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The Quietus

@thequietus.com

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Black Sky Thinking since 2008. Help support independent cultural journalism & get perks by becoming a tQ subscriber here: https://steadyhq.com/thequietus

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · Jul 7

It's here! The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025.

What's at Number One? How many have you heard?

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@normanrecords.com

Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025 graphic. Composite image made of several of the top ranking artists.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1h

'In the vein of music by composers of the New York School, like Morton Feldman, John Cage, or Christian Wolff, the album also has deep collaboration at its heart, an interest in group dynamics and the ways an ensemble comes together and falls apart'

#MarkFell - Psychic Resynthesis

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Mark Fell - Psychic Resynthesis album cover. A yellow skull bathed on orange, with a number 23 stuck to its forehead.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 3h

In this month’s antidote to the algorithm, Tim Burrows steps into the outer reaches of the music scene of his Essex seaside hometown and tries to get back before the tide turns

Organic Intelligence XLIX: Southend (Avant) Rock

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The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on Blue Peter (black and white still).

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 5h

Daniel Dylan Wray argues that the depiction of Steel City life in a little-known 1995 film acts as a "companion and contrast piece" to Pulp's commercial breakthrough, released the same year

How #Sheffield Film Tales From A Hard City set the Scene for #Pulp’s Different Class

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Black and white photograph with three young people in it. One is wearing a baseball cap and a bandana over his mouth.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 6h

They're not even my favourite 40th band... and there are many post-punk bands I prefer. I realise that they're probably the most popular American post-punk band of course. You made me re-read the article... I hope you're pleased with yourself!

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 6h

How patronising ("Bless your heart"). I'm not feeling insulted though, as I didn't write the piece :-) Remain In Light is the only Talking Heads album I like all the way through personally. The others have some great songs but also ones I don't care for at all. I prefer ...Bush of Ghosts though.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 7h

Their fourth album may have been born under punches, and may still raise questions over its authorship for the band’s exceptional rhythm section – but it hangs together perfectly, and it never seems to age.

Many Happy Returns to #TalkingHeads' Remain In Light, which turns 45 today

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Talking Heads - Remain in Light album cover. Four band members with their faces blocked out in red.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 20h

Our Strange World Of #Soulwax article is now accompanied by a curated playlist of essential tracks that define their career

Join the Quietus Subscriber Plus tier for access (to this plus many more perks)

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Soulwax - Leave the Story Untold album cover. a plastered brick wall with some scruffy trainers hanging in the top left corner.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 22h

Beverly Glenn-Copeland is releasing a new album, Laughter In Summer.

Two new singles from the record have been released. You can listen to both here:

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Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Laughter In Summer album cover. The artist's hand picking a pink rose.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

'If Hicks McTaggart does make it back home again, it won’t be to the same America he left, “to a country not yet gone Fascist”. Given the current state of the country, this naturally seems like a comment on the United States today'

#ThomasPynchon’s Shadow Ticket Reviewed

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Thomas Pynchon's Shadow Ticket (Large Print) American cover. A 30s street scene with lettering above.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

'Working instinctively, the duo eschewed guitars altogether on All Systems Are Lying, creating a record that bounces between paranoid synth-rock (‘Gimme A Reason’), glittering disco (‘Run Free’) and the noodling techno-funk of the title track.'

The Strange World Of… #Soulwax

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Soulwax - All Systems Are Lying album cover. A human hand with a butterfly perched on top of it.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

'Richard Ashcroft is as much the Scott Walker of Britpop as David Baddiel is the Spike Milligan of comedy is the new rock ‘n’ roll. You’d think someone who is a million different people from one day to the next would have more than a couple of ideas'

#RichardAshcroft - Lovin’ You

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Richard Ashcroft - Lovin’ You album cover. Photograph of a beach at sunset with Ashcroft silhouetted in the foreground with his arm and guitar raised aloft.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

'If #DutchUncles built their reputation on angular pop exuberance, Richards’ debut long-player re-roots him in a more contemplative, exploratory soil: part electronic meditation, part modern classical suite, part intimate diary.'

Robin Richards - Taproots

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Robin Richards - Taproots album cover. Collage comprised of mosaic like pieces of a green painting.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965, one of #MilesDavis’ most mythical live albums, is getting a new reissue.

The updated release gives a new lease of live to an album that has been out of print for three decades.

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Miles Davis - The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 reissue. Ten pieces of vinyl and the box they come in.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 1d

"This is a famous wedding song. I wanted the listener to feel that they were in the middle of a celebration with the musicians playing around them and a gathering of people dancing and clapping."

‘Kulun’ from Mulatu Plays Mulatu (2025) - The Strange World of #MulatuAstatke

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Mulatu Plays Mulatu (2025) album cover. A portrait of the artist in the centre of the image with many small black and white drawings in the surrounding margins.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 2d

'Such was the obscurity of French underground music in the UK and USA that when Stapleton listed some of these prizes on his Nurse With Wound list years later, they were widely assumed to be mischievous inventions.'

Michel Faber on Situationism and the French Rock Underground

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Black and white image of French protesters and police from some time in the 1970s.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 2d

Poised to release their first Soulwax album in seven years, Stephen and David Dewaele talk Gemma Samways through their tenure at the forefront of the rock dance crossover.

The Strange World Of… #Soulwax

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Soulwax, portrait by Nadine Fraczkowski. The duo pictured in a night time street.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 2d

'Ten years on from their acclaimed debut, the Southend-on-Sea post-punk quintet sound spookier than ever. While not exactly demonstrating a great deal of innovation, Mountain View is still a spectacularly enjoyable album to spend time with.'

The Plan - Mountain View

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The Plan - Mountain View album cover. A colourful naive painting of a mountain view scene.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 3d

#YoLaTengo’s long out of print 1998 collaborative album with Jad Fair, Strange But True, is being reissued

You can listen to ‘Texas Man Abducted By Aliens for Outer Space Joyride’ here:

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 3d

"I was very lucky to host #DukeEllington and his big band when he came to Ethiopia in 1971 and I played a concert with him at the Addis Hilton hotel. His band honoured me by playing this piece"

'Dewel’ from Mulatu Of Ethiopia (1972) - The Strange World of #MulatuAstatke

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Mulatu Of Ethiopia (1972) - The Strange World of Mulatu Astatke

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 3d

'Aside from all the political rumblings and obscure historical facts, it’s Pynchon’s portrayal of human relationships that really shines in Shadow Ticket. The many-faceted little nuances of dialogue and action that will bring lovers together, or not'

#ThomasPynchon’s Shadow Ticket

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Thomas Pynchon Shadow Ticket cover for Quietus review.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 4d

Ian Thompson’s new book Synths, Sax & Situationists explores the legacy of soixante-huit through the music of bands like Cheval Fou, Barricade, Maajun and Fille Qui Mousse...

Michel Faber on Situationism and the French Rock Underground

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 4d

Our Strange World Of #LaurieAnderson article is now accompanied by a curated playlist of essential tracks that define her career

Join the Quietus Subscriber Plus tier for access (to this plus many more perks)

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Black and white photograph of Laurie Anderson with an image of the Earth as seen from space behind her. Anderson's head is in her hands.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 4d

In two recent Fever Ray videos to promote a new album of reworked material and a forthcoming accompanying book, several of their strangest characters come together for a therapy session....

INTERVIEW: #FeverRay’s Therapist on the Radical Romantics

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(L-R) Ebba, Romance, and Fever Ray. Photo by Nina Andersson

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 5d

"I've always felt there is a deep connection between Latin and African music. I travelled to Cuba and listened to their musicians; the tempo, rhythm and feeling was very similar to different African forms and I felt a real affinity with it"

#MulatuAstatke - Faram Gami I Faram

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Mulatu Astatke - New York, Addis-London The story of Ethio Jazz album cover. Black and white photograph of the artist with bits of colour overlaid on the image.

The Quietus @thequietus.com · 5d

Rory Kiberd looks back at an implacable and unforgiving film that has only become more relevant over the last two decades... plus The Act Of Killing, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Zone Of Interest

The Impossibility of Forgetting: Haneke’s Caché at 20

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Still from Michael Haneke's Caché. A Small boy holding an axe, with blood on his white t-shirt.