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Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: A Tale of Two Normans – Wrongtom On Beats International’s ‘Dub Be Good To Me’
In this month's Low Culture Essay, Wrongtom weaves the life of his jazz pianist grandad into his encounter with Norman Cook & co's 1990 hit single, and explores how it changed his own musical trajectory
Album of the Week
Higher Frequencies: Instant Holograms on Metal Film by Stereolab
Stereolab mine the retrofuturistic dreams of late 70s and early 80s synthpop, resulting in a meticulously crafted, cinematic masterpiece, finds Lottie Brazier
Strange World Of...
The Strange World Of… Editions Mego
It started with the sound of a fridge... Daryl Worthington studies the tributary network of connections that make up Editions Mego via ten of their crucial releases
Baker's Dozen
Look into the Shadows: Peter Murphy’s Favourite Albums
As Peter Murphy releases a new solo album – his first for a decade – the erstwhile Bauhaus frontman looks back at the music that has excited and inspired him, from glam to punk, classical to devotional, jazz to trip hop
Anniversary
The Chameleons’ What Does Anything Mean? Basically, at 40
This relatively obscure, nihilistic and resigned second album by a near forgotten Mancunian post punk group was released decades before the birth of writer Lina Adams in the early 00s; so why does it speak so clearly to her life today?
A Quietus Interview
Pedal Off The Metal: Backxwash Interviewed
Ahead of a much-anticipated slot at this year’s Supersonic Festival, the Canadian-Zambian rapper speaks to Alex Rigotti about her pivot away from industrial beats, the end of her award-winning album trilogy and an embrace of considered craftsmanship on Only Dust Remains. Content warning: this article contains discussions of suicide.
Reviews
Review Columns
Electronic
Hyperspecific: Electronic Music for May Reviewed by Jaša Bužinel
Our dance music editor wonders whether club culture has lost its potential for providing radically transformative experiences, and reviews a new batch of cutting-edge releases, including trailblazing Bangladeshi dub and jungle mutations, UK techno epics, spectral dub techno, neo-devotional music from Egypt and a cult PS1 soundtrack.
Baker’s Dozen
Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives
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Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: A Tale of Two Normans – Wrongtom On Beats International’s ‘Dub Be Good To Me’
In this month's Low Culture Essay, Wrongtom weaves the life of his jazz pianist grandad into his encounter with Norman Cook & co's 1990 hit single, and explores how it changed his own musical trajectory
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News
Anniversary
The Chameleons’ What Does Anything Mean? Basically, at 40
This relatively obscure, nihilistic and resigned second album by a near forgotten Mancunian post punk group was released decades before the birth of writer Lina Adams in the early 00s; so why does it speak so clearly to her life today?
The Portal
Explore 15 Years Of Cultural Wayfinding
Each week we conjure up a miscellany of tQ writing from the mists of time for you. Most often random. Sometimes themed. Always enthralling.
Explore The Portal
Culture
Books
The Sound of Young Queer Scotland: An Interview with Carrie Marshall
With the release of her new book Small Town Joy: From glam rock to hyperpop: how queer music changed the sound of Scotland, author Carrie Marshall talks to Claire Sawers about growing up in 1970s Lanark, clubbing at Edinburgh's Fire Island and the "seismic" influence of Jimmy Somerville
Art
Borderlands: Alex Niven on Harry Lawson’s Stepney Western
At Newcastle Contemporary Art gallery, an exhibition featuring a new film by Harry Lawson plus archival photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martine Franck, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Tish Murtha and others, draws links between the fabled American West and England’s North-East
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