Truly the worst xmas song hot take. I would take Wonderful Christmastime over most Beatles songs. If you took out the vocals it would be revered by synth heads amongst the very cream of private press Japanese ambient. And the vocals aren't even bad.

feel like i’ve spent a great deal of 2025 going, huh, so the new season of that show i used to like kinda sucks.

I reviewed Rupert Hine's brilliantly weird electronic soundtrack for Skolimowski's (1978) film, The Shout in the new issue of @thewiremagazine.bsky.social www.thewire.co.uk/home/

Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts What have been your top picks of the year? buff.ly/sltLcA7

2025 music format ranking: 1 Bootleg cassettes 2 Radio 3 Supermarket 4 Person with loud phone on bus 5 Illegal downloads 6 Tapes 7 Passing car blasting music 8 CDr 9 Vinyls 10 Talented bird 11 VHS 12 MP3 13 Minidisc 14 LPs 15 CDs 16 Hold music 17 The gym 18 FLAC 19 Records 20 Streaming

At school, I played the theatre critic Moon in a production of Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. Notably, on opening night, the girl playing Magnus Muldoon got to the climax of the play then said, "I am… er…" She had forgotten her line. The line in question was "I am The Real Inspector Hound."

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery was genuinely interesting, probably the best 21st C. Trek. From the 2nd season on, as the producers started actually paying attention to the show's idiot fans, it became worse and worse, and ultimately unwatchable.

someone has grafittied the word ‘honte’ (shame) on the wall text in the Palais de Tokyo’s current Echo Delay Reverb exhibition where they explain why they felt they had to remove Cameron Rowland‘s artwork Replacement from the show

what is the function of chapter titles (in a single author book)? what *should* a good chapter title *do*?

this album has such a specific vibe. i don’t feel like listening to it all that often these days, but nights when i do want to, there’s nothing else quite hits the spot.

omigod was not prepared for how good the combination of melted raclette and laoganma crispy chilli oil would be. life changing. i shit you not.

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

beautiful set from rafael toral @cafeotodalston.bsky.social tonight

wait. are the Griffin Mill played by Bryan Cranston in The Studio and the Griffin Mill played by Tim Robbins in The Player supposed to be the same person?

Inside The Wire 502: Konrad Smoleński The Polish artist’s installation works conjure the resonance of Alpine bells, his sculptural instruments include mock missiles and hacked electronics, while post-pandemic he strives to connect art and activism www.thewire.co.uk/shop/

would be cool if all these leadership coup rumours resulted in Streeting getting sacked and fucked off to the backbenches, never to be seen or heard of again though, right?

any time you see one of these machines at the hotel breakfast you know you’re going to spend your morning in a series of endless queues.

so who's heading to krakow for sacrum profanum festival?

does anyone know a non-flaky, non-racist plumber in south-east london?

I Interviewed Polish sound artist Konrad Smolenski for the new issue of The Wire www.thewire.co.uk/issues/502

RIP Alison Knowles… She made everyday activities both serious & funny in equal measure. The world would be a different place without her work… www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

Top tip if you work in book PR: don't email a critic on the day they were due to hand in a review of a book you're working on to say, oh by the way, you can't quote anything from the book.

Would be great to see a version of Jonathan Glazer's excellent Rabbit in Your Headlights video without the horrible whiny music.

what

I went to the Venice Music Biennale and watched a lot of very loud, noisy music (and also some pretty quiet music, too) that made me feel buoyant and oddly weightless and it got me wondering whether "heavy" is really the right word… thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

‘Death to Spotify’ in Stavanger. 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏿

A fun parlour game might be called The Left Has a Problem With X. Choose at random either The Left or The Right + any random value for X—eg, anti-Cornish sentiment, small towns, errant marsupials, etc. Then everyone has to find 3 social media posts that prove the Left/Right has "a problem" with it.

but how funny would it be if the workers building trump’s ballroom did the demolition bit then just… walked away… and left it like that… and the ballroom never got built and the WH just stayed half-demolished for the rest of his administration?

so are people quitting this grooming gangs enquiry because they think the government’s motives are too racist or not racist enough?

No reply to an unsolicited PR email is a reply, sweetie

getting to the point where it would be novel and exciting to hear about an artist who uses their instrument in such a way that it *does not* warp time and space.

why everyone quoted in this article sound so thick? www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o... did the writer get assigned a brief they knew was bullshit and just decided to rip the shit out their own sources?

The last episode of Doctor Who aired in 1989. Everything after that should be considered apocrypha.

things bullets say

"I attached my EPK"

Pretty disappointing attitude from the White Hotel here www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o... Their comment seems to rely on the myth that charitable donations are more efficiently redistributed than state funding when the complete opposite is the case (by degrees of magnitude).

I reviewed Mikhail Karikis’s exhibition at Showroom Gallery, Songs For The Storm To Come, for the new issue of The Wire. www.thewire.co.uk/issues/501

I try to mostly follow people on LinkedIn who are unafraid to shitpost on main

www.electronicsound.co.uk/reviews/soho... nice little review of last saturday’s Soho Electronic festival in @electronicsound.bsky.social

Harmonious shaver-wrangled drones courtesy of @monsterbobby.bsky.social

This is today! ra.co/events/2245946 leftfield electronic music festival across multiple venues in central London, inc. Bjørn Hatleskog, Mieko Shimizu, Tullis Rennie, Daniel Miller (Mute Records), and me.

A new home for IKLECTIK in Peckham! thequietus.com/news/london-...

Bit in @electronicsound.bsky.social about the electronic music festival in Soho taking place this Saturday featuring music by Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Hawksmoor, Tullis Rennie, Mieko Shimizu, and me among many others. Should be fun! And in Soho! www.electronicsound.co.uk/news/soho-el...

I wrote about the most frightening and dangerous trend in Britain www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

I'll be playing solo at this festival of electronic music across several venues in Soho on Saturday 27th, along with Daniel Miller, Tullis Rennie, Hawksmoor, and a bunch of other cool people. dice.fm/event/3olb8p...

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk.

Superb look at @okkyunglee.bsky.social ‘s work, via @bandcamp.com & @monsterbobby.bsky.social : daily.bandcamp.com/lists/okkyun...

Horrifying stuff www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... I believe Evan Parker lives in Faversham. I wonder if he is now feeling any remorse for his very public decision to vote Brexit and embolden these thugs.

In Kochi City Station there’s a statue of Berobero No Kamisama, a nude, pink, spiral-eyed figure who is the local god for drunkards.