If You Don’t Know, Get to Know! - SLAG

If You Don’t Know, Get to Know! is our weekly dive into the best rising acts you’ll want to discover before the rest of the world does. This week, we’re looking at Brighton band SLAG.

Brighton’s newest noisemakers SLAG are the kind of band you hear once and immediately want to tell your mates about – partly because you know they’re bound to break through soon, and you’ll look effortlessly ahead of the curve when they do. Their sound sits somewhere between math-rock, shoegaze and indie rock, bursting with noise, attitude and potential.

Fronted by Amelie Gibson, SLAG make music that thrives on tension. Their songs twist and turn in unexpected directions, packed with guitar lines that jolt against the grain and vocals that jump between the calm and the storm itself. There’s a sense that each track could fall apart at any moment, yet it never does. The term controlled chaos has rarely felt more fitting.

Singles Ripped and Heaven show the band’s knack for balance, layering restless energy with a melodic touch beneath all the grit. The hooks sneak up on you, the rhythms pull in every direction, and by the time you think you’ve figured them out, they’ve already moved on. The bands newest release Legs gets off the mark with Gibson’s rapid-fire vocals before she pleads, “Please wake up, I love you, I love you,” as the noise fades. It’s a flash of sincerity before the track kicks right back into motion, ending in an outro that begs to be shouted back in a packed, sweaty room.

For now, SLAG remain one of Brighton’s best-kept secrets, but probably not for long. Their music is raw, loud and full of potential: the sound of a band too interesting to stay underground for much longer.

Watch SLAG perform Heaven and Ripped on The Beach House Sessions