As he prepares for his Placebo-soundtracked RSC debut, the actor, writer and comedian tells Julian Marszalek why most of his favourite songs contain a strain of melancholy, and why streaming algorithms think he’s Gen Z

There’s a particular joy in hearing Mark Gatiss talk about the moment something first sparked in his imagination. In this case, it’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Bertolt Brecht’s satire on the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, which Gatiss first encountered as a teenager at Darlington Civic Theatre in a production that, somewhat incongruously, starred Robin Asquith, the face – and bottom – of the bawdy 70s Confessions… film comedies. 

“He was absolutely brilliant and it was like being punched in the throat,” recalls Gatiss….

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Rabid hurdy-gurdy, murky DIY sounds from Canada, a shahi baaja and a Javanese kentongan in this month’s playlist from the zone.

France, photo by Gordon Wallace

Let me talk to you about Sogo Ishii. Have you seen August in the Water? You should. How about Angel Dust? You really should. Crazy Thunder Road? You really, really should. 

Ishii’s films are often prescient, wildly heterogenous, soundtracked by essential punk infractions, industrial chug and the glassy space-holding sound of fourth world ambient. Bonus: they are also Easter-egged with a raft of Fortean esoterica (megaliths, aliens, meteorites, psychics, unexplained weather events). I love his films, even after spending the first quarter of 2026 face first in it for a book-length essay, which has just been published…

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Mclusky

I Sure Am Getting Sick Of This Bowling Alley

Late 90s post-hardcore favourites return once more, wry wit intact, just as abrasive as ever

i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley by mclusky

The restless Welsh kings of post hardcore noise rock make a return with the short-and-sweet EP, I Sure Am Getting Sick Of This Bowling Alley. Luckily, the wait was not as prolonged as the two-decade-long hiatus fans had to endure preceding The World Is Still Here And So Are We, and the release hints at a forthcoming full-length release from the band. Comprised of tracks written during sessions for their previous albums, two new songs that may appear on the next record, and two digital-only tracks, the long-standing masters of…

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Mr Vast

Upping The Ante

Wild and eccentric music from one third of Skam Records group Wevie Stonder

Upping The Ante by Mr Vast

If ever there was a name that suited a record, it is Upping The Ante by Mr Vast. From the opening moments, it feels like we have stepped through the looking glass. What ante needs upping, precisely? The answer never fully materialises, and listening in is akin at times to a 1980s role-playing book, with eccentric nutters and ravers confronting us instead of wizards and trolls. We can also consider the sinister smiley face that dominates the cover artwork. For those who like to overthink things, there is an uneasy visual association with the illustration of the sun in ’70s…

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Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE & SURF GANG

Pompeii // Utility

For some fans of Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE, an album of 33 songs entirely produced by SURF GANG, rather than The Alchemist or Wiki, might constitute a potential dud, but POMPEII // UTILITY is anything but

POMPEII // UTILITY by Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE & SURF GANG

As a medium, the ‘collab album’ can be rather polarising. Sure, fans may rejoice that two of their favourite artists are working together, but equally, they might be fearful of a low common denominator outcome. In this case, for hip-hop fan favourites Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE, a joint album would seem an obvious move for artists with similar production, cadence and flows, not to mention previous successful collaborations. Throw…

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In an exclusive extract from his new book Ukrainian Field Notes, author Gianmarco Del Re explores the soundscape of ScanEagles and Shahed drones turning the skies over Kyiv into a sonic warzone

The word drone comes from Old English, referring both to the male honeybee and its buzzing sound – a meaning that now feels grimly prophetic. In places long subjected to drone warfare, people often name them after the noise they make. Along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, drones have been called bangana (“buzzing wasp”); in Gaza, Israeli drones are nicknamed zanana, slang for a “nagging wife”, a term that mimics their ceaseless hum. In each case, the sound is not incidental but central: an acoustic weapon that invades daily life, produces…

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A. L. Noonan uncovers the toy-like, lo-fi astral world of underground artist Larrison; space-age tableaux that challenge perceptions of outsider art while recontextualising 90s electronic music

Connecters Vol. 1: Original Recordings, 1992–1999 by Larrison

In 2020, Jed Bindeman of rarities label Freedom To Spend, purchased the full review archive of defunct magazine ND. Over the publication’s lifespan of 1982 to 1999, editor Daniel Plunkett had amassed over 1,200 tapes to be considered for review. These were now Bindeman’s and on listening to a slew of them, fatigue began to set in. Most tapes were noisy, awkwardly lo-fi productions that were starting to tax him in his search for some uncovered gem. This was until he discovered Connecters by visual artist Larrison Seidle:…

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A new album from the Erasure, Blancmange and Wrangler axis reimagines eleven disparate tracks as cohesive analogue electronica. Wesley Doyle hears how old friendships and other people’s songs begat new music and original possibilities

“My cat’s outside, meowing,” says Vince Clarke, “He’s dying to get in on this interview.” The synth pop genius is speaking from his home studio in San Diego, which – along with many, many synths – he shares with a cat called Smudge who has a marked preference for jungle and house. “My cat is quite funny. He’ll come in the studio if I’m doing a remix that he quite likes, but the moment I pick up an acoustic guitar, he leaves.”Smudge must’ve been a constant companion…

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Thundercat

Distracted

The latest from the Californian bass wizard has features from luminaries like Tame Impala, Lil Yachty, A$AP Rocky and the late Mac Miller, but it’s unmistakably a Thundercat record through and through, finds Mary Chiney

Distracted by Thundercat

Stephen Bruner operates on a frequency entirely his own. For over a decade, the man known as Thundercat has been the secret weapon of the Los Angeles beat scene, the virtuosic bass-plucker who helped anchor the sprawling, chaotic brilliance of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Flying Lotus’s CosmogrammaIt Is What It Is in 2020. In the hyper-accelerated timeline of contemporary music, six years is a lifetime. People forget. Tastes mutate.

Listening to Distracted, his highly-anticipated fifth studio album, it feels as though no…

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Oh Mr James, Steeling Sheep and Voka Gentle for West Country festival this April

One of our favourite West Country venues, The Cornish Bank, in Falmouth, Cornwall, is hosting a two day festival on April 10 and 11 in a variety of venues. As well as bands such as Voka Gentle and Braindance producers such as Oh Mr James, headline acts include Stealing Sheep, Opus Kink, The Golden Dregs, Nadia Reid and The Leisure Society, alongside emerging performers such as Mary Mathias, Doss, Seamus Fogarty, Daisy Rickman and AK Patterson.

Quietus editor John Doran was delighted to be invited to be part of the Conference bill on Saturday lunchtime, held at Falmouth University’s Woodlane Campus, talking about The Third Place: Ceremony and Gathering in Cornwall with a…

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