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Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Jack McNeill’s Chamber Cairn
Serial collaborator and Propellor Orchestra leader Jack McNeill's long-awaited debut solo album is released today exclusively for tQ subscribers, a record that draws deep on his surroundings in Cumbria, but subverts our expectations of the clarinet as an instrument that hymns the pastoral
Low Culture Essay
The Low Culture Essay: Jeanette Leech on Elastica’s The Menace
In this month's essay, Jeanette Leech seeks to reclaim the legacy of Elastica's vastly underrated second album from prurient mutterings about drug addiction and the collapse of Britpop, celebrating Mark E. Smith collaborations and the birth of M.I.A.
Organic Intelligence
Organic Intelligence XLII: British Bengalis in 90s subculture
In this month’s antidote to the algorithm Puja Nandi celebrates five pioneering artists, from Asian Dub Foundation (pictured) to Osmani Soundz, who enriched the soundtrack of the pre-millennial UK by mixing drum & bass and electronica with the sounds of the Bengali diaspora
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Brain Pills
Exploring the subtle microcosms in rock music then bending them to his will, Ryan Walker interviews Mike Vest about Brain Pills, his new band with Nick Raybould and Adam Stone whose debut EP is released exclusively to tQ subscribers today – a gathering of tales, tunes and feedback
Monthly Playlists
A sonic bulletin of tQ's essential editorial
Monthly Playlists
tQ’s Exclusive Monthly Round-Up Playlist: November and December 2024
Here's everything we've covered at The Quietus in the final two months of 2024, compiled for the listening pleasure of tQ's subscribers
Low Culture Essay
Illuminating treasured cultural artefacts
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Patrick McKemey on the Musical Architecture of SimCity
In this month's subscriber essay, Patrick McKemey eulogises the genre-melding soundtracks to the SimCity universe of games, sonic portals between the London suburbs and digital utopias built in his teenage bedroom
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Travis Elborough on Eric Bristow Darts Documentary, Arrows
As festive season darts mania once again takes over the UK with the annual PDC World Darts Championship, Travis Elborough travels back to 1979 and John Samson's documentary about the rise of Eric Bristow
Low Culture Essay
Anna Doble on Patrick Keiller’s London and Journeys from Saint Etienne to Real Lies
Troubled by facts that felt like fiction, Anna Doble feared Patrick Keiller's 1994 film might all be an in-joke. But, as she writes in this month's Low Culture Essay, it created a magic-real place that she would later explore through song.
Low Culture Essay
The Low Culture Essay: Stephanie Phillips on the 1998 Kathleen Hanna solo album, Julie Ruin
In this month’s essay, Stephanie Phillips reflects on the 1998 lo-fi, art pop album Julie Ruin, in which riot grrrl veteran Kathleen Hanna reaffirms her position in feminist art, while creating the building blocks for a dance punk future
Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Patrick McKemey on the Musical Architecture of SimCity
In this month's subscriber essay, Patrick McKemey eulogises the genre-melding soundtracks to the SimCity universe of games, sonic portals between the London suburbs and digital utopias built in his teenage bedroom
Low Culture Essay
Anna Doble on Patrick Keiller’s London and Journeys from Saint Etienne to Real Lies
Troubled by facts that felt like fiction, Anna Doble feared Patrick Keiller's 1994 film might all be an in-joke. But, as she writes in this month's Low Culture Essay, it created a magic-real place that she would later explore through song.
Low Culture Essay
The Low Culture Essay: Stephanie Phillips on the 1998 Kathleen Hanna solo album, Julie Ruin
In this month’s essay, Stephanie Phillips reflects on the 1998 lo-fi, art pop album Julie Ruin, in which riot grrrl veteran Kathleen Hanna reaffirms her position in feminist art, while creating the building blocks for a dance punk future
Help Support The Quietus in 2025
If you’ve read something you love on our site today, please consider becoming a monthly or annual tQ subscriber – our journalism is mostly funded this way. We’ve got some bonus perks waiting for you too.
Subscribe NowMusic Downloads
Exclusively-commissioned monthly releases
Music Downloads
Jas Shaw & Simon Lord Discuss Their tQ Valentine’s Bonus Subscriber-Exclusive Release
As it's Valentine's Day we're showing how much we love our top Subscriber Plus tier supporters by giving them bonus music – here, former Simian members Jas Shaw and Simon Lord discuss how they combined vocals, long form production and the inspiration of Slavoj Žižek on their twinkling epic
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: 2rana 3crana
After a period of personal tragedy and physical rehabilitation, Gum Takes Tooth’s Jussi Brightmore celebrates life with his new project 2rana 3crana, mixing drag, industrial and Afro-Portuguese dance music. He takes Alastair Shuttleworth through the story behind it, and a special EP exclusively for tQ subscribers
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Ex-Easter Island Head
Your final tQ subscriber download of the year comes from none other than our albums of the year chart toppers Ex-Easter Island Head, who speak to Patrick Clarke about a prolific year, their love of "good old fashioned showbiz", and the sublime live performance captured for this release
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Bruise Blood
Your latest subscriber-exclusive music is a six-track collection of dizzying noise, punishing beats and crystalline electronics courtesy of Teeth Of The Sea's Mike Bourne, who tells Patrick Clarke about how he's stepping out on his own as Bruise Blood
Music Downloads
Jas Shaw & Simon Lord Discuss Their tQ Valentine’s Bonus Subscriber-Exclusive Release
As it's Valentine's Day we're showing how much we love our top Subscriber Plus tier supporters by giving them bonus music – here, former Simian members Jas Shaw and Simon Lord discuss how they combined vocals, long form production and the inspiration of Slavoj Žižek on their twinkling epic
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: 2rana 3crana
After a period of personal tragedy and physical rehabilitation, Gum Takes Tooth’s Jussi Brightmore celebrates life with his new project 2rana 3crana, mixing drag, industrial and Afro-Portuguese dance music. He takes Alastair Shuttleworth through the story behind it, and a special EP exclusively for tQ subscribers
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Ex-Easter Island Head
Your final tQ subscriber download of the year comes from none other than our albums of the year chart toppers Ex-Easter Island Head, who speak to Patrick Clarke about a prolific year, their love of "good old fashioned showbiz", and the sublime live performance captured for this release
Music Downloads
tQ Subscriber Release: Bruise Blood
Your latest subscriber-exclusive music is a six-track collection of dizzying noise, punishing beats and crystalline electronics courtesy of Teeth Of The Sea's Mike Bourne, who tells Patrick Clarke about how he's stepping out on his own as Bruise Blood
Low Culture Podcast
Our editors John & Luke bring their insight to an essential album, book, film, etc.
Low Culture Podcast
Low Culture Podcast: Sonic Youth’s Evol vs Dirty
In this month's pod John Doran and Luke Turner get stuck in to two favourite albums from one of tQ's most-loved and much-missed groups, Sonic Youth
Organic Intelligence
Your virtual guide through the record shop racks
Organic Intelligence
Organic Intelligence XL: Naples in the Early-Mid 70s
In our fortieth antidote to the algorithm, David McKenna takes us back half a century to Naples, where the influence of a nautical culture and American military radio created a music scene as fertile and chaotic as the city itself
Organic Intelligence
Organic Intelligence XL: Naples in the Early-Mid 70s
In our fortieth antidote to the algorithm, David McKenna takes us back half a century to Naples, where the influence of a nautical culture and American military radio created a music scene as fertile and chaotic as the city itself
