Todmorden label announce ambitious “re-imagining” of cult film

A previously unseen production still from The Watchers 

The Folklore Tapes label has launched a Kickstarter for a major project reimagining 1969 film The Watchers as a book, album and live show. Marking the label’s 15th birthday, their take on The Watchers will, we’re told, “expand upon the film’s atmospheric legacy, drawing out its folkloric undertones and exploring the cultural and psychic landscape it inhabits.” The Kickstarter, which you can find here, is for a soundtrack album featuring Calder Valley musicians Bridget Hayden, Thorn Wych, Sam McLoughlin, Radiophonic Labs, Edd Sanders, dbh, David Chatton Barker, and Ramsey Janini, an A5 book exploring the film and its legacy that features new interview material with…

The post Folklore Tapes Announce The Watchers Kickstarter appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/folklore-tapes-announce-the-watchers-kickstarter/

The Barcelona festival’s 24th edition takes place next June

Photo by Sergio Albert

Primavera Sound has revealed the full lineup for its 2026 edition.

Next year’s festival, the 24th in the event’s history, will be headlined by The Cure, The xx, Gorillaz, Doja Cat and Massive Attack. Also lined up for key sets are My Bloody Valentine, PinkPantheress, Addison Rae, Skrillex, Little Simz, Big Thief, Ethel Cain, Kneecap, Blood Orange, Slowdive, Overmono and Amaarae.

Lower down the bill, the festival will host caroline, fakemink, Einstürzende Neubauten, Merzbow, Panda Bear, Lucrecia Dalt, These New Puritans, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Matmos, Rashad Becker, Anna von Hausswolff, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland & Elizabeth Copeland.

Electronic music is also well represented across the lineup, with the likes of Ben UFO, Shackleton, Call…

The post The Cure, The xx and More To Play Primavera Sound 2026 appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/the-cure-the-xx-and-more-to-play-primavera-sound-2026/

The Carmarthenshire-born artist and producer morphs into the Eno of our times, delivering a career-defining meditation on things falling apart, finds Hayley Scott

Cate Le Bon. Credit: H. Hawkline

Cate Le Bon didn’t approach her seventh album with a grand statement in mind. Instead, she found herself drawn to a single image: Colette Lumiere’s installation, ‘Recently Discovered Ruins of a Dream’: a woman alone in a room draped with fabric and mirrors that catch the light. That sense of aftermath, the peculiar clarity that emerges once the dust has finally settled, seeps into every corner of Michelangelo Dying. Le Bon writes from within the fog of confusion, striving to capture that elusive moment when struggle gives way to something like rest.

Having spent…

The post States of Weightlessness: Cate Le Bon’s Michelangelo Dying appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/cate-le-bon-michelangelo-dying-review/

Looking back at Bowie’s Outside and Walker’s Tilt, both released 30 years ago, Ned Raggett says the pair might not have met but the energy of respect and influence travelled between them in strange ways

In September 1967, 20-year-old David Bowie found himself in suspension. His self-titled debut album released a couple of months prior had been a flop. An artistic hero, Syd Barrett, had delivered a part ambivalent, part mocking, but nonetheless encouraging boost for his ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ single via a review in Melody Maker. But that too had flopped. His record label had just rejected a follow-up single, ‘Let Me Sleep Beside You’. He spent a couple of days that month being playing a painting by a…

The post The 20th Century Dies: David Bowie, Scott Walker and the 1990s appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/david-bowie-scott-walker/

Arusa Qureshi was never allowed a skateboard, but the soundtracks to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series of computer games were a vital introduction to music – one that, she argues, was far more effective than today’s algorithm-driven discovery mechanisms

When I was a newborn, my sister accidentally dropped me while roller skating down a slide. It’s not as bad as it sounds – she caught me in the fall, managing to break her arm in the process. From that point on, however, roller skates, skateboards, and pretty much anything with wheels were forbidden in our home. I didn’t even learn to properly ride a bike until I was at university, thought this was never really an issue because I didn’t know…

The post Low Culture Essay: Arusa Qureshi on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Soundtracks appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/subscriber-area/low-culture-essay/low-culture-essay-arusa-qureshi-on-the-tony-hawk-pro-skater-soundtracks/

James K

Friend

James K charms listeners with angelic soundscapes and dream-pop, embracing the listener in a warm, auditory hug

Friend by james K

James K wastes no time drawing us into her sonic jungle. On opener ‘Days Go By’, she wants to “close it all out and lay down” amid glitchy sound effects mimicking bird calls and reptilian croaks, coaxing us into a spiritual Garden of Eden where we can relax. Right from the start, Friend charms listeners with angelic soundscapes and dream-pop, embracing the listener in a warm, auditory hug.

Beyond her velvety voice, the production shines. This is no surprise as her back catalogue of collaborations with producers and artists stretch between some of the most exciting musicians of late. Previous tracks…

The post James K – Friend appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/james-k-friend-review/

The new edition will feature unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, and a series of photographs from the original promo tour

Outkast’s classic 2000 album Stankonia is getting a 25th anniversary reissue.

3xLP, standard vinyl and CD packages are due to be released, with the updated edition set to take in a number of bonus cuts, such as ‘Speed Ballin” (which has never appeared on streaming services before), ‘Sole Sunday’ featuring Goodie Mob, and two new remixes of ‘B.O.B’.

André 3000 has designed new artwork for the release, with physical editions of the reissue also set to include a series of photos captured 25 years ago when the duo were touring the album. Merchandise – including T-shirts, caps and hoodies – tied to the new…

The post Outkast’s ‘Stankonia’ to be Reissued for 25th Anniversary appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/outkasts-stankonia-to-be-reissued-for-25th-anniversary/

The compilation album comprising the group’s three earliest LPs has been newly remastered

Photo by Paul Cox

Lush’s 1990 compilation album Gala is being reissued.

Back in print for the first time since its original 1990 release, the updated edition will feature new remasters of the original record and a biography written by Jenny Hval. The remasters will be made available for digital streaming, while standard LP, CD and cassette formats will also be issued. An additional deluxe edition coloured vinyl box set, featuring 3×12-inch and 7-inch vinyl, is also set to be released.

New limited edition Lush merchandise – including T-shirts, pin badgers and posters – is newly available for pre-order via 4AD’s webstore.

Gala was the Lush’s debut compilation album, comprising their…

The post Lush’s ‘Gala’ Set for 35th Anniversary Reissue appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/lushs-gala-set-for-35th-anniversary-reissue/

Nocturnal Rainforest is out next month

Photo by Frankie Casillo

Japanese noise musician Merzbow has teamed up with Brazilian drummer Iggor Cavalera and Italian guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi for a new collaborative album.

Spanning two extended pieces, Nocturnal Rainforest is set to be released via Berlin-based label PAN. The trio aim to re-contextualise their respective practices in extreme experimental music “by concentrating on texture, atmosphere and sensory overload”, according to a press release, with the record also making use of field recordings.

The album marks all three artists’ debuts on PAN, the label run by Bill Kouligas.

PAN will release Nocturnal Rainforest on October 3, 2025
…

The post Merzbow Links with Iggor Cavalera and Eraldo Bernocchi on New Album for PAN appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/merzbow-iggor-cavalera-eraldo-bernocchi-new-album-pan/

As Rafael Toral prepares for the release of new album Traveling Light and a performance at this year’s Semibreve festival, the Portuguese experimental master takes Daryl Worthington through 10 points of entry into his enormous discography

Photo by Vera Marmelo

Rafael Toral’s records make invention and exploration audible in real time. 1995’s Wave Field originated after he saw the Buzzcocks in 1994. As the venue’s unsympathetic acoustics turned the British band into an ‘amorphous roar’, Toral imagined rock music liquefying, and that vision is what the album synthesises and explores. 1998’s Aeriola Frequency fixates on the resonances hiding in electrical circuits, turning them up and finding a world of spooky harmony. In 2004, Toral asked how volatile electronic instruments could play free…

The post The Strange World Of… Rafael Toral appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/interviews/strange-world-of/rafael-toral-best-albums-interview-semibreve/