L&Q Weekly
The return of album release hype, Richard Dawson's gardening heaven, Mk.gee live in London, Kate Bush's animation debut
Podcast
The era of surprise album releases seems to be over, with everyone from Beyonce to Billie Eilish to Charli XCX to Tyler, The Creator opting for modern (and bombastic) twists on the traditional way of hyping LPs before their release dates. Increasingly, it seems the arena listening party in a key tool in connecting conceptual artist and fans, but as Greg shares on this week’s episode of Midnight Chats, they don’t always work. Available on podcast apps now. Or listen on loudandquiet.com
Track of the week
Newcastle’s folk metal messiah Richard Dawson previewed the track ‘Polytunnel’ at End of the Road festival 2 months ago, questioning from the stage what his label thought they were doing making it the lead single to his now announced eighth album End of the Middle (14 Feb 2025). But I don’t know: this literal song about allotment life is Dawson as his most stripped back and traditionally folk, thus making it his more accessible (and “lovely”) single yet. Don’t forget that the first track on his previous album was 45 minutes long.
3 Sentence Live Review
MK.GEE – ELECTRIC BRIXTON, 29 OCT: The Jersey-born guitarist currently credited with modernising the sound of late era Genesis for a self sufficient generation of lo-fi bedroom jammers plays (loudly) in heavy smoke, backlit by white spots. A second guitarist shreds with their instrument set to a tone that sounds more like clarinet, whilst those Collins-esque drums and all other electronics come from one man behind decks, MPCs and synthesisers, all of which are cranked hard to a sold out room of extremely-diverse-for-a-guitar-gig stans who film the whole show and sing in chorus as if even younger than their top age of 25. Even when Mk.gee meanders into hookless noodling tracks the crowd stays with him, perhaps because he’s never there long, perhaps because he’s that good at playing, or perhaps because in combining Bon Iver, hypnagogic pop and the kind of R&B Frank Ocean can get behind Mk.gee is pushing the guitar to where fans want it to be, rather than hoping young music fans will flock back to a retro sound. Stuart Stubbs
Animation
The legendary Kate Bush has written and directed a 4-minute short animation called Little Shrew (Snowflake), soundtracked by her 2011 track ‘Snowflake’. Available on Youtube now, the short is an anti-war animation in support of the charity War Child. Watch here
