Read the link and support @thewiremagazine.bsky.social if you can. They're the best - and one of the last strongholds of independent, forward thinking music journalism holding off a cultural land- and soundscape of non-sensical generative algo beige (bAIge?)
Stunning looking new @thewiremagazine.bsky.social out!
Inside I reviewed a new BEAM SPLITTER album and a couple of concerts involving the brilliant Emilie Škrijelj & Tom Malmendier.
And! Interview with Delphine Dora by @miloshroch.bsky.social I’m excited to read. And! the mighty SUNN 0)))!!!!
New DEAFKIDS record is really something else. The most broken and the most ecstatic they’ve sounded yet. A tunnel and a supernova all in one… m.youtube.com/watch?v=m4dI...
Londoners, this Thursday at Spanners in Loughborough Junction. A celebration of 5 years of @wabi-sabi-tapes.bsky.social with live sets from Mélodie Blaison, Kate Carr ( @flamingpines.bsky.social ) and myself as well as DJs from the Final Image label www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/melodie-bl...
Londoners, this Thursday at Spanners in Loughborough Junction. A celebration of 5 years of @wabi-sabi-tapes.bsky.social with live sets from Mélodie Blaison, Kate Carr ( @flamingpines.bsky.social ) and myself as well as DJs from the Final Image label www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/melodie-bl...
Two French labels taking over Spanners next week on consecutive nights (frustratingly I can't attend either): Wabi Sabi on Thur with Mélodie Blaison, Kate Carr and Beachers, and Les Disques Omnison on Friday with Orion Music Workshop, Shelter, Jeanne Gorisse and Oda Fiasco Bravo www.spanners.club
If you're looking for Bandcamp Friday ideas - new tape column went live this week. Its got seals + pedal-steels, its got dystopian plunderphonics, its got a 12th Centry church, it's got a tape that sounds like Koji Kondo jamming with the Sonics, its got a gorgeous new Bara & Isa tape and more
🎭 Ragger - 𝙀𝙪𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙨 - carefully reviewed in @thequietus.com by @darylworthington.bsky.social 🙏
peep the review in full @:
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Mega new issue of the @thewiremagazine.bsky.social is out. Inside I interviewed the wonderful Cowboy Builder, wrote about a joyous Felicity J Lord gig, and reviewed new records by Asuna/Carl Stone + Stephen O’Malley + Arnold Dreyblatt. Grab a copy, it’s the best thing in print since books…
My new Spool's Out cassette reviews column is up at @thequietus.com It includes a pedal steel + colony of seals (the sea creature rather than the singer) jam band, an album that sounds like a SNES joined a garage rock outfit, and a whole bewildering lot more. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
On 12 March, celebrating 5 years of @wabi-sabi-tapes.bsky.social at the mighty Spanners in London with sets from Mélodie Blaison, Kate Carr, myself and DJs Laura Not and Andrew Hulme from the Final Image label. Come on down! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/melodie-bl...
On 12 March, celebrating 5 years of @wabi-sabi-tapes.bsky.social at the mighty Spanners in London with sets from Mélodie Blaison, Kate Carr, myself and DJs Laura Not and Andrew Hulme from the Final Image label. Come on down! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/melodie-bl...
Was a real joy writing this for @thewiremagazine.bsky.social Vic Bang’s music is incredible, The Wire is incredible… support both if you can!
Bandcamp Friday bargain: Almost every album on Sao Paulo-based grindcore duo Test's Bandcamp page is 2 euros. I find myself picking one up everytime Bandcamp Day rolls around - they're a force of nature that stretch the possibilities of rapid heavy music... testgrind.bandcamp.com/album/o-jogo...
Tape deal:
Nothing “new” for Bandcamp Friday today, but if you are willing to consider music from the ancient epoch of 2025 (or earlier), we’re offering a 1-day 2-for-1 deal on all tapes. Just buy one tape and write which other in-stock tape you’d also like in the comment field on the order.
The Wire 505 is out now!
Featuring dälek on the cover, plus an industrial hiphop primer, Vic Bang, Pascal Comelade, O Ghettaõ, Daniel Blumberg’s Jukebox, and much more.
Pick up your copy here: thewire.co.uk/shop/
For the new @thewiremagazine.bsky.social I interviewed the wonderful Vic Bang. Such a joy to speak to an artist whose music always sparkles in the most magical way. Grab a copy of the magazine/subscribe at The Wire’s website. (And rejoice in Dälek being on the cover!)
Anomaly Index by NKISI album cover. A very pale greyish blue image of a small man made structure with a ladder for access.
'Built entirely from phonograph recordings predating 1910, captured in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea, Anomaly Index shows background noise is capable of being both spectral and utterly present all at once'
Nkisi - Anomaly Index - Spool’s Out: #Cassette Reviews for January
buff.ly/s3XWHQq
Thanks very much to @darylworthington.bsky.social at @thequietus.com for including the Black Pylon tape label’s inaugural release ‘Safezone’ by Dogs Versus Shadows in his first cassette round up of 2026!
TAPE SCENE FOREVS!!
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Thank you
@darylworthington.bsky.social
@ @thequietus.com for including 'Inxorable Ascent' in SPOOLS OUT! Honoured... always amazing music in here: thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
My first Spool's Out cassette reviews column of 2026 is now up at @thequietus.com Always such a joy to write this, and there's once again a deluge of fantastic sounds coming out on tape...
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Unfortunately, the time and space (a technofeudalist's playground) are definitely off. Advocating for AI in art at the moment simply means siding with all the grifters, antihumanists and morally corrupt capitalists who are showing the technology down our throats in every other aspect of life. 2/2
The use of generative AI in art can be an incredibly interesting and nuanced discussion. I myself have been fascinated with the subject (and written several papers on it), composers like @jenniferwalshe.bsky.social have made amazing music using systems such as dadabots' RRNs, etc. 1/2
Happy Holidays! You can get a 40% discount on everything/anything at the ineffectual suns Bandcamp by using the code goodriddance2025 at checkout until 5 Jan, including my album of experimental hunting horn from earlier this year… ineffectualsuns.bandcamp.com/album/horns-...
Traditional instruments, folk cultures and mythic ideas of futurity offer slip roads exiting AI’s highway to a hollow future, argues @darylworthington.bsky.social in The Wire 503/504
Read the full essay online: www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/e...
Happy Holidays! You can get a 40% discount on everything/anything at the ineffectual suns Bandcamp by using the code goodriddance2025 at checkout until 5 Jan, including my album of experimental hunting horn from earlier this year… ineffectualsuns.bandcamp.com/album/horns-...
🚨Coupon time!
25% discount on tapes & digitals using the checkout code: str25
Valid the next 2 weeks for anything on the STR Bandcamp. It might work for other labels as well, but we haven’t checked. You could try it on Warp or Sony? Definitely works on STR tho.
strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com
TONIGHT 👇👇👇👇👇
For folk in London, this is happening at (the wonderful, legendary) Spanners tomorrow (Wednesday) night to celebrate the new [something's happening] album, out now via @strategictaper.bsky.social Come down, lineup is magic. (advance tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/somethings... )
Quietus Spools Out, The Best Cassettes of 2025 graphic. A small skull-faced jester under the titles, a rocky outcrop and clouds at the top.
With AI on his mind and joyous sound in his ears, Daryl Worthington dives into his 20 favourite cassettes of 2025, finding the world’s tape conveyed eccentric undergrounds remain in brilliant form
Spool’s Out: The Best Cassettes of 2025
buff.ly/UjKW0KW