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The Quietus
@thequietus.com
35K followers 76 following 3K posts
Black Sky Thinking since 2008.

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · Dec 1
Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts

What have been your top picks of the year?

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thequietus.com
Our punk columnist returns with a selection of wicked anarcho goth gear, rampaging crust punk, top drawer retromodern hardcore apocalyptica and more to see you through the new year's slog

Straight Hedge! Noel Gardner Reviews #Punk & HC for January

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[BRICK], black and white photo by Josh Vintaer.
January 13, 2026 at 9:17 AM
thequietus.com
Hen Ogledd will release their first new album in six years, DISCOMBOBULATED, on 20 February 2026 via Domino Recording Co

Revisit a Quietus interview with the band here:

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Photograph of Hen Ogledd on stage, lit with green light.
January 12, 2026 at 5:30 PM
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thequietus.com/news/black-m...
January 12, 2026 at 5:08 PM
thequietus.com
Founding Black Midi guitarist Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin has died, aged 26
January 12, 2026 at 4:31 PM
thequietus.com
Followers! tQ is at this second sat at 1999 paying subscribers. Can you launch us into a new millennium, in exchange for bonus essays, podcasts, playlists and much more? Join us here:

thequietus.com/subscribers/
Subscribers | The Quietus
Support independent journalism and culture Help The Quietus continue bringing you the best in cultural criticism by joining one of our subscription tiers. Cancel easily anytime.
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January 12, 2026 at 3:19 PM
thequietus.com
"The unions in Hollywood didn't allow it to be called music and instead it had to be called ‘electronic tonalities’. It’s an important part of the electronic battle in music"

Stephen Mallinder on Bebe and Louis Barron – Forbidden Planet (#CabaretVoltaire's final tour in 2026)

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Bebe and Louis Barron – Forbidden Planet OST cover. Robbie the Robot in a green tinted alien world landscape with two flying saucers - one landed and one still airborne.
January 12, 2026 at 2:40 PM
thequietus.com
The Sleaford Mods frontman discusses life and creativity with his friend, the film maker and occasional director of music videos

Peer Review: Jason Williamson Interviews Ben Wheatley… and Vice Versa

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January 12, 2026 at 12:01 PM
thequietus.com
'Tragic Magic is a confluence of currents traversing both the physical and metaphysical, space and time, resulting in fleeting spectrums of colour that were never meant to last, but to travel through.'

Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick - Tragic Magic

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Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore's debut collaborative album, Tragic Magic, cover. Two female figures in a fantasy type illustration of a forest. The two figures are standing in a clearing with a harp and a keyboard set near the front of the image.
January 12, 2026 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
The always terrifying and ever enthralling UK horror author #AdamNevill (who came in at No 2 in our recent survey of 21st C horror fiction) releases a new novel, Monumental, on 2 April 2026

Revisit a Quietus interview with Nevill here:

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Adam Nevill - Monumental book cover. A feather faced, red eyed and pointy toothed demonic creature against a black background.
January 11, 2026 at 11:59 AM
thequietus.com
"I first saw it 25 years ago. It had that same kind of impact as a weird Bunuel surrealist sort of film. I love the idea of Jodorowsky shoehorning his own mad music into his own mad film"

Stephen Mallinder on Holy Mountain OST (#CabaretVoltaire will tour for the last time in 2026)

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Holy Mountain OST album cover. The Alchemist walking along a thine line towards the sorcerer.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
The prolific and consistently brilliant US horror author #RonaldMalfi (who came in at No 5 in our recent survey of 21st C horror fiction) releases a new novel, The Hive, on 14 April 2026

Revisit a Quietus interview with Malfi here:

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January 10, 2026 at 11:30 PM
thequietus.com
"I think for a lot of us who love pop music that has psychedelic overtones, that was the record that really showed you what you could do with delay and with reversing the tape..."

Bob Mould on The Beatles - Revolver (Sugar play New York and London this May)

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The Beatles - Revolver album cover. Black and white photographs mixed with detailed but non-realistic drawings of the Fab Four.
January 10, 2026 at 9:33 PM
thequietus.com
#MyBloodyValentine are playing Japan in February, London's Royal Albert Hall in March and Primavera in Barcelona in June

Revisit a Quietus piece that focuses on the band's rhythmic invention here:

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January 10, 2026 at 4:30 PM
thequietus.com
"The role that women played in [early] electronic music was so important. Daphne Oram, Suzanne Ciani, Delia Derbyshire..."

Stephen Mallinder on Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson – The Legend Of Hell House (#CabaretVoltaire will tour for the last time in 2026)

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Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson – The Legend Of Hell House album cover. A photograph of a woman dressed in black with a silver crucifix around her neck. The photograph also has some intentional, psychedelic distortion.
January 10, 2026 at 2:05 PM
thequietus.com
'Deemed a commercial misfire, at some point since its release, Mulholland Drive has gone on to become widely considered one of the best films of the 21st century so far...'

Low Culture Podcast: #DavidLynch's Mulholland Drive

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Still from Mulholland Drive. Naomi Watts superimposed against a shot of some palm trees lining the road against the sky.
January 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
"It had some of the similar elements [to Loveless]– the density, the droning, the real pop structure but it was a little bit more mechanical. A great album, a really fun record."

Bob Mould on Garbage - Version 2.0 (Sugar play New York and London this May)

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Garbage - Version 2.0 album cover.
January 10, 2026 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
Looking further ahead into 2026, #CabaretVoltaire will play their final tour, with some European dates in March and June and UK dates in October.

You can revisit a science fiction, horror and fantasy film soundtrack themed Baker's Dozen with Stephen Mallinder here:

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January 9, 2026 at 9:30 PM
thequietus.com
"Oh my god, what a period of time. Two of my favourite bands were also on Creation at the time [alongside Sugar] – the Valentines but also Swervedriver..."

Bob Mould on My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (Sugar play New York and London this May)

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My Bloody Valentine - Loveless album cover. Close up of a guitar being strummed rendered in fuzzy pink light.
January 9, 2026 at 6:31 PM
thequietus.com
#Devo and the B52s will play The O2 in London on 20 June 2026

You can revisit an archive Quietus interview with Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale here:

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Photograph of Devo dressed in matching white uniforms with dark square sunglasses in a room that looks like a control centre in a cheap science-fiction film.
January 9, 2026 at 3:30 PM
thequietus.com
'That was one of those records where the instant I’d heard it, by the end of side one I was like, "This is it, this is what we’re gonna do with music now."'

Bob Mould on #JoyDivision - Unknown Pleasures (Sugar play New York and London this May)

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Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures album cover. White lines mapping peaks in the centre, against a black background.
January 9, 2026 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
...you can find out more about the jumper, and John's theory on the meaning of David Lynch's film, via the link here:

thequietus.com/subscriber-a...
Low Culture Podcast: Mulholland Drive | The Quietus
No hay banda! There is no band… just two fine looking gentlemen of a certain age resplendent in their seasonal knitwear. John and Luke start 2026 with a resolution to be optimistic and positive in out...
thequietus.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:08 AM
thequietus.com
Luke sends his apologies to Quietus subscribers for forgetting to include the promised photo of @jahduran.bsky.social's incredible wedding cake jumper knitted by his partner Maria with the Mulholland Drive podcast, but here it is now for your delight and warmth:
January 9, 2026 at 11:07 AM
thequietus.com
#Kraftwerk will be on tour throughout the UK (plus a date in Dublin) in May and June

Find out Ten Things You (Possibly) Didn't Know About Kraftwerk here:

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A Kraftwerk robot at its keyboard.
January 9, 2026 at 9:01 AM
thequietus.com
Sugar, the trio formed by Bob Mould in the wake of #HüskerDü, return with their first live dates since January 1995 this May

Discover Bob Mould's favourite music here:

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January 8, 2026 at 9:48 PM
thequietus.com
#Gorillaz will release new album The Mountain on 27 February 2026

You can revisit an archive Quietus piece on the band's debut here:

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January 8, 2026 at 3:00 PM