New Music: Salt Ashes - Into The Groove

Salt Ashes has shown her excellent taste in mid 80’s pop before with her cover of Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration back in 2013. Now she’s doing it again by taking on Madonna’s Into the Groove, the track which gave Madge her first UK number 1. 

Into The Groove is also hands down one of the best Madonna songs of all time, the others being Justify My Love, Ray Of Light, Vogue, Like A Prayer, Frozen and Papa Don’t Preach. No arguments please on this. If you disagree you are wrong (but I will allow you to have Holiday, Like A Virgin and I Want You with Massive Attack as close seconds). 

What Salt Ashes (real name Viega Sanchez) has done with Into the Groove is absolutely gorgeous. Given her penchant for dark disco jams, sensual beats and electronic pop it would be easy to expect her to simply maintain the original's club sound, adding perhaps a more modern gloss via production. Yet this isn’t the case. Instead Salt Ashes slows everything down bestowing the song a sense of intimacy and a sense that even if ultimately this is just a tune about dancing with some innuendo about shagging thrown in, it means so much more. Sanchez also grants the song even sharper colours with a vocal delivery that is absolutely to die for. 

Madge eat your heart out. Cover version of the month for sure.

Salt Ashes - Into The Groove

New Music: Salt Ashes - Go All Out (Video)

Long term Breaking More Waves favourite Salt Ashes has been ‘bubbling under’ for what seems like an eternity now – so long in fact that the bubble is now so gigantic that it must surely reach the surface soon. That expansion is helped even further by the fact that her latest two songs, the infectious club banger Girls and new pop anthem Go All Out are her best two songs yet.

Salt Ashes may be the queen in waiting of dark electronic pop but with Go All Out there’s a lot more colour in the sound. However, don’t expect the new video to find her leaping round on a rainbow in a technicolour jumpsuit waving glo-sticks – this is Salt Ashes we’re talking about – so there’s still plenty of black and an abundance of style, as we watch her dinner guests get taken over with her spells of dancing magic. The video appears to be a representation of the lyrics of the song with Salt Ashes exploring the idea of letting go, losing your insecurities and just being free with who you are.

Salt Ashes demonstrated just that philosophy recently when she played at Dials Festival, Portsmouth. With her band taken ill at the last minute Salt Ashes had too options – to pull out last minute or to bravely soldier on. Despite being out of her comfort zone she chose the latter, working out a solo set that despite the ‘difficult’ tea time slot got people moving on the balloon filled dance floor for the first time that day, showing that not holding back is a winning strategy. 

Fingers crossed for some more live shows from Salt Ashes soon, but in the meantime lets go all out and dance like nobody is watching.

Salt Ashes - Go All Out (Video)

Preview: Dials Festival 2018 (Part 2 - Late Afternoon / Early Evening)

One of the best things about running your own small independent festival is that you get to help book the bands. Whilst I don’t book everything on the Dials Festival line up, somewhere between 30 – 40% of the line-up has been my own selections and as a small team we all have an input into the final bill.  

Being a fully independent festival gives us the advantage that the team take some risks in what we book, choosing some acts that we personally like, irrespective of if they’ll sell tickets or not. Yet clearly we also have to find artists within our small budget that will help make punters put their hands in their wallets, buy a ticket and come along to the event.

We also have to try and curate a line-up that makes sense to people. However, for me it’s also important to trust in some of my own judgements and put a few curveballs on the bill to give variety and people some choice. Of course, some of those curveballs may end up playing to virtually nobody, but I have to trust the audience of what is essentially a new music festival to be open minded enough to not just sticking with what they know - discovery is key. As a music listener I don’t listen to one genre or style of music and I’m sure many of you reading this don’t. I like indie, pop, ambient, electronica, soundtracks, folk, hip-hop, country, soul and many more genres, so I want, within reason, the festival programme to represent that variety, yet retaining a consistency that makes a complete bill.

With that in mind here are 3 further recommendations from the Dials bill for the middle part of the day, two of whom should be no surprise to regular long-term readers of the blog and one that I’ve yet to feature, but I’m very excited about.

17.00-17.30 Curxes - The Loft

Curxes played the very first Dials Festival in 2015 and return in an evolved form. Since that last performance the project has downsized from a band and is now just essentially the solo creative vehicle of Roberta Fidora who has moved away from the mainland, across the Solent, to take up residence in the Isle of Wight. In 2017 Roberta released her second album Gilded Cage – a weird experimental electronic ghostly pop record which made it on to the Breaking More Waves 2017 Album of the Year List. 

Live shows to promote the album have been relatively few and far between although Curxes appeared at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival and last year there were a number of gigs supporting Blancmange where a mysterious figure dressed as some sort of dancing bear accompanied Roberta on stage. Will we get the bear at Dials? You’ll have to be there to see. Expect to possibly hear some brand new tracks as well.



18.00-18.30 Salt Ashes - The Loft

You could consider Viega Sanchez aka Salt Ashes as one of the curveball choices at Dials Festival.  There are after all a lot of bands that play guitars and couldn't necessarily be considered pop. 

Salt Ashes is the antithesis of that. She does bangers. Electronic ones. Dark ones. Sultry ones. Very modern ones. There won’t be a guitar in site. Just her, some pitch perfect vocals and someone behind her creating the music. She’s probably the most pop act on the Dials 2018 bill and is all the better for it.

At this point in the evening you have a very simple choice – the psychobilly garage punk sounds of Sleepeaters in Bar Acapulco or some badass dance jams with Salt Ashes. Also, if you choose Salt Ashes you’ll then only have a one minute walk to catch my next recommendation in the venue opposite (Note: All venues are subject to capacity) who start as she finishes, so hopefully you’ll miss very little.

Why not get your disco shorts on (I'd suggest dark leather ones would be appropriate) and give Salt Ashes a go? Listen out for recent single Girls – which has clocked up close to 300,000 plays on Spotify this year.



18.30-19.00 Penelope Isles – The Vaults

For anyone that has ever been to a gig in the West country or pretty much any festival, the chances are you’ll have heard of Big Jeff John. He’s the big guy (obviously) with the big frizzy blonde hair and a heavyweight load of festival wristbands on his arm nodding his head, waving his finger and throwing himself around to the music at as many shows as you have had hot dinners. He’s been hailed as a hero by many, including lots of musicians, who now treat it as an honour to have Big Jeff at their gigs. Rumour has it one of Haim tried to propose to him.

So when Big Jeff recently tweeted “I’ve got something big that I need to say, it’s pretty big, so deep deep breath, build some serious tension. I fricking love all the members of Penelope Isles. They are a great band. Take the dreamy melodies of Beach House and the chunky lo-fi riffs of Grandaddy,” you’d better take notice. 

Thankfully I think everyone in the Dials team agrees with Jeff. Penelope Isles is a great band in the making. I saw them at End of the Road Festival earlier this year and their last two songs were so incredibly powerful they made me well up. Having already toured with The Magic Numbers, Dials is extremely grateful that Penelope Isles are coming to our festival. They’ve been signed to Bella Union records and will have an album out next year. Ones to Watch for sure.

If you want to come to Dials 2018, don't delay. Tickets will be more expensive on the day. Grab them by clicking on this link: www.dialsfestival.com. £16 in advance plus a small booking fee. Exchange them for a wristband on the day at The Wedgewood Rooms Box Office from 12 o'clock.

New Music: Salt Ashes - Girls (Video)

Salt Ashes has been somewhat of a Breaking More Waves regular over the years that she has been bashing out big bops and bangers on the internet.  This is the twelfth time I’ve featured her on the blog, albeit this time with a song that I’ve already featured before, but now there’s a video, so we’re going in for round 2.

Salt Ashes has described these visuals, which are self-directed, as celebrating self-expression, freedom of individuality and confidence. That means what we get is lots of badass women doing the moody staring thing, skateboarding, dancing, reading books (note the #feminist title) and all other sorts of shenanigans. The point is be who you want to be, which I thoroughly endorse, but with a big caveat; be who you want to be as long as it doesn’t really hurt someone else. I mean when popstars say ‘just do what you want to do and be yourself’ it doesn’t give you the right to go out and murder someone. Ok?

Also, thumbs up to the good plant pots and budgerigars in the video as well. 

What I really want to know about the Girls video though is if you were four years old and went to your local playground, wouldn’t you just feel a little bit intimidated if you met that lot hanging out by your favourite slide as they do in the video?  I suspect the reality is that despite the serious popstar look Salt Ashes and friends would actually be dead nice and move out of the way for the children. 

Girls is out everywhere on the internet now. 

Salt Ashes plays Portsmouth’s Dials Festival on 6th October in a venue that also includes performances from Breaking More Waves favourites Lauran Hibberd, Curxes, Grace Savage, Libra Libra and more. You can buy your tickets to support the multi-venue not for profit event by clicking here.  

Salt Ashes - Girls (Video)

New Music: Salt Ashes - Girls

Was it really 2011 when Salt Ashes first appeared on Breaking More Waves? It was. That’s a lot of new music in between now and then. And as Salt Ashes has been doing this pop music stuff for a while now I guess in 2018 nobody would hold it against her if she went for a ‘mature’ sound dropping all the electronics for a sleepy campfire acoustic record designed to fit on one of those Your Favourite Coffeehouse Spotify playlists.

Thankfully she hasn’t at all. Her new tune Girls sounds like it’s heading straight for ‘da club’ with big rubbery bass lines to get the lips, hips and tits moving. It even has the all-important shout of ‘Hey’ which is virtually mandatory on any self-respecting pop record these days. If you don’t believe me check out this piece Peter Robinson wrote in the Guardian last year about how the word has infiltrated music which you can find by clicking here.

Whilst Girls is a body shaker par excellence that doesn’t mean it’s just about popping the champagne and getting down on the dancefloor. There’s a bit more to it; the song deals with two people, one of whom has got the wrong idea about a friendship – they don’t understand that the other person just wants to keep things platonic: “You just don’t know when to quit, you think I’m playing hard to get, I guess you just don’t really know me.” 

Yet whilst there’s clearly a problem between these two people there’s no problem with this tune. Girls is a banger.

Salt Ashes - Girls

New Music: Salt Ashes - Wilderness (Video)

If there’s one thing I know about Brighton’s Salt Ashes aka Veiga Sanchez is that the woman has exceptional taste. Of course, in reality ‘exceptional taste’ means ‘similar to mine’. On her Facebook page she lists her influences as Giorgio Moroder, Change, Daft Punk, Linstrøm, Todd Terje, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush and Radiohead. That’s a very fine list. OK, I’m deducting half a mark for Radiohead, simply because since In Rainbows in 2007 Thom Yorke and co haven’t done anything that’s really moved me other than want to take a sh*t, but still 9.5 for musical compatibility is still very good.

It therefore comes as no surprise to find that Veiga’s own music gets my approval, particularly on racy new release Wilderness, a tune about the recklessness of love – falling deep and losing your mind. Imagine Kylie Minogue if she was still producing music that was relevant and club ready in 2017 and you wouldn’t be far off. Originally taken from Salt Ashes 2016 debut album, the song is now accompanied by a video that depicts the pushes and pulls of a relationship and how the cracks can show and then be covered again through that strange little four letter l-word.

If you're feeling Salt Ashes a bit more than you feel Radiohead, then may I recommend that you get down (the emphasis on getting down - bring your sparkly disco shorts) to Heaven in London on 6th December where Salt Ashes will be joining an excellent supporting bill to Femme that also includes Ronika and Elle Exxe. We can all have a dance then can't we?

Salt Ashes - Wilderness (Video)

Salt Ashes - Raided

“How about a new single tomorrow?” rising dark-disco pop singer Salt Ashes asked on her Facebook on Monday. It’s just as well Veiga Sanchez (for she is Salt Ashes) is a pop singer not a piece of public transport, because there would have been a hell of a lot of complaints when ‘tomorrow’ turned out to be 3 days later than expected. Thankfully in the world of pop, most of us are pretty patient sorts and won’t be tweeting angrily that Salt Ashes has ruined our day / plans by being late. In fact, quite the opposite; pop music, like sex, is often as much about anticipation as the actuality.

Thankfully though we’re not left waiting on the musical platform any longer as Raided is here. It finds Salt Ashes very much ‘in da club’ but still very much with a tune over the top. This one’s very deep, the electronic pulses sounding as if they’ve emanated from some Friday night House basement, contrasting nicely with Viega’s sensually airy vocal. The musical equivalent of tight fitting black leather studded with jewels. It might just turn your hips to liquid.

Salt Ashes - Raided

Salt Ashes - If You Let Me Go (Video)

Salt Ashes new video for If You Let Me Go (which we streamed on Soundcloud a while back here) is all teeth, limbs, candles and frollicking around in water with her clothes on. We’ve noticed a lot of this in pop music recently; for example here, here and here. Do these people not own any swimwear? There's probably an explanation for all of this (it’s probably called art) but it’s beyond us. The video is a little bit creepy in places as well, but frankly we’re more disturbed by this trend for clothes soaking than anything else – let’s hope she’s not wearing any dry clean only items.

Forgotten what a good pop song sounds like? Press play on If You Let Me Go to remind yourself. 

Salt Ashes plays a home town show at Brighton Audio on 22nd Oct and then supports Tove Styrke at a New Shapes show at Notting Hill Arts Club, London on November 5th. 

Salt Ashes - If You Let Me Go (Video)

Salt Ashes - If You Let Me Go

In amongst the hundreds of new music submission emails we get weekly there will occasionally be one from somebody who has stumbled across Breaking More Waves having found an old post about an artist that name checks songs (often demos) that are no longer available on line, asking if we have copies of these songs to share. We still get a lot of requests for people asking for Marina & The Diamonds’ Mermaid vs Sailor demo EP which we mentioned in 2008, Neon Fashion and Glowstix and Do It Well by Charli XCX which we mentioned here and more recently we've had a small number of requests for Salt Ashes early songs such as Love In The Echo and Edge Of The Heart which we streamed in 2011 when we introduced her to blog readers (here). The answer to all these enquiries is a big fat no.

But the fact that people are asking about the Salt Ashes songs demonstrates one thing; that she’s developing a small but determined group of fans. 

Yesterday those fans had something new to cheer as Salt Ashes released a new tune. Well, sort of new, it first surfaced in an earlier form in 2013 – you’ll have to email the blogs that featured it to see if they have a copy if you want to hear it, but we expect you’ll get the same answer as the one we give.

So to the new song. It's called If You Let Me Go. 

“You don’t need to rescue me, rescue me, if you let me go,” Salt Ashes shrieks over a tough disco pop groove that threatens to make you lose your inhibitions on the dance floor, taking reference from early Madonna and Nottingham based singer / producer /sometime DJ Ronika. It’s another piece of classy pop from the Brighton singer that will have you thrusting your hips as if you were the hottest thing in ‘da club’. Which you’re probably not. But then pop music is all about fantasy so if you think you are when listening to this, the song has done its job.

Salt Ashes - If You Let Me Go

The Great Escape Festival 2014 - Review (Part 3)

It was the third day of Brighton’s Great Escape Festival and once more Breaking More Waves took to its streets amongst shoppers, tourists, clubbers and the occasional hen and stag party for a non-stop day of live music, clocking in a whopping 42 acts full performances over the course of the whole festival.

Here’s ten more things we learnt: (You can find the other things we learnt here and here)

1. Bridie Jackson of Bridie Jackson & The Arbour likes to keep it old school.

Keeping it real, the golden toned Bridie Jackson had a Filofax on stage for her lunchtime performance at the Komedia. We assume that this had the set list written on it, but maybe when she wasn’t providing note perfect renditions of songs such as We Talked Again and Prolong she was actually looking at a shopping list for all the clothes she was going to buy down The Lanes boutique shops later?

2. The Great Escape involves spending a lot of time in basement venues.

And due to lack of wi-fi this meant that often if we wanted to live tweet from the gig we had to resort to old fashioned text tweeting, if there was a signal at all. Brighton’s Audio won however, as it has public access wi-fi.

3. Our new favourite discovery of the festival was Meanwhile.

From starting his set eagerly jumping up and down in the audience as his three-piece band began to play, to his finishing stride out through the crowd, the man known only as Meanwhile became our new favourite discovery. Here was a man who fizzled with charismatic / camp booty and hip shaking energy and a blast of Prince like electro-funk grooves, plus songs that were both intriguing and infectious. Despite suffering from the dreaded ‘technical hitches’ he knew how to impress. His debut track Luvletta streams below.

4. Sometimes just when you don’t expect that much from a band, you get a lot more.

Having already seen Fickle Friends three times this year we suspected that gig complacency might set in for ourselves, after all there’s only so many times you can see a band play the same songs isn’t there? Plus the gig was in The Mesmerist, a pub with no stage. It didn’t bode well. However we were proven completely wrong, the bands summery effervescent blend of indie pop sparkling bright, bringing natural highs, big smiles and dancing. Lead vocalist Natassja admitted that she was enjoying the show more than the previous night’s one at the Green Door Store, even although the band had been up partying most of the night. 

5. Half hour sets are the perfect length.

Nearly every gig at Great Escape was half an hour long. This was the perfect length. Not too long that new bands would struggle with material, but also perfect for more established bands who could ditch the filler and just play the killer. It’s also the ideal length for attention spans, allowing the audience to get enough, but probably leaving them wanting that tiny bit more.

6. Gig venues at festivals like this need to have food stalls.

How else are we going to be able to zip from venue to venue without pit stopping elsewhere for refuelling and potentially missing the opportunity to see more live music? So we’re not asking much are we? Just a food stall and wi-fi in every venue please. Thanks.

7. Salt Ashes is more than quite good.

With pulsing dark disco electronics and throbbing beats Brighton’s own Salt Ashes knows how to make sexy pop music. This we already knew. But Great Escape gave her the opportunity to show that she could also do it live. She delivered. Unlike many other pop acts there was no guide or backing vocal, for Salt Ashes voice is so note perfect that she didn’t need it. Add to that a composed and commanding stage presence and this lady showed that she means business.

8. Indie rock is the lifeblood of Great Escape Festival.

Whilst there was pop, dance, folk and a small amount of hip-hop, indie rock was the dominant genre of Great Escape. One of our favourite bands within this genre was Blessa. With chiming, anxious, noisy and claustrophobic guitar work juxtaposed with dreamy female vocals the Sheffield band brought an old fashioned indie sound bang up to date in the Komedia Studio.

9. We thought the only band to ever wear shorts and get away with it was Carter USM.

But Olly Alexander, lead singer of Years and Years proved us wrong in the Corn Exchange with shorts, a baseball shirt and cap. We saw several girls swooning. Black clad skinny jeaned indie boys take note. Can you imagine The Horrors in shorts? That might be a giggle.

10. The Great Escape is a must visit for any fan of new music. It also represents excellent value.

An early bird ticket was just £39.50 plus a small booking fee. We saw 42 acts, the majority of them being above average quality. You do the maths. 

See you there next year?

Bands Seen On Saturday: Bridie Jackson & The Arbour, Codes, Meanwhile, Jake Isaac, Fickle Friends, Robyn Sherwell, Years And Years, French For Rabbits, Young Summer, Blessa, George Barnett, Salt Ashes, Hannah Georgas

And finally, here are the important statistics:

Number Of Artists Full Performances Seen In Total: 42

Number Of Hours Sleep: 14.5 ( An average of 4.8 hours / day)

Fatigue Factor: Surprisingly awake

Hugs From Artists: 5

Number Of Music Bloggers Randomly Bumped Into: 8

Meanwhile - Luvetta

24 Hour Blogathon : Salt Ashes - Little Dove

It’s been nice to see a growing cluster of music blogs becoming acquainted and endorsing Brighton’s Salt Ashes, particularly with recent song Somebody, it’s dark disco throb finding love in all sorts of places. Now comes the b-side, which is a weird concept when you’re streaming music or downloading it from iTunes isn’t it? 

If Somebody showed a pop heart beating on the dance floor then Little Dove sounds like the walk home from the club after. The music has a sultry late night undertow, a hip grinding twang and a sense of distance and loneliness. Fans of the likes of Banks or FKA Twigs might be converted with this one. “I’ll be waiting for you to change me,” she sings. Well this tune’s certainly a change from Somebody not being as instantly accessible, but don’t let that put you off, in the longer term it oozes just as much quality.

This blog post is one of a series published as part of Breaking More Waves non-stop 24 hour Blogathon to raise money for Cancer Research UK. If you have read this post and enjoyed it or the music we’d really appreciate it if you would donate £2 to Cancer Research using the button below. 

Salt Ashes - Little Dove

Salt Ashes - Somebody

Now that Kylie Minogue is being everyone’s sweetheart on BBC1's The Voice and sitting on one of those big red spinning chairs (have they played Spinning Around yet – they really have to don’t they?), we need someone to keep her other seat, throne warm whilst the princess of pop concentrates on being the new queen of talent show TV. Here’s someone who fills the gap perfectly, to the extent that when we played this song for the first time yesterday someone who was in the room at the time asked: “Is this the new single from Kylie?”

It isn’t of course, Somebody is the new single by Brighton’s Salt Ashes (real name Veiga Sanchez). You may remember her from way back here or a bit more recently here with a rather decent Depeche Mode cover. Somebody (also the title of a Depeche Mode tune, but this one is an original) feels like the first ‘proper’ release though, whatever that means these days, with artists uploading and removing tracks from the internet quicker than the speed a prostitutes knickers go up and down.

So now that we’ve agreed (yes we can see you nodding) that there’s undeniably a hint of the Minogue’s to the song, let’s also agree that musically this one’s a sexy pulsing Moroderesque electronic disco-beast with synths that swirl and romp as if they’ve given up any hope of maintaining any degree of decency and have just got straight down to it. 

Somebody is released on the 17 February but for now you can stream it here.

Salt Ashes - Somebody

Salt Ashes - Black Celebration

Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration is one of our all-time favourite albums from the 80’s. It’s a record that manages to beautifully juxtapose human emotion with the music of machines and melody. So it was with some trepidation when we pressed play on this new version of the title track by Brighton’s Salt Ashes.

Thankfully our nerves were soon settled. Nobody is likely to surpass the original; how can you better perfection? But this is very good all the same.

Starting with a similar electronic intro to the masterpiece, the track soon drops away into something spacious and minimal, allowing you to focus on the words. “Your optimistic eyes, seem like paradise, to someone like me.” Even when we hear those lyrics 27 years on it makes us feel impossibly romantic. “Consolation, I want so much, want to feel your touch, tonight.” Oh! Consider us completely blown over and taken.

Although there’s minimalism within this version there’s also clouts of mountainous electronic oomph as well, which combined with Salt Ashes sensual voice means that we’re happily able to celebrate the fact that we’ve seen the back of another black day.

You can find more (new) Salt Ashes here.

Salt Ashes - Black Celebration

Salt Ashes - Gold

Last month you may remember we introduced you to Brighton’s Salt Ashes putting her firmly in the Kate-Bush-brought-up-to-date-with-synths-and-a-hint-of-Ellie-Goulding camp, or something similar to that. If you’ve forgotten already then play catch up by clicking the link above.

Now you’re up to speed we can reveal this, a new song, from the sodium chloride burning lady. It hit the internet today and it’s called Gold. Fear not though, it’s not an ear bleeding horror show cover version of the Spandau Ballet ‘classic,’ but instead her own composition.

Imagine if you can the improbable event that Kate Bush had finally decided to make a comeback (oh hold on….), but she decided to throw out the Bulgarian folklore, renaissance musicians or strange literary reference points and instead remodelled herself for the iGeneration, straddling her grand piano on the X Factor, possibly dressed in artistically ‘revealing’ garments – but not the overtly sexual / virtually naked garb that the likes of Rihanna are prone to not covering their bodies with, but something a little more classy. This is very much what Gold sounds like. Of course what we've done there is provide a visual description rather than an audio one, but a picture speaks a thousand words doesn't it?

Now we fully understand that the words Kate Bush and X Factor don’t go hand in hand at all and that it’s likely that fans of Kate will be put off by the TV show reference and vice versa. But imagine if it did happen. Kate (Salt Ashes) would be surrounded by candles, lit by a single white spotlight, in the distance ladies dressed in black robes would dance like shadowy ghosts and at the end the camera would cut to Louis Walsh looking a little bit teary. A number 1 single would surely follow and the song would feature on a number of 'intimate' or 'romantic' moments in chick-flicks.

In the real world of course Salt Ashes is playing The Brunswick in Hove (basically a pub in the posh end of Brighton) on Wednesday 26 October, with more gigs to follow shortly. We don’t expect there to be any dancers, candles or Louis Walsh to make an appearance, but there’s still time for all that to happen - because fundamentally a well-written song is a well-written song whatever the context or style. In fact, imagine if you walked into a grotty seaside pub and heard someone singing and playing like this. That would be pretty stunning.

Gold by Salt Ashes

Salt Ashes - New Waves

When someone says “She will probably be up your street if you enjoy the music of people like Ellie Goulding and Lights and Kate Bush and that sort of thing,” then you can be certain that the interest of Breaking More Waves will be roused.

So from that moment of arousal meet Salt Ashes – a potential pop star in the making, although currently unsigned. Salt Ashes is from Brighton, another seaside city just a few miles down the road from Breaking More Waves HQ of Portsmouth. An ex-vocal coach (she worked on German TV show Popstars on Stage), earlier this year she self-released an impressive under-the-radar EP called Sirens Roar under a different name; Ruse. If you live in Brighton, you may have already seen her perform in the city using this first name. As seems to be the trend these days (hello Lana Del Rey) now that Ruse has done the donkey work a new moniker is in order – hence Salt Ashes – although a quick Google search does reveal that various other incarnations of Ruse already exist and to avoid any law suits and difficult Google searches a name change was probably very advisable.

By now you’re probably thinking not another pop singer who has a line in dramatic soprano vocals – the whole Kate-Bush-brought-up-to-date-with-pop-and-electronic-synthy-modern-production-that-sounds-a-bit-like-Ellie-Goulding has been done to death. This is where you are categorically wrong. You can NEVER have enough singers who sound a bit like Kate-Bush-brought-up-to-date-with-pop-and-electronic-synthy-modern-production-that-sounds-a-bit-like-Ellie-Goulding. It’s a bit like saying that you can do without any more air, or water or chocolate digestive biscuits.

So to the music. Probably by this stage you’ve either stopped reading because the idea of Kate-Bush-brought-up-to-date-with-pop-and-electronic-synthy-modern-production-that-sounds-a-bit-like-Ellie-Goulding is not your thing, or you can’t be bothered with reading this much text (try one of those blogs that just posts with no commentary, no voice and no personality next time) or you find this whole post quite annoying and just want to press play. However if you are still with us (and thank you) then we’d say that the monster length Edge of the Heart also has elements of Kylie and Little Boots and would need a big edit to get it radio play, whilst Fire is characterised by some neat squiggly sounding electronics and that Love In The Echo is the mature piano ballad that shows that Salt Ashes is more than just a Kate-Bush-brought-up-to-date-with-pop-and-electronic-synthy…ok we’ll stop now. Press play please. PLEASE.

Fire by Salt Ashes

Love In The Echo by Salt Ashes

Edge Of The Heart by Salt Ashes