bobbitt (bass) — on nearly any stage. “It’s rare that a demo sets your heart racing and sends you on a quest to track down its sender. But that’s what happened with Ethan Ramon,” Travis and Lee explain.

At any moment, The Sophs are entering pop-punk, blazing through funk, or talk-singing to the audience. “I want to steal and plagiarize and borrow,” Ramon says. “At the end of the day, the music is going to sound incredible.

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Westside Cowboy sound new but seem to come from an old place. Surrounded by 1978 Fender Twin Reverbs, well-thumbed Wem catalogues, a four-track recorder and spools of cassette tape, the Manchester four-piece are made up of Aoife Anson O’Connell, James (Jimmy) Bradbury, Paddy Murphy and Reuben Haycocks.

With a sound raw as a carpet burn, they ride a thrilling lo-fi boxcar tuned to the melodic precision of Teenage Fanclub and held together with the slacker cool of Pavement. For most bands, this would be enough, but not for Westside Cowboy. Just when you think you have them pinned, they career the entire thing into a brick wall of country, trad and early harmony-coated, major-key rock’n’roll. They call this process ‘Britainicana’. A portmanteau of the band’s own making to describe American culture digested by English people in small towns with almost nothing in the way of cosmopolitan sheen.