Three decades in, the interplay betwen Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor, collaborators with everyone from Stereolab and Tortoise to Joshua Abrams and Jaimie Branch, just gets deeper and richer

Photo credit: Mikel Patrick Avery

Hyperglyph by Chicago Underground Duo

The careers of trumpeter Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor have been inextricably linked for more than three decades, functioning as the core behind countless projects, none more long-lived and essential than the various iterations of the Chicago Underground – in duo, trio, and quartet formations. While both musicians and composers have produced a ton of work independent of one another, their partnership still seems to loom over everything they do, with an elastic aesthetic revolving around rhythm and melody. It’s been eleven years…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/hyperglyph-chicago-underground-duo-review/

Andrew Nolan

Monochrome Vol. 2: Tentacles of Spiritual Contagion

Solo work from The Body and Full of Hell collaborator experiments in noise, hip hop and all points in-between

Monochrome Vol. 2: Tentacles Of Spiritual Contagion by Andrew Nolan

Fresh from partnering with noisy transatlantic neighbours, Full Of Hell and The Body (as part of Intensive Care), Andrew Nolan has corralled together a second round-up of his belligerent sonic output barely a month since the first volume. Leaning heavily into the compilation work that he has produced for that stalwart of the Northeast DIY noise scene, Industrial Coast, Monochrome Vol. 2: Tentacles of Spiritual Contagion, bridges the gaps between Nolan’s hip-hop productions as Wolfagram, the crushing industrial dub excavations he puts out under his own…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/andrew-nolan-monochrome-vol-2-tentacles-of-spiritual-contagion-review/

The new song tackles the merits of creating art for art’s sake

Photo by Shervin Lainez

David Byrne has shared a third preview of his forthcoming album, Who Is The Sky?

‘The Avant Garde’ follows the release of lead single ‘Everybody Laughs’ and ‘She Explains Things To Me’ in recent months, and tackles the merits of creating art for art’s sake.

In a statement about the song, Byrne said: “Some people will hear this and say, ‘David is calling bullshit on his friends’, but it’s more nuanced than that. Anyone who knows me knows that I go to plenty of shows that might be classified as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is hugely inspiring to me, as it often changes the way…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/david-byrne-shares-new-track-the-avant-garde/

The letter addressed to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and energy secretary Ed Miliband says a rejection of the plans would “signal the government’s serious commitment to tackling the climate crisis”

Brian Eno, Massive Attack and Robert Smith are among more than 100 artists who have signed an open letter to the UK government calling on them to reject plans for the Rosebank oil field.

The letter, penned by Eno and addressed to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband, says that the UK “urgently need to phase out oil and gas drilling”, and adds that a rejection of Rosebank “would signal the government’s serious commitment to tackling the climate crisis”.

Also featured on the list…

The post Brian Eno, Massive Attack and More Sign Open Letter Urging UK Government to Reject Rosebank Oil Field appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/news/brian-eno-massive-attack-and-more-sign-open-letter-urging-uk-government-to-reject-rosebank-oil-field/

A Series Of Actions In A Sphere Of Forever and Changes In Air will be released in September and November respectively

Photo by Norman Wong

Kara-Lis Coverdale will round off 2025 with the release of two new albums.

Completing a trilogy that started with the May release of From Where You Came, Coverdale will put out A Series Of Actions In A Sphere Of Forever and Changes In Air in September and November respectively.

You can listen to a lead single from A Series Of Actions In A Sphere Of Forever, titled ‘Turning Multitudes’, below. The record itself was written and recorded during winter in a small rural studio in Ontario, and reflects Coverdale’s move away from maximal sound and towards her early…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/kara-lis-coverdale-details-two-new-album-to-complete-trilogy/

Ahead of their debut album, Ryan Walker meets Manchester’s Maruja, a group brought together by happenstance, creating searing music via telepathic improvisation. This, he says, is the sound of solidarity in every sense of the word

Photo by Samuel Edwards

Venture to Stockport, specifically St. Peter’s Square, and you’ll find Maruja – Joseph Caroll (saxophone), Harry Wilkinson (vocals/guitar), Matt Buonaccorsi (bass) and Jacob Hayes (drums). Playing football, riding bikes, a gang at odds with nearby Manchester, a city perennially obsessed with overtaking the rise of its own star. For them, life explodes in the shadows of the post-industrial outskirts as Spanish lavender stretches through the cracks of a concrete bridge.

While it’d be unfair to say that the entirety of Manchester’s culture is…

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source https://thequietus.com/interviews/maruja-interview/

From to getting his grandma into Björk to the golden years of electroclash, Dale Cornish takes Jennifer Lucy Allan through the soundtrack of his life via 13 key albums

Photo by David Keen

It is a great shame that Dale Cornish’s cackle cannot be effectively transcribed. It is bright and explosive and lights up a room like a bolt of lightning, even over Zoom. Between cackles we are talking about the albums that have influenced him, from those that held a mirror up to his own creative ambitions, and the music that triangulated a space in which to develop his own sound, which manifests more acutely than ever on his new album Altruism, out on Death Of Rave. 

If Cornish’s music always sounds…

The post Life is a Jumble Sale: Dale Cornish’s Favourite Albums appeared first on The Quietus.

source https://thequietus.com/interviews/bakers-dozen/dale-cornish-bakers-dozen-favourite-albums-altruism/

Babymetal

Metal Forth

They may not have saved the world, but the new Babymetal record is an absolute hoot, finds JR Moores

Like Bill and Ted’s Wyld Stallyns, Babymetal were supposed to have saved us by now. They promised to unite the world through peace, love and kawaii metal. It’s over a decade since their debut album and our planet’s situation seems more precarious than ever.

Babymetal’s presence has done little to curb the malignant powers of the four horsemen of the crapocalypse: Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Ricky Gervais. What has the band’s divine creator, The Fox God, been playing at? Mauling the necks of domestic chickens and raiding the bins? Pull your toe out, Reynard.

Was it all just a ruse to…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/babymetal-metal-forth/

No Joy

Bugland

Restless French-Canadian one-woman-band teams up with Fire-Toolz to wreak havoc in the digital uncanny valley

Bugland by No Joy

Second-guessing the sound of a No Joy album before it comes out isn’t always easy. For one, the band-turned-solo project’s evolution borders on arcane. Exercising their rough magic, No Joy have pivoted from scuzzy Montreal shoegazers, to glam rock enthusiasts, to spidery dream-poppers. By 2020’s Motherhood, they weren’t even a band. If there seems a logical next step for No Joy’s gyroscopic sound, just know it probably isn’t the one that frontwoman and sole permanent member Jasamine White-Gluz is going to take.

On their fifth album, No Joy reach into the shoegaze landfill and stumble across fierce, cybernetic treasure. With IDM/maximalist/face-melting augur Fire-Toolz…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/no-joy-bugland-review/

Ahead of the North American premiere of their ongoing collaboration at this year’s MUTEK Festival, upsammy and Valentina Magaletti speak to Jennifer Lucy Allan about architecture as an instrument, and striking a balance between turbulence and clarity

Valentina Magaletti, photo by Louise Mason. upsammy, photo by Neven Allgeier

In 2023 Dutch DJ and electronic music producer, upsammy, aka Thessa Torsing was offered a prestigious commission by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to create new audio work for an upcoming exhibition showing major pieces from the collection of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam, including paintings by Monet, Yayoi Kusama, Dalí, Picasso, Mondrian, Rubens, Kiefer and others. 

Instead of responding to any particular work, Torsing brought in Italian drummer Valentina Magaletti, working with her…

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source https://thequietus.com/interviews/upsammy-valentina-magaletti-interview-mutek/