New Voices Ukraine: Memory Leaks V – How a Single Radio Show Shaped Odesa’s Music Scene

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 teenagers awake after midnight”, listening to their radios. Dmytro is host of the cult radio show Atmosphere and founder of the Cardiowave record label. Atmosphere has been on air every Thursday at midnight for more than twenty years, and played a vital role in helping younger Ukrainians find obscure or marginal music before the internet took hold.

‘Imagine, a taxi ride just after midnight in Odesa in the late 90s. Just after a hit like Macarena has finished, and suddenly the sounds of Einstürzende Neubauten, Swans, or Coil start to screech through the speakers. The tired taxi driver stops and whispers to his passengers in horror: “I’m not going anywhere, anymore.”’.

Dmytro’s other enterprise, the Cardiowave label, emerged, like many underground cultural phenomena, out of chance meetings with like-minded people (including, it seems, lots of Cure and Cocteau Twins fans). Cardiowave is Dmytro’s name for the “chamber folk, or Baroque pop” trend in the 2000s, driven by the successful band Flëur, though, as Dmytro says, “clearly, it doesn’t explain very much at all”. The band and label began to influence Odesa’s local music scene during the following decade, with its penchant for “poetic, grotesque, sombre and ethereal” sounds and forms. We also learn of the late Maria Navrotskaya, from Twiggy Pop.

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New Voices Ukraine: Memory Leaks IV – How The Underground Embraced Dub and Rejected the Mainstream

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 selector, producer, designer and journalist. Born in Chernihiv, he now lives in Kyiv. After starting out with various noise and hardcore bands in the 90s, Dubrovsky became a major driving force for the VzyalSoundSystem AKA VS AKA ВЗЯЛ project, one of the first electronic dub groups in Ukraine.

Serhii has been a key figure in Ukrainian urban independent music for decades, and SKP Records, the label he co-founded, is still active and well-known among connoisseurs. This year SKP celebrates its 25th year, so we look back to where everything began – in his bedroom.

Dubmasta’s wonderful tales are essentially of creative barter: from compiling cassettes of “crazy noise punk and atonal drone”, and making and exchanging CDs at parties and with contacts – sometimes for food – in the early 2000s, to building a network of like-minded artists and collaborations around the world. Along the way, we hear tales of the development of Ukrainian dub and dubstep, denim-clad cinemas, working with Genesis P-Orridge, burning tyres for fun and how the many changes in musical formats have shaped the underground. “We do not need to build a factory to make tapes!” says Dubmasta. And remember: “Russian music always sounded appalling. No-one brought Russian stuff in their DJ cases.”

Note there are silences in the broadcast.

This podcast is produced by Kyiv’s 20ft Radio and the New Voices Ukraine project is supported by the British Council and Ukrainian Institute.

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New Voices Ukraine: Memory Leaks III – 1990s Ukrainian Underground in Bloom

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 his views on the music-making technologies of today.

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New Voices Ukraine Memory Leaks II: Nova Moon Rising – The Phenomenon of the Kharkiv Novaya Scena

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 Radio is an independent broadcasting station founded in December 2016 by a team of music enthusiasts. Since that time the station has been broadcasting from a port transport container, currently located in a small garden of a former brewery in Podil distinct, Kyiv.

20ft Radio’s contribution to Альтернативи: New Voices Ukraine is a joint project called Memory Leaks: The Story of Ukrainian Indie, Underground & Beyond. This series will highlight the compelling history of the Ukrainian independent music scene through the concept of memory as an elusive, yet valuable source of knowledge.

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New Voices Ukraine Podcast: 20ft Radio’s Guide to the Ukrainian Underground. Memory Leaks, Part I

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 early days of Ukrainian independent music, focusing on Цукор Біла Смерть (Sugar White Death), Олександр Юрченко (Oleksandr Yurchenko), and the avant-garde scene in Kyiv and its surroundings in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The radio station normally showcases the local Ukrainian electronic scene – DJs, selectors and live performers, but also takes care to engage with independent artists and other independent radio stations from all over the world, to represent the entire spectrum and diversity of electronic, and other, music.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, 20ft Radio ran an international project Grains of Peace. The aim was to bring international attention to the ongoing war, fundraise, and create a special media channel that would play a therapeutic role. The station involved more than fifty artists from Ukraine and from around the world and streamed these shows over seventeen radio stations.

20ft Radio’s contribution to Альтернативи: New voices Ukraine is a joint project called Memory Leaks: The Story of Ukrainian Indie, Underground and Beyond. This is a podcast series (and a longread article) that will highlight the compelling history of the Ukrainian independent music scene through the concept of memory as an elusive, yet valuable source of knowledge.

Memory Leaks… explores the scene’s development and establishment, tracing the ways in which the bedroom avant-garde of the early 90s transformed into the electronic cross-genre experiments of today.

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Nuts & Bolts S4 E1 – Cathy van Eck

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 Between Air and Electricity was published, detailing how musicians have explored how to transform microphones and loudspeakers from “inaudible” technology into genuinely new musical instruments.

https://cathyvaneck.net

This episode was edited and mixed by Jessica Sligter. Made possible with the support of Norsk Kulturfond.

Go to https://nutsandbolts.space for information about all Nuts And Bolts’ activity, such as tutorial videos and workshops, and to become a member of Nuts And Bolts association.

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Nuts and Bolts S3 E4 – Jessica Sligter

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 releases are the critically acclaimed Polycrisis:yes! and A Sense Of Growth, and her compositions for ensemble include Movements 1, Two Figures for Oslo14 ensemble, and Dark Passenger in collaboration with Jenny Hval.

This episode has been edited and engineered by Jessica Sligter, and was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and NOPA.
Support Nuts And Bolts by becoming their patron on patreon.com/nutsandbolts, and check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos on our Youtube channel, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

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Nuts and Bolts S3 E3 – Nadah el Shazly

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 synths, creative process, beat making and sound manipulation.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted, recorded and engineered by Jessica Sligter, with editing by Julia Reidy. PR videos by Sligter and Liz Kosack. This episode was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and NOPA.
Support Nuts And Bolts by becoming their patron on patreon.com/nutsandbolts, and check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

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Nuts and Bolts S3 E2 – Jana Winderen

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 holds (underwater noise pollution) as well as technical topics (hydrophone, portable pre-amps, ultrasound, recording techniques).

Nuts And Bolts is hosted, recorded and engineered by Jessica Sligter, with editing by Julia Reidy. This episode was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and Komponistforeningen.

Check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

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Nuts and Bolts S3 E1 – Jessica Ekomane

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 Bolts is hosted, recorded and co-engineered by Jessica Sligter, with Julia Reidy as main engineer of this episode. Check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast.

The series are partially funded with support of the Norwegian Culture Fund. Help them continue to make work by becoming our patron at patreon.com/nutsandbolts

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The Best of Times… with Geddy Lee

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, Mavis Staples, Kate Tempest and Cate Le Bon. Today’s guest is Geddy Lee.

Geddy is a lifelong resident of Toronto, Canada. He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to join Rush in 1968. They would eventually go on to become one of the most successful progressive rock bands in the world. They disbanded after 50 years in 2018. Among his many hobbies, Geddy is now an author, having just published the Big Beautiful Book Of Bass.

This podcast was produced and engineered by Andrew Paine and co-produced by Heather Weil. The theme music is by Oh The Gilt. If you enjoyed it please subscribe, give us a star rating, tweet about us and tell your friends and family. Thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon with more Best Of Times.

The Best of Times… with Kate Tempest

Welcome to The Best Of Times… podcast brought to you by Lush and The Quietus.

So far he has interviewed Sleaford Mods, The Specials, Kristin Hersh, Róisín Murphy, Mavis Staples and Cate Le Bon. Today’s guest is Kate Tempest.

Kate grew up in South London and first performed as a poet at an open mic night at the age of 16. Since then, exemplifying a fearsome work ethic that she has become well known for, she has become a playwright, a novelist, a band leader, a rapper, a published poet and a spoken word artist. She has won the Ted Hughes Award and been nominated for the Mercury Prize. This month sees the release of her most accomplished album to date, The Book Of Traps And Lessons, recorded with Dan Carey and produced by Rick Rubin.

This podcast was produced and engineered by Andrew Paine. The theme music is by Oh The Gilt. If you enjoyed it please subscribe, give us a star rating, tweet about us and tell your friends and family. Thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon with more Best Of Times.

Nuts And Bolts S02 E04 – Maja S. K. Ratkje

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 mics, tailor-made plugins, and more, where woven together with many impromptu demonstrations. A dense conversation, fuelled by skill and play.

An immenselysatisfying experience to end our season with.Before season #3 hits, Nuts And Bolts will be publishing their first video-series of artist portraits and gear-tutorials.

Seek us out on Instagram and Youtube, and stay tuned! Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, and co-engineered by Bridget Ferrill.

This episode was supported by NOPA and Norsk Kulturfond.

The Best of Times… with Cate Le Bon

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 hackneyed sound of most modern indie while still making timeless pop. She recently spent some time in the Lake District, where she divided her time between songwriting and learning how to make solid wood furniture. The music eventually became her new album Reward which is released later this month by Mexican Summer records.

The Best Of Times… with Mavis Staples

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 and Róisín Murphy.

Today’s guest is living legend Mavis Staples who was born in Chicago in 1939 and from an early age was the voice that pushed The Staples Singers, the world’s most successful gospel group, to international fame. From the late 50s onwards the group started incorporating hard hitting social themes into their songs and from 1963 they were essential figures in the American Civil Rights movement.

In a long and storied career she has sung for Barak Obama at The White House and has worked with Prince, Curtis Mayfield and Jeff Tweedy. Her new album, called We Get By, is produced by Ben Harper and is out on Anti- records in May shortly before her 80th birthday.

This podcast was produced and engineered by Andrew Paine and co-produced by James Shakeshaft. The theme music is by Oh The Gilt. If you enjoyed it please subscribe, give us a star rating, tweet about us and tell your friends and family. Thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon with more Best Of Times.

Nuts and Bolts S02 E03 – Jlin The Innovator

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 Dark Energy and Black Origami. She has collaborated with amongst others choreographer Wayne McGregor, and musicians Holly Herndon and William Basinski.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, co-engineered by Bridget Ferrill, and co- produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr. This episode was supported by Norsk Kulturfond.

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The Best Of Times… with Róisín Murphy

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 released music ranging from the leftfield pop of Ruby Blue, made with tech jazz producer Matthew Herbert to a recent series of sumptuous deep house EPs (made in conjunction with Maurice Fulton). She has recently moved into film making and has a new single due out this Spring, made with Parrot from Sheffield electronic mainstays, All Seeing I.

Nuts and Bolts S2 E2 – Maria W Horn

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, to textural conceptual works, Horn lets us in on some of her techniques and thoughts about gear.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, co-engineered by Bridget Ferrill, and co-produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr. This episode was supported by NOPA and FoFoGoFo.

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The Best Of Times… with Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave

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 able to discern, she received several misdiagnoses through her life including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; and has only recently been successfully diagnosed with PTSD and dissociative disorder. As well as fronting two bands she has released 11 solo albums, the most recent of which was Possible Dust Clouds on Fire records in 2018.

The Best Of Times… with Horace Panter and Terry Hall of The Specials

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.

Nuts and Bolts S2 E1 – Andrea Parkins

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 school, Parkins also makes installations and compositions. A force of nature, combining performance, technology and traditional instruments seamlessly.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, co-produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr, with soundtechnical advice by Bridget Ferrill. This episode was supported by NOPA and FoFoGoFo.

Photography by Mark Poucher

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The Best Of Times… with Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods

Welcome to The Best Of Times podcast brought you by Lush and The Quietus. The Best Of Times is a new podcast show presented by writer and broadcaster John Doran and over the coming months he will be talking to people about some of the best and worst times they have been through, and in the process, find out how these experiences have made them who they are today. The podcast is produced and engineered by Andrew Paine and co-produced by Matthew Shaw. The theme music is by Oh The Gilt.

EPISODE ONE: The Best Of Times… with Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods

Jason is one half of the electronic punk band Sleaford Mods, along with Andrew Fearn. He started making this inimitable brand of music in 2007, which felt like it was just in time for the banking crisis and the band went on to capture the zeitgeist as it exists at street level. Sleaford Mods have become the true poet laureates of broken, austerity, Brexit Britain. They are just about to release their 11th album, Eaton Alive.

Neil Tennant Interview and Q&A

Neil Tennant joins Michael Bracewell at EartH in Dalston to discuss his new collection of lyrics, ‘One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem’, in front of a sold-out audience.

In a wide-ranging conversation they discuss the lyrics that made Pet Shop Boys one of the most successful pop groups in British musical history, with over 50 million records sold over a 13 album and 30 year career. The conversation ranges from the personal to the political as it includes the terrible impact of the AIDS crisis, what makes good pop music, the inspiration gleaned from the former Soviet bloc, and the songs Tennant is most proud of. One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem is out now on Faber.

Nuts and Bolts #4 – Susanna

For the last episode of Season 1 of Nuts And Bolts, our podcast dedicated to female* musicans and their gear, Norwegian artist Susanna talks to host Jessica Sligter about recording, doing it yourself, and more.

Something of an institution in her homeland of Norway, American songwriter Bonnie Prince Billy recently covered Susanna’s entire 2007 album Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos, released as Wolf Of The Cosmos. Susanna’s work is focused, elegant and gloomy, as her most recent releases, Go Dig My Grave and Triangle, confirm again.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, and co-produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr and Susanne Christensen.

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Nuts and Bolts #3 – Danishta Rivero

Gear-talk podcast Nuts And Bolts is back with a third episode, where host Jessica Sligter meets with sound artist and improviser Danishta Rivero from Oakland, California. From Venezuelan folk to metal, Rivero’s work brings her gear and her voice together in a visceral, noisy expression, in bands like Las Sucias! and VoiceHandler. This episode of Nuts And Bolts doesn’t play – be ready to get exposed to the bear bones of sound and synthesis!

Nuts And Bolts is created, hosted, edited and mixed by Jessica Sligter, co-produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr and Susanne Christensen. Technical advice by Ragnhild Nelvik Bruseth. Nuts And Bolts is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.

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The Quietus Hour – Show 57 (03/05/2018)

More excellent new music and passable chat with Luke and John.

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Nuts and Bolts #2 – Guro Skumsnes Moe

Nuts And Bolts’ Jessica Sligter meets with bass-player and poet Guro Skumsnes Moe, Octobass player and frontperson of the band MoE.

Nuts and Bolts #1 – Jenny Hval

Nuts and Bolts is a show produced externally by Jessica Sligter and will expose the gear-secrets of some of your favourite female* artists. The first episode features Jessica talking to Jenny Hval. Produced with funding from the Norwegian Arts Council.

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The Quietus Hour – Show 56 (15/03/2018)

This week the Quietus Hour brings you news that we’re going to be launching a whole host of new programmes that you’ll be able to listen to on our Mixcloud page, and subscribe to via iTunes. Alongside information on Hyperspecific, Anna’s Alphabet and Nuts & Bolts, the Quietus Hour this week features the best new music and passable chat from your hosts John Doran and Luke Turner. We’ve brand-new, some barely-heard music from Apostille, Mouse On Mars, Pregoblin, Jockstrap, Miss Red, FLAME 1 aka The Bug vs Burial and an exclusive fifteen minute monster by GNOD. Also on the show are Black Eyed Peas and Janelle Monae PLUS the real reason why the NME went down as a print publication and advice on how best to deal with your trousers.

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Show 55 – Judas Priest

With Luke and John away, The Quietus Hour is taken over by Louise Brown talking to Rob Halford from Judas Priest about their upcoming tour and the announcement of Glenn Tipton semi-retiring from the band.

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Show 53 – Matt Johnson (The The)

Today’s guest on this very special edition of The Quietus Hour is Matt Johnson of The The. John Doran, Mighty Seb White and Al Overdrive set up office for the afternoon round at his London gaff and, over a very nice cup of white tea, we put the world to rights.

While listening to tracks from the Radio Cineola: Trilogy box set Matt talks about his uneasy relationship with celebrity, working with Johnny Marr, the new The The album he’s just started writing and how he feels about taking his group back to the Royal Albert Hall. We were joined unexpectedly by the Los Angeles based poet John Tottenham and found time to ask Matt a lot of your questions.

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Show 52 – 05/10/2017

For the first time since the Inaugural Day Of Radio, Luke Turner and John Doran are reunited once more on the radio – together in scleretic dreams, both attending the non-stop neurotic cabaret, in tune with the OCD Soundsystem etc. – bound by the adhesive of passable chat and excellent new music. The Mighty Seb White has concocted a fiendish new segment from the show – The Chorus Interuptus – where he plays our hapless hosts snippets from CDs plucked from tQ’s postbag… without telling them who the artists are. On the chat roulette wheel this week – does John’s new beard make him look like Noel Edmunds and we say a tearful goodbye to Wild Beasts? Music this week comes from Kelela, Electric Wizard, Zimpel/Ziolek, Wild Beasts, Saz’iso, Snapped Ankles, James Holden and P!OFF

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Show 51 – Hannah Peel

Friend of the Quietus Hannah Peel pops into tQHQ for a cup of tea and a chat about Barnsely-based cosmic explorer Mary Casio, the challenges of combining brass with synths and chooses all of today’s records inspired by the Cassini Probe’s death dive into the atmosphere of Saturn. With music by Jo Meek and The Blue Men, Moondog, Hawkwind, Cluster, OMD, Avro Pärt, Edward Artemiev, Tontos Expanding Head Band, plus a track from her new album.

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Show 50 – Day of Radio special

Pinch punch – the first of the month… Last Friday was the start of September, and John and Luke were joined in tQHQ by Barry The Barber and Todd The Dog.

Abandoning their usual tack of bringing you the best in new music, they picked a selection of ABCs (anthems, bangers, classics) which remind them of the history of the site. During the show John also had his haircut (but thankfully not like Phil Oakey) by Barry The Barber and the music came from Hey Colossus, Blacknecks, Erasure, LCD Soundsystem, The Ex, Gazelle Twin, Destroyer, NOMEANSNO, Kelala, Turbonegro, The Chromatics, Double S & Wiley, some madness to do with rollercoasters that Seb chose, Ibibio Sound Machine, Gravenhurst and of course The Fall.

This show was just one of many on (what will hopefully be) the inaugural Quietus Day Of Radio. Thanks to everyone who was part of this 12 hour epic – especially Seb and Iain… we spent the whole period celebrating the best in underground, DIY and global music. We were also joined by Saul of Fat White Family, Nadine Shah, Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi and the Last Skeptic, it’s no surprise we ended up trending on Twitter. And that’s before we get to the mind expanding exploration of Japanese psych and foghorns by Jennifer Lucy-Allan; a trip round the extreme metal fringes of India with Pavan & Pravin Mukhi (aka Foreign Beggars); Ruth Barnes (The Other Woman) and Piney Gir playing indie, folk and exotica; the heroic and inimitable Lone Taxidermist, not to mention appearances from all the Quietus staffers.

So even though it was the site’s ninth birthday on Friday you might be forgiven for wondering why our celebratory mood has been tempered with anxiety – like Edvard Munch’s The Scream in a party hat. This is because we’re currently unlikely to make our tenth birthday – or even the end of the year – without some financial assistance from you, dear reader – and apologies if you’ve already read this once this week but it really bears repeating – we’re facing closure.

I have to say that I think it’s absolutely crazy given we are Europe’s biggest, fully independent music and culture website, reaching an annual audience of millions all over the globe, with a constant supply of high quality articles and content by some of the best writers in the game, and yet again this month we’ll be having a whip round, reaching down the back of the sofa, taking the hammer to the piggy bank, emptying the penny jar and selling the prized vinyl on Discogs, just so we can make the rent.

Because online magazines tend to be overly reliant on banner advertising (something we’re working on a solution to behind the scenes) and we’re not venture capital/ rich parent/ tax loss funded, we are being absolutely hammered by the recent catastrophic 90% drop off in online ad spend – not to mention the all-too-predictable chicanery by monolithic money hoovering digital monopolies such as Google and Facebook, which has amounted to an arsenic cherry on the cyanide birthday cake this year.

If it helps you to visualise the problem, imagine an egg that a seven year old has painted the face of Jarvis Cocker onto. Now that you have conjured this image into being, picture a cyberman on shore leave pissed up at last orders. Now picture the cyberman – with a semi on and a heart full of hatred – punching the Jarvis egg with all of his terrible might. Do you see the problem?

Now, undoubtedly, there will be some among you who cry: “Why should we care? What good are music magazines in this day and age when everything’s already online?” This is a completely fair point, to which I have a simple response: “Have you found any music via the Quietus over the last 12 months?” And if the answer is yes, just give us a fiver if you can afford it (please don’t give us money if you’re from a low income family, still at school, a struggling student, on benefits, or an elderly person burning books to stay warm – all we ask from you is that you just keep on reading the site and telling your mates about us) and then, karma willing, we’ll be around to bring you more incredible music next year.

Sisters and brothers – the belligerent cyberman of digital media destruction (with his tumescent, spiky, flame-throwing, rust-encrusted cyberpenis of woe) is bearing down on us with flailing fists and eyes full of hatred, threatening to bash us permanently into the fizzing void and you are our only hope. Currently only you can stop humpty Jarvis Cocker being punched into street omelette by a bright silver bastard stinking of Stella and frothing at the perfectly rectangular mouth while his mates shout, “Leave it Brian – he’s not worth it.” Please donate the cost of a pint/ glass of wine/ fancy sandwich to keep us going for another month. And if you’re rich, give us more.

Keep on watching this slot – we have more shows going up this week. Tell your mates. Tell your nan.

John Doran, tQ (Editorial) Editor

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Show 49 – Angus Andrew

Over the past few weeks The Quietus has been lucky enough to see Liars play live three times, at the Visions Festival, Green Man and last night at Rough Trade East, where Angus Andrew and his new bandmates managed to conjure a special energy that transported us somewhere weird of their own making – it was as if we weren’t in a shop.

After 15 years of operation the new Liars album TFCF is the first Andrew has made on his own, and it stands out as one of the finest in a remarkable set that few of their peers have come close to. On this week’s Quietus Hour, Angus Andrew speaks to Luke Turner about 10 tracks that shaped the record, and gives insights into its creation out in a remote part of the Australian bush. He discusses how the sound of nature made it into every track on TFCF, the move from LA to his homeland, the separation from Aaron Hemphill… and why he’s taken to wearing a wedding dress onstage.

Subscribe to The Quietus Hour podcast here for all our past episodes including specials with the likes of Thurston Moore, Shirley Collins, Cosey Fanni Tutti, John Lydon, Gary Numan and more. Liars return to the UK this autumn including a date at Heaven in London on October 27th and Newcastle’s Boiler Shop on October 29th.

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Show 48 – Paddy goes to Green Man

With John and Luke both preoccupied with their radio show, it once again befell staff writer Paddy Clarke to take up the Quietus Hour mantel for our coverage of this year’s Green Man Festival.

Our resident festival-goer reports from a wet but glorious weekend in the Brecon Beacons, spent in the finest of company. There’s also a perfect plethora of music from the weekend’s best performers, including Shirley Collins, PJ Harvey, Grumbling Fur, British Sea Power, Madonnatron, Richard Dawson, Liars and more.

Diolch yn fawr gwyrdd!

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Show 47 – James Endeacott

Our guest this week is none other than Mr James Endeacott who claims his CV contains one thing and one thing only – that he is very good at running round being James Endeacott. More impartial observers might say that actually, on top of this no doubt very valuable skill, he was also an original member of Loop, worked at Rough Trade, set up 1965 records, A&R’d the Strokes and The Libertines (settle down at the back there) and, last but not least, is an all-round good person and friend of this website. As always on The Quietus Hour Special, the guest chooses all of the music and this time the sonic treats come from Japan, Soft Cell, David Bowie, The Outcasts, Leonard Cohen, Don Cherry, The Mode, The Flatworms and Zor Beyler. The chat comes quick and fast regarding Bowie-related near death experiences in Northern pubs and why anyone with any sense should really hate the music business (but also, at the end of the day, not hate it as well). WARNING: may contain traces of middle aged men getting emotional about Marc Almond.

Thanks as always to producer Mighty Seb White and Todd The Dog.

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Show 46 – 10/08/2017 – New Weird Britain

John Doran had such a great time at this year’s Supernormal Festival held at Brazier’s Park, Oxfordshire, (reflecting similarly good times at Supersonic, Fat Out and Milhoes de Festa earlier this year) that he felt he had to “quack on about it” on air with partner in crime, Luke Turner as the basis of this week’s Quietus Hour. Not content with simply saying, ‘I had a very nice goat curry and watched Aggressive Perfector play to ten people’, he has instead insisted on summoning up a spurious and ill-defined concept: New Weird Britain. But there lies the fun. What does New Weird Britain mean? Where are the boundaries? What genres does it include? Do you have any suggestions dear reader/ listener/ viewer? New weird British musical treats come from Cattle, Perc, Tweedle, Aja Ireland, Roger Robinson, Lone Taxidermist, Valve, Total Leatherette, Kemper Norton, UKAEA and Teleplasmiste. Thanks to Mighty Seb White the producer and Todd The Dog.

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Show 45 – Gary Numan

Today’s guest on The Quietus Hour episode 45 is none other than, long time favourite of the website, Mr Gary Numan. Currently back in Europe for a UK tour, he took time out to drop into tQHQ to play us some of his favourite records (not to mention some of his own tracks) and discuss his 22nd album – Savage: Songs From A Broken World. In a long and frank chat he talked to tQ editor, John Doran about his long planned sci-fi novel, how he wants his kids to follow in his footsteps, the differences (and similarities) between heavy drug use and piloting stunt planes and what he shares in common with Tupac Shakur.

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Show 44 – 20/07/2017

Back once again like renegade plasterers, John and Luke are reunited on the wireless in the white hot cauldron of torpor, ennui and vague anxiety that is The Quietus Hour. The dynamic duo fall even further down a wormhole of implausible chat with subjects including why Mods are no good at fighting with pirates at sea, producer Seb’s convincing impression of Ayrton Senna when he’s behind the wheel, our best Persuader to date, the return of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty and the latest updates on Barry The Barber, before asking, ‘Where have all the negative reviews gone?’ All of today’s music is drawn from the length and breadth of our recent Albums Of The Year So Far chart including bangers from Bargou08, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Endon, Richard Dawson, SZA, Harriet Brown, Algiers and British Sea Power.

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Show 43 – Cosey Fanni Tutti

This week we’re chuffed to welcome Cosey Fanni Tutti down from rural Norfolk to our exhaust-basted urban HQ for the latest special edition of The Quietus Hour. Luke Turner recently worked with Cosey curating live events around the COUM Transmissions exhibition at Hull City Of Culture, and today he picks up the threads to talk about both that and the reception to her recently-published memoir ‘Art Sex Music’.

Nine songs chosen by Cosey (taking in The Small Faces, Nico and the Velvet Underground to Leonard Cohen and Imogen Heap to Gazelle Twin) chart her life through hazy days in 1960s Hull via Throbbing Gristle and Chris and Cosey to the present as we chat about, well, art, sex and music.

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Show 42 – Paddy goes to Glastonbury

For some reason Glastonbury Festival have given The Quietus a press pass. John and Luke are too old for it now, so we’ve sent staff writer Patrick Clarke to go for us.

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Listen to this show with full songs, and all other shows on our radio page: http://radio.thequietus.com

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Show 41 – Daniel O’Sullivan

On a record-breakingly hot day Daniel O’Sullivan popped into tQHQ with what he describes as “musical air-conditioning” – nine terrific pieces of music to fan the breeze of righteousness over body & soul. As our regular readers will well know, Daniel is half of our long-time favourites Grumbling Fur, part of Ulver, Æthenor and Laniakea, and currently at the heart of This Is Not This Heat. Despite all that he’s found time to release a solo album of mind-vibration pop music, Veld.

As ever with O’Sullivan’s work the music takes its power from a tricksy refusal to be pinned down – something very much seen in the nine songs he brought in to play here. They stretch from Gaelic meditations on death to Duke Ellington and the fuzzed euphoria of Lungfish, This Heat’s ‘Cenotaph’ and the too-overlooked Judee Sill. Tune in for all of that plus conversation on inspiration, spirituality and his various musical projects. Thanks to Kathryn de la Rosa for production duties.

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Show 40 – William Doyle

They exist all around the United Kingdom, clinging on to the edges of our towns and cities like limpets. Made up of intricate streets, short culdesacs, pedestrian alleyways, and detached houses dotted around patches of green, they have names like Jersey Farm and Bowthorpe, and millions of us live in them. But these housing estates, constructed largely with private finance over the past 20 or so years, are not discussed or explored in the same way that you might find with the endless rows of the suburbs built in the 1930s, or post-war brutalist estates. Until now, that is. William Doyle (FKA East India Youth) has been developing Your Wilderness Revisited, a multimedia art project looking at these little-recognised places in our landscape. Doyle came on to The Quietus Hour to discuss the project and play some music from it, alongside some of the music that inspired him, from Pet Shop Boys to Ray Charles via Laurel Halo and Perc to Pete Seeger.

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Show 39 – Tim Burgess

We’ve got Tim Burgess along for a Quietus Hour Special this week, The Charlatans frontman heading in to a very warm tQHQ to discuss his band’s new album Different Days and play some of his current favourite music. Tune in for chat about the new Charlatans record, what Tim thinks of the new Twin Peaks, why Sleaford Mods are ace and his love of the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Beaver & Krause, Factory Floor, Frank Ocean and The Fall. And if you’ve ever wondered who makes the best cup of tea out of Johnny Marr and Paul Weller, then wonder no more. Remember that for all The Quietus Hour specials, featuring the likes of Shirley Collins, John Lydon, Regis, Stewart Lee and Warren Ellis all you need to do is subscribe to our iTunes podcast. Special thanks as ever to producer Seb White and Kathryn De La Rosa.

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Show 38 – 23/05/2017

John Doran and Luke Turner are back with unsolicited “medical advice,” wedding blather, and talk of the evolution of drummers’ physiques. They also play some of their favourite new music from Circle, Pasteur Lappe, Nadine Shah, Gnod, MXLX, Madonnatron and Re-TROS. Producer Seb White makes a song choice and an oratorically majestic on air appearance in our new segment The White Stuff. This episode also sees the return of Persuader, whose hotline you can call at 020 33 93 63 95.

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Show 37 – Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

On this week’s Quietus Hour Special it’s Luke Turner’s great pleasure to take the hirsute and sharp Bad Seeds violinist, multi-instrumentalist and arranger down into a dark and concrete Soho basement for a chat about Nick Cave & his band’s life and work. This week The Bad Seeds release Lovely Creatures, a new career-spanning anthology of classics and lesser-known tracks, and we take Warren through a choice selection of songs. Starting with the time that Ellis managed to miss seeing the Birthday Party’s final tour because he fell asleep pissed outside the gig, we discuss Ellis’ gradual progression from fan through his joining in the mid-1990s right up until the present day via Grinderman and his soundtrack work – discover how a pair of shorts made from flour bags and an early cheeky musical suggestion to Nick Cave cemented his position in one of our very favourite bands. Subscribe to The Quietus Hour podcast here. Thanks to our producer Seb White, The Social for the use of their basement bar and Natalie Quesnel for sorting it all out.

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Show 36 – Thurston Moore

Today’s Quietus Hour Special is brought to you by John Doran who has the pleasure of talking to Thurston Moore. The rock musician, free improviser, serial collaborator, independent publisher, poet and righteous dude met up with us in Ladbroke Grove to talk about his great new solo album Rock N Roll Consciousness, Buddhism, noise cassettes, near death experiences in Stockholm and hanging out with My Bloody Valentine and the Mary Chain in the 1980s. Thurston has chosen all of the music for the show, including deep cuts from Boredoms, Trash Kit, Menstruation Sisters, Sick Llama, Ela Orleans, Bridget Hayden, Bruce Russell, 16 Bitch Pile Up and Lasse Marhaug. Thanks, as always to the Mighty Seb White and the good folk at Caroline International for providing the studio.

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Show 35 – Live from Hull with Cosey Fanni Tutti

Last month, The Quietus travelled to Hull for the final weekend of events that we programmed with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Cabinet Gallery to run alongside the COUM Transmissions retrospective at the Humber Street Gallery. Anthony Child AKA Tony Surgeon played a vivid soundtrack to a recontextualised and edited version of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls and Carter Tutti Void closed things beautifully with one of their most intense and perfect sets. Earlier in the day we set up a temporary Quietus Hour Studio in the gallery café to produce a special edition of our wireless programme and podcast devoted to COUM and its legacy. Tune into the show to hear to Luke and John speak to Cosey, Hull City Of Culture’s Sam Hunt and Sophie Coletta about the exhibition, as well as some passable chat on JDo’s former Hull home, including Dead Bod the infamous graffiti seagull. As Todd the dog barks in the background we play music from the COUM diaspora, including Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, Coil, Carter Tutti Void and Psychic TV. Thanks to our producer Seb White and all at Hull City Of Culture 2017. Subscribe to The Quietus Hour Podcast on iTunes here.

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Show 34 – Roger Robinson

John was joined in at Quietus HQ by poet, author, musician and dapper gent about town Mr Roger Robinson for our latest radio show and podcast. Roger chose some wicked music ranging from the most skeletal and rattling of dub to some absolutely whacked out psychedelic folk via Sleaford Mods and John Martyn. The pair talked at length about best practices when it comes to writing, why it’s important to defend your turkey to the death, bare knuckle boxing in restaurants in South London and the joys/perils of visiting “the bat cave”. And if you do absolutely nothing else today make sure you make time to listen to Roger Reading his piece ‘6 Dan’, which kicks off at about 22 minutes…