iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

'There’s something delicious in how obscure this band are and how world-beating they sound. Twenty-three minutes and one record in, Heroína are already among the greats. Run, the opener says. Towards it, obviously.' Heroína - Heroína buff.ly/dMsMVjx

Heroína - Heroína album cover. Abstract red ink shape on a light brown surface, like the brown of wrapping paper.

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Alongside Peter Blake, Storm Thorgerson and Jamie Reid, Gee Vaucher’s record sleeve artwork is some of the most iconic and enduring of the 20th century. Alex Burrows asked her about her psychology of art The Crass Art Of Gee Vaucher #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/5oepVBv

Gee Vaucher's Oh America, as used on the cover of a Tackhead album. The Statue of Liberty holding its hands to its face in shame.

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"I’ve had so many full-circle moments. I’ve realised the world is really small, and you get to meet your heroes, or collaborate or interact with them in some ways...” Combined Worlds: #KaliMalone’s Favourite Albums buff.ly/QG4ePOe

Colour photograph of Kali Malone standing on a rocky beach at dusk, looking toward the camera with a small bonfire glowing behind her and the sea stretching out to the horizon.

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'Crafted from live audio of musicians utilising instrumentation from previous recordings—fine-tuning, reversing, twisting and manipulating them in a feedback loop akin to a spiral entangled in its own trail.' #JonHassell - Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume 3) buff.ly/VjAaJM8

Album cover for Jon Hassell's Music Is Invisible — Pentimento Volume Three, showing a pink-framed landscape with a moonlit orange fortress on a ridge, rocky terraces, a tree with three falling flames, five standing stone figures, and a small reflecting pool.

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"It’s the synth melody lines, the layers of nostalgia in it; my emotional reactions to different reverbs, the atmospheres and emotions that you can create with different combinations of space, melodies and beats." Tara Clerkin on #AphexTwin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 buff.ly/lR5Q5nV

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'Whilst it never sinks as low as a St. Anger or a Cold Lake, whenever any hints of that old Sleep magic seem to creep through, they’re neutered by either the lacklustre mix or head-scratchingly odd song-writing choices.' Sleep - Hempispheres #HeavyMetal for October buff.ly/tI6VfP2

Sleep - Hempispheres album cover. A spaceman and a spaceship with two moons in the background.

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"I don’t know why this has taken me so long, but in the last few years, I’ve realised the influence of Alien on my music and on everything I’ve ever done." Gazelle Twin on Goldsmith / Horner / Goldenthal - Alien Trilogy Soundtrack buff.ly/oAIQtaH

Gazelle Twin on Goldsmith / Horner / Goldenthal - Alien Trilogy Soundtrack cover. The alien egg cracking open with white, yellow and greenish light leaking out, against a black background with titles in white and light green.

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'The album interrogates societal pressure “to not say the things we want to say, or to scream or cry in public when we’re not supposed to. Or express interest in another person at the wake or funeral."' Life is Death: An Interview with Róis buff.ly/nS8dacJ

Image of the singer Róis, wearing a half face veil strung with glass pendalogues, against a dark background with some skeletal branches visible.

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In his latest guide to the world of metal, Kez Whelan considers the disappointingly thin new effort from Sleep, and reviews finer fare from the likes of Krallice and Lustmord Lombardo Columnus Metallicus: #HeavyMetal for October buff.ly/tI6VfP2

Cathedral Speech by Spirit Possession album cover. Dark robed silhouette with a glowing golden orb at its chest, radiating rays as a vast swirling cloak like smoke fills a blood-red background, with a gold skull-in-diamond emblem and the title "Cathedral Speech."

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With Gazelle Twin currently blowing minds supporting Cabaret Voltaire, it's time to revisit her Baker's Dozen, featuring aliens, immortality, the early electronica of sci-fi films and the sublime, immersive harmonies of devotional music Gazelle Twin’s Favourite Albums: #ThePortal buff.ly/yQPLkGu

Black and white photograph of Gazelle Twin, wearing a hood and holding a microphone.

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The death of Keith McIvor – AKA JD Twitch – a year ago was a huge loss to the music community of which The Quietus is a part Now World Of Echo is to sell 20,000 records belonging to the late Optimo lynchpin buff.ly/jsZEE2Y

JD Twitch standing in front of racks of records, colour photograph by Marissa Costello.

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'The collective have spent years paring their sound down. Their main medium the Octogrammoticum – an orchestra of eight recordless turntables augmented by the scraps and dregs of discarded objects.' Institut Für Feinmotorik - Öd buff.ly/ybG2snq

Institut Für Feinmotorik - Öd album cover. 10×10 grid of 100 grayscale circular discs showing varied concentric, radial, and textured optical patterns.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto’s album 1996 is getting a reissue to mark its 30th anniversary @milanrecords.bsky.social buff.ly/vgHIcrI

Colour photograph with fish eye lens of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

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'The band have described Ako Akas as an album about the world now, open and unsettling and exciting, attempting to erase borders. Coming from a group whose singer was ordered to leave the country they are based in, that is not a slogan' Ako Akas by 10LEC6 is tQ's Album of the Week buff.ly/GncCTH1

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"Every time Mica [Levi] makes something new. It sounds very original and exciting. I think it’s because they’re very free and honest and playful – it sounds like they’re enjoying it, but it’s quite emotional as well." Tara Clerkin on Micachu & The Shapes - Never buff.ly/K5CiCFS

Micachu & The Shapes - Never album cover. Embossed, wallpaper-like effect with the word "Never" in salmon pink over the top.

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Angus Andrew guides us through 13 of his favourite LPs, running the gamut from hip hop to smooth jazz and The Cure... Angus Andrew Of Liars’ Favourite LPs #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/iP4XROF

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Róis speaks to Deirdre Anna Rose Kelly about grief for a nation as well as individuals, the complexities of outsiders’ romanticisation of Irish culture, and the role of the Irish language in her work Life is Death: An Interview with Róis buff.ly/nS8dacJ

Colour photo of the Irish artist Róis, wearing a half veil that covers the eyes, and stood before a lightly beige curtain.

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'Whatever monotheists may tell you, there are in fact two Gnods. The first creates thoughtful, psychedelia-tinged records like Chronicles of Gnowt (Vol 1). The second, more vengeful Gnod, creates this record.' Gnod - Chronicles of Gnowt Vol. 2 buff.ly/axaTCFL

Gnod - Chronicles of Gnowt Vol. 2 album cover. Skeletons cavorting at a 'skeleton burial.'

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'The ECM album Octet ∙ Music For A Large Ensemble ∙ Violin Phase is a revelation. It has the sheen of great pop – and used many of the same techniques (close-miking each instrument, the artful application of electronic reverberation).' #SteveReich - The ECM Recordings buff.ly/pRKGyOs

Steve Reich - The ECM Recordings album cover. black and pale grey/ blue lettering against a white background.

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"I mean, we can try to recreate some of the pieces but that would take some practice. And we have one and a half days of practice." Daniel Miller on Duet Emmo's long-awaited live debut buff.ly/bDRCOGF

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'Reich won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music with this 2007 piece which is reminiscent of Different Trains, although with a far more densely layered, multifaceted texture.' Double Sextet - The Strange World Of… #SteveReich buff.ly/VJIJRE1

Steve Reich Double Sextet album cover. A vibrant painting of numerals 0–9 arranged in a 2×5 grid, with the composer's name in blue across the top, and "DOUBLE SEXTET 2x5" in orange at the bottom.

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'Such is the dissolution of roles and traditional songwriting techniques within the band that Cathy Lucas’ vocals rarely settle, somehow sitting at right angles to the music...' Vanishing Twin’s Archives is tQ's Album of the Week buff.ly/NyCjmtb

Vanishing Twin’s Archives black vinyl variant with disc showing.

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"I don’t think any of us have been involved in the emulation game, ever. Trying to completely recreate something: it’s a rather tedious activity, isn’t it?" 43 years on from their debut album, Duet Emmo speak to tQ ahead of their first ever live performance buff.ly/bDRCOGF

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Pet Shop Boys' new rework of their 2014 BBC Proms performance about Alan Turing mirrors a tension that has always been at their heart – machine vs human, digital vs analogue, electronic vs classical Pet Shop Boys – A Man From the Future buff.ly/krNnMzR

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'Reich hit upon the idea of using the recollection of his travelling as a child on a train between New York and LA while addressing the disparity between those memories and what was happening to Jews in Europe at that time' Different Trains (1988) The Strange World Of… #SteveReich buff.ly/VJIJRE1

Steve Reich - Different Trains/ Electric Counterpoint album cover. Parallel railroad tracks photographed from above in black-and-white, forming repeating lines.

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"I find Trish Keenan’s singing very inspiring. I love her lyrics. They’re proper, proper poetry. Her melodies as well. I wish I could write a melody like hers one day." Tara Clerkin on Broadcast's Tender Buttons buff.ly/cpKFYfJ

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John Doran went to Krakow to throw darts with Leyland James Kirby and hear about Everywhere At The End Of Time, the grand farewell he has planned for his Caretaker project… Leyland James Kirby And The Death Of A Caretaker #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/IETdPdl

Black and white photograph of Leyland James Kirby AKA The Caretaker.

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43 years since their sole record Or So It Seems, Duet Emmo will be reforming for their first ever live performance. Speaking to Kiran Sande, they look back at a cult classic, and forwards to a show that won't try to emulate what's come before buff.ly/JJIM6tp

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Sad news reaches us of the death of Lois Kahlert, who with her husband Dennis were immortalised as two of the most devoted superfans in the history of alternative music. In 2020, Adele Stripe paid homage to a film about the pair that understood their fandom like no other. buff.ly/5PQN9Yf

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Sean Kitching suggests ten points of entry into the back catalogue of the late great Brazilian composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer known as ‘O Bruxo’ (the Sorcerer) The Strange World Of… #HermetoPascoal #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/rV3bz1m

Hermeto Pascoal and band, against a green background, with Pascoal in the centre and the other musicians reaching out towards him.

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'A hugely influential piece that helped to bridge the gap between minimalism, rock music & dance music, Electric Counterpoint explored the concept of a live soloist playing against a layered pre-recorded tape of themselves' Electric Counterpoint - The Strange World Of #SteveReich buff.ly/VJIJRE1

Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint/ Different Trains album cover, featuring Pat Metheny and the Kronos Quartet. The necks of five guitars (some only partially visible0 viewed from an angle that recalls train tracks.

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'Controlled Burn is a welcome addition to the slim canon of what Tate brands ‘avant-soul’ storytelling – an album whose embers seem, hopefully, primed to catch.' Marvin Tate – Controlled Burn buff.ly/2Ss2sqL

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A childhood spent dancing to Top Of The Pops, a complicated relationship with Michael Jackson and the tragic loss of her tape collection, Afrodeutsche takes us through the 13 albums that changed her life Afrodeutsche’s Favourite Albums #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/VK1veBT

Colour photograph of Afrodeutsche, taken against a very light pink background.

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'This debut solo release from flautist Joussein is astonishing. One track, ‘Argent Massif’ takes such an unexpected turn that I had to check my laptop wasn’t malfunctioning...' Delphine Joussein - Calamity #FrenchMusic for September buff.ly/2qaF2Q3

Delphine Joussein - Calamity album cover. Dark decorative abstract image with pink and orange speckled paint forming starburst floral shapes across a black background and a faint, ghostly human-face silhouette.

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'Eraserhead—a hallucinatory black hole of a film with a soundtrack that resembles a field recording made in a derelict section of hell...' The Haunted Legacy Of #DavidLynch’s Eraserhead Soundtrack #ThePortal: Your Weekly Quietus Archive Dive buff.ly/ZNzyH4a

Jack Nance as Henry Spencer, with his hair stood on end, in a black and white still from Eraserhead.

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'Gamelan concertos-of-sorts for Jakarta-born jazz pianist Sri Hanuraga, who plays catchy, angular polyrhythms with the off-kilter strut of 1920s player pianos.' Dewa Alit, Gamelan Salukat - Baur Bentur - Rum Music For October 2026 buff.ly/jntsbwS

Dewa Alit, Gamelan Salukat - Baur Bentur album cover.

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Paris collective 10LEC6 return with a record named after a Cameroonian mountain that traps walkers in a dance they cannot quit. The reason they chose that story is more pointed than the sleeve lets on. Ako Akas by 10LEC6 is our album of the week buff.ly/SoGQbJk

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'A large part of Seconds’ unsettling power is down to the tantalising ambiguities that lurk at the edge of our understanding. These ambiguities are explained away in David Ely’s 1963 source novel but sensibly excised by Frankenheimer' John Frankenheimer’s Seconds at 60 buff.ly/PrRZ4jI

Scene from John Frankenheimer's Seconds. Rock Hudson strapped to a hospital trolley.

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'Sacred Harp hymns, experimental folk, Appalachian motets, a dose of drones, all with the aim to “retell our current reality through a feminist lens”. Very nice' Jessie Marino, Inga Margrete Aas, Pinquins - Murder Ballads Vol II - Rum Music For October 2026 buff.ly/jntsbwS

Jessie Marino, Inga Margrete Aas, Pinquins - Murder Ballads Vol II. Teenage girl in a checked blazer and school tie cradling a small kitten in her lap against a worn plaster wall.

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In this month's edition of the Low Culture Podcast, John and Luke discuss the oldest and newest films in the epic Godzilla franchise, their origins in both the trauma and propaganda of the Second World War and a fascinating tale of Bunraku, Kabuki, kamikaze & PTSD. buff.ly/KZZAuUc

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