Dive into over eight hours of music

Look! There he is! Cuthbert the horn-blowing turnip, back again with another gigantic playlist for our subscribers who make all this happen. As we wrote in the introduction to the chart rounding up the best 100 albums we’ve heard so far in 2025 (which of course you can read here), none of this algorithm-vanquishing music discovery would happen without their support. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you, whether you’ve backed us for five years or five minutes. If you’re not already a subscriber, and want instant access to around eight hours of bangers, belters and everything in between, you can join up here. Remember, as well as these special playlists, there’s a new…

The post The Subscriber Albums Of The Year So Far 2025 Playlist Is Here! appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/subscriber-area/playlists/the-subscriber-albums-of-the-year-so-far-2025-playlist-is-here/

As we reach the halfway mark of 2025, we polled tQ staff and columnists to compile our top 100 albums released during the first six months of the year

We recently conducted a survey of Quietus subscribers to discover some of their motivations in supporting us. It can be hard to remain upbeat in the current parlous state of the music business, but we were massively cheered by the enthusiasm and heartfelt positivity in what so many people said, from their love of the work our writers do to the regular perks they get as part of the subscription. Most of all, though, it was rewarding to see so many say how valuable tQ was in bringing them new music they’d…

The post The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2025 (In Association with Norman Records) appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/tq-charts/albums-of-the-year-so-far/the-quietus-albums-of-the-year-so-far-2025-in-association-with-norman-records/

Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra

Places We Have Never Been

An album of experimental music made by Todmorden school children evokes The Necks, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and a series of exotic locale. The kids are all right, says JR Moores

places we have never been by primitive percussion youth orchestra

No offence to the under-18s but the canon of music created by, or prominently involving, children is not exactly spectacular. ‘There’s No One Quite Like Grandma’ by St Winifred’s School Choir? Nausea-inducing schmaltz inspired by a gin-addled Queen Mother with a partiality for racial epithets. ‘Just Wave Hello’ by Charlotte Church? Its repercussions are still felt where the yurt-dwelling spiritual healer now resides. The young Jacko had some bangers. Alas, the situation in which…

The post Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra – Places We Have Never Been appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/primitive-percussion-youth-orchestra-places-we-have-never-been-review/

In an exclusive edited extract from Niko Stratis’s new book The Dad Rock That Made Me A Woman, the award-winning Canadian writer explores trans identity, the music of the American heartlands and how the Boss changed her life for good

Bruce Springsteen performing at the New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut circa 1977-1978. Photo: Carl Lender CC BY 2.0

There’s a line in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York that dances on the wind in my head, where Hazel (Samantha Morton) hesitates as she considers buying a house that is perpetually on fire. She remarks to a placid real estate agent, “I’m just really concerned about dying in a fire,” to which the agent selling a burning home replies back with earnest…

The post “Want to Change My Clothes, My Hair, My Face”: How Springsteen Helped Me Come Out appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/culture/books/want-to-change-my-clothes-my-hair-my-face-how-springsteen-helped-me-come-out/

The 27-minute performance is a collaboration with the artists Sorbitol Drops and Natálie Pleváková

SHAPE+ artist Sofi, real name Sofia Zaiceva, has shared a recording from a recent performance at Prague’s MeetFactory.

The 27-minute experimental piece is a collaboration with the artists Sorbitol Drops and Natálie Pleváková, and the recording was captured during an artist residency at the venue. With the performance, the trio aimed to question “how contemplative practices become commodified experiences to be consumed efficiently rather than embodied processes to be lived fully,” a press release said.

Jointly explaining their process, the three artists said: “We built our concept around observing how streaming platforms reduce music to absurdly grotesque algorithmic categories. Taking this phenomenon to its logical extreme, we created…

The post SHAPE+ Artist Sofi Shares Recording Captured During Residency at Prague’s MeetFactory appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/shape-artist-sofi-shares-recording-captured-during-residency-at-pragues-meetfactory/

CEO Robert Kyncl said the cuts will be fully implemented by the end of 2026

Warner Music Group has confirmed plans to cut the company’s annual costs by around $300 million.

The major label’s CEO, Robert Kyncl, described the plans as the “remaining steps in our plan to help future-proof the company,” in an SEC filing published on July 1, as Music Business Worldwide reports. $170 million of the cuts will come from “headcount reductions,” Kyncl said, while the rest will be realised through various other cost-cutting methods, such as administrative and real estate expenses.

The company plans to fully implements its cuts by the end of 2026, with the announcement following a pledge by Warner Music Group last February to cut 10…

The post Warner Music Group Announces Plans to Cut Annual Costs by $300 Million appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/warner-music-group-announces-plans-to-cut-annual-costs-by-300-million/

Plume Girl

Unnameable Glory

On her second full-length album, Texas-based composer Sowmya Somanath let the music speak

Unnameable Glory by Plume Girl

For Sowmya Somanath, music is a borderless realm. Trained in Western and Indian classical singing, the Hindustani-American artist frames ragas with a facade of electronic beats, samples and random sounds. In her world, different traditions coexist innocently and peacefully. This enriching coexistence is manifested in both music and artwork. Possibly alluding to the chivalric romance about Tristan and Isolde, a sword, depicted on the cover is emblematic of connection under pretence of division.

Both visually and sonically, the new album continues the trajectory of Somanath’s previous work, In the End We Begin, originally released in 2023 and scheduled for reissue on the same…

The post Plume Girl – Unnameable Glory appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/plume-girl-unnameable-glory-review/

The band are making the move in protest of chief executive Daniel Ek’s military investments

Deerhoof have said they are removing their music from streaming platform Spotify.

Announcing their intention, the band explained that they had reached their decision as a mark of protest of Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek’s ongoing investments in miltary technology.

“‘Daniel Ek uses $700 million of his Spotify fortune to become chairman of AI battle tech company’ was not a headline we enjoyed reading this week,” the band said in a statement shared online. “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”

In addition to being the the co-founder and chief executive of Spotify, Ek is the founder of…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/deerhoof-to-remove-music-from-spotify/

The annual Utrecht event has been hit by rising costs, inflation and increasingly costly and complex visa processes

Le Guess Who? has launched a fundraising campaign in order to help secure the festival’s future going forward.

Citing rising costs, inflation and increasingly costly and complex visa processes for the artists booked to play at the event, the festival said it needs help to stay afloat. “For almost 20 years, Le Guess Who? has been a sanctuary for adventurous music from all over the world, bringing people together through the power of sound,” a statement shared via Instagram said. “The current financial challenges we’re experiencing are making our mission harder to achieve.”

The festival’s statement continued: “LGW? was built on values of independence and…

The post Le Guess Who? Launches Fundraising Campaign to Help Secure Festival’s Future appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/le-guess-who-launches-fundraising-campaign-to-help-secure-festivals-future/

It’s based on a series of shows that the duo played through Europe across two weeks in 2023

Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O’Rourke are releasing a new collaborative album through Drag City.

Titled Pareidolia, the record is split into four pieces and is based on material that the duo played during a two-week period of shows through France, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland in 2023. It marks the fifth collaborative project between Ishibashi and O’Rourke.

The aforementioned 2023 shows marked the first time both artists has played together outside Japan. Ishibashi played flute, while both also played harmonica intermittently, and routed sounds from their laptops back to hard drives to provide further material with for the following gig. “Pareidolia’s final mix is one further…

The post Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O’Rourke Detail Collaborative Album, ‘Pareidolia’ appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/eiko-ishibashi-and-jim-orourke-detail-collaborative-album-pareidolia/