Black Sky Thinking

The Black Peril & 100 Years Of Race Riot, By Soweto Kinch

100 years ago in 1919 race riots broke out across the world. Writing for The Quietus, Soweto Kinch explores how this forgotten history inspired his new album Black Peril

How Punks In Churches Changed Germany & What Still Needs To Be Done

Thirty years on from the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Beate Peter remembers a childhood where music was an escape from the strictures of Communism and punk gigs in churches were subversive acts and asks, what needs to happen to complete the process of reunification? Photo of Di Toten Hosen at a church gig by Mark Reeder

No Obligatory Excuse: Is ‘The Classical’ By The Fall Racist?

Coming just a year after Mark E Smith's death, Cherry Red's wonderful reissue of Hex Enduction Hour and Paul Hanley's engrossing book, Have A Bleedin Guess, forced John Doran to reassess the most notorious lyric in The Fall's four decade long career

Playing In The Wreckage: 65daysofstatic On Making Music Under Late Capitalism

Underground veterans 65daysofstatic are back with a new album diving deep into the state we're now in. Here, Paul Wolinski makes the case for staying inspired and creative under the impecunious trials of late capitalism

From Coke & Pepsi To Red Bull, How Fizzy Drinks Swallowed Music

As RBMA shuffles off to the giant fridge in the sky, Ryan Diduck looks at the long history of fizzy drinks brands getting involved in popular music in an attempt to sell sugar to children.

Happy Birthday Abbey Road, The Best Beatles LP… This Week At Least

The boomers celebrated Sgt. Pepper's as the greatest Beatles LP; the Britpoppers backed Revolver; but it seems like millennials are more smitten with Abbey Road. The changing consensus probably says more about generational shift than it does about the Fab Four, according to Michael Hann

Ballads Of The Sad Boys: Why Emo Makes Sense In Suburban England

Emo sparks derision and division, even among those who claim to love the music. Yet, as Marianne Eloise argues here, it provided community and solace for alienated British teens just as much as it did Americans

Lana Del Rey, Daniel Johnston, Fandom & Limitlessness Of Interpretation

Reflecting on the death of Daniel Johnston and the spat between Lana Del Rey and the critic Ann Powers, Jazz Monroe explores how fandom can't hinge on the artist’s intention, and that artists don't need to 'earn' profundity - listeners have the power to give it.

Why Documenting Your Culture Is An Act Of Resistance, By Emma Warren

We're living in fragmented times in which small communities and the places they meet are increasingly vital, even as they're threatened. Emma Warren argues that documenting these spaces (as she did in the excellent Make Some Space book about Total Refreshment Centre) can be a radical act. Photo by William Autmans

Why I’m Making A Film About Wire, By Graham Duff

Writer Graham Duff is a Wire obsessive currently crowdfunding a documentary on the band. Here in a celebration of their later work, he pays tribute to their lasting inventiveness

Concrete Science Fiction Riot: Why Do We Ignore The 70s French Underground?

Krautrock overshadows music made in France during the same period. Is the French music of the 70s simply not as good, or could it be that we haven't had a narrative to understand it?

Quietus Writers’ Top 40 Cover Versions As Gateway Drugs

From Nina Simone via Muse to Jacques Brel via Scott Walker on multiple occasions, we asked our writers to tell us about the cover versions that acted as their gateway drugs to the work of the original artist

Circular Histories: The Contemporary Resonance Of WG Sebald

As two major exhibitions in Norwich explore the life and work of WG Sebald, Adam Scovell looks at his writing and photographs and uncovers fears at the circular nature of history that chime with contemporary anxieties. Photographs courtesy of Norwich Castle Museum. Colour portrait of Sebald by Basso Cannarsa.

F***! Mr Agreeable Reviews Ed Sheeran’s Collaborations No 6 Project

After a pre-Brexit shortage of sherry gets his goat, Mr Agreeable is none too pleased to be forced to sit and listen to Ed Sheeran's record of collaborations with his famous mates

Why It’s Time To Ditch Your Morrissey-Loving Friend

Why Kink-Shaming Has No Place At Pride

As cities around the world gear up for their annual Pride parade, Ian Wade argues that the kink and fetish community are a vital part not only of historical struggle of the LGBT+ community, but its present too. Photos thanks to Sean Ivermee

Yesterday Always Knew: The Lovecraftian Horror of That Beatles Song

As the film Yesterday hits cinemas, writer John Higgs delves into the this transitory phase in The Beatles' existence, after which things would never be the same again

Modern Nature: On Derek Jarman’s Queer Landscape Writing

As Derek Jarman's Modern Nature is broadcast as Radio 4's Book of the Week, adaptor and radio producer Simon Richardson hymns the influence of this pioneering and inspirational work of queer nature writing.

Wolves In The Sheep Pen: Fascism & The Czech Underground

Miloš Hroch investigates the ideological confusion which is rampant in the Czech extreme music underground and asks, how do we separate ideology from provocation?

Anger As Peaceful Glasto Books Acts Who Have Sung About Doing Murders & Stuff

Following Killdren's banishment from Glastonbury, The Quietus exposes the extent of unsavoury #content at this year's festival... and beyond

Is Stockhausen’s Licht The Most Bonkers Operatic Spectacle Ever?

This week, one day of Stockhausen's week-long opera Licht comes to London's Southbank Centre. Bobby Barry explores the history and significance of one of the greatest and most outlandish musical spectacles the world has ever seen. Photos by Meng Phu

Hot Cross Borders: Bill Drummond On Baking A New Peace

Over the Easter weekend, Bill Drummond visited the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland to hold a referendum, and bake hot cross buns. Here, in his own words, is what happened

Collective Dreaming: Inside The All-Female NYX Drone Choir

Whispering from the bones: Lisa Busby spends time with the NYX all-female drone choir to discover their philosophy of singing sharing, and shaking the foundations. Photos by Jamie Cameron.

What Does Red Bull’s Corporate Exit Means For Underground Music?

Red Bull have announced the end of their well-loved music platform RBMA, after over 20 years of operation. Ed Gillett looks at how this decision fits into a wider pattern of narrowing, frailty and loss across digital music communities.

Junk Shop Classical on Henryk Górecki: Music Stories Told £1 LP By £1 LP

The release of a new version of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with vocals from Portishead’s Beth Gibbons is cleverly timed, says Phil Hebblethwaite. When the piece was first a hit in the early-90s, it offered respite at a similarly turbulent moment in history

Why Radio 3’s Cuts Are Wrong: 550+ Artists & More Sign Letter To The BBC

Hundreds of musicians, curators, academics and more, from Brian Eno to Nitin Sawhney, Shirley Collins to Stewart Lee and Roisin Murphy, sign an open letter to the BBC about their disastrous cuts to their scheduling

Why The BBC’s Radio Cuts Are A Disaster For Our Cultural Health

Last week the BBC announced swingeing cuts to its leftfield programming on Radio 3, with Late Junction, Jazz Now and Music Planet hit. Richard Foster argues this is a short-sighted decision with far-reaching consequences

In An English Country Garden: The Much Missed Radicalism of Derek Jarman

A quarter of a century after the death of Derek Jarman in February 1994, Adam Scovell looks back at one of the most radical artists of his day, and wonders where we might find his ilk today. All images courtesy of the BFI.

The Mark Is Upon Them! The Musical Legacy Of Witchfinder General

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Witchfinder General. But in a world still characterised by corruption and violence, did we learn nothing from its warnings? Sean McGeady traces the film’s musical legacy and asks what keeps us coming back to it.

Does My Black Sun Look Big In This? Skullflower’s Patterns Of Predjudice

Late last week, veteran noise act Skullflower were dropped from the line up of Raw Power festival - yet for most of their lengthy career they have been considered apolitical. Here Dylan Miller considers the jigsaw of evidence against Matthew Bower and asks, 'What changed?'

In Defence Of Perry Como, By David Keenan

Write Perry Como off as a lesser Sinatra at your peril when David Keenan is around. Here, the author of For The Good Times writes of how as a boy late night sessions listen to Como with his father shaped his sense of masculinity and self

On Mobile Phones At Gigs & The Tyranny Of The Dopamine Economy

Mobile phones are now such a ubiquitous presence at gigs we've started to not notice them. Is it time we start to resist the tyranny of the "dopamine economy", asks Jazz Monroe