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The Quietus
@thequietus.com
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Black Sky Thinking since 2008.

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · Dec 1
Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts

What have been your top picks of the year?

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thequietus.com
'Not since the beamed-in provocations of early Devo had a band mapped the psychic rot of the suburbs with such forensic, scorched-earth focus.'

Reissue of the Week: Sex Mad by Nomeansno

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February 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
The author of Human Punk and The Football Factory trilogy speaks to Tariq Goddard about class, Greek prisons and his new novella Peekaboo Bosh

John King Interviewed

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Colour photograph of the author John King.
February 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM
thequietus.com
A decade on, the influential neo-soul pioneer returns with an album of deft storytelling, rich jazz instrumentation and a cast of collaborators including Tierra Whack, Trombone Shorty and Maha Adachi Earth

Jill Scott - To Whom This May Concern

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Jill Scott - To Whom This May Concern album cover. Painting of an African woman with hoop earrings and some text reading: "We can save ourselves. Your rules are nothing." Colours are red, green, orange, brown and yellow.
February 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM
thequietus.com
"The first three tracks are like total hymns to a past genre, and I think that’s very difficult to do without taking the piss. Goldfrapp are able to touch the sort of vitality and innocence of that music."

#PeterCapaldi on Goldfrapp - Supernature

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Goldfrapp - Supernature album cover.
February 12, 2026 at 10:00 PM
thequietus.com
'[There's a surprising surprising amount of crossover between boxing and the music industry.] "You and your passion become a commodity for a business. You are utilised while you’re relevant and everything is squeezed out of you."'

The Cribs’ Jarman Brothers on Their Love of Boxing

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Colour photograph of a very young Ryan Jarman wearing boxing gloves.
February 12, 2026 at 8:01 PM
thequietus.com
Become a Quietus Subscriber Plus tier member to access a playlist of #PeterCapaldi's favourite music (amongst many other wonderful perks) Lou Reed, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Television...

find out what else the former Time Lord picked here:

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Image of Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who, with the Tardis in the background.
February 12, 2026 at 6:00 PM
thequietus.com
'If Visitations From Enceladus was like being caught in a tractor beam from a UFO, this record feels like having thoughts telekinetically implanted in your consciousness direct from some unfathomable alien species'

Cryptic Shift - Overspace & Supertime - #HeavyMetal for February

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Cryptic Shift - Overspace & Supertime album cover. Comic book style illustration of a spaceman standing before some kind of alien priest, done largely in blue and orange.
February 12, 2026 at 3:30 PM
thequietus.com
'Missy Elliott (along with Timbaland) meets The Quietus’ benchmark for genius, not necessarily via the route of producing three all time great albums in a row but as someone who changed popular music decisively, twice.'

Low Culture Podcast: Missy Elliott’s Miss E… So Addictive

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Missy Elliott’s Miss E… So Addictive album cover. The artist's face in with some very of their time looking computer derived spiky metallic balls floating at the same level as her head. The entire image is rendered in metallic blue, black and white.
February 12, 2026 at 1:00 PM
thequietus.com
The debut album from the North Carolina-born singer-songwriter-producer, finds the digital age's only medieval princess bursting with ideas and cartoonish intensity. Hemlocke Springs contains multitudes

The Apple Tree Under The Sea by Hemlocke Springs is tQ's Album of the Week

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The Apple Tree Under The Sea by Hemlocke Springs album cover. The artist sat on grass overlooking a small lake.
February 12, 2026 at 11:02 AM
thequietus.com
The former Cecil Taylor side man brings together a band featuring Steve Reid and Earl Cross for a thrilling document of the New York loft jazz scene in the 1970s

Charles Tyler Ensemble - Voyage from Jericho

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Charles Tyler Ensemble - Voyage from Jericho album cover. The artist's face with album title and his name, in a simple, two-colour (light orange and black) print.
February 12, 2026 at 8:00 AM
thequietus.com
'In the last eight-odd years, Karshni has floated across collaborations with her peers, lending her voice to records that span the distance between avant-garde hiphop and shoegaze. Her debut album is as visceral as it is ethereal.'

Karshni - Buck Wild

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Karshni - Buck Wild album cover. The album's title and some kind of horned four legged creature, etched into a foil like surface.
February 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
thequietus.com
"I was there when it came out, and I just thought it was incredible. The whole brouhaha about the Sex Pistols in the newspapers took over the whole culture before we’d even heard a note..."

#PeterCapaldi on Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

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Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols album cover. Yellow background with black and pink lettering.
February 11, 2026 at 7:01 PM
thequietus.com
'Moving fluidly between Latin, English and Norwegian, Liturgy of Death is fully preoccupied with death from a religious perspective, especially in the fear it inspires.'

Mayhem - Liturgy of Death

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Mayhem - Liturgy of Death album cover. Illustration of a human skull, still with hair and a rotting eye, on a table next to an hour glass, a tarot card (Death of course), a crucified frog and an almost empty wineglass.
February 11, 2026 at 5:00 PM
thequietus.com
'“I used to hang out with [Amy Winehouse] and jam sometimes, late nights at her house, doing the exact same stuff that she was doing." Within months of Winehouse’s death, Gary Jarman had enrolled at a boxing gym.'

The Cribs’ Jarman Brothers on Their Love of Boxing

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Gary Jarman (R) spars with Andy Lee. They are both wearing yellow boxing gloves.
February 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
thequietus.com
'Something of a return to form for Converge, dishing out half an hour of intensely focussed aggression. With the exception of the atmospheric ‘Beyond Repair’, the album keeps ramping up the intensity throughout'

Converge - Love Is Not Enough - #HeavyMetal for February

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February 11, 2026 at 1:01 PM
thequietus.com
Our Taxi Driver anniversary piece now comes with a #BernardHerrmann playlist. Taxi Driver was his final film score, completed just before his death on December 24, 1975.

Become a Quietus Subscriber Plus tier member to access this plus many other wonderful perks:

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Taxi Driver OST by Bernard Herrmann album cover. Painting of Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, standing in front of his yellow cab.
February 11, 2026 at 11:00 AM
thequietus.com
'A new project from members of Polish outfit kIRk, whose Stanisław Matys has recently been studying the duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument that some scholars claim has existed for 3,000 years.'

Canes Of Karabakh - S/T: Folk Music for Winter

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Canes Of Karabakh - S/T album cover.
February 11, 2026 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
"This is one of the greatest soundtracks. I met Morricone once before one of his concerts, and got a selfie with him because I was so excited. He didn’t speak English, or at least they said he didn’t."

#PeterCapaldi on Ennio Morricone - The Mission OST

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Ennio Morricone - The Mission OST album cover. A waterfall with a crucified figure.
February 10, 2026 at 10:00 PM
thequietus.com
'NIMF’s hallucinatory music is heavily layered and constantly shifting in tone and timbre. If folk music can put past, present and future on equal footing, here is an artist who revels in blurring the boundaries between those states'

NIMF - Sirenoscape: Folk Music for Winter

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February 10, 2026 at 8:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Two factors have combined to destroy the monster successes of the album’s imperial past. Firstly, unit sales only truly exist in the physical realm. The bigger problem, however, is the sheer weight of volume...'

What Makes a Classic Album in the Streaming Era?

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Photograph of a man in a cap, wearing glasses, standing next to a shelf with speakers and some records on it, and holding a copy of Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police.
February 10, 2026 at 6:00 PM
thequietus.com
Some of the best nights at Corsica came courtesy of the nights put on by James Tec and Luke Handsfree of Plex, the techno/acid/bass/you name it promoters. Here they pick five highlights before their final outing this month

Plex say Farewell to #CorsicaStudios

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Black and white photograph of a party in progress at a Corsica Studios Plex night, with one punter holding his hands aloft.
February 10, 2026 at 4:01 PM
thequietus.com
From a visceral return to roots from Converge to Cryptic Shift’s epic new death metal space opera, Kez Whelan reviews his first batch of great new metal for 2026

Columnus Metallicus: #HeavyMetal for February

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Refugium - In Hope Of Eternal Life album cover. A close up of a red rose, slightly pinkish, with stylised lettering on the left hand side. Fleshvessel - Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded album cover. Dark fantasy style illustrations of a gnarly tree with demons, one of which appears to be in utero.
February 10, 2026 at 2:00 PM
thequietus.com
Ahead of Traidora's appearance at Supersonic festival, Stephanie Phillips speaks to experimental guitarist and Crass collaborator Eva LeBlanc about her need to see herself reflected in sound

Keep It Punk, Keep it Simple: Eva LeBlanc of Traidora Interviewed

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February 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Everything circulates without resolving, pulling the listener into a swirling current. Persian Carpets is a fascinating piece which, like the best improvisation, creates a world we never asked for, but find we cannot do without'

Daniel O’Sullivan & Richard Youngs -Persian Carpets

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Daniel O’Sullivan & Richard Youngs -Persian Carpets album cover. Four separate impressionistic photographs arranged in a square.
February 10, 2026 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
"From guitars, bass, drums and a bit of keyboards, that dry set of stuff, they created a whole other world, a mysterious world. And I still don’t know what they’re doing going to a graveyard in a Cadillac at midnight..."

#PeterCapaldi on Television - Marquee Moon

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Television - Marquee Moon album cover. The four band members looking a little cadaverous.
February 9, 2026 at 8:00 PM