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Baker's Dozen
Metal Machine Music: A Persher Baker’s Dozen
Electronic producers but longtime punk, hardcore and metal heads, Blawan and Pariah take Patrick Clarke through the thirteen records that shaped their swerve into heavy music as Persher, from Meshuggah and Napalm Death to Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan
The Quietus International
Rockfort! French Music For February Reviewed By David McKenna
In his latest survey of French releases, David McKenna looks at one of the first great rap releases of the year from Lala &ce, tackles imposing composers and dives into a delightful debut from Franco-Moroccan Hanaa Ouassim. Homepage photo: Hanaa Ouassim by Clara Casero
A Quietus Interview
Epic Proportions: An Interview With PoiL Ueda
A collaboration between psychedelic French band PoiL and Japanese traditional musician Junko Ueda, inspired by a 12th century sea battle and its aftermath, resulted in not one, but two of the best albums of last year. Ahead of a performance at Tremor Festival next month, they speak to David McKenna
Reissue of the Week
Reissue Of The Week: Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru’s Souvenirs
Beautifully intimate home recordings made by an Ethiopian nun reflecting on the idea of exile in the 1970s and 1980s, probably never intended to be heard by anyone but herself, have taken on an astounding universality in 2024, says Jakub Knera
Low Culture Essay
Jude Rogers on Charlotte Sometimes (A Book, A Cure Song, A Life)
In this month's Low Culture essay, Jude Rogers reflects on Penelope Farmer's novel Charlotte Sometimes, its influence on The Cure, and how it captures the fraught time between childhood and adolescence that we perhaps never leave
Strange World Of...
The Strange World Of… Bill Laswell
From making groundbreaking electro to working with Whitney Houston via boozy sessions with Motörhead, plus avant explorations of thrash, drum & bass, grindcore, gnawa and disco, Bill Laswell has been on more great records than you've had hot dinners. Zachary Lipez offers ten points of entry to his bewilderingly vast back catalogue
Television
Notes On True Detective: Night Country By Eugene Thacker & Tariq Goddard
The pessimistic philosophical text In The Dust Of This Planet was an influence on Season 1 of True Detective; its author and publisher settle in for the long dark night of Season 4. Contains some light spoilers for early episodes of Night Country
Strange World Of...
The Strange World Of… Yoko Ono
Despite the predictably & performatively negative reaction the Japanese artist inspires in some critical quarters, it is clear she has been responsible for a cavalcade of bangers over the decades. With a new retrospective at the Tate Modern, Jeremy Allen explores her back catalogue
Black Sky Thinking
Unfulfilled Promise: Toronto, Drake & So Far Gone
After Dhruva Balram's family emigrated from India to Canada, he came of age in a new city, the optimistic soundtrack provided by emerging megastar Drake. Here he celebrates the breakthrough mixtape which provided the background to first love but also looks back and asks, what went wrong?
A Quietus Interview
Angel Children: Alison Cotton Interviewed
The experimental drone folk artist talks to Alex Rigotti about her new album Engelchen which tells the incredible story of Ida and Louise Cook who used their love of opera to save the lives of Jewish people endangered by German Nazis during the 1930s. Home page portrait by William Lacalmontie
