The Quietus
@theQuietus
Black Sky Thinking since 2008. Help support independent cultural journalism & get perks by becoming a tQ subscriber here: https://steadyhq.com/thequietus
It's here! The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025. What's at Number One? How many have you heard? buff.ly/h3osP6p @normanrecords
Confronting & Celebrating the Limits of the Body: Keith Kahn-Harris on Ozzy Osbourne's final gig: "Gone was the clown prince of darkness, throwing buckets of water over the audience; in place of such slapstick was an intensity never seen before." thequietus.com/opinion-and-es…
'Made up of #ShovelDanceCollective members Jacken Elswyth, Daniel S. Evans and Joshua Barfoot, Sullow's hypnotic knots of banjo, guitars, dulcimers and drums come from an understanding of traditional music as malleable and open ended' Sullow - Dedications: Cassette Reviews for…
"I’d recommend people listen to it all the way through, if possible on vinyl. I listen to it for healing, it’s like a meditation. I love how these choral arrangements are almost like brass arrangements, but sung – it was a big inspiration for the brass on Self Titled."…
Aaron Turner – #Sumac frontman and guest star on the new album from the mighty #PharaohOverlord – tells tQ what his parallel career in tattooing has taught him about humility and human connection Aaron Turner on the Philosophy of Tattooing buff.ly/DsG3Y78 @SUMACband
'Maybe if a brutalist building had a song, it would be something like ‘The Master Builder’: rough, ordered, and rhythmic, with grotty, unfinished surfaces. One can almost hear concrete and iron beams in the invented timbres' Xeeland - Master Builder buff.ly/xfTEL3l…
'The albums to come would be relatively maximalist, hi-fidelity, widescreen and technicolour. It’s worth wondering if his experiences with Dreamworks and the Oscars did more harm to Elliott Smith than good.' Rejecting the Culture Morticians: #ElliottSmith’s 2nd Album Revisited…
From the close-knit DIY underground to the centuries-old choral singing embedded in national identity, in his latest guide to the music of Central and Eastern Europe @kknera turns his eye to #Estonia Inner Ear: Estonian Music for July buff.ly/SFXvwlj
'With this cutting-edge cohort of collaborators, DJ Haram delivers a debut worthy of an artist intent on tearing through the clichés that cling to both sound and identity – confronting the systems that colonise, both outwardly and within' Beside Myself by #DJHaram is tQ's Album…
'Graeme Revell would eventually become a soundtrack composer in Hollywood, but ‘Slogun’ remains their defining track, heralding the more rhythmically rigid sounds of EBM and techno that were to come.' S.P.K. – ‘Slogun': Organic Intelligence XLVI: UK Industrial Diaspora…
"The conceptual nature of this record doesn’t compromise how much it bangs. It’s like a Trojan horse, where people can be playing these songs anywhere, but underneath it is this perfectly executed lyrical declaration." #KaeTempest on #KendrickLamar - DAMN.…
'The tragedy of death – particularly when a person dies young – casts a shadow backwards over everything they did or were. The weakness of this view is that it's too singular and attributes autobiography where there may simply be storytelling.' #ElliottSmith’s Second Album…
'Brighton-based spoonerism fans Wevie Stonder's approach is akin to that of Cassette Boy, Mr Scruff, or Matmos at their cheekiest. In an era of disposable music, where the lifespan of a record rarely extends beyond its release week, perhaps the comedy album can shine?' Wevie…
Rian Treanor is releasing a collaborative album with Glasgow-born, Stockholm-based artist Cara Tolmie set for release on @Planetmurecords You can listen to lead track ‘My Little Loophole’ here: buff.ly/n30K2ag
'Changez Les Blockeurs emerged in 1982 and instantly defined a new paradigm: this was not ‘noise music’, it was simply ‘noise’, a cacophonous denial of everything that had come before it' #TheNewBlockaders – Changez Les Blockeurs: Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK Industrial…
#NineInchNails have shared details of their first original soundtrack project, for upcoming film #TronAres Listen to lead single ‘As Alive As You Need Me To Be’ here: buff.ly/VRj7Zx5
#MassiveAttack, #BrianEno, #Kneecap and Fontaines DC have formed an alliance of musicians speaking out about Israel’s ongoing military assault on #Gaza buff.ly/kH7uxHG
'For 40 minutes, the quartet plumb the depths of depravity in a way that The Bad Seeds and even The Birthday Party never did. Suspenseful and sordid, a psychedelic amnesia grips every track as it fails to remember the lurid crimes witnessed in the song before.' Reissue of the…
'The culmination of a bunch of different aspects of the post-industrial scene, incorporating Burroughs-esque cut-up techniques and swirling drones – influenced by the trance music of the Master Musicians of Joujouka' 23 Skidoo – ‘Kundalini’: Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK…
