15 Favourites from The Great Escape
Every May Brighton becomes the centre of the new music world, as The Great Escape spreads across more than 30 venues throughout the city, this year hosting 450 artists from across the globe. With four days of discoveries and far too many sets running at the same time, here are fifteen Sherwood picks that we’re telling you to keep an eye on:
Angine de Poitrine - Wednesday, 9:30pm - The Beach - The Deep End
The anonymous Quebec duo playing a style built on microtonality, shifting time signatures and real-time loop layering all delivered from behind oversized papier-mâché masks and black-and-white polka-dot costumes is 2026’s first big breakout act. Their KEXP session went viral in February with millions of views and the combination of jaw-dropping musicianship and absurdist spectacle makes for an unmissable festival set. Get there early to get a spot.
Ashaine White - Thursday, 10:15pm - Fabrica & Friday 2:30pm - The Beach - Soundwaves
Ashaine White’s music contains the brooding, moody weight of alternative rock sitting alongside a deeply felt approach to songwriting with nods to jazz and neo-soul. Think the most aching moments of Nirvana placed alongside the heartbreak of Alicia Keys, written with a no-frills honesty. Ashaine draws you in with intimate, hushed passages before building into massive choruses, and both The Ivor Novello Academy and Apple Music have called her one of the next rising stars of contemporary songwriting.
Chloe Slater - Friday, 9:30pm - Komedia Basement
Chloe Slater found her voice in the Manchester open mic scene before rapidly becoming one of the most talked about names in British indie. Her two EPs have so far taken aim at slum landlords, influencer culture and the constant failures of the government, always with the intention of getting her young audience to think harder about the world we’re living in. At an age when most artists are still figuring out what they want to be, Chloe Slater is sharp and satirical with blistering hooks.
Cowboy Hunters - Friday, 6:45pm - Volks
We’ve written about these two recently so we’ll keep it brief, as they don’t deserve the word count. Megan and Desmond are a Glasgow punk duo with song titles like Shag Slags Not Flags and Money For Drugs who called their debut release EPeepee. That tells you everything you need to know about the level of respect they have for themselves, you, and Brighton so expect a snot-nosed and chaotic performance packed with furious moshing one minute and line-dancing the next.
Ebi Soda - Saturday, 2:30pm - Komedia Basement
Brighton’s own hometown heroes Ebi Soda have built a reputation as one of the most distinctive acts in the UK jazz scene. Jazz musicians who have very little interest in playing jazz, Ebi Soda create multi-effect soundscapes with searing trombone lines and a DIY ethic marinating in dub, trap, and music built on groove, repetition, and texture. With effects-laden horns doing things horns have no business doing, Ebi Soda thrive on contradiction, and are an absolutely essential detour from all the indie.
Girl Scout - Friday, 9:15pm - The Old Market
Stockholm trio Girl Spent arrive at The Great Escape with their debut album Brink freshly out and everything to play for. Emma Jansson writes the lyrics primarily as a diary, thinking out loud in her day-to-day life and that intimacy puts you right inside the story within seconds, with a conversational directness that’s remarkably confident for a debut.
Lime Garden - Thursday, 9:00pm - The Beach - The Deep End
Brighton four-piece Lime Garden are playing on home turf and they’ve arrived with serious ammunition. Their second album Maybe Not Tonight landed in April and it’s an absolute stonker that feels like a night out from start to finish, managing to be great fun whilst simultaneously being emotionally intelligent. Playing immersive and richly detailed songs with witty and sardonic lyrics, Lime Garden are one of the most exciting British bands of their generation, and this will be a very good party.
Maddie Ashman - Friday, 11:30pm - Komedia Basement
If Angine de Poutrine are your gateway into the world of microtonal music, then Maddie Ashman will take you considerably further out. The London-based avant-pop artist and composer has developed her own tuning systems to produce newly imagined alternative pop music that’s fun, strange, and fascinating. Veering between the euphoric and the unsettling, Maddie’s songs clatter and whirr with energy and emotion. Bizarre and gripping in a way that’s very hard to explain.
My First Time - Friday, 3:30pm - The Beach - Soundwaves
Bristol quartet My First Time’s impulsive songwriting has already earned them a major label deal with Parlophone, and having just put out their self-titled debut EP they arrive at The Great Escape with real momentum. Tackling disillusionment, escapism and frustration with hooks that lodge in your brain with massive Britpop energy and a wicked sense of humour in that very British tradition of turning your most embarrassing insecurities into an anthem.
Peaches - Friday, 9:15pm - Brighton Dome Concert Hall
Peaches first catapulted to international stardom with her 2000 debut The Teaches of Peaches and has spent the past quarter century smashing taboos and championing bodily autonomy. No Lube So Rude is her first album is her first album in over 10 years, and at 59 she’s still pushing the envelope and railing against the status quo as only she can. Ageing disgracefully and at full volume, this one’s going to be rowdy.
PVA - Friday, 9:15pm - The Old Market
South London trio PVA have honed a sound that draws as much from post-punk and industrial as it does from techno and house. Their second album No More Like This dropped in January, and they’re known for exhilarating, sweat-drenched live sets with a maturity and an intensity to what they do.
Rocket - Friday, 8:15pm - Chalk
Four childhood friends from Los Angeles who began writing songs together during the pandemic, Rocket’s debut R Is For Rocket is loud, anthemic and beautiful with captivating songs. With nineties grunge and shoegaze references and wide-eyed, heart-on-sleeve songwriting Rocket write big, fuzzy songs that feel like a warm blanket.
sleepazoid - Thursday, 7:45pm - Volks & Saturday, 3:35pm - The Beach - The Deep End
Melbourne quintet sleepazoid caught serious attention with their debut EP Running with the Dogs and have stepped things up with their sophomore EP New Age, fusing the raw energy of grunge and the atmospheric depth of shoegaze with emotional complexity. The Great Escape marks their first time in the UK, so this is a great chance to see an extremely promising band right at the start of their career.
The Molotovs - Wednesday, 9:30pm - Komedia Basement
The Molotovs have played over 600 gigs between them before their 20th birthdays. Sibling duo Mathew and Issey started out playing streets and parks across London during the pandemic, using the lack of venues to their advantage by circumventing age restrictions entirely. They’ve spent the years since opening for The Libertines, Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Damned, condensing the entire British lineage of brash, loud guitar music into short, fast songs.
Yumi and The Weather - Saturday, 2:15pm - Komedia Studio
Brighton’s own Ruby Taylor has been a mainstay of the Brighton scene since her 2013 debut EP, blending psych-pop, garage rock and electronica with raw emotional honesty. Releasing through her own DIY imprint MIOHMI, Yumi and the Weather’s music ranges from indie ballads to glitter-soaked dance-pop to brooding grunge, with every song seeming to come from a different corner of musical history all tied together by great melodies and emotional depth. With a third album due later this year, be sure to catch her on home turf.
