From Florence Road to Keo - Contact Music presents the top rising talent at Liverpool Sound City 2025
The hottest rising talent descended on Liverpool
The UK festival season officially kicked off at the weekend (May 2 to 4) with the return of Liverpool Sound City. As one of Europe’s leading new music showcases, the city was abuzz with hotly-tipped bands and artists all ready to prove why they are the next big thing.
Here, Contact Music spotlights 8 of the weekend’s best discoveries:
Easily the most energetic set of the festival, Leeds-based noise outfit Bathing Suits deliver a show - and sound - that’s unlike anything else. After an electric-guitar-feedback-heavy opening, the four-piece’s lead vocalist strips down and starts barking about power and control over ear-splitting bass blasts. It’s a frenetic racket, but one that’s impossible not to move to, with The Jacaranda’s speakers just about withstanding the onslaught of head-banging singles ‘Relay’ and ‘Lousy Havoc’. “Okay, this next one’s about being a freak”, they proclaim before whipping their hair around and jumping as pounding snares and an undeniably poppy chorus kick in. Bridging the worlds of electro, noise, punk and pop in a wholly new way, it’s no overstatement to call Bathing Suits the UK’s most exciting - and interesting - new band.
What started as a reaction to the boys club in the music industry has resulted in the incarnation of a new generation of girl band. Enter: Liverpool’s very own Girl Group. Landing somewhere between Spice Girls and Wet Leg, the all-female collective’s fusion of synchronised dance routines, rotating lead vocalists and satirical lyrics are delivered with equal measures of irony and sass. ‘Yay! Saturday’ - which lives in a post-‘Chaise Lounge’ world - playfully laments the “patriarchy-supporting male privilege of piss left on a toilet seat”, while an unreleased song’s rave-y beats are paired with Charlie’s Angels-style poses and, minutes later, they’re harmonising angelically, arms wrapped around one another. Due to microphone-related difficulties, much of their set is barely audible. Nonetheless, their Sound City debut is enjoyably chaotic.
Florence Road may have gained fame by posting covers on TikTok, but it’s the Irish band’s own songwriting ability that marks them out as far more than a viral success. A four-piece who can really rock, the push-pull of their biggest hit ‘Heavy’ - which recalls the grandiose drama of The Last Dinner Party - is a great indication of what’s to come. Stylistically, though, their set at the Grand Theatre is impressively diverse: the harmonies and soft acoustic strums of newest single ‘Caterpillar’ bring to mind First Aid Kit, while a closing unreleased track bears shades of Olivia Rodrigo, its chorus made for chanting along. Now signed to Universal, these Wicklow girls are sure to go far.
Despite performing to an intimate and mostly seated audience at bar/restaurant/gig space Spanish Caravan, Mudi Sama and his band really give it their all. Across a short set, which includes Weezer and Red Hot Chilli Peppers-inspired singles ‘Bad Life’ and ‘Jealous Type’, the British-born Nigerian-raised artist quickly proves himself as a future indie hero. He may come from a modelling background, but there’s no denying the stadium-sized choruses of his anthems-in-waiting.
Sporting matching striped shirts, ties and shades, Anglo-French sibling duo Disgusting Sisters place fun above all else during their early evening set in the basement of EBGBS. Recalling both the hedonism of Icona Pop and the playfulness of The Cheeky Girls, they jump around and dance carefreely - often as one - under flashing white strobes. Criminally-underrated debut single ‘Killing It’ constitutes a huge indie disco banger, while a song about the horror of 9-5 jobs incorporates wolf howls and a partial-Marcarena routine. Unreleased set closer ‘Calvin Klein’ - for which the sisters join the dancefloor and entice everyone on it to crouch down before jumping back up together as one - is an undeniable hit. Upon leaving the venue, it’s clear they've won plenty of new fans: “I wanna be in the band,” one woman said; her friend replied “it’s like when you’re back in your bedroom at home”.
One of the buzziest new bands to play this year’s festival, alt-rockers Keo justify the hype they’ve built on TikTok with a set that’s full of unreleased material. Fresh from selling out their debut headline tour within minutes, the band of brothers and mates perform to a packed EBGBS basement crowd, many of whom hold their phones aloft recording every moment. Viral hit ‘I Lied, Amber’ is the highlight: a powerful debut statement, it combines raw, powerhouse vocals with complex layers of shoegaze-y guitars, a pummeling rhythm section and a huge chorus. But the London-based band of brothers and their mates - who recently supported Nieve Ella on her European tour - have got plenty of anthems-in-waiting in their arsenal. They sound great and the frontman has a real presence about him.
Bringing a bit of country to Liverpool, it’s easy to see why Glaswegian artist Rianne Downey is soon going to be supporting Texas on tour. With a look not dissimilar to Dolly Parton, collaborations with Paul Heaton and a vocal tone that recalls Ireland’s CMAT, her acoustic-driven songs about love and heartbreak are beautiful – despite the pain that’s inspired them. Following a performance of her brilliant single ‘Lost In Blue’, she teases that her debut album is out next year after “a long time coming”. With someone in the crowd holding a sign that asks her to be their girlfriend, she’s clearly a star in the making.
Performing as part of a showcase hosted by Asian Tones - whose aim is to push forward visibility for the community in the wider UK live music scene - aimei 媚 holds the packed Jacaranda basement crowd silent with her acoustic set. Her talent as a songwriter and vocalist is clear with songs like ‘Villain’ and ‘Need You’ (the latter co-written with Lapsley) demonstrating her impressive range and marking her out as an artist that fans of Taylor Swift would love.
Words: Ben Jolley
