The Quietus

Underground hero and Sly & The Family Drone bandleader Matt Cargill sits with Jon Buckland to discuss the free jazz, hip hop, horror and noise that has shaped his life. Photo by Lasse Marhaug You could have crossed paths with Matt Cargill keeping the show on the road at such cream-of-the-crop festivals as Supernormal and Acid Horse. Maybe you’ve been privy to his perennially bonkers and joyous rooftop takeovers at Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival. Perhaps you’ve seen him at his day job running t

Tariq Goddard enjoys sets from Pulp, Angine de Poitrine, Gnod, Mozart Estate and more at Larmer Tree Gardens set in Thomas Hardy country. Main photograph of Pulp: Burak Cingi Things ain’t what they used to be, which for many of us is a sign that history bends towards the light, at least as far as festival antics and amenities are concerned. No more Glasgow punks throwing a raver off a bridge because he wouldn’t shout ‘I Am Mussolini’. (I complied and was carried aloft in their arms like Maximus

The record sees him lean back towards dance floor territory after last year's SickElixir LP Photo by Ryley Paskal Blawan has a new EP on the way for XL Recordings. Comprised of two tracks, titled 'Gi Mi Keys Back' and 'Auto Fake', the record builds on his mischievous modular techno sound of recent years, while leaning back towards dance floor territory after the more experimental reaches of last year's SickElixir LP. A digital release of the EP is due later this month, while a limited edition 12

Angus Andrew's 11th studio album under the project name will be released in March Photo by Clemens Habicht Liars have shared details of a new album, titled A Ban On Plastic Bag Bans. Spanning 11 tracks, the 11th studio LP from the Angus Andrew-led project follows 2021's The Apple Drop. It explores the bureaucracy and corporate power that Andrew encountered while living in middle America, according to a press release. The album takes its name from an actual Michigan law that prohibits local gover

Mike D Thank You A Beastie Boy looks back to the sounds that made the trio great while also drawing succour from the future For the better part of a decade after fellow Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch died of cancer in 2012, a tragedy that also marked the end of the iconic hip-hop outfit, Mike D, understandably, just couldn't bring himself to make music. "I'd open a computer file, and I'd just feel sadness," he said. The past was too heavy to lift; it kept him from reaching into a well he'd always

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of a groundbreaking TV series on immigration set in Birmingham. John Quin revisits and ponders its relevance to the current moment Just like before – as Karen Carpenter once sang - it’s ‘Yesterday Once More’. The sha-la-la-la days are over and the woah, woah-ohs you hear on TV these days are the screams of ICE victims. Fascism is on the rise in France and Germany. Here the British tabloids express a naked hatred of immigrants while masked thugs block the

Another Day On Earth and Drawn From Life, two of his records that have been largely out of print for almost two decades, are back in new editions Photo by Guido Harari Brian Eno has relaunched his cult label Opal Records after more than three decades of inactivity. He's marking the imprint's return with the reissue of two of his albums that have been out of print outside of Japan for almost two decades. The first of those is 2005's Another Day On Earth, which was Eno's first song-based album sin

From outbreaks of greasy schlockabilly to strutting Melbourne garage rock and leftist blackened hardcore from Essex, Noel Gardner delivers his latest guide to the best new punk rock releases Lothario, image by Rag & Bone Photography There’s an enduring urban myth about a man who, having been banned for life from his local bar decades ago, presumes it’s all long forgotten and pays a return visit. No sooner has he stepped through the door than he’s told “fuck off Ken” (or whatever his name is in t

Sir Richard Bishop Hillbilly Erotica A surprisingly beautiful turn in the Sun City Girl's ongoing exploration and expansion of US folk guitar styles Hillbilly Erotica by Sir Richard Bishop Released by the always interesting Drag City comes this new offering from former Sun City Girls guitarist Sir Richard Bishop. Bishop has an extensive back catalogue which holistically covers dozens of albums, indeed just his solo output is pushing twenty releases. Hillbilly Erotica follows last year’s Hillbill

Peter Ross talks to the Green Lung frontman about the 'Magnificent Seven' graveyards of London, and transcending fear of death. Main photograph taken in Barnes Old Cemetery At Green Lung gigs, frontman Tom Templar has a particular way of introducing the band: “We play Old English, black magic, forest-dwelling, mushroom-eating, goat-bothering, devil-worshipping heavy fucking metal.” It is a neat summary of their aesthetic, though he might add “graveyard-visiting” as that is part of the vibe, too.

John McKeown speaks to Adey Lobb about taking a ten-thousand day break between albums and the jet-black darkness before the dawn. All photographs by Luke Fowler Everybody Talks About the Weather by The Yummy Fur “I was getting to the point where I was thinking, I don't want to be a cabaret revival band. All we were doing is playing songs we wrote 20 years ago.” John McKeown has been leading the Yummy Fur since 1992. But, when Everybody Talks About The Weather is released on 25 September, it will

In the early 80s, the Tory government accidentally helped fund a network of fanzines that were vital to the European musical underground. James Brown recalls a time of obsessive creativity currently having a revival Pages from Attack On Bzag! as featured in Zine Age Kicks, courtesy of James Brown Scrolling through instagram recently I came across an account for the Raising Hell fanzine, an A5 hardcore print zine I was close to over four decades ago. It was quite a shock, like a 20th century spac

My Heart is Dust Before Him: 21st Century Gasba from Algeria Various Artists A new compilation from Oran collects music that stayed home while raï went global Various Artists - My Heart is Dust Before Him: 21st Century Gasba from Algeria by Various Artists The word raï means opinion. Singers used to drop it into a line while they worked out what to say next, a placeholder that turned into a genre name. That detail tells you what this music was built for: improvisation, in front of people, with n

In an exclusive extract from Tom Hagler’s new book River of Words, the Quietus presents an archive interview between Mitchell and TV presenter Richard Skinner from the BBC’s Saturday Live back in 1983 Joni was in the middle of her world tour, having played in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Concertgoers in Sydney reported how she’d altered the lyrics to ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ to support the campaign against the Franklin Dam. It was the country’s biggest environmental movement to date and would succ

20 years ago this week, J.G. Ballard published his final novel, Kingdom Come. In 2026, it feels like he was prophesying the United Kingdom of today, a country in which racism has been institutionalised and the quiet bit is now being shouted out loud. Louis Pattison returns to the bleakest of Ballard's late-period works and asks whether it's too late to heed the book's warnings Photo by Matt Brown via Wikimedia Commons “Violent? Here, in leafy Surrey? The consumer paradise? It’s hard to believe.

The EU brought in new fees for small packages this summer, raising the cost of sending items such as vinyl and merchandise to people based around Europe UK Music and the Association of Independent Music (AIM) have issued a joint statement calling on the UK Government to tackle new fees for exporting items to the European Union (EU). At the start of July, the EU introduced a flat customs duty of €3 per small package which, alongside mail handling fees, has heavily increased the cost of buying pro

The nine-track record is available digitally for free Photo by Diara Sow Loraine James has released a surprise new album, titled It's Nothing Personal.. Comprised of nine tracks, the new record follows Detached From The Rest Of You, an album that James put out on Hyperdub earlier this year. It can be purchased digitally for free via Bandcamp, while a CD edition is also available to buy there too. It's Nothing Personal. leans heavily into the glitchier elements of James' sound, folding in elemen

It was made in collaboration with Alan Turing biographer Andrew Hodges, and encompasses spoken word, and electronic and orchestral music Photo by Eva Pentel Pet Shop Boys are set to release a new album next month, titled A Man From The Future and made in collaboration with Alan Turing biographer Andrew Hodges. Spanning eight tracks, the new LP takes in electronic and orchestral music, as well as spoken word. It explores eight significant chapters in the life and death of Turing, the influential

On the 50th anniversary reissue of Mort Garson's Mother Earth’s Plantasia, a cult classic attempt to communicate with plants via Moog noodles, Joe Muggs selects 10 more examples of musicians plugging themselves into the green stuff Detail from the front cover of Mort Garson's Mother Earth’s Plantasia The fields are barren, glaciers are melting, whole landscapes are burning – it’s not looking good out there, is it? It’s little wonder, given all of this, that there is a real shared cultural sense

It was captured across three shows that the band played at London's Roundhouse in December 2014 Manic Street Preachers have announced a new live album, Holy Bible Live. It centres around three shows that the band played at London's Roundhouse in December 2014, which saw them play their classic 1994 album The Holy Bible in full for the first – and possibly last – time to mark its 20th anniversary. The recordings on The Holy Bible Live were mixed by audio engineer Dave Eringa in the months followi