Maruja

A band named after a sign glimpsed on a family holiday in Spain, Maruja have built their music from jazz, noise and post-rock. Formed in Manchester in 2014 by Harry Wilkinson and Matt Buonaccorsi, who had been childhood friends at The Manchester College, the group now features Wilkinson on lead vocals and guitar, Joe Carroll on saxophone and vocals, Buonaccorsi on bass and Jacob Hayes on drums. Their EPs combine post-rock, jazz-rock and noise rock with a restless edge, and critics have also reached for post-punk and post-hardcore.

The band disowned their earlier releases after guitarist Liam Laurence left in 2019, and Carroll said the old material no longer represented where they stood musically. Knocknarea, their fourth EP, arrived in March 2023, followed by Connla's Well in April 2024, which Paste's Matt Mitchell praised for its intensity. Later that year they signed to Music for Nations, and their debut album Pain to Power, released in September 2025, reached number eleven on the UK Vinyl Albums Chart and thirteen on the UK Physical Albums Chart.