Jon Hassell
Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three)
A final album from the Memphis-born trumpet player and composer
Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three) by Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell departed this world on 26th June 2021. He'd lived an extraordinary life entwined in the musical landscape of the 20th century, studying under Stockhausen and Pandit Pran Nath, and collaborating with the likes of Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Techno Animal, David Sylvian, Björk and Ry Cooder. He also developed the highly influential concept of Fourth World music, a blend of primitive and futuristic ideas and techniques encompassing modern electronic sounds and global traditional musics.
His final concert was in 2015 at St John at Hackney with Rick Cox and John von...
The post Jon Hassell - Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three) appeared first on The Quietus.
World Of Echo to sell 20,000 records belonging to the late Optimo lynchpin
JD Twitch portrait by Marissa Costello
The death of Keith McIvor - AKA JD Twitch - a year ago was a huge loss to the music community of which The Quietus is a part, a DJ, figurehead and inspiration to music fans, obsessives, musicians, dancers, artists, writers all over the world. Now, the thousands of records that made him, and that formed the raw materials of his sets with Optimo and beyond, are to be sold. They'll head off to find new lives in new record collections via a sale at the World Of Echo record shop on Cheshire Street, London, with each vinyl record cleaned, graded and featuring...
The post JD Twitch's Record Collection to be Sold appeared first on The Quietus.
In his latest guide to the world of metal, Kez Whelan considers the disappointingly thin new effort from Sleep, and reviews finer fare from the likes of Krallice and Lustmord Lombardo
Lustmord Lombardo
While Sleep's surprise 2018 comeback The Sciences united riff fiends worldwide in ecstatic glee, their recent surprise comeback Hempispheres has been largely met with confusion. Following drummer Jason Roeder's unceremonious sacking in 2024, it appears Matt Pike is also out of the band now too, with rumours running rife as to what could have prompted the shirtless axeman to leave - when the new iteration of the band dropped their first single 'Have Spacesuit Will Travel' back in June, most fans seemed concerned as to whether it was even...
The post Columnus Metallicus: Heavy Metal for October Reviewed by Kez Whelan appeared first on The Quietus.
Institut Für Feinmotorik
Öd
Black Forest experimental turntablists return with a new album for the Faitiche label
Öd by Institut fuer Feinmotorik
Another week, another tech bro triumphantly declaring music solved, with hyper-individualisation via AI just around the corner. This obnoxious class of talentless grifters is obsessed with optimising everything, art included, and misses the point entirely. We want - no, need! - art to be messy, incomplete, and flawed.
Take Institut Für Feinmotorik, originally from Germany's Black Forest. The collective have spent years paring their sound down to squeaking, sparse forms that sound like mechanical contraptions in their death throes, indebted to both post-Cagean traditions and the Profan school of minimal techno. Their main medium? The Octogrammoticum - an orchestra of eight recordless turntables...
The post Institut Für Feinmotorik - Öd appeared first on The Quietus.
On Mo Léan, Róis uses the ancient art of keening and otherworldly electronics to challenge the foundations of what we consider to be 'proper' when it comes to death. Here, she speaks to Deirdre Anna Rose Kelly about grief for a nation as well as individuals, the complexities of outsiders' romanticisation of Irish culture, and the role of the Irish language in her work
Photos by Anthony O'Connor
"I want to party and to have the craic. That's where I'm at," says Róis. To the casual observer, this desire for fun might seem at odds with the work at hand. The title of her critically lauded last album, Mo Léan, newly reissued and expanded for its first global release by Domino next...
The post Life is Death: An Interview with Róis appeared first on The Quietus.
Gnod
Chronicles of Gnowt Vol. 2
A second volume from the same Spud Murphy-led session at Vol. 1 finds the Salford rockers at their most fierce
Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 2) by Gnod
Whatever monotheists may tell you, there are in fact two Gnods. The first creates thoughtful, psychedelia-tinged records like 2024's Spot Land and Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 1). The second, more vengeful Gnod, creates this record.
If you're wondering how to stop the second album in a trilogy feeling like the forgotten middle child, Gnod have the answer: make it much, much heavier. Gone are the almost Ry Cooder-esque acoustic stylings of Vol 1 opener 'The Trees Pt. 1'. In their place are the propulsive down-the-line rock riffs of lead track 'The Witness',...
The post Gnod - Chronicles of Gnowt Vol. 2 appeared first on The Quietus.
Steve Reich
Recordings on ECM
A new box set marking the composer's 90th birthday gathers together three seminal albums released by ECM in the late 70s and early 80s
When does the last wall separating so-called 'classical' music from 'pop' finally collapse? At what point in music history does that distinction, maintained in various forms since the great flourishing of the publishing industry at the end of the eighteenth century, pass the point at which it makes any real sense or has any real explanatory use? There's a strong argument to be made that it happens somewhere in the midst of these three records, released by the German label ECM between 1978 and 1982.
I remember meeting someone once who insisted to me that...
The post Steve Reich - Recordings on ECM appeared first on The Quietus.
Just one week to go until Hannah Peel's Underland soundtrack crawls out from beneath and hits the physical realm.
Adapted from Robert Macfarlane's bestselling book, directed by Robert Petit, and scored by Hannah Peel, Underland is a mesmerising cinematic journey into the depths of the earth. Beginning in the shallow soils beneath an old ash tree, 'astronauts of the underworld' travel into ancient sacred caves, flooded storm drains, melting glaciers, underwater burial chambers and a deep underground laboratory built to solve the mysteries of the Universe.
Stream / order your CD copy here via Bandcamp.
A world premiere of the score takes place as part of the Hannah Peel In Focus series at the Barbican on 23-24 October 2026, for which very limited numbers of tickets are still available.
'Real Magic' by Star Moles.
Taken from the album Highway to Hell — released earlier this year on Dead Oceans, but only just reaching us via pigeon post. Very nice. Thank you, pigeons.
Emerging bass-music selector MESSIE returned to Insomniac's LA-based HARD Recs this month for the release of her new 'ZONE THREE' EP, combining four original productions, including her 'B2B' collaboration with Juni and sbk, which dropped on the same label earlier in the year. The New Zealander handles MIX418 on our series, serving up a 26-track […]
Belgian DJ and producer Nikka Lorak follows releases for Animarum Recordings and Cruel Kind Records with her latest single 'Life Of A Genius'. Coming via Mia Mendi and widerberg's Species Records, Nikka joins artists such as Lauren Mia, Thomas Gandey, and Rafael Cerato on the imprint's roster. Premiering the single exclusively in full, we're treated […]
In this extract, taken from the chapter "No EPI, No Nico, No Andy", Richie Unterberger explores the troubled reception of The Velvet Underground & Nico on its release in 1967
As Eric Emerson's frivolous lawsuit played out, The Velvet Underground & Nico continued to be plagued by Verve Records's ineffective promotion. Its infamous "So far underground, you get the bends!" tagline exemplified how little understanding it had of how to market such an unusual yet groundbreaking record.
"What happens when the daddy of Pop Art goes Pop Music?" the same ad asked. "The most underground album of all! It's Andy Warhol's hip new trip to the current subterranean scene. Sorry, no home movies. But the album does feature Andy's Velvet Underground (they play funny instruments). Plus his this year's Pop Girl, Nico (she sings, groovy). Plus an actual Warhol banana on the front cover (don't smoke it… peel it)! The Velvet Underground, produced by Andy Warhol, is now available at record stores across the country. Just bring your own plain brown wrapper."
More aggravating was the continued general lack of radio airplay for the banana album, even on underground stations, in New York and elsewhere. In a 1981 interview with The New Musical Express, Sterling Morrison claimed local radio refused to even run advertisements for the album "because it was about drugs and sex and perversion". In a radio interview promoting his 1976 LP Rock And Roll Heart, Lou Reed told Philadelphia's WMMR that progressive FM stations wouldn't run commercials for the record because of "Heroin". To keep this in perspective, radio ads for such albums weren't as common in 1967 as they'd be within a few years, and it's not even certain Verve made many, or any. The 22 July issue of Record World reported that a radio spot advertising the LP would be available 15 August but if one was made, it still hasn't circulated.
"I remember being probably the only person that had ever played "Heroin" on the radio," Richard Goldstein says. "Every now and then I'd get invited by Murray The K to the studio to play records. I would bring in the most unusual music I could find to play on his show. One night I played "Heroin". And he was completely apoplectic, just completely apoplectic. Especially by the length of the song!" In the UK, Record Retailer moralised that "Heroin" was "distasteful, damaging to the industry's image and should be banned" - though, perversely, it also singled out the LP's least commercial track for praise, advising, "Try "European Son To Delmore Schwartz" - an excellent example of improvisation".
Even WBAI's Bob Fass, later cited by Morrison as the only DJ in New York to give the banana album substantial exposure, was wary of airing "Heroin". As a public radio station that was part of the progressive Pacifica network, WBAI had far less pressure to either be commercial or avoid controversy, but Fass still had reservations. At the time, he explains, he was under the impression the song was "part of something you might call 'heroin chic', which I thought was a very bad thing - making heroin like something attractive and mysterious in a dark corner that people should try to dig into. I was angry about it. I thought, 'Why is this guy romanticising something that's such a plague?' In the right context, I would play it, but after there had been a putdown of heroin. As I listen to it now, it doesn't make heroin sound romantic. It's just a kind of a true depiction of what happens in the body of the addict as they wait for the connection. I think Lou Reed is one of the four or five authentic geniuses on the music scene, and I'm sorry that I didn't listen to his stuff as carefully as I should have."
As Morrison noted, Fass did play other material from the record, and Bob confirms, "I played "All Tomorrow's Parties" a lot, and "Femme Fatale", "I'll Be Your Mirror"." As for Murray The K's violent reaction to the sheer length of "Heroin", Fass rejoins with amusement, "The length was something that I looked for. I wanted music to break that three minute sonnet form."
As for other outlets than Fass or Goldstein's shows, feels Richard, "Given the material on this record, of course they wouldn't play it. It wasn't just because of the contents, but also the musical sophistication, [which] was way beyond anything that pop radio would have countenanced. I don't know if [The Velvets] ever talked to me about that; I don't think they did. I certainly would have told them, 'Yeah, right. It's gonna take a long time before this stuff is playable.'" But there were exceptions, even back in 1967.
"The commercial 'hip station', which was WOR-FM, the first New York FM rock station, never played one Velvet note that I'm aware of," remembers Scott Kempner, later to play guitar in The Dictators and The Del Lords. "However, WFMU, the Upsala College station outta [northern New] Jersey, which still is going loud and proud, played them, or... at least one show did. There was a show called Kokaine Karma, hosted by Dennis Frawley and Bob Rudnick; they loved The Velvets. Frawley and Rudnick played [their first LP] like it was a hit album."
According to Morrison, even Bob Fass stopped playing the album after the group turned down an invite to play a bail fund benefit at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. The Velvet Underground had played a benefit for WBAI itself at the Cheetah Club in April on the same bill as Tiny Tim, but that didn't grant them a reprieve. "That was how I made a lot of decisions," acknowledges Fass. "If the band wasn't political and they didn't want to protest against the war, I thought they were ripping off the culture. I was very convinced that everything I did had to be either on the side of what I considered to be life or death."
Sterling was still angry about the incident when he was interviewed by Bill Bentley for an Austin Sun story in 1975. "We asked them, 'By the way, who's the benefit for?' They said, 'The people who get busted for grass and acid.' We thought that was kind of curious. We asked them, 'What about the people busted for junk and speed?' They said, 'Oh, no, those are bad drugs.' How idiotic. Bad drugs - all of a sudden there are 'bad drugs'. We told them either they bail everybody out, or we don't play." Although Morrison also told Bentley "we were very much known for playing benefits", and The Velvet Underground had played benefits for the Cinematheque and WBAI, Reed didn't seem eager to be involved with them a couple of years later. "We don't play benefits," he said in a March 1969 interview with Howard Smith of New York radio stations WABC and WPLJ. "I don't believe in benefits, because I don't believe in the people the benefits are for."
Whatever their true stance on the issue, this was apparently one instance in which the band's relatively apolitical stance cost them appreciable media exposure. In his Austin Sun interview, Morrison asserted that after they turned down the WBAI benefit, "The result was that the ban was complete: a total blackout in New York City. Our altruism got in the way of our airplay. Any success in New York was through television [perhaps thinking of their brief clips on CBS and WNET] and newspapers. It had nothing to do with the legitimate outlet, which is radio. The music simply was not heard. The thing I'm most pissed about is that we were banned in New York for three years: 66 to 69, inclusive. Right up front, we were excluded from any FM radio play. AM was already out of the question: no music and no advertising. In our home city, the media capital of Earth, the native sons are banned." As perverse payback, The Velvet Underground refused to play in New York at all for the next three years, with rare exceptions.
Do What You Fear Most: The History Of The Velvet Underground is published by Omnibus Press. Read Byron Coley's review of the book in The Wire 512. Subscribers can also read the review online in the digital library.
New Voices is a new competition for aspiring music critics being launched by The Wire
For more than 40 years, The Wire has been publishing writing by a host of original and influential music critics, including Richard Cook, Val Wilmer, Biba Kopf, Ian Penman, Simon Reynolds, Kodwo Eshun, David Keenan, Mark Fisher, Greg Tate, Frances Morgan, Chal Ravens, and many others. The magazine would not exist without a dynamic set of curious, perceptive thinkers and writers.
But today, new voices in music writing are being stifled by closing publications, the development of AI, and the fragmentation of local scenes, making it harder than ever for critics to be heard above the noise.
Are you an unpublished* writer with ideas about why music, and music criticism, matter - in particular the kind of underground and experimental, uncompromising and provocative music and writing featured in the pages of The Wire? If so, our New Voices competition is a unique opportunity to see your byline in the pages of one of the most renowned and respected music magazines in the world.
To enter, submit two original pieces of writing:
• A review of a recent album, book, festival, gig, film or exhibition featuring the kind of music you might read about in the pages of The Wire (500 words)
• An opinion piece responding to the provocation: "Music criticism is irrelevant in contemporary culture" (500 words)
Submit your entries as two separate text-only files, and send them as attachments*, along with your name, email address and a very brief bio, to newvoices@thewire.co.uk.
Submissions close at midnight GMT on 7 December 2026. All entries will be read by The Wire's editorial staff.
The winner will be announced, and have their opinion piece published in the March 2027 issue of The Wire. The winner will also receive a £250 cash prize and a free annual digital subscription to the magazine. Three runners up will receive a free annual digital subscription to the magazine.
* Terms & conditions:
• Entrants should not have had more than three pieces of music writing published and paid for by a third party publication whether in print or online (your own personal blog, Substack etc don't count).
• Submitted entries must not have been previously published elsewhere.
• The competition is open to entrants of any age.
• Entrants can be based anywhere in the world but should submit their entries in English.
• The competition is free to enter.
• Only one entry per person - do not send additional material.
• Send entries as attachments only, in one of these file formats: .doc, .rtf, or .pdf. Do not send entries as links or Google docs.
• The Wire has no obligation to publish the work of any entrants, including the winner, beyond the winning essay.
• Entries should discuss music that The Wire would typically cover - adventurous, experimental, DIY, independent, etc.
• NB we will not accept entries that have been written, part-written, or polished by AI.
The newly remastered release will mark the first time that the album has been made available on vinyl in the US
Photo by John Scarsberg
Ryuichi Sakamoto's album 1996 is getting a reissue to mark its 30th anniversary.
The record has been newly remastered for its updated release, and will be available in 2xLP and double-cassette editions, retaining the original visual design. It marks the first time that the album has been released on vinyl in the US.
1996 saw Sakamoto revisit a number of his defining works, reworking them in stripped-back form via arrangements for piano, cello and violin. He was joined by Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and a cast of violinists for the recording of the album.
Milan Records will release 1996 on...
The post Ryuichi Sakamoto's '1996' Set for 30th Anniversary Reissue appeared first on The Quietus.
'Let Me Sell You A Dream' was made using quotes from the controversial billionaire
Photos by Tristan Bejawn and Shervin Lainez (L-R)
David Byrne has linked up with composer Daniel Pemberton on a new song, 'Let Me Sell You A Dream', which was recorded to appear in the forthcoming Alex Gibney-directed documentary Musk.
The lyrics for the track were generated solely from quotes from controversial billionaire Elon Musk, who is the focus of the new film that the song features in. Byrne previously used this method of songwriting on 2010's Here Lies Love LP, which saw him repurpose statements by Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos.
In a statement, Byrne said: "It would be too easy and probably not as much fun to overtly criticise...
The post David Byrne Shares Song with Daniel Pemberton Made for Elon Musk Movie appeared first on The Quietus.
43 years since their sole record Or So It Seems, Daniel Miller, Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert will be reforming Duet Emmo for the band's first ever live performance. Speaking to Kiran Sande, they look back to tell the story of a cult classic, and forwards to a show that won't just see them trying to emulate what's come before
Nestled at the corner of Pepper St and Copperfield St in the London borough of Southwark, All Hallows began life as a major Victorian Gothic church, built in 1879 to a design by G.G. Scott Junior. Bombed to bits in the Blitz and deconsecrated soon after, it lay in partial ruin until a 1957 salvage effort led by Southwark Cathedral Provost...
The post Embrace the Black Box: Duet Emmo Interviewed appeared first on The Quietus.
Pet Shop Boys
A Man From the Future
Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant rework their 2014 BBC Proms performance about Alan Turing into a tighter, more album-shaped package, with the voices of Juliet Stevenson and Gordon Brown
"Although driven by the desire to do something, he wanted to remain ordinary, to be left alone in peace," writes biographer Andrew Hodges of his subject Alan Turing. It's a very Pet Shop Boys kind of sensibility, and you can see why the duo are drawn to Turing's story: the WWII codebreaker who was not rewarded for his contributions to his country, but punished for his sexuality.
Much has changed in the decade or so since Pet Shop Boys performed A Man From the Future, their...
The post Pet Shop Boys - A Man From the Future appeared first on The Quietus.
Available across vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu-ray, the live album was captured during one of her October 2021 performances at Reykjavík's Harpa Concert Hall
Björk is releasing an orchestral live album, titled Björk Orkestral With The Hamrahlíð Choir.
Captured during a performance at Reykjavík's Harpa Concert Hall on 24 October 2021, the show saw Björk play music mostly from 2004 album Medúlla. For the performance, she was joined by the 50-member Hamrahlíð Choir, who were conducted by Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir. Musician Bergur Þórisson also provided accompaniment on the organ.
The album will be released across vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu-ray formats, and features renditions of 11 of Björk's tracks.
In a statement, the Icelandic artist said: "I am so happy and proud of this concert....
The post Björk Details Live Orchestral Album, 'Björk Orkestral With The Hamrahlíð Choir' appeared first on The Quietus.
The six members of Warp Records' Providenza Ensemble will have their works performed by Sinfonietta Cracovia in a show presented by Unsound
Loraine James and Puce Mary are among six artists who've produced new orchestral works to be performed at London's Barbican next year.
Scheduled for 24 January, the Unsound-presented event will see Sinfonietta Cracovia, the official orchestra of Kraków, perform new pieces by Warp Records' Providenza Ensemble, which comprises James, Mary, Mabe Fratti, Clarissa Connelly, Kelman Duran and Mark William Lewis. Each piece lasts 10 minutes, and was produced to be performed by a 30-string orchestra while the six artists took part in a residency at the Corsican agricultural site Providenza.
The musicians produced their works under the guidance of Manchester Collective...
The post Loraine James, Puce Mary and More to Debut Orchestral Works at London's Barbican appeared first on The Quietus.
The experimental electronic music event takes over Colchester Arts Centre later this month
Mike Paradinas, AKA µ-Ziq
UK festival Edgelands will host four days of leftfield and experimental electronic music at its third edition later this month.
Returning to its home of Colchester Arts Centre, the event will take in a headline appearance from Mike Paradinas' µ-Ziq project, featuring immersive visuals from ID:Mora. Meemo Comma and Stuart Bowditch will provide support.
Elsewhere, the festival will take in sets from Masal - the collaboration between Al Johnson and Anglo-Turkish multi-instrumentalist Ozlem Simsek - Warp Records affiliates Plaid, and cellist Jo Quail.
Edgelands will take place from 15 to 18 October 2026. Find more information here.
...
The post µ-Ziq, Plaid and More to Play Edgelands 2026 appeared first on The Quietus.
The Forbidden Planet will be released via Mills' own Axis Records next month
Photo by Jacob Khrist
Jeff Mills is releasing a new album from his Tomorrow Comes The Harvest band project.
Titled The Forbidden Planet, the record features nine tracks by the band that comprises Mills, keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary and percussionist Prabhu Edouard. Rasheeda Ali also makes guest contributions to the LP on flute.
The album sees the group continue to explore their blend of electronic and acoustic dynamics. It was recorded across two years between studios in Miami and Paris.
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest began as a live, improvisation-based project involving Mills and the late Tony Allen, with Dary later joining the fold after working with Allen for some time beforehand. Edouard joined...
The post Jeff Mills Unveils New Album from Tomorrow Comes The Harvest Project appeared first on The Quietus.
Music For Two Films About Water takes in work that the artist otherwise known as Grouper made for films released in 2023 and 2024
Photo by Colin Smith
Liz Harris, the artist otherwise known as Grouper, is releasing a new collection of soundtrack works through longtime label home Kranky.
Music For Two Films About Water features two extended pieces by Harris, produced for 2023 film We Exhale - which sees artist Tanja Engelberts explore how centuries of damming, channelling and industrial pollution have changed the Rhône river - and 2024 film Constellation - in which Takashi Makino explores how new meanings emerge through the arrangement of existing images, memories and other ephemera.
Listen to Harris' 21-minute piece for Constellation below.
Kranky will release Music For...
The post Liz Harris Plots New Release of Soundtrack Work appeared first on The Quietus.
