Here is the Mayhem chart for July 2025, a little late (just like last month) I know, but better late than never right? Regular readers know the chart is based on my streaming listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. My taste in music dropped one point to 98% more obscure than the rest of the UK! The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, last month’s top three “Legacy” artists were David Bowie, Carole King and Bob Marley. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for March and they are Liz Davinci, Dead Rat Society and The Dead Zoo. Bowie, Dead Rat Society, Liz Davinci and David Bowie have retained their obscure and legacy positions from last month.
Panic Shack sit atop the artist chart for July 2025. party Nails was the only act that remained in the artist chart from last month, falling from number 1 to number 10. Three artists appear in the artist chart and the song chart: Scene Queen, Panic Shack and the Dead Zoo. Scene Queen smashes her way to the top of the song chart with her wonderful single and future disco classic “L-Shaped Couch” 70% of the artist chart is female or female fronted and the song chart is not far behind! ALT BLK ERA and Delilah Bon make a welcome return to the artist chart. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five! Seventeen minutes of fabulous music!
Mayhem Artist Chart July 2025
1 Panic Shack 2 The Dead Zoo 3 Paul Weller 4 Jah Wobble 5 Scene Queen 6 ALT BLK ERA 7 Delilah Bon 8 Cassyette 9 Kindelan 10 Party Nails
Mayhem Song Chart July 2025
1 L-Shaped Couch – Scene Queen 2 Thelma And Louise – Panic Shack 3 Catherine – Rival Consoles 4 Catch 22 – Specky Cult 5 Bruise – The Dead Zoo
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I continue to send my humblest of apologies to the creators of the iconic NOW music compilation series of tri-annual releases. Their compilations began in 1983. I posted and compiled the first WOW That’s What I Call Mayhem collection back in March 2024. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 followed in August and September. Volume 5 was put together and posted in early January this year! So you must be ready for volume 6, right? I certainly hope so, because here it is! This includes the first 20 singles we reviewed in 2025 in another wonderfully maniacal eclectic playlist for your listening pleasure! With 70 minutes of music, click the Spotify link below and lose yourself in the music!
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Here is the Mayhem chart for January 2025. Regular readers know the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. After a slight blip last month my taste in music is now apparently 99% more obscure than the rest of the UK! The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, last month’s top three “Legacy” artists were David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt and Bill Withers. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for January and they are Liz Davinci, Jackie’s Boy and Herorangecoat. Last month Herorangecoat also made it to number eight in the artist chart. For the first time in months Delilah Bon has not made it into the chart since we restarted it more than a year ago. But another Mayhem chart regular, ALT BLK ERA sit at number two in the artist chart. Party Nails is the number one artist for January following the release of her wonderful album ‘Pillow Talk’ in that month. Top of the song chart for January is a firm favourite here at Mayhem Towers and someone we have championed for a long while. It is the supremely talented Kindelan with her latest offering “Drowning The Killer”. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five!
Mayhem Artist Chart January 2025
1 Party Nails 2 ALT BLK ERA 3 Lambrini Girls 4 The Apocalypse Disco 5 Robo 6 Lola Young 7 abs 8 Herorangecoat 9 Brògeal 10 Used To Be Apes
Mayhem Song Chart January 2025
1 Drowning The Killer – Kindelan 2 Manhattan – Pennine Suite 3 Safe & Sound – Pip Lewis 4 A New Dream – Gregory Darling and Julian Lennon 5 Vice – Rizzle Kicks
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It is less than 18 months since I became aware of ALT BLK ERA and what a time that has been. From my perspective I featured them on the Mayhem Virgins series in August 2023. That same month I was lucky enough to see them on the BBC Introducing Stage at the Leeds Festival. I was even luckier to get to interview them that weekend. They have made regular appearances in the Mayhem Charts. From Nyrobi and Chaya’s perspective they have had some amazing festival appearances and support slots (Tom Morello for one). They have collaborated with some great artists including Delilah Bon and Wheatus. This year they are on the BBC’s ones to watch list and will be heading to SXSW. On top of that they have released some incredible singles and the spectacular ‘Freak Show’ EP. Well now the debut album, ‘Rave Immortal’ is here on Earache Records!
The album opens with “Straight To The Heart” a song which has a great 80s pop club night vibe about it with some urgent drum ‘n’ bass beats underpinning it. Next up it is one of a clutch of great singles included in the collection, “Come On Outside”. It has a riotous, riff-laden grunge feel to carry its positive message. The chorus is alive and takes up residence in your brain almost immediately after the first listen. Chaya wrote the song for her sister Nyrobi and had this to say about it “For two years my sister was bed-ridden with a chronic illness that shot waves of pain throughout her body. The doctors couldn’t figure out what it was. I thought I was going to lose her. Thankfully, with lots of support, she is slowly getting better and she now has strong medication that helps her to manage the pain. This song is my message for Nyrobi, for you, and for anyone else who has faced physical or emotional challenges.” There is more great drum ‘n’ bass on “Crashing Parties” coupled with some perfect and incessant synth riffs. It opens with a warped heavenly angelic chorus. Throughout the track the vocals are the star though.
“My Drummer’s Girlfriend” is full of pop-driven punk licks and a gorgeous vocal delivery which reminds me of the Tuts and Kate Nash. Those riffs are mesmeric and stitch their way into your brain easily. I am not sure I am a fan of the potentially insane, drug-fuelled titular girlfriend in this story, but I am a huge fan of this infectious, electric firecracker of a tune. It is not on the album but check out the slacker punk reworking of this track that the band did with Wheatus. “Hunt You Down” has a wonderful dark Madonna feel to it with some stalker lyrics that border on the right side of creepy. this starts off with a deliciously dark vibe. It builds into something that would make Depeche Mode jealous. ALT BLK ERA seem able to tackle any genre. “Upstairs Neighbour” is a classy rave anthem which would sit perfectly along the best of the Prodigy. “Come Fight Me For It” is like an electro powered X Ray Spex which retains the punk attitude. I reckon Poly Styrene would have loved this.
“The track “Run Rabbit” is driven by a persistent and incessant electro riff overlaid with Nyrobi and Chaya’s urgent vocals. Lyrically it feels deliciously dark. This has the makings of a huge club banger, we need an extended remix! The video is rather spiffing too and features ALT BLK ERA running around in the dark to great effect. The opening of “Catch Me If You Can” has a horror film overture sound which I love. The vocals are melodic metal sung over a creepy orchestral synth background. The title track is saved until the end and what a way to finish it is. This is the best of the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and Enter Shikari. With some tasteful old school game sounds in the tune. This is rap for the 21st century and an anthemic call to arms for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Chaya and Nyrobi Beckett-Messam are still young, but as a first album this is a masterpiece. I am excited to hear what they do next. But in the meantime I am sure that ‘Rave Immortal’ will be included in many albums of the year list later this year. It will definitely be on the Mayhem list! If I have any criticism it would be that at around 32 minutes it is quite short. But it doesn’t feel short when you listen to it and some of the greatest punk albums were around that length!
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Can ALT BLK ERA get any better than they already are? On the basis of their new single “Run Rabbit” they just did. The quality of their recent singles suggests that the debut album will by vying for a strong position in many album of the year lists for 2025. The track is driven by a persistent and incessant electro riff overlaid with Nyrobi and Chaya’s urgent vocals. Lyrically it feels deliciously dark. This has the makings of a huge club banger, we need an extended remix! The video is rather spiffing too and features ALT BLK ERA running around in the dark. These girls can go from pop to punk to electro to dance. They can also combine all of these as well. ALT BLK ERA remain one of my favourite bands and 2025 better watch out because they are not just knocking on the door they are ready to smash it down!
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I send my continued humble apologies to the creators of the iconic NOW series. Their compilations began in 1983. I posted and compiled the first WOW That’s What I Call Mayhem collection back in March 2024. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 followed in August and September. So you must be ready for volume 5, right? I certainly hope so, because here it is! This includes the last 20 singles we reviewed in 2024 in another maniacal eclectic playlist for your listening pleasure! With nearly 70 minutes of music, click the Spotify link below and lose yourself in the music!
Here is the Mayhem chart for December 2024. Regular readers know the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. Apparently, my tastes have fallen by four points to 92% more obscure than the rest of the UK! It must be all the Christmas standards I have listened to last month. Incidentally no Christmas songs are included in the chart. But the most popular Chrimbo tune was Mr. Strange with “Santa Clause Hates The Poor”. The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, last month’s top three “Legacy” artists were David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Wham! Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for November: Liz Davinci, Sleuth Gang and Carol Hodge. Carol also appears in the artist chart and the song chart. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including three that were in the top ten last month. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds went up from number 2 to number 1. Herorangecoat is staying at number 7. Delilah Bon is staying at number 9. Delilah has been in the artist charts now for 13 months! Two artists appear in both lists for December: Delilah Bon and Carol Hodge. The number one song comes from HANDSHAKE IN SPACE. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five!
Mayhem Artist Chart December 2024
1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2 Carol Hodge 3 Cassyette 4 Taylor Swift 5 Lana Del Ray 6 Du Blonde 7 HerOrangeCoat 8 Mannequin Pussy 9 Delilah Bon 10 Bobbie Dazzle
Mayhem Song Chart December 2024
1 Let’s Control It – HANDSHAKE IN SPACE 2 Not The President – Delilah Bon 3 Shake The Slack – Avalanche Party 4 Hunt You Down – ALT BLK ERA 5 Manoeuvres – Carol Hodge
This is the first, and last, singles round up for 2024. We have reviewed many other singles this year, but all individually. This post draws together five of the best that we missed in the run up to Chrimbo!
“Shake The Slack” – Avalanche Party – some dirty garage blues. It has a punky psychedelic dance edge. This music comes from the finest band on the planet. This chorus will rock the fuck out of every venue they play next year!
“Hunt You Down” – ALT BLK ERA – this starts off with a deliciously dark vibe. It builds into something that would make Depeche Mode jealous. Every time I say that a new track from ALT BLK ERA is their best, they take it as a challenge. They push themselves to create something even better. This is their best yet and the album will be a contender for album of the year next year. I would love to hear a dance remix of “Hunt You Down”. The “hunt you down” chant towards the end of the track is intoxicating
“Not The President” – Delilah Bon – When Delilah is angry, she is a force of nature. While musically this is quite acoustic and almost soft, the lyrics are aimed at the orange moron in the USA. Vocally it is reminiscent of Pink but within even more passion! When Delilah stands up for the downtrodden, persecuted and ignored the world is a better place. Be more Delilah!
“Let’s control it” – HANDSHAKE IN SPACE – a truly uplifting electronic dance anthem. This is 21st Century disco in it’s most perfect form.
“Burning Up” – Blair Gilmour – Blair is reminiscent of Sam Fender on steroids. This song is a mountainous banger of a tune. I was hooked very early on. Now, I am so excited for whatever comes next from this extremely talented Scottish artist.
A couple of weeks ago you will have read all about Mayhem’s Top 20 albums of 2024. Well here are our top 10 songs of 2024. What were your favourite songs this year? Some of these artists also featured in the top 20 albums list too.
1 Life’s A Fucking Miracle – James 2 Maverick – Delilah Bon 3 My Drummer’s Girlfriend – ALT BLK ERA 4 Two Years This May – Molly Rymer 5 Ipecac – Cassyette 6 Millions Of Heartbeats – Kate Nash 7 I Really Fucked It Up – girli 8 Best Junkie You Adore – Jazmin Bean 9 Age Of Stupid – Jellybricks 10 Collateral Damage – Avalanche Party
Are you ready for day 12 of Mayhem’s 12 Days Of Christmas posts. Yes, the final one is here, how has it all happened so quickly? The fat bearded bloke is doing the final sleigh checks. The elves are finishing off the final presents. The reindeer are having a pre-journey rest and Mrs. Claus is printing the definitive nice and naughty lists. In case you didn’t know, these posts revolve around a theme. This series is based on the classic cumulative song “The Twelve Days Of Christmas.” Did you know that as the gifts were cumulative there were 364 gifts in total? What gift was presented on the twelfth day of Christmas? It was of course Twelve Drummers Drumming. The link to today’s tune is really obvious and not particularly tenuous.
The song I have chosen for Day 12 is “My Drummer’s Girlfriend.” This song is by a band that I think will be absolutely huge next year. I certainly hope that they are. I am talking of course, about the magnificent ALT BLK ERA. Since they started to break out they have released some incredible singles, including this one. They have worked with some great artists including Delilah Bon and Wheatus. Their first album is due out early next year. I expect it to appear in my albums of the year list next year. Obviously I promised you a playlist once we got to Day 12 and you can find it below.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 