Style: Microtonal pop, progressive pop (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Bent Knee, Imogen Heap, Bjork
Country: England
Release date: 6 February 2026

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Have you ever realized that something you thought you understood has been concealing another layer all along? Maybe you stared at an optical illusion until the hidden image snapped into focus, or discovered that a familiar room contained an unmarked door you somehow never noticed.¹ That wonder of discovering a previously unseen dimension has its musical analogue in microtonality, which explores the musical intervals tucked between the rigid lattice of the twelve-tone Western scale.

British musician Maddie Ashman has attracted a considerable following on social media with videos demonstrating microtonal singing and alternate tunings. On EP Her Side, she tiptoes into the nooks and crannies between semitones, shrugging off equal-tempered certainties in favour of something more liminal. Hypnagogic, dreamy pop melodies hover in the middle of waking and sleep, at once steered and gently unmoored by Ashman’s skillful vocal performance, while light instrumentations shift subtly underfoot.

Unlike some artists who deploy microtones to unsettle or estrange, Ashman seems more interested in their emotionally expressive elasticity. Pitches splay a fraction too wide or narrow, like the sonic equivalent of shimmering cloth disturbed by an unseen hand. Rhythm, too, plays a part in this gentle destabilization. The haltingly playful metre of tracks like “She Said” further ripples the cloth, pairing elegantly with lyrics that are subtle yet vulnerable. 

In this kaleidoscopic weave, the vocals are unquestionably the main attraction. From the chocolatey mid-range of “She Said” to the delicate stalactites of “In Autumn My Heart Breaks” to the feather-light, effortless runs in “Behind Closed Eyes”—all delivered with a charmingly dainty British accent—one has the impression that Ashman never breaks a sweat. The vocals are prevailingly layered, sometimes with many tracks of Ashman harmonizing with herself. The stacked harmonies fold into one another like a millefeuille, weightless yet piled high. 

The multiple vocal tracks also confer an almost religious poise upon Her Side. Nowhere is this liturgical bloom more perfectly executed than in “In Autumn My Heart Breaks”, whose first few minutes are unquestionably the EP’s high-water mark. Opening with a cappella male vocals from Max Robbins, the piece calls to mind a choral hymn. The effect is enhanced by the lyrics, which comprise abstract reconfigurations of the syllables from the song’s title, almost sounding like Latin. As Ashman enters, her vocals ascend higher and higher in ethereal, crystalline arcs, as the harmonies dilate time around them. The guitar that joins two and a half minutes in tugs gently at the suspended harmonic structure, initiating a slow, gentle tumble back to earth.

Instrumentally, Her Side is restrained. The arrangements rarely crowd the vocal centre, instead framing, shading, and deepening. The piano that opens tracks such as “Seraphim” and “Waterlily” lends them a sepia cast, like something from a half-recalled memory. Strings, both plucked and bowed, tilt languidly between notes. Some glitchy, almost vaporous textures surface here and there, such as in the trippy denouement of “She Said,” where the vocals fray into an electronic frizz. However, this last element is less successful: the microtonal compositions are already mind-bending enough and the electronic dilations don’t add much.

On a predominantly dreamy EP, the rare moments of kinetic intensity, like the swelling crescendo of “Rumours” or closer “Behind Closed Eyes”, feel almost startling—as if Ashman suddenly grips the listener by the shoulders and reminds them that behind the gauze lies muscle and bone. But these more charged moments also house some of Her Side’s few missteps: the EP’s abrupt ending that feels like a sentence cut mid-clause, and the oddly whiny vocal timbre that crops up in the closer and “Jaded”. These are small fissures rather than foundational cracks, but on a record so attentive to nuance, there’s little room to hide.

If the twelve-tone scale is a well-lit room with clearly marked walls, Maddie Ashman’s unique compositions invite listeners to dim the lighting and watch as the walls start to warp around the edges. Compelling in its illusive structure and skillful execution, Her Side offers a rewarding exploration of the spaces in between. Maddie Ashman does not seek to demolish the structure; she simply reveals that its boundaries were never as rigid as we assumed. 

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Recommended tracks:  Rumours, She Said, In Autumn My Heart Breaks
You may also like: Rebekka Karijord, Mingjia
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Maddie Ashman is:
– Maddie Ashman (everything)
With guests:
– Max Robbins (vocals)

1. Or finally came to realize that the dress is black and blue. ↩︎