Luke Turner

The Folklore Tapes label has launched a Kickstarter for a major project reimagining 1969 film The Watchers as a book, album and live show. Marking the label’s 15th birthday, their take on The Watchers will, we’re told, “expand upon the film’s atmospheric legacy, drawing out its folkloric undertones and exploring the cultural and psychic landscape […]

The video no longer exists but, if it did, you could click play right around now and find yourself transported to the living room of a provincial French home. You’d hear the first few notes of the song straight away, and they would probably remind you of a jaunty alarm clock. Soon, though, the music […]

The reunion of Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson for a series of dates through the autumn of 2025 is one of the musical stories of the year, so we got the shivers to say the least when a pal sent over a YouTube video of rehearsals at London’s infamously synth-packed Memetune Studios. The […]

“Fan” is one of the most abused words in the music business’s lexicon. There is much talk about how to “engage” and “value” fans, making things as “fan-centric” as possible, with clichéd homily being layered upon clichéd homily like a platitude lasagne. What it too often means is the upending of music’s best customers and […]

It always felt as if Douglas McCarthy had unfinished business with Essex. Though the Nitzer Ebb frontman spent his later years in Los Angeles, once he found out I was writing a book about the county, he seemed almost hell bent on telling me his story of growing up there. Those stories almost became a […]

In the 70s, as many African nations were working to define themselves beyond the weight of colonial oppression, a country in the heart of the continent was crafting its own revolution – not just politically, but sonically too. Zambia, newly independent, landlocked, and learning to stand on its own, gave birth to a music that […]

Back in April, Andrew Carthy – known to fans as Mr Scruff – completed a run of 15 shows in grassroots venues around the UK. This ‘Miniature Arenas Tour’ was a special one. For every ticket sold, he donated £1 to The Liveline Fund, a joint initiative between Music Venue Trust (MVT) and Save Our Scene […]

Perhaps it began in my grandparents’ living room in the spring of 1990. I watched, quizzically, as my cousin Nancy popped her Walkman headphones over my grandad’s thick ears, and clicked the clunky play button. He looked as puzzled as me, then lifted one of the fuzzy earphones and asked “what is this?” Nancy replied […]

Three years ago, Suede’s Autofiction was roundly praised as being the finest album of the band’s second incarnation, pushing the distinctive blueprint into grittier territories. On the evidence of the first non-live outing of new material, it seems that this might be a direction that the band are continuing in with what seems likely to […]

Floating in a netherworld of bedroom synths and home duped cassettes, the artists in this list exist in a nebulous sub genre of my own creation, one defined as much by quality of execution and mood as by style. Largely lo-fi, ephemeral, and hard to pin down in many ways, I recommend taking your own […]

Laura Cannell has shared a video for her recent track ‘A Ship Sunk In Earth’. The song appears on her new album, LYRELYRELYRE, which sees her use bass recorder and crumhorn alongside a copy of an instrument discovered in the 7th Century Sutton Hoo ship burial to create nine, haunting improvised tracks. tQ’s Paddy Clarke reviewed the […]

One of the most intriguing releases we’ve heard this year is LYRELYRELYRE, the new album on which Laura Cannell uses bass recorder and crumhorn alongside a copy of an instrument discovered in the 7th Century Sutton Hoo ship burial to create nine, haunting improvised tracks. Paddy Clarke has already reviewed the record in his Radical Traditional column, saying […]

A while ago John and Luke tried to start an occasional series for the Low Culture Podcast in which they were to go hammer and tongs arguing about which was the superior of two cultural artefacts. However – and this is perhaps why tQ has lasted for seventeen years – they manage to disagree. This was […]

Neither of the couples in The Good Life have children. This is an essential point for understanding both the absurdity of their housing situation, and how hints of wife-swapping start to creep into the story. But one should note, too, that not having children does not mean not having dependents. The Goods, after all, have […]

Den Haag’s Rewire: a festival of startling contrast and quiet provocation. The scale and quality of the programme and a seemingly never-ending timetable led to some wild thoughts by the last day. Frazzled imaginings such as: what actually is music nowadays, or where it should be performed, or, even, are we experiencing a new form of romantic […]

Crumpets and sherry dear subscriber? Would you like to pull your chair closer to the roaring log fire? Are you comfortable with your slippered feet up on that pouffe? Well, in that case John and Luke are here to lead you into grave supernatural danger, but don’t worry, they’ll have you back by the hearth […]

In the row behind me, a couple of seats to my right, Geraldine couldn’t believe that I’d never seen Dead & Company before.  “Wow, really?” “Nope.”  “This is, like, my eighth show this year.” “God. And here’s me, a perfect virgin.” It was a grey night at Citi Field, the home of the New York […]

John and Luke discuss one of their favourite films, 1995 French masterpiece La Haine. Set over the course of a day and a night in a Parisian suburb, the high-tension film charts the lives of Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, three young Frenchmen of immigrant ancestry, as they speed towards a terrible conclusion. La Haine is an exploration of […]

As part of Big In Japan, The Slits, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, Budgie (born Peter Clarke) was one of the stand-out drummers of the post-punk era. His forthcoming memoir, The Absence, tells the story of Budgie’s life from a childhood in working class St Helens overshadowed by the death of his mother, […]

Patrick Wolf has announced details of his long-awaited new album. Called Crying The Neck, it will be released via Apport and Virgin Music, and is preceded by the single ‘Dies Irae’, which you can listen to below. The album, the first in a planned series of four records, is inspired by Wolf’s surroundings in his new […]