have shared their debut EP ‘Wilting’, and it’s a record that doesn’t flinch.

The London four-piece have spent the past few years quietly becoming one of the capital’s more compelling alternative propositions, and ‘Wilting’ feels like the moment that build-up turns into something sharper. Post-punk bite meets gothic gloom, shoegaze haze and grunge heft, with folk-tinged melodies pulled through walls of distortion. It’s often beautiful and often punishing, and it tends to be both inside the same four minutes.

The title does a lot of the work. Botanical imagery runs throughout, used as a lens on inherited trauma, family expectation and social injustice. A plant that wilts isn’t necessarily finished. It’s reacting to where it’s been put.

“A wilting plant might be a sign of the beginning of the end, but it’s certainly not all over if you provide it with the right conditions,” says vocalist and lyricist Naz Toorabally. “These songs are about being put in conditions that don’t allow you to thrive… I’ve seen what losing hope does to a person and I don’t want to succumb to the lure of hopelessness.”

The EP splits its gaze between the personal and the political. Recent single ‘Daughter’ tackles the weight placed on the eldest daughter in a family, with drifting verses that give way to a chorus of serrated guitars and pounding drums. ‘Daisy Crowns’ looks back at carefree youth through a shoegaze fog. ‘Fig Leaves’ takes on misogyny over murky, atmospheric grunge, and closer ‘Black Walnut’ turns its fire on failing leadership, with theatrical flourishes and a psychedelic streak.

Guitarist Ella Patenall produced the record, recording and mixing it with Tom Hill (GENN, Pollyanna, Knuckledust). The result is heavier than anything Dogviolet have put out before, though the spectral quality at the heart of their sound survives intact.

Toorabally and Patenall’s partnership goes back more than fifteen years, to a Year 10 English classroom. They formed Dogviolet in 2022 and later added drummer Lauren Allpress and bassist Margot Cintract. Since then they’ve supported Heartworms at Village Underground, The Wedding Present in Birmingham and L.A. Witch at MOTH Club, and picked up airplay from John Kennedy on Radio X along the way.

7 October – Manchester, The Peer Hat
14 October – Brighton, Daltons
23 October – Bristol, Cafe Kino
7 November – Northampton, The Lab
8 November – Birmingham, The Sunflower Lounge