Discrepant founder Gonçalo F. Cardoso tells tQ about a stacked lineup celebrating the underground scene of the Canary Islands and beyond
Alejandra Cárdenas, aka Ale Hop
The last three days of October will see London's experimental music lodestar Cafe OTO host a three day program organised by Tenerife-based DIY label Discrepant and the annual Canary Islands festival Keroxen.
Taking place on 29, 30 and 31 October, a rammed schedule will see performances from more than a dozen acts. They include representatives from the thriving Canarian underground like psych rockers GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte, experimental guitarist Paul Pèrrim, leftfield pop songwriter Akane and more.
International representation comes from the likes of Japanese turntablist DJ Sniff, making a rare appearance in the...
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Richard Foster considers the life of an artist who died on the day that The Damned's 'New rose' was released, and considers an unusual continuum in weird British culture
Those familiar with the popular British TV series Doctor Who will be aware that the unnamed Timelord protagonist occasionally transforms, 'dying' and reemerging alive once more within seconds, now portrayed by a new actor. This pareidolic process, alongside the sometimes ectoplasmic visual effects found in the programme's opening and closing credits (especially those seen in the mid-1970s) suggests astral travel and spiritual regeneration; new possibilities that nevertheless draw on old hinterlands.
On 22 October 1976, the English watercolour painter Edward Burra died in the Royal East Sussex hospital in Hastings. A happier and...
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Darran Anderson looks at Pulp's (one-time) farewell LP, as fine as any of their others, and asks, why did it fall by the wayside?
In Die Technik des Dramas (1863), Gustav Freytag argued for an ideal five act structure in storytelling. The problem was Freytag, for all his talent and success, was a racist Prussian supremacist and had, to put it mildly, something of a questionable world-view. Another problem was that life, with all its messy tangents and inconvenient loose ends, does not necessarily unfold in five acts.
Though the structure existed in practise before then, it took off after Freytag formalised it, and it's easy to see why; audiences, theatre producers, and political and religious moralists were all flattered by...
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The London experimental folk outliers' triumphant third album is a demonstration of traditional music at its most progressive, outward-looking and migratory
Photo credit: Brad Gilbert
The hammered dulcimer originated in Persia as the santur, perhaps as many as 5,000 years ago. From there it travelled in all directions, adapting and mutating as it went. It moved southwards to India, where it became the santoor, played by ancient Sufi mystics as an accompaniment to hymns, and then moved eastwards via China to become the Korean yanggeum. In Hungary it has grown bigger and turned into the cimbalom, the national instrument. In Spain, it can be found depicted on the relief of a 12th century cathedral. It England it became popular with street performers...
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Reigns
Antigeist
Wessex duo grow into a quartet, get amped, still full of doom
The Antigeist by Reigns
Somerset is a real epicentre of modern druidry and all things occult. The Stanton Drew Stone Circles are there and Glastonbury Tor is there, both generating plenty of neo-pagan energy. It is also the mystical home county of sibling duo Reigns (Roo and Tim Farthing) who since their 2004 debut have consistently welded horror-flavoured storytelling and a trippy electro-folk sound to create a discography that could serve a spiritual companion to Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet
Reigns' signature is mining the darker side of humanity through their work, offering the audience scant relief from these terrifying realities. But whereas the duo worked alone on previous albums,...
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It features archival visual material and original essay from the band's members, in addition to contributions by Debbie Harry, Lorde and others
Talking Heads are publishing a book that will look back over their history and impact on the music world.
Talking Heads: New Feeling will be released to mark the 50th anniversary of the band's debut album, Talking Heads: 77. "For this book, we pulled out handwritten lyrics, original album sketches and private photos, some of which haven't left our archive in over 40 years," the band's Jerry Harrison said.
It also takes in original essays from all four members of the band, plus contributions by Debbie Harry, Lorde, Jeff Bridges and others. Among the visual material featured are behind-the-scenes photos from...
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The band, Whait, will put their first album out in February
Photo by Eleanor Petry
Wendy Eisenberg has surprise released a companion album to their self-titled LP from earlier this year.
Titled Wweennddyy Eeiisseennbbeerrgg, it collects extended live versions of the tracks 'Meaning Business' and 'The Walls' from Eisenberg's 2026 album. They recorded the new versions of the tracks with Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Ryan Sawyer and violinist Mari Rubio, otherwise known as More Eaze.
Speaking about their decision to record and share the expanded takes on these tracks, Eisenberg said: "I want to write songs that feel infinite. I want to write songs that transcend their production, that can weather the changes. It's probably a holdover from my jazz training, the...
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The UK artist will oversee the programming for next year's edition of the event at London's Southbank Centre
Photo by Jordan Hemingway
FKA twigs has been confirmed as the curator of next year's Meltdown festival.
Returning once again to London's Southbank Centre, the lineup for next year's event will be overseen by the UK artist, who will also play a headline set as part of the 11-day event. The full lineup will be announced in the coming months, but a press release promised that she will bring together an array of musical genre and artists working across various creative disciplines to reflect her influences.
In a statement, FKA twigs said: "I am honoured and excited to be curating Meltdown at the Southbank Centre. The...
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The lead single, 'Random Violence', is a tribute to the late Optimo (Espacio) DJ JD Twitch
Photo by Fiona Garden
Hot Chip have shared details of their ninth studio album, A Long Way From Kansas.
Spanning 11 tracks, the LP's title is a nod to towards The Wizard Of Oz, while Beth Ditto and Eddie Chaco have contributed guest vocals. In a statement, the band's Alexis Taylor said: "In addition to myself and Joe, Owen and Felix are singing (Felix for the first time on a Hot Chip record). There's also a choir and lots of group singing. I think we like opening out our interior world and bringing all these voices together."
Opening up on the record's influences and themes explored its tracks,...
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Elizabeth Sulis Kim's 'The Book of Beasts' removes the distinctions between humans and animals, encouraging us to be less bordered, less exact; more beast, writes Anna Goldreich.
As a child, Elizabeth Sulis Kim felt aware of her place within the world of creatures that she encountered, the bats and birds that flew around her, the cows who lived close by, the cat who would accompany her for walks. She found it 'impossible not to see a web of life… [she] saw other animals as [her] equals.' As adulthood approached, and she moved into that strange, self-conscious place of adolescence, Sulis Kim found herself feeling alone, alone in a forest, though it was full of lives, full of small beings. She had, over time, become 'more sharply human, more bordered and exact, less free - less animal.' I think this is something many of us relate to, this movement into school and work, supermarkets and bills, rent and commutes. Soon, the bodily animal slips away. The Book of Beasts reads as Sulis Kim's attempt to explore this loss, to follow the animal to the 'Otherworld', and to find it again.
Elizabeth Sulis Kim does something rare and wonderful with The Book of Beasts. She manages to weave science, folklore and history together with personal account into something beautiful, evocative and lyrical. Through lilting and vivid language, we are taken on a journey through continents and countries, we move from the past to the present, and into the future with ease. The contents of the book are vast, spanning time and place, but I never once felt lost, never felt left behind. Sulis Kim is so assured in her writing and in her storytelling, that I felt comfortable and excited to follow her wherever she might lead me.
Over the course of the book, we get to know twelve animals. We encounter Lion, Rat, Wolf, Bear, Bird, Cat, Cow, Salmon, Monkey, Whale, Deer and Human. Each animal chapter is preceded by a beautiful illustration by Kaitlyn Copithorne. These images bring to mind a tarot card. There is something magic here, prophetic even, and imbued with more meaning than meets the eye. So I have picked my first card, the Lion, how do I read it? What does it mean? Sulis Kim introduces the reader to the animal in question, we learn about this animal in relation to folklore. We are told stories, tales which have been told and retold since the beginning of our collective memory. We learn about the different ways that humans have thought about animals, how we have worshipped them, used them as symbols, projected onto them, scapegoated them. Animals have always been such a big part of our lives, and now our relationship to them has changed. It's important to spend a while with this change, to learn about the current state of our relationships with these individual animals, how we harm them, how we farm them, or hunt them or rob them of their habitats and their food. Also, how we might be able to help, how we might go about repairing our bonds with them.
There are aspects of The Book of Beasts which could almost be seen as travel writing. Sulis Kim has travelled extensively, has encountered different people and animals across the world. She is open and curious about the people she meets and their relationships with the creatures who live alongside them. All these encounters feel equally special, from talking with a man in Istanbul about his love for the feral cats he feeds, to drinking mate in Playa Paraná, watching a whale appearing and disappearing into the water, only metres from the beach.
This book is also highly personal, we get to know parts of Elizabeth, the writer, the person, the creature. This is one of the aspects of the book that I most adored. We are given pieces of a life. We learn something of how she came to her research, but also how she feels about these animals, her relationships with them individually. In the Cow chapter, we read about Sulis Kim's experience of growing up vegetarian in a rural part of the UK, she tells us, 'a friend's father suggested I had been indoctrinated.' (an experience which resonates with me, as a person who also grew up vegetarian in a farming village.) She remarks, 'animals are our friends… who would want to eat their friends?' and I completely agree.
The Book of Beasts is written with such kindness, sensitivity and empathy, directed towards animals and humans alike. The book closes on the final animal, the Human, because, as we see throughout this book, we are animals too. This need to know and to repair our relationships with non-humans, is the need to know and repair our relationships with ourselves. As humans, we position ourselves as separate to and above non-human animals, but we see throughout The Book of Beasts that this distinction has not always been so stark. Perhaps it's time to find our way back to them, to listen to them and respect them, the beasts.
*
'The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom', which was our September Book of the Month, is out now and available here (£22.90), published by Chatto & Windus. Read an extract from the book here, and an interview with Elizabeth Sulis Kim here.
Anna Goldreich's debut novel, 'The Leveret', was published by Hamish Hamilton in June 2026. You can follow her on Instagram here.
Nick Curly and Marc Scholl's Cecille Records have had an impressive stint in 2026, releasing upbeat club anthems from names like Christian Burkhardt, Shokë, and Hector Couto. Now bringing their second long player of the year, they welcome the return of Kirik for the release of his forthcoming 'Meaning' LP. The Ukranian artist has previously […]
Dave Seaman closes 2026 with what might be his biggest project across a career that has lasted more than three decades as November 6th brings the release of his debut studio album 'Mirrorball Sleaze', on his own Selador imprint. One of the foundational inclusions within the LP is his own revisit of Poloroid's 1999 'So […]
Premiere: Dave Seaman ft. Poloroid - So Damn Beautiful (Club Vocal Mix)
Matt Carmichael speaks to Gail Tasker about his lush combination of jazz and folk, Held In The Dark, which will be performed with a full septet at three shows next month including a set for EFG London Jazz Festival
Photo by Camille Lemoine
Matt Carmichael is an artist whose deep and introspective relationship with music belies his years. Based in Glasgow, he forms part of a cohort of young music graduates who have steadily yet organically been pushing against the boundaries of learned traditions. Carmichael's latest album, Held In The Dark, is his fourth, and a further iteration of the lush combination of folk and jazz which characterises his music.
In some ways, Held In The Dark is familiar territory for Carmichael. It...
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Ye Gods
Los
Visited by the ghost of gothmas past, Antoni Maiovvi whips out his magic circle for a true grimoire of an album
Los by Ye Gods
When Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman tells you to do something, you should probably do it. Even if it's only in a dream. In the case of British composer Antoni Maiovvi (AKA AD Goodfellow), the post-punk vocalist's mid-slumber visit guided him back to the ritual magick practice he had let slide. To further atone for this oversight, Coleman suggested the name Ye Gods.
Seven years and 12 releases later (by my abacus twiddling) and this "occult devotional electronics project" arrives at the William Blake-referencing Los. Over the years, Maiovvi's compositional approach has evolved. The electronics are still scrambled,...
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The Electro Quartet
Nature's World With Studio G
An album of electronic library music from the early 80s breaths the air of sunnier climes
Nature's World With Studio G by Various Artists
1982 was an odd year. Ozzy Osbourne was treated for rabies after biting the head of a bat in the middle of a gig. The first ever computer virus was created by a 15-year old kid in Pittsburgh. Mary Whitehouse sued the National Theatre for obscenity. The Falklands War kicked off in the South Atlantic. Israel invaded Lebanon in a military campaign called Operation Peace. Abba split up. The first compact discs were produced in Germany. The most popular albums in Britain that year included Barbra Streisand's schmaltzily nostalgic Memories, the soundtrack...
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