The Portal
The Portal: A tQ Albums of the Year Special
We’re using this week’s edition of The Portal to dig up out of the archive some pieces that help illuminate choice cuts from The Quietus Albums of the Year 2025, which you can of course find here. With the view that culture is built from rubble and material scavenged and borrowed from other places, we’ve got four Baker’s Dozens here, with Billy Woods and Jack Barnett of These New Puritans on their favourite music, Richard Dawson on his favourite films, and Marie Davidson on her favourite books. There’s John Doran’s interview with Aya that kicked off our enthusiasm for album of the year, Hexed, plus conversations with John Glacier, Agriculture and an older piece with Drew Daniel on a quarter century of Matmos. Finally, Heinali and Andriana-Yaraslava Saienko discuss the inspiration of medieval musician and mystic Hildegard Von Bingen against the backdrop of Russian bombardment in Ukraine.
A Quietus Interview
The Model is You: An Interview with John Glacier
As she releases a new deluxe edition of Like A Ribbon, one of the year's finest albums, boundary-pushing East London rapper, producer and poet John Glacier speaks to Claire Biddles about childhood poems on the failure of humanity, the enduring influence of Hackney, disability, self-advocacy, grime and more
A Quietus Interview
Cut the Crop: Agriculture Interviewed
While black metal history is often the story of errant youth reaping chaos, Agriculture plough their own furrow. Dan Franklin meets a band who sow explosive seeds via songwriting and then reap joyous brinkmanship onstage. Main portrait by Olivia Crumm
Baker's Dozen
Sheer Momentum: Jack Barnett of These New Puritans’ Favourite Music
Ahead of their show at this year’s Skaņu Mežs festival, Jack Barnett of These New Puritans takes Claire Biddles through an eclectic Baker’s Dozen, taking in everything from flamenco and Greek traditional music to Steely Dan and Bob Dylan
A Quietus Interview
Praying in Fire with Hildegard Von Bingen: Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko Interviewed
Ahead of their appearance at this year's Le Guess Who festival, Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko speak to Jennifer Lucy Allan about interpreting the music of Hildegard Von Bingen via Ukrainian folk song in the context of the Russian invasion of their homeland
A Quietus Interview
Melted & Reformed: Drew Daniel On A Quarter Century Of Matmos
With their new album Plastic Anniversary, the exploratory sonic duo marks 25 years of life and work via the use and abuse of petroleum products. Our man in San Francisco Ned Raggett called up Matmos member Drew Daniel to ask about it all
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