Show 29 – 02/02/2017
Show 28 – 26/01/2017
Show 25 – Shirley Collins
Show 24 – Matmos
Show 23 – 03/11/2016
Show 22 – Simon Reynolds
Show 21 – 29/09/2016
Show 20 – Karl ‘Regis’ O’Connor
BONUS: Green Man Festival (Sunday)
Jings, crivens and help ma Boab! It's horrible in London and it's horrible in the rest of the world, so John and Luke attempt to take your mind off things with some awesome music and (admittedly) inane chatter. This week's hot topics are whether John's plan to wax himself all over so he looks as slick as an eel is hot or horrible; the deleterious gravitational and atmospheric effects the Calder Valley has on one's poached egg game; why beef rather than drugs is the required fuel for a floatation tank visit; nostalgia for the days when a man could wear a lustrous beard with no moral qualms; and the mathematical madness of the doomed Donald Crowhurst. The fine, fine music this week comes from the Honeydrippers, Rose Elinor Dougall, Les Amazones d'Afrique, Duke Garwood, ADULT., Anohni, PINS, Roger Robinson, Moonlandingz and Jakuzi. Thanks to Mighty Seb White, Todd The Dog and Maria, not forgetting Ben, Adele, Amy, Mal and everyone in Hebden. IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT!
Back once again like renegade mummers, John and Luke slump into your shell likes with passable chat and red hot new music. And this week's pressing topics for our hapless pair are albums that make you pull a mucky face, the problems of going to watch a band with a rude name when your parents ask, uncanny valleys in the South Downs and the ongoing issue of the pair's lusty and sonorous snoring. But most importantly it is now time for John to visit a clothes shop to buy a new outfit, something he only undertakes once every other year. Please advise him on what his clothes, shoes and hat for the 2017/2018 period should look like by leaving suggestions in the comments section below. Please be aware that his budget is more St Helens Tontine Market than Saville Row. Featuring the best in new (and old) music from Moonlandingz, Childish Gambino, Aquaserge, Pinch & Sherwood, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Ibibio Sound Machine, Can, Wire and GNOD.
Last week Quietus co-editor Luke Turner had the great pleasure of travelling down to the ancient town of Lewes, East Sussex to speak to the great Shirley Collins for a Quietus Hour Special. We visited Shirley's cottage to have a brew (she makes an excellent brew) and discuss and listen to nine songs of her choosing. In her front room, recently used to record 2016-highlight album Lodestar, we talked about that record and her return to song, why Morris dancing and the English folk tradition are derided and neglected at our peril, her friendship with Lodestar-collaborators Cyclobe and some of the musicians she's picked, the racism she encountered in the American south while collecting music with Alan Lomax and her fears for the future. We also talked about the wonderful landscape of the Sussex Downs and the uncanny presence that lurks within its folds, the great Sussex folk hero Bob Copper, and why songs are always good when sung by a handsome man.
Recently when Luke and John were in Krakow for Unsound, NTS radio kindly invited them to present their show The Quietus Hour live from the festival. When asked who, among all of the musicians, DJs and producers appearing that week, they would like to interview for the show, Matmos were top of their wish list. Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt are already responsible for one of tQ's favourite albums of the year in the shape of Ultimate Care II, which came out on Thrill Jockey and is based on the cycle of a washing machine using just samples from their own appliance. But the couple were in Krakow to perform three 'episodes' from Robert Ashley's "opera for TV", Perfect Lives, which was a clear highlight of the week, in a festival packed to the brim with intelligent and exciting programming. Martin and Drew came in to talk about this fascinating show and kindly tolerated Luke and John's pork and caffeine-addled gibbering and sub-par line of questioning... and they also brought in a fine selection of musical oddities for your sonic delectation.
In this edition of our radio programme we've got a Middle Eastern stormer from Kalbata to open up before great tracks by Solange, Membranes remixed by the Manics, Shirley Collins, Betty Harris, Mutado Pintado, Zsa Zsa Sapien and Admirals Hard interspersed with John and Luke making themselves look preposterously out of touch and old as they chat about their younger years wearing ladies' blouses, how awful the Home Counties were in the 1990s, the joy of Southend, the awful idiocy of #properindieforthelads and Liam Gallagher, Simon Cowell flashing his tiny todger but the far bigger and better ones we've seen in rock PLUS exclusives from Bon Iver and the aforementioned Liam G. AND! Will we play someone a track of their dreams for THE PERSUADER?!
Simon Reynolds is generally held to be one of the world's best music writers - not least by us at the Quietus - so we're very happy that he's the special guest on our radio show/ podcast this week. Following on from such great books as Energy Flash and Rip It Up And Start Again he has written Shock And Awe: Glam Rock And It's Legacy which is out on Faber & Faber. Simon joined John Doran at tQHQ yesterday morning for a breakfast chat about the genre - a chat which turned out to be very enjoyable and informative despite the very early hour occasionally playing havoc with the presenter's higher brain functionality. (Who the hell is Oliver Wilde when he's at home?) The former Melody Maker heavyweight, who now lives and works in the US, selected all the music for the show - a mix of deep cuts by famous bands, all out bangers and junk shop glam rarities; and the pair discussed such artists as David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Suzi Quatro, Lady Gaga, Marc Bolan, Japan and Roxy Music, as well as class, gender and Brian Eno's collapsed lung.
"BACK. We knew we shouldn'ta left you. Without some strong chat to step to..." John and Luke are back together at tQHQ and are blazing a trail across the sky like nuclear powered trifle of chat blasted from a cannon of despondency and insomnia. Today, the notionally dynamic duo play tracks by Cakes Da Killa, Peaches, Grumbling Fur, NOMEANSNO, Laughing Len Cohen, Skinny Girl Diet, Innercity Ensemble, Rats On Rafts, Acid Arab, Sleaford Mods and much much more. Emboldened by coffee the pair talk about the woes of being a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman, Richard Foster's mum's recipe for corned beef hash, why Michel Houellebecq is the Morrissey of literature and the joys of the Russian and Turkish saunas in York Hall, Bethnal Green. Fancy choosing a tune for next week's show? Phone up our Persuader hotline on 020 33 93 63 95
Karl O'Connor had to ring up before coming on The Quietus Hour to check that it was OK to wear shorts on the hottest September day for decades. We said that was fine, as Luke Turner was in his best EBM cut-offs and DM boots look to go with Regis' musical choices: nine incredibly formative tracks from his teenage years in the West Midlands during the early 80s. To a soundtrack of Nitzer Ebb, Foetus, Cabaret Voltaire, Matt Johnson, DAF, Dave Ball with Genesis P*Orridge, Nikki Sudden, Einsturzende Neubauten and the wonderful Fad Gadget they indulge in passable chat about how techno never made sense until Karl heard Jeff Mills, doing things your own way, Thee Temple Of Psychick Youth, and listening to German records with spanking grot mags in a tiny bedroom lit by nicked traffic lights.
Luke and John broadcasted from a boggy field in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in Wales on Green Man Festival radio. This is Sunday's show (2 of 2).
Luke and John broadcasted from a boggy field in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in Wales on Green Man Festival radio. This is Saturday's show.