An extract from Rodge Glass’ new biography of the second half of Suede’s existence reveals how the band recently wrote a score and songs for a ballet, in part inspired by The Fall’s work with Michael Clark

Band reformations frequently offer thin creative gruel. Even if new material is made, it’s often scattered apologetically at the start of gigs before the price-gouged audience get a dose of nostalgia, a shot in the arm to take them fleetingly back to the heady hormonal years of teenagerhood. Suede were at such a low ebb when they split in 2003 that their return had to be done differently, and done right – avoiding what Brett Anderson describes as “the living death of playing exclusively old songs,…

The post Dressed in a Leotard: How Suede Wrote – and Abandoned – a Ballet appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/culture/books/dressed-in-a-leotard-how-suede-wrote-and-abandoned-a-ballet/

In an exclusive extract from his new book, A Right to Housing, Samuel Stein argues that the struggle for affordable housing is an inseparable element of the class struggle

Photo by Jonathan Billinger. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.

When most people think of a right to housing, they are conceiving of a right to a home – a city, nation, or world where no one is pushed into homelessness, and where no one is evicted because of tenant poverty or landlord avarice.

A right to a home means ensuring there is always enough housing for everyone, regardless of market conditions. It is not a right to real estate, or an entitlement to for-profit homeownership – a recipe for the kind of “predatory inclusion”…

The post This Must Be The Place: Do We Have A Right To Housing? appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/culture/books/this-must-be-the-place-do-we-have-a-right-to-housing/

To celebrate the imminent publication of his new book Can’t Get You Out Of My Head: In Search of Kylie, Michael Cragg treats us to a rundown of a dozen of the Queen of Pop’s lesser-known bops

Having spent the last two years thinking non-stop about Kylie Ann Minogue, I feel like I know her discography pretty well. I’m also aware that for some a ‘Kylie deep cut’ is probably a song like 2004’s ‘Chocolate’, which actually reached the top 10, while for the many true obsessives we’re talking ‘Sometime Samurai’, Kylie’s other super odd collaboration with Japanese artist Towa Tei. Basically what I’m saying is you can’t please everyone, so across this list of 12 Kylie deep cuts I’ve focused…

The post Music With You: 12 Kylie Deep Cuts appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/culture/books/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-in-search-of-kylie-michael-cragg/

The free monthly magazine covered music, film, literature and other forms of culture

Scottish cultural magazine The Skinny has ceased publication after 21 years.

News of the magazine’s end was revealed on Instagram, where the team behind the publication wrote: “After 20 years of independent cultural journalism and with a very heavy heart, we have to tell you that September’s edition of The Skinny is our final issue. Radge Media CIC, the company which publishes The Skinny as well as Fest and GNAW magazines, has ceased operations.”

The Skinny was founded in 2005, with early editions produced by a group of volunteers. Since then, the operation has grown somewhat, as it covered various cultural disciplines across music, film, literature, theatre and more.

Pearl Jam,…

The post Scottish Magazine The Skinny Ceases Publication After 21 Years appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/scottish-magazine-the-skinny-ceases-publication-after-21-years/

The opening night will also feature a mystery gig from an as-yet unannounced performer

Matthew Biederman, the winner of the Edigma Semibreve Award 2026

Braga’s Semibreve festival has completed the lineup for this year’s event with the addition of a host of installations, films, talks and masterclasses.

The festival has also announced that its opening night will feature a special performance from a yet-to-be-announced artist, whose identity will be concealed until they take to the stage at the Basílica Dos Congregados.

Running from 22 to 25 October, a music line-up that includes a rare set from composer Nuno Canavarro, Flora Yin-Wong, Fennesz, Marta Salogni and more, was finalised earlier this year.

Now, an installation programme has been announced that draws on several works resulting from…

The post Semibreve Finalises Lineup with Films, Talks, Installations and More appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/semibreve-finalises-lineup-with-films-talks-installations-and-more/

Francis Buseko considers the exquisite balance created by the post-White Hotel Salfordian Duo who create a sense of yearning for the sensation of yearning

CURSED FRAME [DELUXE EDITION] by ANOTHER COUNTRY $$$$

Another day. Another ghost. Another shadow. Another thought. Another possibility. Another door. Another doorway behind the door.

“Another” is a fitting word attached to a record that rarely stays where you expect it to. Cursed Frame is an album full of thresholds: sounds coming from across the room, voices emerging from the fog, something moving beneath the surface. Just when you think you have found your bearings, the music shifts the ground beneath you. There is always another layer, another shadow, another doorway behind the one you have just walked…

The post Reissue of the Week: Another Country $$$$’s Cursed Frame (Deluxe Edition) appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/reissue-of-the-week/another-country-cursed-frame-deluxe-review/

In this month’s edition of the pod, Luke Turner and John Doran discuss Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1986 film of lust and mutual destruction

Luke was drawn in as a young man by the promise of steamy sex scenes, John, as a teenager, because he thought watching it would make him look like a Gauloise-puffing hipster. But now they are in different stages of their advancing ‘careworn’ years, how do the Low Culture Podcast hosts feel about the 1986 film Betty Blue? While Luke had forgotten just how grim it was, conversely John hadn’t remembered just how funny it can be (in different parts, of course). Both now have a deeper appreciation of the painterly eye of Jean-Jacques Beineix, not to mention his commentary…

The post The Low Culture Podcast: Betty Blue appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/subscriber-area/low-culture-podcast/the-low-culture-podcast-betty-blue/

Nate Mercereau

Fantastic Thoughts

Perennial session man shows exactly what he’s capable of

Fantastic Thoughts by Nate Mercereau

In 2022, Andre 3000 was beginning work on his solo debut New Blue Sun. It was to be a total left turn from his ‘Hey Ya!’ heyday, and so Three Stacks tasked LA drummer and producer Carlos Niño with assembling a killer jazz ensemble to really get the best out of his flutework. The guitarist Niño brought in would prove crucial, filling the empty spaces with shimmering textures and helping to tie the electroacoustic jams together. “He’s a magician,” Andre 3000 said: “he hardly ever sounds like he is playing a guitar.”

That guitarist was Nate Mercereau, a precociously talented multi-instrumentalist with a wild CV.

Mercereau worked as…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/nate-mercereau-fantastic-thoughts-review/

At a festival in Eupen, in German-speaking East Belgium, Robert Barry finds a rich tapestry of experimental sounds – and almost gets hit by a flying mic

Saba Arat. Photo credit: Annika Schönfeldt

It was when he started swinging the second microphone that I started to worry. It was a fairly confined space. The first mic had already gone flying off its lead and smashed against the wall. Shrugging his shoulders, he rifled through his bag for another, calmly attached it to the buzzing cable and starting swinging again, over his head, like a lasso: Whoomph-whoomph-whoomph. That’s when people started to back off a bit, giving him some space. A few held their hands up to shield their faces. Little by little he…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/live-reviews/meakusma-festival-2026-eupen-belgium-review/

The 1996 album by the cult Japanese ambient music producer had previously only been available on CD, with copies selling for hundreds of pounds on Discogs

Photo by Ghig & Ikuko Takahashi

Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1996 ambient music album Quiet Forest is being reissued by LA-based label Temporal Drift.

The updated release will see the LP by the cult Japanese ambient music producer get a first-time vinyl pressing having previously only been issued on CD in Yoshimura’s home country. Copies of the original release are on sale for hundreds of pounds on Discogs at the time of writing, so a reissue is much welcomed. The original album has been remastered from the source tapes for its new vinyl pressing, while the LP is also…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/hiroshi-yoshimuras-quiet-forest-set-for-first-time-vinyl-release/