The Quietus Radio

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 that they love, from albums to films, TV shows, books... and even shoes. You can find the full archive here. We're going to be giving you tasters of these pods via this main feed, with a bit of a smorgasbord of shows from our archive to kick things off. So tune in to listen to excerpts from Luke and Doran praising the transcendental joy of Alice Coltrane's Journey In Satchidananda, while critiquing how its been a little coopted by gong bathers; discussing queer cruising in Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears; our love of Dr Martens boots; and there is of course some chat about The Fall. This trailer concludes with a version of the latest Low Culture Podcast, on Suicide's debut album. If you like what you hear, you can help support the work of The Quietus in providing the antidote to the algorithm by becoming a subscriber here. You can sign up with a month free to explore the huge archive of these podcasts, plus further essays, playlists and much more.Thanks to Alannah Chance for editing this trailer, and for producing The Low Culture Podcast

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 Jordan and Tofudj, from the “horizontally structured and ever-morphing” Pepe Gaffe collective in Kyiv.  Pep Gaffe release adventurous electronic music (but not only). They once stated they were “a collective of enthusiasts who are bound to devote their lives to the grand idea of developing a music community and aspire to create a platform for sterling interaction between artists and cultural operators.” According to Acid Jordan and Tofudj, the text was “a hoax, an in-joke, and we hated it. But it all came true.” Being music enthusiasts, producers, event curators and friends from way-back in Poltava, Acid Jordan and Tofudj are possibly the best guides you can find to the left-field sounds of contemporary Ukrainian music, and the pitfalls many currently encounter in just doing their thing. The pair talk of pulling off live events with war as a constant backdrop, and if alternative music organisations could be more decentralised, or is Kyiv still the magnet? Other topics include feeling isolated, and niche labels as “culture vortexes”, as well as the general, post-Maidan trends in alternative Ukrainian music.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  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. 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.

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. © Nuts And Bolts 2021

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

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.