Ata Kak, Devendra Banhart and Smerz are among the final additions to the bill

Le Guess Who? has shared the full music programme for its 2025 edition, taking place this November.

The Utrecht festival will newly take in sets from the likes of Ata Kak, Devendra Banhart, Smerz, Hania Rani (performing as her alter-ego Chilling Bambino), MAHA, Skanda Jaïbi and Maria Alice. Italian musician Daniela Pes will also perform together with composer and producer IOSONOUNCANE, with the pair presenting a brand new collaborative live show.

It’s also been revealed that each day at this year’s event will take in a surprise unannounced performance on one of the main stages, with the artists playing those sets being kept under wraps until they perform.

Brazilian…

The post Le Guess Who? Completes Lineup for 2025 Edition appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/le-guess-who-completes-lineup-for-2025-edition/

The new edition features the full remastered album, as well as 35 bonus cuts

Screenshot

Soft Cell’s 1983 album The Art Of Falling Apart is getting a deluxe reissue.

Set to be made available in a 6xCD box set, as well as in other CD, vinyl and digital editions, the updated edition will take in the full remastered album, in addition to 35 bonus cuts covering remixes, live rarities and more.

Reflecting on the original album in a statement, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond said: “Our attitude at the time of The Art Of Falling Apart might have alienated some of our younger and more middle-of-the-road fans, but we were being honest with ourselves. Dave [Ball] was listening to lots of new music. He was…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/soft-cell-unveil-the-art-of-falling-apart-reissue/

The notes for The Spectator, an “18th century musical”, will go on show at the V&A East Storehouse

David Bowie’s final project prior that he worked on up to his death in 2016 has been revealed to be an “18th century musical” called The Spectator, and the notes for the project are set to be displayed at a new exhibition at the V&A East Storehouse in London.

Bowie had been working on the musical alongside his final album, Blackstar. The existence of the unfinished work is said to have been unknown “to even his closest collaborators”. When archivists gained access to his private study after his death, they became aware of the project.

Bowie also used a separate notebook to compile his thoughts…

The post David Bowie’s Final Project to be Added to Exhibition in London appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/david-bowies-final-project-to-be-added-to-exhibition-in-london/

Kate Bush’s third album is not her most celebrated but, Ben Hewitt argues, it might be her most pivotal – the start of her transition from artist to auteur. First published 07/09/20

No one was safe once Kate Bush arrived at Abbey Road, not even the people in the canteen. Sessions on 1980’s Never For Ever were fun but punishingly long, especially when she and her band spent hours playing with their freaky new toy, a Fairlight CMI digital sampler. One day, they smashed all the studio’s crockery and recorded the different timbres of each shattering cup and glass, just so they could play an arpeggio of breaking-shard samples on ‘Babooshka’. It sounded incredible, but not everyone thought the effect justified…

The post All She Ever Looked For: Kate Bush’s Never For Ever, 45 Years On appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/never-for-ever-kate-bush-anniversary-review/

Ben James Wood is part of a new generation of Cornwall-based producers, mixing and matching modular and desktop/ soft & hard synths to reboot Braindance for the 21st Century barn dance. Words: Noel Gardner. Photos: Patrick Matthews

[AF063] I'm Not Here EP by Oh Mr James

I’m Not Here, six pulsating tracks of hectic experimental acid techno, is Ben James Wood’s first release as Oh Mr James this decade. He hadn’t been operating with much greater urgency before that, either: a producer of some description since moving to Cornwall in 2010, and by his own estimation a pretty prolific one, his public transmissions are limited for good reason.

“I’m constantly writing and have tracks for days on boxes of hard drives – the…

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source https://thequietus.com/interviews/oh-mr-james-interview/

Kinzoogianna

The Clique of ’86

Jazz virtuouso goes electro-boogie on a neon-streaked night ride to the past – without a trace of nostalgia

In a time when big name acts of previous decades fill stadiums with their comeback tours, relentless nostalgia has become an industry of its own. The familiarities of the past providing a sort of cultural comfort blanket. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a bit of nostalgia, but mining an earlier era as an artistic source, can quickly put an artist in a particular bracket.

Singer-songwriter and all-round jazztronica sensation Anna Stubbs aka Kinzoogianna joyously avoids the pitfalls of retro-ism with The Clique of ’86, her second solo effort. On this fun and deeply gratifying set of tracks, she couples forward-looking contemporary jazz…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/kinzoogianna-the-clique-of-86-review/

C.D. Rose hails the reissue of this 2008 album as a perfect and playful introduction to the full range of Autechre

Quaristice by Autechre

There are those to whom Autechre seem a daunting prospect. The austere sleeves, the impenetrable track titles, the tales of intense two-hour sets played with the audience plunged into pitch darkness. Some of their recorded output might not help: 2016’s elseq 1–5 has a running time of nearly five hours, and its successor, NTS Sessions,clocks in at a neat eight. 

For those who have wavered, then, this reissue of 2008’s Quaristice should be a welcome opportunity. Quaristice shows the duo as miniaturists rather than maximalists. Each of its twenty (relatively) short tracks feels like a single tessera of a…

The post Reissue of the Week: Autechre’s Quaristice appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/reissue-of-the-week/autechre-quaristice-album-review-reissue/

Saint Etienne

International

The final album from Bob, Pete and Sarah. And they’re going out with a bang, finds Ian Wade

Saint Etienne – International by Heavenly Recordings

2025 has been a year of farewells. With the world at large saying goodbye to a whole Foxbase Alpha inner sleeve of heroes and legends such as Brian Wilson, Marianne Faithfull, Sly Stone, Terence Stamp, etc. etc. etc., the news that Saint Etienne’s next album would be their last felt like the end of yet another era. And that the comfort of all we knew had so well and truly been whipped away from us. We couldn’t possibly cope with much more heartbreak. 

International isn’t Saint Etienne’s Blackstar-type grand denouement, or an enforced final curtain because one…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/saint-etienne-international-review/

Help tQ survive by joining the hallowed band of our supporters today and get instant access to over 40 brand new playlists, with more to come each month

It’s now five years since we launched our subscription platform with Steady in a last-ditch attempt to save The Quietus during the desperate Covid crisis. Thankfully, we raised enough to temporally keep the wolves from the door, and the website is still here to celebrate its seventeenth birthday. SEVENTEEN! We can barely believe that we’ve made it through infancy, childhood, the difficult mid-teen years, and are legally old enough (in the UK at least) to head out onto the highways and byways, L-Plates on. However, we’re currently just below 2000 subscribers, and – at…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/the-quietus-is-17-were-celebrating-with-new-playlists-for-our-subscribers/

As autumn approaches, tQ’s electronic music columnist Jaša Bužinel compiles the tunes that have had the greatest impact on this summer’s festival dancefloors, from progressive bangers to nostalgia triggers

S.A.M.

I can’t remember why I didn’t offer the same speculative list of upcoming summer bangers I did last year. I guess I just didn’t have a solid enough overview of what’s trending. In an era where multiple realms of dance music feel disconnected from one another, you can easily get a false impression that everything is trending at once.

Even the most seasoned writers, promoters, label owners and DJs with decades of experience can now only keep pace with a tiny fraction of the now-vast electronic music landscape. I’m starting to believe that…

The post Hyperspecific: The Best Dance Tracks from Summer 2025, Reviewed by Jaša Bužinel appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/electronic/hyperspecific-the-best-dance-tracks-from-summer-2025-reviewed-by-jasa-buzinel/