The Quietus Radio

Here's your latest trailer for The Low Culture Podcast, one of the regular perks enjoyed by subscribers to The Quietus – these wonderful people fund all our work. You can find out more about subscriptions here . Sunn O)))’s original name Mars tells you something, it being both the name of a massive planetary body but also a piece of music by Gustav Holst which is a an Ur-text in the history of hea...

As promised last month, here's a clip from the latest Low Culture Podcast, one of the many perks received by the subscribers who enable us to keep providing the antidote to the algorithm. This monthly show features tQ founders Luke Turner and John Doran discussing a cultural artefact that they love, from albums to films, TV shows, books... and even shoes. You can find the full archive here. The mo...

It's been a while since we've regularly updated our Quietus podcast feed, but that's about to change. Many of you will be aware that the site is now pretty much entirely funded by our readers, with these exalted subscribers getting sent a host of perks, including what we call the Low Culture Podcast. This monthly show features tQ founders Luke Turner and John Doran discussing a cultural artefact t...

The last episode of our series made in collaboration with 20ft Radio explores music trends post-Maidan and being “a rhizomatic thing” during wartime. Why do we need labels nowadays, especially in Ukraine? Especially when the manufacturer pulps most of your vinyl debut release before it’s even left the factory? A good question, answered in part by the guests in the final Memory Leaks episode: Acid...

In the latest instalment of our collaboration with Kyiv's 20ft Radio we hear tales of taxi drivers horrified by music, “Baroque pop”, paying tribute to Twiggy Pop, and ask what is an Independent label, in Ukraine The fifth Memory Leaks episode is a trip to the south of Ukraine in the 2000s and 2010s. We talk to Dmytro Vekov, a man with a “penchant for pseudonyms” and someone who admits to “keeping...

This is the story of how a small Ukrainian label evolved away from expectations of Ukrainian music as being all about folk music. The fourth episode of the Memory Leaks sees us stepping back into the Ukraine of the 2000s to take a closer look at the phenomenon of small indie labels and how the underground developed in unexpected ways. Our guest is Serhii Dubrowskii aka Dubmasta. Dubrovsky is a sel...

In the third episode of Memory Leaks, we're moving deeper into the 1990s and the evolution of underground sound from rock to electronic. Our guide this time is Oleksii Dehtiar aka Maket, the frontman of the cult band Ivanov Down, one of the most uncompromising acts of the 1990s Kyiv scene. Oleksii will break down Ivanov Down's many incarnations, reminisce about the first Ukrainian raves and share...

The second episode of Memory Leaks is dedicated to the Kharkiv-based phenomenon of the Novaya Scena (New Scene). Novaya Scena was an arts community and music production centre that was managed by Serhii Miasoedov. Accompanied by Serhii and Oleksander Klochkov - a music enthusiast, and caretaker of the Novaya Scena archives - we dig into Ukrainian avant-rock and esoteric folk of the 1990s. 20ft Rad...

In the first podcast from Kiev's 20ft Radio we're taken deep into the otherworldly folk sounds of the Ukrainian underground of the late 80s and early 90s. New Voices Ukraine is a collaboration between The Quietus, 20ft Radio, Neformat, the Ukrainian Institute and the British Council. In an interview with Andrii Strakhov, member of the avant-folk band  Верба Хльос (Verba Hlios), we explore the earl...

Nuts And Bolts Podcast is back with the first episode of Season #4, where host Jessica Sligter interviews composer, sound artist, and researcher Cathy van Eck (1979 Belgium/Netherlands), whose work combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts.  Cathy teaches at the Department for Sound Arts of the University of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland. In 2017 her seminal book Be...

The final episode of Season 3 features Nuts & Bolts founder herself, Jessica Sligter. Sligter is a performer, composer and producer based in Berlin, whose practice lies at the meeting point of various experimental expressions, in a 'noir,'conceptual space. Exploring conflict and border-crossing both in her music and text, Sligter has been touring and releasing under the radar for years. Among her...

Our special guest for this episode is Nadah el Shazly, Cairo-based producer, composer and performer. Her work both radically reinvents the popular music of her homeland from the early 20th century and explores new sonic and harmonic frontiers. She released her critically acclaimed debut album Ahwar in November 2017 via Nawa Recordings. We met Nadah in her studio and talked about amongst others syn...

For this new episode, we’re thrilled to meet Jana Winderen, researcher and artist (Goldsmiths, university of London) with a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology from the university of Oslo. Jana focuses her work around audio environments and ecosystems which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally. We will discuss her practice, and the environmental stakes it ho...

For the first episode of our third season we chatted with electronic musician and sound artist Jessica Ekomane, French-born and Berlin-based. Ekomane, who recently released the LP Multivocal, explores psychoacoustics, rhythmical perception, and the interchange of noise and melody, in immersive, slowly shifting pieces, using Max/MSP. She is also an active radiomaker at Cashmere Radio. Nuts And Bolt...

Welcome to The Best Of Times... podcast brought to you by Lush and The Quietus. The Best Of Times... podcast is presented by John Doran. In this series he talks to people about some of the best and worst times they have been through and hopefully discovers how these experiences have made them who they are today. So far he has interviewed Sleaford Mods, The Specials, Kristin Hersh, Róisín Murphy, M...

Welcome to The Best Of Times... podcast brought to you by Lush and The Quietus. The Best Of Times... podcast is presented by John Doran. In this series he talks to people about some of the best and worst times they have been through and hopefully discovers how these experiences have made them who they are today. So far he has interviewed Sleaford Mods, The Specials, Kristin Hersh, Róisín Murphy, M...

Season #2 of gear-talk podcast Nuts And Bolts comes to an end with a fourth episode, where host Jessica Sligter meets Maja S. K. Ratkje, at her home in the Norwegian woods. A prolific performer, improviser and composer, technology is a part of Ratkje’s practice across the board.  Chance versus control, working versus broken, throwing away versus fixing. Also oscillators, cassettes, making contact...

Musician Cate grew up in rural Carmarthenshire, Wales and she sings in both Welsh and English. After an early tour with Gruff Rhys Of Super Furry Animals and a collaborative role in his Neon Neon project, she went on to release a series of inimitable records as a solo artist. Staking out a sound that’s as much influenced by folk and prog as it is by psych and krautrock, she neatly sidesteps the ha...

Welcome to The Best Of Times... podcast brought to you by Lush and The Quietus.  The Best Of Times... podcast is presented by John Doran. Over the coming months he will be talking to people about some of the best and worst times they have been through and hopefully find out how these experiences have made them who they are today. So far he has interviewed Sleaford Mods, The Specials, Kristin Hersh...

Straight from Steel Town, we talk to Jlin The Innovator on the third episode of Nuts And Bolts Season #2. Growth and health in music production: it's not just about the skill, but also about the spiritual, says Jlin. Creating layered, propelling compositions, Jlin shares with us her tips on working on the road, affordable gear, and more. Jlin caught everyone off guard with her thrilling albums Dar...

Róisín grew up in Arklow, Ireland but moved with her family to Manchester, when she was 12. She formed the group Moloko with Mark Brydon in 1995, straddling the pop, art rock, trip hop divide, cementing their place in the popular consciousness with the tracks Sing It Back, The Time Is Now and Familiar Feeling. Her solo career since has provided evidence of a restless, creative mind, and she has re...

Swedish composer and electronic musician Maria W Horn is our guest at Nuts And Bolts gear-talk podcast, episode #2.  Horn works immersively with electronics; her main weapon of choice, Supercollider, is but one of many software and hardware tools that she interacts and experiments with to create and manipulate her compositions. From mechanical electronic beats to multidisciplinary installations, t...

Kristin is an American rock musician, songwriter and author and is probably best known for fronting the bands Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. In the past she has talked candidly about the battles she has faced regarding her mental health which have run in parallel to her 35 year career as a musician. After a car accident at the age of 16 left her able to hear noise and music that no one else was...

This popular punk-influenced rocksteady and ska band formed in Coventry in 1977 and went on to record one of the most highly rated British debut albums ever, The Specials in 1979. They rapidly became the epitome and gold standard in socially realist, anti-racist, politically progressive bands. They are back today with a new album 'Encore' and it feels like it’s not a moment too soon.

Opening Season 2 of gear-talk podcast Nuts And Bolts, improviser and sound artist Andrea Parkins chats with host Jessica Sligter about synths, pre- and post-sampler life, glitchy Goldberg machines, and more. Andrea Parkins has traded New York for Europe, and is an established part of the improvised music scene on both ends of the ocean. With a background not only in improvised music but also art s...