The Windmill scene is a musical scene that originated around the

Windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

pub in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, during the late 2010s and early 2020s. The term is usually defined with a blend of

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

and

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

, featuring erratic, spoken vocals as well as inspiration from genres such as

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

and

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

. A key figure on the scene's formation is producer Dan Carey, who signed many Windmill bands to his record label, Speedy Wunderground, which has also given it the name Speedy scene. Among the bands described as being part of the scene are

Black Midi Black Midi (stylised as black midi) were an English Band (rock and pop), rock band from London, formed in 2017. Their most recent line-up consisted of lead vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Geordie Greep and Cameron Picton, along with drumme ...

Black Country, New Road Black Country, New Road (commonly abbreviated to BC,NR or BCNR) are an English rock band formed in Cambridge in 2018. The original founders of the band consisted of Tyler Hyde (vocals, bass), Lewis Evans (vocals, flute, saxophone), Georgia Eller ...

Squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

Shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

, Maruja,

the Last Dinner Party The Last Dinner Party are a British indie rock band from London, formed in 2021. The band consists of Abigail Morris (vocals), Lizzie Mayland (vocals, guitar), Emily Roberts (lead guitar, mandolin, flute), Georgia Davies (bass) and Aurora ...

Fat White Family Fat White Family are an English rock band, formed in 2011 in Peckham, South London. Frontman Lias Saoudi has remained the project's sole constant member across multiple line-up changes. The band's current line-up also includes Adam J Harmer ...

Heartworms ''Dirofilaria immitis'', also known as heartworm or dog heartworm, is a Parasitism, parasitic Nematode, roundworm that is a type of Filarioidea, filarial worm, a small thread-like worm, and which causes dirofilariasis. It is spread from host (bi ...

Goat Girl Goat Girl is an English post-punk band from South London. Their initial lineup consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Clottie Cream (Lottie Pendlebury), guitarist and occasional lead vocalist L.E.D. (Ellie Rose Davies), bassist Naima Jelly ( ...

, PVA and occasionally, Fontaines D.C.

Definition and history

Described by the Ramapo College of New Jersey's ''Ramapo News'' in 2025 as "the most significant movement in rock music in the past decade", the Windmill Scene began to be acknowledged by mainstream outlets like

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

and

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

in the early 2020s as an emerging force in British guitar music. Another name used to refer to the scene is "Post-Brexit" new wave, scene or music. Matthew Perpetua of NPR explained the term, writing "For one thing, there's no getting around how much of this music is a direct response to the social dynamics of post-Brexit England... The politics aren't always foregrounded, but there's an unmistakable feeling of shame, disappointment and pessimism about Britain's future permeating all of this music." Nonetheless, Black Midi bassist Cameron Picton criticised the term in an article in 2022, saying "I don't think there's actually any bearing of Brexit on any of our music. And if you were going to call anything post-Brexit, it would be the bands that are starting out now, maybe." The movement's frontrunners have achieved important commercial success, with Black Country, New Road's '' Ants From Up There'' album debuting at No. 3 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, and a well received performance by Black Midi of the song " bmbmbm" on the Hyundai Mercury Prize in 2019. The scene is widely described as sharing a spoken vocal style as well as a blend of

and

. Nonetheless, some of the scene's biggest exponents, such as Black Midi and its guitarist

Geordie Greep Geordie Wade Greep ( ; born 20 August 1999) is an English musician. From 2017 to 2024, he was the Lead vocalist, frontman and lead guitarist of the rock band Black Midi, often considered part of the emerging wave of British rock music#Early 202 ...

, began to incorporate different influences to their work, such as

and

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

, as well as

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

and

chamber pop Chamber pop (also called baroque pop and sometimes conflated with orchestral pop or symphonic pop) is a music genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, and other components drawn from t ...

in the case of Black Country, New Road. The Windmill scene has also began to have an influence in foreign acts, with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Geese A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (black geese). Some members of the Tadorninae subfamily (e.g., Egyp ...

and

Sprain A sprain is a soft tissue injury of the ligaments within a joint, often caused by a sudden movement abruptly forcing the joint to exceed its functional range of motion. Ligaments are tough, inelastic fibers made of collagen that connect two or ...

, and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

's Hesse Kassel and

Enola Gay The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel (United States), Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the Atomi ...

being compared to Windmill bands.

References

{{New wave music Post-punk Music scenes English styles of music Rock music genres