Red Ivory photo by Addy Nzerem
Twiddling your thumbs after finishing your A levels? Not if you’re Red Ivory. The South-London teenage four-piece released a new EP, Please Leave, I Need to Wake up Now instead. It’s gritty indie rock that hits you in the face – and the gut – offering confrontation rather than escape.
The first notes of opener “12 October” make it clear that the young women – Eiliyah Redha, Frida Olaberria, Berry Stuttard, Ivy Forbes Adam – are not interested in sleek production or sing-along choruses. Instead, they channel anxiety and rebellion, and the track would not be out of place on Nirvana’s Bleach. It’s scruffy and abrasive, filled with the kind of restless energy teenagers tend to be bursting with. “Can’t you see it’s no good for me / I don’t wanna feel but you make me”, Redha sings, sounding moody and petulant. A bit like a teenager, you might say, if it wasn’t for the fact that her voice has the primal rawness of PJ Harvey at the peak of her powers.
On “Crashing Down,” the band even manages to up the ante and plunge into the claustrophobic anxiety you may experience under the influence, which the song addresses. The distorted guitars create a dark, nervous atmosphere, and the song is the kind of masterclass in push-and-pull dynamics that Sonic Youth perfected over their career. When the manic collapse finally arrives and everything comes, well, crashing down, you feel like you could use a bit of a rest to regroup.
Thankfully, Red Ivory show some kindness in the form of “Hate the Way”, more jangly indie pop than in-your-face rock for the most part, not unlike Hole’s softer, melancholic offerings. Wistful and bittersweet, it’s proof that creating chaos isn’t Red Ivory’s only forte, and though the lyrics are anything but happy-go-lucky – “I hate the way I feel about you / But I can’t change anything” – the track shows the emotional nuance that stops the music from feeling one-dimensional.
At 1:12 minutes, “Interlude” may be the EP’s shortest song but it’s also the most ominous-sounding, keeping you guessing as to whether it’s going to turn into a full-on heavy metal assault. It doesn’t, segueing into closer “My Mind” instead, a song that somehow manages to bring to mind all those female or female-fronted acts that made ‘90s guitar music such a thrill. L7? Check! Veruca Salt? Check! Sleater-Kinney? Check!
Red Ivory pick up the mantle some 30 years later, and like all those artists as well as the ones mentioned earlier, they aren’t offering comfort but truth. It’s fierce, ragged, at times uncomfortable, the way truth tends to be. Here’s hoping that adulthood will not blunt their edge.
Red Ivory: Please Leave, I Need to Wake Up Now – Released 28 November 2025
