Add to playlist: the slow-burn psychedelia of Acolyte and the week’s best new tracks | Music

From Edinburgh
Recommended if you like Dry Cleaning, Massive Attack, Nick Cave
Up next Warm Days in December out now, new EP due early 2026

As fixtures of Edinburgh’s gig-turned-performance art scene, Acolyte’s eerie, earthy psychedelia is just as likely to be found on stage at the Traverse theatre as in a steamy-windowed Leith Walk boozer. Their looped bass lines and poet Iona Lee’s commanding, velvety voice conjure a sense of slow-burn hypnosis – and just like their music, Acolyte are glamorously unhurried. They’ve released only a handful of songs in the seven years since Lee and bassist Ruairidh Morrison first started experimenting with jazz, trip-hop and spoken word, but now the group (with Daniel Hill on percussion and Gloria Black on synth, also known for throwing fantastical, papier-mache-costumed club nights with her former band Maranta) are gathering pace.

Working with Lost Map, the free-spirited indie label run by Pictish Trail from his caravan on the Isle of Eigg, Acolyte released two singles this year and are promising a long-awaited EP in early 2026. Warm Days in December, which dropped earlier this month, pairs drowsy, drunken synthesiser with a baile funk-inspired groove built from hand drumming and trumpeting bass. But Lee’s macabre lyrics about climate collapse cut through the heat: “I’ve been thinking about the seasons,” she pronounces, archly. “I’ve been thinking about how the young do not live long.”

Like its predecessor The Blue Dark (a shivery campfire tale told with devilish strings and violent cymbals), Warm Days comes with a clubbier, beat-forward remix (this time from EHFM regular Ravelston) which plays straight into Acolyte’s chic, sinister world-building. Katie Hawthorne

This week’s best new tracks

Ganavya – Would Be Better (ft Sam Amidon)
Folk-pop with 15-tog warmth as Indian-American singer Ganavya collaborates with US folkie Amidon – her unusual vocal lines, darting like a murmuration, perfectly suit this tale of restlessness. BBT

Duendita – Uplifted One
Like a glint of sunlight through dark clouds, in just 84 seconds the New Yorker threads fizzing synths, clattering drums and surging bass into a hopeful, meditative gem: “I feel love again.” LS

​Ruthven – Precognition
“I’m the baddest man, motherfucker it’s true!” That boast is justified by the funk revivalist’s latest song, which has a touch of Daryl Hall to his vocals, delivered over a trotting triple-time groove. BBT

Modern Nature – Shasta
“Turn right at the canyon / Take it slow,” advises this dappled, delicate indie-rock warmer with shades of Yo La Tengo, written while frontman Jack Cooper was driving through northern California. LS

Samara Cyn – What Will They Say
The only woman in this year’s “freshman class” of new rap talent as chosen by hip-hop bible XXL, the LA MC rails against political apathy and the fear of speaking out, surrounded by twinkling classic soul. BBT

PVA – Send
With Factory Floor reunited, it’s not as if we need dupes for their haunting industrial techno, but this south London trio’s ominous sprechgesang and intensifying fritz make them worthy of the comparison. LS

Varials – Where the Light Leaves
Blast beats don’t get any heavier and more finely produced than the ones powering the Philadelphia metalcore band here, shaking every atom of the air as frontman Skyler Conder steadfastly roars through them. BBT

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