{"id":1770787,"date":"2026-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1770787"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1770787","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tLED BY NO ONE\u00a0<\/span>
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Fearlessly distinct in both sound and vision, Ledbyher has carved her own route to the forefront of the UK underground\u2019s push toward global recognition.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"Led
(Top) Bikini top FRUITY BOOTY; jacket FENDI; earrings & necklaces D\u00c8V\u00c8. (Bottom) Ledbyher wears top MIL\u00d3 MARIA; skirt DIESEL; shoes VAGABOND; hat BENNY ANDALLO; earrings D\u00c8V\u00c8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

When it came to naming her new mixtape, 22-year-old Rachel Aisyah Diack was guided by serendipitous circumstances. \u201cThere\u2019s so many reasons!\u201d the rapper, producer and visual director, known primarily by her moniker Ledbyher, exclaims about her decision. A log fire crackles behind her, as we hide from early January\u2019s sub-freezing temperatures in the cosy Yurt Cafe in Limehouse (her choice) for a catch up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shared on February 13th via Island Records, which she signed to last year, the project has been coined \u201cThe Elephant\u201d. The majestic, matriarchal creature has been a spiritual, ubiquitous presence in Rach\u2019s life since she was an infant. She spent her early years in Indonesia, her mother\u2019s native country, where the animal would roam freely. She got a giant elephant tattoo on her leg in Thailand. And fast forward to last year, when she had to find a new place to live, having dropped out of studying film at university to focus full-time on music, there was only one area where she could find suitable dwellings: Elephant and Castle. Her specific street, in fact, is where a 19th-century all-female syndicate gang called the Forty Elephants \u201cwould go around, sometimes dress like boys, dress like men, and rob people,\u201d she laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lore fits her script; Rach doesn\u2019t tend to live by the rules. An enigmatic emblem of the UK underground\u2019s rise to prominence, she carries an air of gentle mysticism, eclectically influenced by all that surrounds her. She heralds everything from William Shakespeare to David Lynch, metal band Slipknot to drill collective Harlem Spartans, as influences. Her artistic pseudonym is a phrase she plucked from the opening lines of \u201cThe Prelude\u201d, a poem by Romantic era renegade, William Wordsworth.<\/p>\n

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Dress DIOR; top HILDUR YEOMAN; hat
HAT N SPICY; rings GIOVANNI RASPINI.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Led
Jacket & skirt FENDI;
shoes CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN; earrings & necklaces D\u00c8V\u00c8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

As a musician, she is idiosyncratic and immersive, her self-proclaimed \u201cbedroom drill\u201d both inherently British and stylistically elusive, whilst threading together jerk rhythms, R&B atmosphere, and murky SoundCloud rap. As a character, she\u2019s fiercely ambitious and boldly uncompromising, perhaps best encapsulated by putting pen to paper on her Island Records deal last year \u2013 but only when the conditions suited her. \u201cI was going to sign early last year, but I ended up signing mid-to-end last year,\u201d she explains. \u201cI kept saying no because they wouldn\u2019t put Rens [Mijnhardt, her close friend and often collaborator] in as my creative director. Because if he wasn\u2019t in, I wouldn\u2019t take any deal.\u201d She\u2019s got a good lawyer too. \u201cI love him,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rach may have barely kicked off her twenties, but she has had her fill of life experience. Having called an army base in Germany (her father was a Scottish RAF pilot) and the Indonesian jungle \u2018home\u2019 by the age of six, her family settled in a seaside village in Norfolk, a bucolic county in western England, where she was based until moving to London a few years ago. She remembers fragments of memories: her first friend, Hazal, whose father owned a kebab shop, and who was the only other child of mixed heritage in her class. She recalls her older sister \u2013 now also an artist, Anjeli \u2013 being bullied because of their cultural background. \u201cI remember these two twins, Alex and Elysia, they called her fish lips, and I punched them on the playground, and I got suspended.\u201d She was a loud kid, but not rude loud, just excited. Oh, and she loved stilts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stilts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, I loved stilts. I still do love stilts. You give me a pair of stilts, I\u2019m done for the day.<\/p>\n

Have you got a personal pair?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not at the moment.<\/p>\n

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\"Led
Jacket CAWLEY STUDIO; shirt AMI PARIS;
skirt MIL\u00d3 MARIA; hat BENNY ANDALLO; earrings stylist\u2019s own; rings
GIOVANNI RASPINI.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Despite her unbridled joy of stilts, growing up wasn\u2019t easy for Rach. She and her sister were carers for her mum. Home life was tough. She was an outsider stuck in small-town obscurity. But she had music \u2013 beginning to produce in her teenage years and eventually finding her voice on the mic \u2013 and film. The latter gave her a route to London when she was offered an unconditional offer at a London university, largely thanks to the quality of her self-directed and edited music videos. Through selling beats and a stint saving lives as a lifeguard, she took the plunge to move south to the capital.<\/p>\n

She began releasing music in 2020, and by the end of 2024 had shared three EPs, \u201cCUNCH\u201d, \u201cachy\u201d (a co-release with her sister), and \u201cFIVE SONNET SESSION\u201d, showing a lyrical potency and artistic vitality that made her stand out in a busy, bustling underground. The potential was there \u2013 but 2025 changed everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very delusional person,\u201d she giggles. \u201cSometimes if I think about something so hard, like constantly, it just culminates into actually happening in my life.\u201d She must have been thinking a lot last year; from a Skepta co-sign, several collaborations with major fashion brands, to a feature on \u201cDays In The 3\u201d, the stand-out track on Leicester\u2019s rap champion Saint\u00e9\u2019s latest EP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elephant\u201d looks set to further ignite a major breakthrough for Rach this year. Bolstered by production from the likes of Mac Wetha (Anim\u00e9, Lava La Rue) and Slippery (Clavish, OFB), and a vocal contribution from Irish artist Biig Piig, the tape floats through ethereal melody, haunting texture and off-kilter resonance, anchored by Rach\u2019s sometimes sung, other times rapped, vocals. Building from the instinctive sonic medley that she\u2019s been building since she began producing, the 12-track is a perfect introduction to her diverse, distinctive and daring world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I was getting to grips with everything \u2013 about why I was making music, who I was making music for, what music I was making, and what the hell is going on,\u201d she says. \u201cThis year feels like the time to show one body of work to people. It was such a long process, and there were so many feelings up in the air, and this is the one place where I stuck to one nucleus. This is the record. I just love the way it sounds and feels, and that\u2019s just what I roll with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the UK underground scene continues upwards in its trajectory, Rachel Aisyah Diack thrives in tandem. With a quality new body of work in \u201cThe Elephant\u201d and the promise of \u201cso many features\u201d to follow, could Ledbyher be leading the way in 2026? She\u2019s certainly not going to be following anyone. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be left to your own devices, I think,\u201d she concludes. \u201cYou can\u2019t really do that if you\u2019re in the middle of everything.\u201d The scenic route it is then.<\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cThe Elephant\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Pre-order Wonderland\u2019s Spring \u201926 issue here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Photography<\/strong> by Grace Pickering<\/p>\n

Styling<\/strong> by Rosie Sykes<\/p>\n

Words<\/strong> by Ben Tibbits<\/p>\n

Hair and Make-up<\/strong> by Anjeli Niara<\/p>\n

Videography<\/strong> by David Adams<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t14 February 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Magazine<\/a><\/div>\n
Music<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tWe can\u2019t stop thinking about Lady Gaga\u2019s custom Luar.<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland LED BY NO ONE\u00a0 Fearlessly distinct in both sound and vision, Ledbyher has carved her own route to the forefront of the UK underground\u2019s push toward global recognition. (Top) Bikini top FRUITY BOOTY; jacket FENDI; earrings & necklaces D\u00c8V\u00c8. (Bottom) Ledbyher wears top MIL\u00d3 MARIA; skirt DIESEL; shoes VAGABOND; hat BENNY ANDALLO; earrings D\u00c8V\u00c8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1770787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1770787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1770787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1770787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1770787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}