As two recently released books seek to uncover the truth behind the life of the late Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, Stephanie Phillips delves into both texts to reveal why O’Connor was more than the stereotypes ascribed to her For years when I was younger, I was consist … | Continue reading
As the US reels from the re-election of Donald Trump, Jesse Dorris finds solace and inspiration in a fine weekend of concerts curated by Polish festival Unsound, from hunkering down to basement techno to riding the drone of Kali Malone and Sunn O))). Photos by Lawrence Sumulong. … | Continue reading
A Lynchian collection of recordings from a vintage Peel Session throw the differences between the Bill Callahan of today and his former moniker Smog into sharp relief, says Jeremy Allen Bill Callahan watchers have invariably learnt not to take his words at face value. Truth infus … | Continue reading
Lorenzo Abattoir Mess (Akt IV) A study in breath work and amplification from the Italian sound artist MESS (akt IV) by Lorenzo Abattoir Great singers are often as much great microphone artists as they are voice artists. Think of Frank Sinatra or Al Bowlly. The force, the affect o … | Continue reading
Alvin Curran, Kali Malone and Colin Stetson are among the acts playing the Dutch festival in April Rewire has revealed the first wave of acts playing its 14th edition in April. Returning once again to various venues around the Dutch city of The Hague, the festival will take in sp … | Continue reading
The four-track release marks his second outing for the label following last year's Dismantled Into Juice Blawan is releasing a new EP through XL. Spanning four tracks, BouQ marks the UK producer's second outing for the label, following 2023's Dismantled Into Juice. It builds on t … | Continue reading
Folk duo Stick In The Wheel speak to Patrick Clarke about how their issues with Victorian folk collectors, a vintage Nina Simone clip and the imagining of a parallel London informed their new record A Thousand Pokes Photos by Bram Brooks There’s a wonderful video of Nina Simone, … | Continue reading
Richie Culver may have named all the tracks after the contents of his medicine cabinet, but his latest album fizzes with a palpable anxiety Amongst dangling chains and pink-lit tiling, a man appears. He’s bare-chested save for a leather waistcoat which, combined with the latex gi … | Continue reading
Robin Carolan Nosferatu (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) The score for Robert Eggers' creepy remake returns the horror score to the days when it still had the power to genuine frighten us, finds Charlie Brigden Upon its release in 1922, Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau’s unofficial ada … | Continue reading
After news broke this week of the death of pioneering DJ, producer and musician J Saul Kane, aged 55, Wrongtom pays tribute to his trailblazing – and often overlooked – work under Depth Charge, The Octagon Man and many other guises Photo via Instagram / The Sabres Of Paradise Lat … | Continue reading
Cahill Costello Cahill/Costello II Glaswegian drum / guitar duo record that always keeps the listener on their toes Cahill//Costello II by Cahill Costello Cahill/Costello II is a set of widescreen tracks, pulsating with sound and atmosphere. Following 2021’s Offworld, the Glasweg … | Continue reading
Able Noise High Tide From the Hague, a disorienting, fragmented slice of art school rock that stretches time before slamming it in your face High Tide by Able Noise Able Noise’s High Tide is an album forged from the pull of its creators’ distinct backgrounds. Baritone guitarist G … | Continue reading
As the avant-garde legend unveils her epic new multimedia performance ARK: United States V, Alastair Shuttleworth picks out ten key tracks from her otherworldly discography On 3 February 1983, Laurie Anderson unveiled her four part multimedia show United States at the Brooklyn Ac … | Continue reading
Jennifer Lucy Allan returns from this month's trip around the Rum Music universe with a 7CD boxset of sonic enlightenment, live solo drum tapes from one of the year's greatest gigs, and more Limpe Fuchs and Mark Fell As I write this I feel the inexorable rush towards the end of t … | Continue reading
Dennis Bovell Sufferer Sounds The legendary producer digs through the archive of his Jah Sufferer Sound System days, digging up new dubs of tracks by Matumbi, Janet Kay, and others Sufferer Sounds by Dennis Bovell A pioneer of dub music and progenitor of lovers rock, Dennis Bovel … | Continue reading
The venue's license has been temporarily suspended for 28 days pending a further hearing London club Heaven has had its license temporarily suspended after one of its security guards was charged with rape. The famed LGBTQIA+ venue's licence was suspended by Westminster Council fo … | Continue reading
Harm-reduction charity The Loop will carry out the testing at the London and Manchester venues Photo by Jake Davis A year-round drug-testing programme has been introduced at London club Drumsheds and Manchester's The Warehouse Project. Harm-reduction charity The Loop will test an … | Continue reading
The new release sees the multi-instrumentalist collaborate with billy woods, ELUCID, Esperanza Spalding and more Shabaka Hutchings has a new EP on the way. Spanning five tracks, Possession sees the UK multi-instrumentalist collaborate with the likes of billy woods, ELUCID, Espera … | Continue reading
On its thirtieth anniversary, Simon Price celebrates the mysterious brilliance of TLC's era-defining CrazySexyCool, recalls a memorable encounter with T-Boz, Chilli and Left Eye, and asks whose album it really was CrazySexyCool is the record that destroyed the Auteur Theory in po … | Continue reading
As they announce third LP Microtonic, Hull foursome bdrmm tell Alex Rigotti how they stared into the abyss left by lockdown and found themselves liberated by rave music and a healthy dose of nihilism All photos by Stew Baxter Four years ago, God reclined smoothly into his cloudy … | Continue reading
Warmduscher Too Cold To Hold London miscreants draft in the voices of Irvine Welsh, Lianne La Havas and Jeshi for expansive new self-produced record “I took a long hit on the pipe… and I felt my body slowly dissolve into digital dots” intones Irvine Welsh as Warmduscher’s latest … | Continue reading
With the publication of his new book Folklore Rising, artist and author Ben Edge guides us through ten of the songs that accompanied him on his travels through the ancient customs of the British Isles This journey began when I was going through a bout of severe depression and had … | Continue reading
After witnessing a ferocious Dingwalls performance, Michael Hann makes a case for Redd Kross as the ultimate Gen X band Photo courtesy of Nick Sayers The biggest con music writers try to pull on readers is to claim so and so would have been huge had it not been for the evil recor … | Continue reading
Sal Dulu Nafuchsia In Fantasy Irish beat-maker raises hell (with a little help from Fly Anakin) Full Metal by Sal Dulu Dublin-based producer Sal Dulu was apparently inspired by depictions of hell when making his second album. Bosch, Botticelli and Bruegel the Elder be thanked for … | Continue reading
As it receives a 20th anniversary reissue, Zachary Lipez re-examines TV On The Radio's formative debut as the shape of indie yet to come If there’s a band that makes me regret the ruination of the good and noble word “hipster,” it’s TV On The Radio. The term used to have a charm … | Continue reading
In the latest edition of New Voices Ukraine, tQ's new collaboration with 20ft Radio, Neformat, the British Council and Ukrainian Institute, Yaryna Denysyuk explores the Ukrainian musicians whose work has placed them on the cultural frontlines of the war, from 2014 to the present … | Continue reading
Troubled by facts that felt like fiction, Anna Doble feared Patrick Keiller's 1994 film might all be an in-joke. But, as she writes in this month's Low Culture Essay, it created a magic-real place that she would later explore through song. On a grey and overcast day in 1994, I wa … | Continue reading
Toni Sauna 8EEFour Ohio rapper teams up with producer eCUSSIONIST for seven tracks of forward-facing hip hop Ohio-born rapper Anthony Mills has maintained a steady stream of nonchalant yet lyrically fire releases under his Toni Sauna moniker for a few years now. One half of Wildc … | Continue reading
Drawing on Tiqqun's Preliminary Materials for the Theory of a Young-Girl, the Austrian artist and musician deftly deconstructs ideas around femininity, pop music – and herself (without skimping on the good times and great tunes) Sophie Royer by Jasmine Baumgartner Ever feel like … | Continue reading
It includes the band's first-ever Christmas song, 'Now And Laughter' A Certain Ratio have shared details of a new four-track EP, Christmasville UK. Due out next month, it features the band's first-ever Christmas song, 'Now And Laughter', which was originally demoed during the rec … | Continue reading
They've also shared lead single 'Respite For The Tulpamancer' Colin Self has a new album on the way via RVNG Intl., titled Respite ∞ Levity For The Nameless Ghost In Crisis. Comprised of 12 tracks, the record sees Self sing in both Latin and Polari. Marking the artist's third ful … | Continue reading
Nature Manifesto will run at the cultural building from November 20 through to December 9 Björk has teamed up with French artist Aleph to present a new sound installation at Paris' Centre Pompidou. 'Nature's Manifesto' has been designed with assistance from AI and French music in … | Continue reading
The Body's new album crushes together everything that’s come before, in all its perilous glory. Dan Franklin speaks to Lee Buford and Chip King about keeping their heads – in a world that seems not to care at all Photos by Zachary Harrell Jones “How do you exist in a world that d … | Continue reading
Noel Gardner delivers his latest roundup from the punk and hardcore underground, from gleaming Polish goth to motorik intensity from Leeds, plus two big scoops of noisy American d-beat Atomic Prey Speaking as a pig-ignorant monoglot with a computer, there’s nothing I enjoy more t … | Continue reading
Michaela Turcerová alene et Saxophonist and composer explores the outer reaches of her instrument's palette alene et by michaela turcerová There’s something to be said for a record that can destroy expectations of what an instrument is or can be. The sound of any given instrument … | Continue reading
It's preceded by lead single 'Crispy Skin' Squid have shared details of their third studio album, Cowards. Spanning nine tracks, the record, a press release said, "is about evil", and was recorded in London with producers Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Speedy Wunderground label b … | Continue reading
The track was written amid the same studio sessions that birthed latest album Something In The Room She Moves Julia Holter has released a new standalone single, titled 'The Laugh Is In The Eyes'. The track was written and recorded during the same studio sessions that birthed the … | Continue reading
The rework features vocals from Cosey Cosey Fanni Tutti has been enlisted to remix KÁRYYN's recent single 'The REAL'. The rework, which you can listen to below, features vocals and sequencing by Cosey, and appears on a new EP, KÁRYYN REMIXED, alongside other remixes by HAAi and A … | Continue reading
Elaine Mitchener speaks to Vanessa Ague about the influence of John Cage and Jean-Michel Basquiat on her curation for this year’s Deep Time Festival, her forthcoming world premiere there, and a wider lineup including Aidan O’Rourke, NikNak, Apartment House and more Photo by Dmitr … | Continue reading
Despite not being a proper album, Hatful Of Hollow possesses a freshness and immediacy that was lost elsewhere in The Smiths’ discography, argues Toby Manning on the record’s 40th anniversary Hatful of Hollow is The Smiths’ best album because it’s their most innocent. This may se … | Continue reading
The Body The Crying Out of Things After two decades’ revelling in the possibilities of bleak heaviness, The Body return with dub-infused bangers for a nightclub in hell The Crying Out of Things by the body Even on their eponymous 2004 debut there was a playfulness to The Body, wr … | Continue reading
Various Artists Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk From The South China Sea (1974–88) A labour of love from Soundway records compiling funky hits from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and more Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk from the South China Sea (1974-88) by Various Artist … | Continue reading
As Paul Weller closes a UK tour in London, Fergal Kinney considers the decades long appeal of the Surrey singer-songwriter, and Weller's own political interventions Photo by Mick Peek At the Paul Weller concert, there are surprisingly scant Paul Weller haircuts. Least of all on P … | Continue reading
Norman Willmore and Corrie Dick speak to Gail Tasker about the unique weirdness of Shetland's folk music, and how experiments with archival sources produced their debut album Twa Double Doubles Photo by by Douglas Tyrrell-Bunge In Shetland, there’s a folkloric creature known as t … | Continue reading
In an exclusive extract from his new book, On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy, philiosopher Simon Critchley explains why the only proof of animism he knows is music If mysticism lives on in aesthetic experience, then this comes at the cost of acknowledging that art is utterl … | Continue reading
The Latvian artist's latest release is a combination of granular synthesis and coding-produced sounds sofi, one of the figures on the 2024/25 SHAPE+ rosters of artists, has a new album on the way, titled AZE. Set for release via the Italian label Riforma, it will be made availabl … | Continue reading
An audio catch up with everything we’ve been writing about on tQ – five hours of bangers and more! It’s getting dark outside, the tonsured creature above is looking at me funny – time to get out these monthly playlists before things get weirder. Firstly, we had a rush of new memb … | Continue reading
Claire Rousay The Bloody Lady A new soundtrack for an old Slovakian animation finds Claire Rousay at her most dreamy The Bloody Lady by claire rousay Ten minutes into Viktor Kubal’s 1980 animated film The Bloody Lady, a whimsical world turns evil. A noblewoman who’d spent her mor … | Continue reading