The urgent spoken word of slam poet and film-maker Saul Williams lifts a suite of soothing ambient jazz into something powerful, optimistic and inspiring, finds Daniel Spicer

Was Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way the first known example of what we now call ambient jazz? It has all the hallmarks: electro-acoustic improvisation that sets a sustained mood, running over an extended period without being overly hung up on rhythmic or harmonic changes, and which can serve as soothing background ambience while also meriting closer listening if the urge strikes.You could also make a case for some of Don Cherry’s work with Collin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos in the trio Codona, whose albums for the ECM label created pristine soundscapes using a…

The post Voices Beneath the Rubble: Saul Williams, Carlos Niño & Friends At TreePeople appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/saul-williams-carlos-nino-friends-at-treepeople-review/

Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars

Amazing Things

The former Hefner singer delivers a beautiful work of mourning, backed by massed electric guitars

Amazing Things by Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars

“Somebody just died / Nobody you’d know,” Darren Hayman intones in the opening line of his latest album, Amazing Things. Not being formally acquainted with Hayman’s deceased friend, for whom these songs have been written and were inspired by, does not compromise one’s experience with this heartfelt album. Grief is felt differently by everyone, but there’s a universal language of loss understood by anyone who’s experienced such pain, whether they can translate those emotions into words or not. Little things like keeping someone’s phone number in your list of contacts even though…

The post Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars – Amazing Things appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/darren-hayman-and-his-electric-guitars-amazing-things/

Wacław Zimpel and Hieroglyphic Being are among the other artists who’ve reworked tracks from the Norwegian saxophonist’s 2023 self-titled album

Bendik Giske, photo by Luis Alberto

Bendik Giske’s 2023 self-titled album is getting a remix package.

Featuring six tracks, the Norwegian saxophonist has enlisted aya, Beatrice Dillon, Wacław Zimpel, Hieroglyphic Being, Carmen Villain and Hanne Lippard to rework tracks from the original record for Remixed.

Giske produced his self-titled album together with Beatrice Dillon, who has been invited to remix the track ‘Rise And Fall’ for the new release. He released the LP via Smalltown Supersound, the label which will also put out Remixed.

Listen to aya’s remix of ‘Slipping’ below.

Smalltown Supersound will release Remixed on October 3, 2025.

…

The post Bendik Giske Enlists aya, Beatrice Dillon and More for New Remix Package appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/bendik-giske-enlists-aya-beatrice-dillon-and-more-for-new-remix-package/

The album has been remastered especially for the updated release

Clock DVA’s 1980 album White Souls In Black Suits is being reissued.

Marking the first time that the band’s debut album has been officially made available on physical formats in 35 years, the album has been remastered especially for its updated release. It will be pressed across vinyl and CD formats, and made available digitally, with four bonus tracks from the same era also set to feature alongside the original album.

“We set out to form a new sound combination,” said Clock DVA’s Adi Newton in a statement about White Souls In Black Suits. “To combine acoustics and electronics, merging the German electronic wave with the edge of The Stooges, the avant-garde of the…

The post Clock DVA Reveals ‘White Souls In Black Suits’ Reissue appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/clock-dva-reveals-white-souls-in-black-suits-reissue/

The White House described From The Deep: In The Wake Of Drexciya and other recent exhibitions at the museum institution as “anti-American propaganda”

A Drexciya-inspired exhibition at The Smithsonian has been labelled “anti-American propaganda” in a wave of attacks against the museum institution by by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

From The Deep: In The Wake Of Drexciya, which concluded at Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of African Art in January 2025, is one of several exhibitions referenced in a new statement from the White House, entitled President Trump Is Right About The Smithsonian.

The exhibition, produced by photographer Ayana V. Jackson, explored the Afrofuturist concept at the heart of the work of Drexciya, the duo of James Stinson and Gerald Donald. The two artists’ work…

The post Trump Administration Criticises Smithsonian Museum Over Drexciya-Inspired Exhibition appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/trump-administration-criticises-smithsonian-museum-over-drexciya-inspired-exhibition/

The new feature is being rolled out in the US, the UK and other nations amid an ongoing artist exodus from Spotify

Apple Music is rolling out a new tool that allows its users to import playlists from other streaming services.

After initial beta-testing in Australia and New Zealand, the new feature is now available in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and Mexico. It can be accessed via a new menu in settings called Transfer Music from Other Music Services. From there, you can sign in to another streaming platform and select items to import.

Head to Apple’s Support page to find more detailed instructions, as well as an alternative method for importing playlists via your web browser.

The new feature is…

The post Apple Music Introduces Tool to Allow Users to Import Playlists from Other Streaming Platforms appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/apple-music-introduces-tool-to-allow-users-to-import-playlists-from-other-streaming-platforms/

Antidepressants even series kicks off with intimate performance

Suede live by Jim Dyson

Suede played an intimate gig in the round at the Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom last night, launching both their new record Antidepressants and their run of gigs at the London arts institution. Brett Anderson as ever had sweated through a white shirt within a couple of songs, greeting the crowd with a cheery “hello Bermondsey”. After Suede had rattled through the new album, Anderson announced “we are the anti-nostalgia band, otherwise known as Suede”, before they played an encore of tracks selected solely from records released after their reformation in 2010. They’ve previously described Antidepressants as their “post-punk” record to Autofiction’s punk-inspired direct sound, but on last night’s evidence…

The post Suede Launch new LP at Southbank Gig appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/suede-launch-new-lp-at-southbank-gig/

Van Morrison’s vast discography is littered with moments of exceeding strangeness. As the mercurial, contradictory musician approaches his 80th birthday, Wayne Gooderham delivers a guide to 10 entry points to the weirder side of his work

“And I will raise my hand up into the nighttime sky / And count the stars that’s shining in your eye / And just to dig it all and not to wonder, that’s just fine / And I’ll be satisfied not to read in between the lines…”Van Morrison, ‘Sweet Thing’, 1969

“If you don’t like it, go fuck yourself…”Van Morrison, on-stage audience interaction, 1974 

There’s a story about the young Van Morrison that feels pertinent to this list: while living in Belfast, a love-struck Van went through…

The post The Strange World Of… Van Morrison appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/interviews/strange-world-of/the-strange-world-of-van-morrison/

On the verge of Essex Honey, his first Blood Orange album in six years, Dev Hynes reflects on the tenderness of return and shares with Francis Buseko the 13 albums that shaped his homecoming, from Nina Simone to Slipknot, and from Beach House to Bach

Photo by Vinca Petersen

“Sometimes I feel like I’ve been misunderstood my whole life,” Dev Hynes says, his voice soft but certain. “And then you hear a record that makes you feel like… someone saw you before you even saw yourself.”

That search for recognition threads through Essex Honey, his first Blood Orange album in six years, seeing his creative impulse drawn back to Essex, where he was born and raised. The title had lingered with him for…

The post Homecoming: Dev Hynes’ Favourite Albums appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/interviews/bakers-dozen/dev-hynes-blood-orange-favourite-albums-essex-honey/

Earl Sweatshirt 

Live Laugh Love

The ex-Odd Future member grows up, still just as intense as ever

Earl Sweatshirt, in recent years, has come to occupy a space not unlike that of Elliott Smith. If it’s fair to anoint Smith the “patron saint of sad boys,” as a piece by Darran Anderson in tQ earlier this year so aptly did, it’s helpful to think of the ex-Odd Future member (AKA Thebe Kgositsile) as a reluctant prophet for the wounded and weary – an irreverent yet deeply perceptive oracle who continues to capture a generation of chronically online depressives with his grim clarity. 

Like Smith, evangelists are drawn to Sweatshirt for the unadulterated intimacy present in his music. ‘Solace’ (a companion piece to the rapper’s…

The post Earl Sweatshirt  – Live Laugh Love appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/earl-sweatshirt/