12 / 27 - Severin

Severin next with Glasgow’s Cwfen (pronounced coven) and their track ‘Wolfsbane’, which is the next track unveiled from future album, Sorrows, debuting on 30 May, and it paints a dark and dynamic picture of Cwfen.

On 14/09/2025 at 15:46, Severin said:

Hi

Thanks for doing this.

Good standard across the board which made voting rather harder than normal. Points are as follows, with comments -

12 points - Some Days Are Darker - just about edges everything else near the top as this was competely new to me

10 points - Eville - I can't not give them points but they've never quite caught that live energy properly on record. This is a set highlight but it's particularly overproduced.

8 points - Cindytalk - A (mostly) forgetten Post Punk gem from the mid '80s, Camouflage Heart is a cracking album

7 points - Die Toten Hosen - Always reliably good.

6 points - Ankor - Really like the louder sections. Be interested to hear more from them.

5 points - Steve Queralt + Emma Anderson - Ride + Lush. A bit more Shoegaze than I normally like but always been a sucker for Ms Anderson.

4 points - High Vis - I'm still a bit undecided on this band but they were good live and this stood out from the rest for me.

3 points - Alien Chicks - I need to investigate this band more, although I'm not sure about the jazzy element they have.

2 points - Julia Wolf - Enjoyed this.

1 point - Within Temptation. I don't mind them generally but this isn't one of their best.

Also nearly got points - Haunted Youth, crushed, Walt Disco

Very close at the top right now with Just Mustard and LITE, which both received points from last three voters. Still one song at zero :(.

1	Just Mustard - POLLYANNA	56
2	LITE - Ghost Dance	53
3	Wisp - Save me now	49
4	Cindytalk - Memories of Skin & Snow	45
5	Ichika Nito - Metaphor (feat. Feryquitous)	42
6	Ankor - Shoganai	42
7	High Vis - Mind’s a Lie	41
8	The Haunted Youth - Emo	40
9	Eville - BR4T MBL	39
10	Some Days Are Darker - Devotion	29
11	Cwfen - Wolfsbane	27
12	Walt Disco - Weightless	24
13	Osamuraisan - Senbonzakura	24
14	crushed - Starburn	22
15	MIDI Bunny - ILY, Ramona!!!	22
16	Die Toten Hosen - Pushed Again	21
17	Greet Death - Same but Different Now	19
18	BOOM BOOM SATELLITES - BROKEN MIRROR	18
19	Julia Wolf - Loser	18
20	Luke Sital Singh (ft Lisa Hannigan) - Santa Fe	17
21	Within Temptation - Bleed Out	12
22	Alien Chicks - Candlestick Maker	12
23	Mardelas - Patriot Anthem	10
24	Steve Queralt - Lonely Town (feat. Emma Anderson)	9
25	She Walks Through Dusk - Ghosts	5
26	Simon and Milo - Get a Clue	0

Oh ‘Wolfsbane’ stood out to me a lot. Brilliant entry, Severin!

Alright, 7% battery lmao, I will try and present another 3 set of votes and then will resume tomorrow. Thank you everyone <3

13 / 27 - Jade

Jade next with Steve Queralt and their single “Lonely Town”. Lonely Town is the first single for his upcoming solo LP “Swallow” out June 13 on Sonic Cathedral. Immediately gripping, the dreamy guitars flow with throbbing bass, building on a simple, surging melody.

On 14/09/2025 at 17:39, Jade said:

12 Cwfen - Wolfsbane

10 Greet Death - Same but Different Now

08 Wisp - Save me now

07 Just Mustard - POLLYANNA

06 LITE - Ghost Dance

05 crushed - Starburn

04 Walt Disco - Weightless

03 The Haunted Youth - Emo

02 BOOM BOOM SATELLITES - BROKEN MIRROR

01 High Vis - Mind’s a Lie

14 / 27 - Suedehead2

Suedehead went with Some Days Are Darker. The band’s latest single, “Devotion,” burns with the unquenchable passions that arise when willingly lost within the arms and affections of another, completely surrendered to the spiritual presence of a love that penetrates beyond the flesh to illuminate the darkest recesses of the soul.

On 14/09/2025 at 23:51, Suedehead2 said:

Votes as follows

'Get a Clue' finally has points!

Oops a bit of a flop so far but not surprised as I can see why this shoegazey sound might fade into the background.

I discovered 'Lonely Town' in Electronic Sound magazine recently as part of a feature about Steve's new album; this song grabbed me the most. As aforementioned in Severin's votes, Steve and Emma are/were members of '90s favourites Ride and Lush. Thanks to the few that have pointed it so far - blacksquare, Rich and Severin :)

Edit: ooh and a wild Suedey silver medal appears just as I finished typing thank you very much!

15 / 27 - Dobbo

Dobbo went with Osamuraisan who is a guitarist and composer, well known for his acoustic guitar arranges, and would love for someone (Dobbo!!!) to chime in who is more familiar with the acoustic version of Senbonzakura!!!

On 15/09/2025 at 11:15, Dobbo said:

Hello there and here are my votes for this edition!

12 Julia Wolf - Loser

10 Ichika Nito - Metaphor (feat. Feryquitous)

08 Walt Disco - Weightless

07 Ankor - Shoganai

06 BOOM BOOM SATELLITES - BROKEN MIRROR

05 Mardelas - Patriot Anthem

04 Within Temptation - Bleed Out

03 High Vis - Mind’s a Lie

02 Die Toten Hosen - Pushed Again

01 Eville - BR4T MBL

00 MIDI Bunny - ILY, Ramona!!!

New leader but only one point separating them :o. And finally everyone is off zero

1	LITE - Ghost Dance	64
2	Just Mustard - POLLYANNA	63
3	Wisp - Save me now	57
4	The Haunted Youth - Emo	55
5	Ichika Nito - Metaphor (feat. Feryquitous)	52
6	Ankor - Shoganai	49
7	High Vis - Mind’s a Lie	47
8	Cindytalk - Memories of Skin & Snow	45
9	Walt Disco - Weightless	42
10	Eville - BR4T MBL	40
11	Cwfen - Wolfsbane	40
12	Greet Death - Same but Different Now	37
13	Osamuraisan - Senbonzakura	31
14	BOOM BOOM SATELLITES - BROKEN MIRROR	30
15	Julia Wolf - Loser	30
16	Some Days Are Darker - Devotion	29
17	crushed - Starburn	27
18	Die Toten Hosen - Pushed Again	23
19	MIDI Bunny - ILY, Ramona!!!	22
20	Steve Queralt - Lonely Town (feat. Emma Anderson)	19
21	Luke Sital Singh (ft Lisa Hannigan) - Santa Fe	17
22	Within Temptation - Bleed Out	16
23	Mardelas - Patriot Anthem	15
24	Alien Chicks - Candlestick Maker	12
25	She Walks Through Dusk - Ghosts	5
26	Simon and Milo - Get a Clue	3

19 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

'BR4T MBL', the closest thing to allowing Charli xcx in Nuggets!

I am so gonna tell Eva that!

ok everyone, only 12 sets of votes left and I should be able to knock that off tomorrow in an hour or so. I would say start time will be the same around 9PM-ish.

Apologies and thanks again for your understanding <3

18 minutes ago, Jade said:

Oh ‘Wolfsbane’ stood out to me a lot. Brilliant entry, Severin!

So glad you like it. I adore this band so much. Well worth checking out the album

Comfortably in the middle. That's what I wanna see.

I am where I expected to be

2 minutes ago, Herbs said:

I am where I expected to be

Same.

Thanks to all who have given points to 'Shoganai' so far. I think it came up on my youtube recommendations. I'll take 6th place as an overnight position. I'm pleased to see my favourite entry, 'Pollyanna', as high as second place at the moment.

Sorry I've missed the first half of these results, will hopefully be around for the rest. Although given how dreadfully I'm doing so far I'm not sure I want to be xx I genuinely thought this would be the song that would save me from my run of bad song contest results lately - admittedly it's also probably rather niche but I thought it'd attract at least a few other big fans - but it's doing even worse than the rest of them :') ah well... thanks uhsting for providing me with a medal and 3/4 of my points so far and Severin and Chez for the other small points, I suppose I should wait to see if there are more fans in the second half of the votes before dooming too much x @Severin appreciating the commentary included in your votes, I'd say the 'jazzy' element in this song is quite a big reason I was drawn to it (I already compared it to Squid in my own voting PM, maybe Maruja is a better comparison, although it is overall a little more on the punk side of post-punk than either of those), glad you liked it enough to give it a few points despite not being so sold on that anyway.

On the bright side the rest of the results are largely looking good so far, my 12 currently in the lead and I voted for all of the current top 5. I think if I had been to predict a winner I would have said Wisp and indeed she is up there in the mix, woo. Pleasantly surprised to see Cindytalk so high up as well as iirc it didn't get the most enthusiastic response from SyncTube but it was a big standout to me! Fab entries from Ansel and Chez there, me returning a medal to Ansel even if I lost my streak of support in return x Scene, uhsting, Severin and Dobbo unmasked from my votes so far as well so great picks all (wondering whether it was uhsting's or Addy's error that The Haunted Youth's song title was wrong in the thread ) and glad to see Julia Wolf and Osamuraisan both doing ok so far as I wasn't sure how much of an audience they'd reach here, plus Iz's entry was quite the memorable standout even if it didn't quite make my votes (so many Japanese/adjacent entries and none of them were yours!!) Oooops that Jade's song just missed my votes although has ended up being a rare mutual snub *_* still yet to see the identity of my 12 so perched for that ~

@Scene did you see that Julia Wolf ended up featuring on Drake's latest single which dropped shortly after this contest started? Such a random development, I've not listened to it yet but very intrigued how her sound is supposed to mesh with Drake and Yeat (then again their previous collaboration started with a sample from an old jazz song that had no relation at all to the rest of the song so maybe it's just repeating that trick)