The Portal

Your Weekly Exploration of The Quietus Archive

After specials on Kraftwerk and Nick Cave, this week’s incarnation of The Portal is another especially selected collection of choice morsels from the last 16-and-a-half years. With a nod the our forthcoming Albums of the Year chart, we’ve dug up the top 16 of the first list we ever did, back in 2008 – it’s always interesting to go back in time to look at these and see how much the music world in which we operate, and what we’re into, has changed. We’ve got Baker’s Dozens with Jarboe and Tom Jones discussing their favourite music, an interview with Damon Albarn, a trip back to look at Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Thurston Moore and the late Mark Stewart in conversation, a long read on the contemporary war film, The Strange World of Julius Eastman, and Paul Flynn’s Low Culture Essay on Hi-NRG.

Baker's Dozen

“Shit, That Sounds Tremendous!” Tom Jones On His 13 Favourite Albums

With his new album, Spirit In The Room, on the way, Sir Tom Jones reflects on his favourite LPs and tells Laurie Tuffrey about his friends Elvis, Aretha and Stevie

17 May 2012

Anniversary

45 Years On: Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns Revisited

Joni Mitchell risked everything; she had a career of "unparalleled audacity" says David Bennun when reassessing The Hissing Of Summer Lawns some 45 years later

23 Nov 2015

A Quietus Interview

“I’m Sort Of English Melancholy”: Damon Albarn Interviewed

With an upcoming Blur show and a number of albums set for release in the coming months, Damon Albarn's 2012 looks set to be as packed as ever. He sat down with Stephen Dalton to talk Doctor Dee, the future of Blur, the Olympics, David Cameron and Alex James' cheese

27 Mar 2012

Baker's Dozen

Thirteen Masks: Jarboe’s Favourite Music

Jarboe guides Spyros Stasis through 13 favourites in this week's Baker's Dozen, taking in the likes of Arvo Pärt, Kendrick Lamar, Janis Joplin and her relationship with Swans

28 Aug 2019

Subscribers

Low Culture Essay

Do Ya Wanna Funk? Paul Flynn On Hi-NRG

In our monthly subscriber-only essay, writer Paul Flynn describes being handed a flyer for an unusual literary event which acts as a madeleine, casting him back to the 1980s, and a sexual and sonic awakening. Detail from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt photographed by the author

12 Jul 2021

Strange World Of...

The Strange World Of… Julius Eastman

In spite of a gradually accelerating reappraisal, a full portrait of composer Julius Eastman will most likely never surface, says Aimee Armstrong. Instead we’re left to track him through anecdotes, odd photographs and his politically charged and aggressively honest personal composition. A preview for this year's Intonal Festival.

1 Apr 2019

In Conversation

“We Came From Outside”: Thurston Moore & Mark Stewart In Conversation

As The Pop Group prepare to release their first album in over three decades, Bobby Barry brings together the band's Mark Stewart with mutual fan (and fellow cloud-botherer) Thurston Moore to discuss punk, properness and Primark. Photographs courtesy of Chiara Meattelli

28 Jan 2015