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The Quietus Radio

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Low Culture Podcast sampler: Altar by Sunn O))) & Boris
Trailer
Here's your latest trailer for The Low Culture Podcast, one of the regular perks enjoyed by subscribers to The Quietus – these wonderful people fund all our work. You can find out more about subscriptions here. Sunn O)))’s original name Mars tells you something, it being both the name of a massive planetary body but also a piece of music by Gustav Holst which is a an Ur-text in the history of heavy metal, given that it is the direct musical influence on ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath. And this is what the band did, guiding heavy metal to an irreducible, super heavy core of skull crushing riffs stretched out to absurdity and beyond. Boris are a transcendent experimental heavy rock band from Japan, named after a track by the Melvins, who have spent most of their career as a three piece. Sunn O))) take one mode and wrench infinite variety from it; Boris have used a bewildering number of genre styles while it’s more something spiritual or philosophical that remains constant. Both groups are committed collaborators so it was only right that they made a kind of yin yang album together, Altar, which was released on Halloween 2006. And, as we hope will become clear, the album signified a huge sea change for both cultural and personal and professional reasons here at the Quietus. From the confusion of early encounters at ATP festivals, to barging into incredibly loud gallery shows, then on to changing the face of our culture permanently, this is a sound that represents a journey from rupture to healing taking in Miffy the Rabbit, getting spannered on a pirate ship, a coffin made from salt and an old woman giving birth to a sturgeon along the way.
30 giu 2026
12:51
Low Culture Podcast sampler: Children Of The Stones
Trailer
As promised last month, here's a clip from the latest Low Culture Podcast, one of the many perks received by the subscribers who enable us to keep providing the antidote to the algorithm. 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. The most recent podcast saw John and Luke discussing 1977 telly drama Children Of The Stones, a masterpiece of "cosmic horror" about a scientist and his who son arrive at a village in a henge that closely resembles Avebury, intending to investigate the science behind the presence of the standing stones in the landscape. Very quickly, they learn that in this unusual village, all is not as it seems. Tune in to this clip as your tQ editors discuss the dread term 'folk horror', the drama's relationship to other telly from the time, Julian Cope, and the spinning throne as signifier for evil. 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
1 mag 2026
8:47
Low Culture Podcast: A Quietus Trailer
Trailer
Esplicito
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
1 apr 2026
15:50
New Voices Ukraine: Memory Leaks VI – Getting Physical in a Digital World, With Pep Gaffe
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.
28 nov 2024
57:10
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.
22 ott 2024
54:44
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.
23 set 2024
1:20:24
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.
19 ago 2024
1:01:16
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.
25 lug 2024
1:53:05
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. 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.
17 giu 2024
1:01:04
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. © Nuts And Bolts 2021
22 set 2021
33:17
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