Jon Buckland

Ultracrepidarian

Music Criticism

Bandcamp Daily •

How Visible Cloaks Stitched Themselves Back Together

It’s been nine years since Visible Cloaks (the duo of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile) released their last studio album, Reassemblage. In the interim, there have been EPs and collaborative records; Doran also scored the video game Season: A Letter to the Future. But for those of us mesmerized by their previous album, it’s been a long wait to hear a new full-length outing from these master electronic manipulators.

The delay was worth it. Each shard of sound feels expertly chiseled; every iteration, tone, and note sculpted into unique, ephemeral sonic art.
The Quietus •

Shatterproof: Sam Hoyek's Demonstration 01: Anomalous | The Quietus

For Sam Hoyek, the decentralised songs on Demonstration 01: Anomalous are inflicted by sounds which seem to transgress interior/exterior borderlands. They creep in from outside. There’s a porous sense of exchange. Of ideas lost and gained. Of sounds encroaching on a destabilised core before dissipating away. The result is a constantly shifting record which rattles through styles and genres quicker than a Reform councillor collecting their P45.
The Tonearm •

'Power to Consume' and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Afterlife

In July 1975, Lou Reed released Metal Machine Music. It followed on the back of his most commercially successful album—Sally Can't Dance—a record that Reed despised so much that it hasn't been officially reissued on vinyl for nearly 40 years. Speaking to The Varsity in '76, Reed described Sally Can't Dance as "a piece of shit from beginning to end," adding that "the worse they [his albums] get, the more they sell." After three weeks on the market, Metal Machine Music was withdrawn from sale.
The Quietus •

Irked – The Grievance | The Quietus

In the 2004 rockumentary Dig!, Portland psych-janglers The Dandy Warhols turn up to the aftermath of a debauched, drug-fuelled party at the home of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and position themselves as participants in the antics for a magazine photo shoot. This type of posing and mimicry has been rife in music for decades, with bands and musicians attempting to present themselves as something they’re not in a bid for kudos, clout, cool points and, ultimately, cash.
The Quietus •

Melvins & Napalm Death – Savage Imperial Death March | The Quietus

Something is in the water. Mark Z. Danielewski’s 2025 opus Tom’s Crossing follows two teenagers who steal a pair of horses and ride into the fictional Isatch mountain range of Utah. Boyhood, David Keenan’s latest novel, features a scene in which four purloined horses are fed acid and raced through the midnight streets of Glasgow. And a third act of equine larceny now takes place during the unholy Melvins/Napalm Death alliance – Savage Imperial Death March.
Bandcamp Daily •

dälek - “Brilliance of a Falling Moon” | Bandcamp Daily

Noise has been an act of protest for centuries. Rough music, also known colloquially as charivari or skimmington, was used strategically in Europe and North America to mete out justice during the 17th century, putting power back in the hands (and the pots and pans) of the people.

Since forming dälek in the mid-’90s, Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) has been making music meant to soundtrack revolution. Currently a duo completed by Mike Mare, dälek draws on inspiration from within hip-hop and beyond it...
The Quietus •

Teerath Majumder – Dust To Dust | The Quietus

No stranger to a juxtaposition, Bangladeshi composer Teerath Majumder has previous in merging seemingly disparate forms to create something new. His 2023 EP Mouno Shonchar blended traditional Bangla sounds with more contemporary compositions, whilst a collaboration with Dhaka-based, electro-acoustic outfit Taraga resulted in spiky metal riffs butting heads with ambient soundscapes. And last year’s Do Not Feed The Robots participatory concert featured musical improvisations responding to toys and...
Bandcamp Daily •

Colloquial Sound Recordings - The Tape Label Report, February 2026

In a strange case of synchronicity, Colloquial Sound Recordings’s Damian Master began releasing Kiss Me Thru The Phone, a series of 12 monthly missives under his A Pregnant Light alias, in January 2020. Each month a new track was uploaded to a toll-free phone line where people could listen and leave responses. These messages were “funny, some sad, some grateful, some very horny.” For Masters, “it was a lot of fun. The whole project cost me a couple thousand bucks and at the end of the year generated exactly $0 in return. But it wasn’t about the money.”
Bandcamp Daily •

The Bug Remembers: Kevin Richard Martin Interview - Bandcamp Daily

You may know him as The Bug or as one half of Techno Animal, but Kevin Richard Martin has been assaulting stages and speakers in various guises since he first formed the cacophonous GOD in the late ’80s. Though the latter was renowned for clearing rooms with their hellish blasts of guitar and saxophone run through cliffs of Marshall stacks, Kevin has since moved away from this approach, stating that it now “feels more subversive to be able to use noise within an ever-shifting set or album, where you can have noisiness, intensity, but also being aware of how space around that can intensify the impact of the noisiness as opposed to being a flat line of abrasive noise.” The recent reissue of 2022’s Sub Zero is a case in point. It moves carefully and slowly, glacially even, with darkened drones blooming subtly out of the deep abyss of sound. Silvery tones occasionally slice the surface, glinting through the fug of the low-end murk.
Bandcamp Daily •

Liminal Dread Productions - The Tape Label Report, January 2026

Matt and Michael, aka Cerastes and Ashtaroth, the duo who run the punk- and metal-focused Liminal Dread Productions, had the initial idea for the label whilst serving together as leaders of the Newly Woken Organization Based on Heavy Metal (aka NWOBHM) at Miami University in Ohio. In July 2022, this developed into an initial four-tape run featuring Kalliste, Architeuthis, Branogenos, and a split between Hypnopompia and Weep.
The Quietus •

Pullman – III | The Quietus

The instrumental supergroup known as Pullman first slunk onto the scene with their dream-like debut of genteel post-rock, Turnstyles and Junkpiles, in 1998. Consisting of Tortoise’s Ken “Bundy K.” Brown, Chris Brokaw of Come (the alternative indie outfit rather than pre-Whitehouse electronics obliterators), Curtis Harvey from Rex, and Doug McCombs also of Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day, they followed this, in 2001, with Viewfinder for which they enlisted the drumming talents of Tim Barnes, whose CV includes working with Silver Jews, Jim O’Rourke, Wilco, Sonic Youth, and so many more. A studio-only outfit, the group then quietly dispersed to focus on their separate projects for a couple of decades.
Bandcamp Daily •

Xiu Xiu - “Xiu Mutha F—in’ Xiu: Vol. 1”

Xiu Xiu have always worn their influences on their sleeves. In the case of their first album, Knife Play, quite literally: The album artwork included a sticker that read “When my mom died I listened to Henry Cowell, Joy Division, Detroit techno, the Smiths, Takemitsu, Sabbath, Gamelan, Black Angels and Cecil Taylor.” This reverence continued through subsequent homages: a cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” an album of Nina Simone interpretations, and, of course, their David Lynch homage Xiu Xiu Plays The Music of Twin Peaks.

Top 25 Records of 2025

We’re a quarter of the way into the 21st century and whilst age has crept up on me, wisdom still eludes my grasp. The world keeps on dishing out surprises. The only surefire thing seems to be that there are no surefire things, that and the great galumphing musical juggernaut keeps on going. Although, with AI’s twitchy grin and greasy paws leering and clawing at its rags, even that has a question mark hanging over it… But this isn’t the time for dourness or doom-mongering - it’s the end of one year and the beginning of another, therefore time for celebration!
The Quietus •

Charles Hayward x Dälek – HAYWARDxDÄLEK | The Quietus

New Jersey rapper and South London drummer team up and tear it up over nine tracks of deep beats and mangled melodiesBack in 2023, From The Other (the creative bods behind Fat Out Fest) invited Charles Hayward and Will Brooks (AKA MC Dälek) to collaborate as part of their artist development programme Samarbeta. What started off as an improvised work, combining synth, drums, and samples, grew over the course of a week into a live performance with Brooks then taking the recordings back to his New Jersey studio to mix and add lyrics.
The Quietus •

Wrigglies Extra: Unite The Worms by Golden Toad | The Quietus

Japanese Television's Al Brown eagerly licks the toxins of the back of a Sonoran desert toad and sinks into a bottomless funk of motorik rhythms, twisting basslines and Balearic guitars resulting in an album of slithery bedroom electro-psych well-suited to the late, winter months. Golden Toad is the solo project of Al Brown, former co-creator of indie-psychers Japanese Television. He’s also made music videos for the likes of UNKLE, Lambrini Girls, Idles, and Deap Vally.
Bandcamp Daily •

Adhesive Sounds - The Tape Label Report, November 2025

In 2014 Toronto-based Kel C was going through a tough time. “My body was basically in crisis. I was allergic to everything, including the elements.” Kel explains. “I had to avoid wind and direct sunlight. I left school and isolated at home.” This housebound period led to an intense focus on music and music production, and thus Adhesive Sounds was born, unveiling the warped tape experimentation of Ben Disaster’s Japanese Treats project as the label’s inaugural release.
The Quietus •

AVTT/PTTN – AVTT/PTTN | The Quietus

You might have heard of Mike Patton. Primarily known for his work in Mr Bungle, Faith No More, Fantômas, and Peeping Tom, his career is a record of boundaries pushed and sonic expectations subverted. Through his dynamic, ear-shredding vocal techniques he’s worked with everyone from Sepultura, Merzbow, and Laurie Anderson to Eyvind Kang, Björk and Kool Keith. He’s been deeply embroiled in the avant-garde music scene and famously laughed off offers to join INXS and the Guns ‘n’ Roses spin-off band, Velvet Revolver. He runs Ipecac Records and landed three UK top 20 hits during his time in Faith No More.
The Quietus •

Earth Ball – Outside Over There | The Quietus

Based out of a similar neck of the Pacific Northwest’s woods that brought us Twin Peaks, Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy and Mandy by Panos Cosmatos, Earth Ball navigate the lure of nature with a weird bit between their teeth. Less in that saturated, folk horror, zeitgeist-y way, more like they’ve been left to their own devices and have been experimenting without any overarching fear of judgement. They trust in their own intuitions, no matter how wild.
Bandcamp Daily •

Acroplane Recordings - The Tape Label Report, October 2025

Welcome to The Tape Label Report, where we introduce you to five cassette-focused labels you should know about, and highlight key releases from each.

Acroplane Recordings officially took off in 2006, after Clive Kells stepped back from running Electrotoxic, the dance music-oriented label he’d started in 2002. Taking over the reins was Paul Moore, a resident DJ in one of Belfast’s busiest night clubs from the age of 18.
The Quietus •

Anna Högberg Attack – Ensamseglaren | The Quietus

Over two sides of an LP, Ensamseglaren takes us along paths of genteel jazz, intriguing experimentation, thunderous doom, and brassy sighs capable of breaking your heart. With her 12-strong ensemble, reassembled after a five-year hiatus in order to help work through the grief of losing her father (the lonely sailor to whom the album title alludes), Anna Högberg has transcended any clichés about getting the old band back together. Their collective expression, their artistry, their simply being wi...
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