Nostalgia is stupid

Fair to a point, right? Except whoever said this on Bluesky was clearly confusing nostalgia for something else – a desire to escape the cold digital prison cell tech companies are increasingly placing us into. And I’m glad that kids are figuring out that faster than adults, from the sounds of it.

Yes, the same kids that aforementioned tech companies most certainly want to be obedient and submissive. Same kids we’re constantly told are getting dumber by the minute. They’re going to save us in the end.

The reasons I believe that is the clip from the commencement ceremony seen recently. In it you can clearly hear boos after the speaker mentions incoming AI revolutions. As well as cheers following a phrase that we once lived without AI. In other words the kids are alright – maybe adults that believe buying CDs/vinyl, reading books and listening to the radio are all useless fads easily replaced by AI that aren’t right in the head.

Things that we’re about to lose if things will go as planned by tech companies/billionaires – just off the top of my head

– Empathy (see Musk / Charlie Kirk / Trump)

– Introspection (see the rich eggheaded dudebro who name I won’t bother typing)

– Thinking (see nearly every big tech company)

The list goes on and on. Yet kids give me hope that not everything is lost – let them feel nostalgic for things they never had. Its their right. The alternative to them not having it, after all, is far, far worse.

The post Rants // Feeling Nostalgic Yet? appeared first on I Heart Noise.

Tracklist

The post Radio Shows // Cosmic Church of I Heart Noise – Ep. 82 appeared first on I Heart Noise.

The post Radio Shows // Cosmic Church of I Heart Noise – Ep. 81 appeared first on I Heart Noise.

Between January 1st and March 31st 2026

• IHN received 4,817 plays in total
• We put out 3 releases including

Solilians Shlosha / Skyjelly Split (January) – follow-up to In the Running 1

Tinned Meats – Kilter (January) – second LP from Sheffield quartet! Comparisons to Stranglers, The Fall and Mothers/Zappa abound!

Dystopiate – Filth Film (April) – second LP from ex-Cryostasium! Furious mix of d-beat, crust and black metal.

Plus singles collections from Tinned Meats and Dystopiate!

• Last, but not least – lets crunch those review numbers

Skyjelly Shlosha/Solilians Split received two (h/t St Lepus aka Shane Swank / The Third Eye)

Kilter received…the jury is still out on the exact number, but there’s 7 Bandcamp reviews on our side + 4 on Tinned Meats side! (see also – the first report card on Kilter)

Filth Film received 6 Bandcamp reviews (h/t bmurator / gafne rostow / Eric Lay / Mark Chickenf1sh / D3LA.HOZ / Nic Brown). In comparison – Infiltrator single received 4 of those!

And now onto the sound feast…here’s 20 of the most played tracks from Q1. They cover a wide territory, so take your time to listen and explore all the release, pass the word, leave the reviews and purchase if you’re so inclined, since many of our releases are pay what you want!

1.  Tinned Meats – Square One (Kilter / Singles / IHN014 // Kilter)

2. Dystopiate – Infiltrator (Infiltrator Single / IHN015 // Filth Film)

3. Tinned Meats – Shrink (IHN014 // Kilter)

4. Turkish Delight – Grammy (IHN003 // Tommy Bell)

5. Skyjelly – Far Boundaries (IHN013 // Solilians Slosha / Skyjelly – Challah II b/w Far Boundaries)

6. Tinned Meats – Caught in the Wild (Kilter / Singles / IHN014 // Kilter)

7. Dystopiate – Medihaze (Infiltrator Single)

8. Tinned Meats – Piece of Mind (Kilter / Singles / IHN014 // Kilter)

9. Tinned Meats – Chorea (IHN014 // Kilter)

10. Big City Orchestra – Raspberry (IHNDIGS001 // Gone In 60 Seconds – Vol. 1)

11. Dystopiate – Finality (Infiltrator Single)

12. Tinned Meats – Grounded (IHN014 // Kilter)

13. Turkish Delight – Go Baby (IHN005 // Howcha Magowcha)

14. Petridisch – 01 (IHN002 // Petridisch – 358)

15. Tinned Meats – Mir (IHN014 // Kilter)

16. The Modern Folk – Shenandoah (2025 Sampler)

17. Jenova 7 – Last Breath And Beyond (IHNDIGS003 // Circle Of Friends – Vol.1: Facebook)

18. Tinned Meats – So Below (IHN014 // Kilter)

19. Blue Sausage Infant – Krackrock (IHNDIGS001 // Gone In 60 Seconds – Vol. 1)

20. Solilians Shlosha – Challah II (IHN013 // Solilians Slosha / Skyjelly – Challah II b/w Far Boundaries)

The post IHN Quarterly Reports / Q1 2026 – 20 Most Played Tracks appeared first on I Heart Noise.

While all the CD copies on Tinned Meats side are sold out, we still got about 17 out 50 of those beautiful babies. There’s also a vinyl version of Kilter coming soon and you wouldn’t want to miss this one, believe me! Now, without further ado…

Reviews

Came across this sight unseen & was hooked immediately. Reminds me of Wire doing an album between Chairs Missing & 154 produced by Syd Barrett. Every ounce of it raw unquantized human punk energy in angular rhythmic psychadelic danger and jaggedly vicious lines w sublimely reverberant choruses, Liars meet the Soft Boys on a Beefheart tribute album.

If you like things that are both loud and good, you should hear this record. I WILL see this band live!  Corey Goldberg

Riffy, punkish skronky prog, (or riffy, proggy punk?) Unafraid of hooks and verse-chorus-verse song structure, if you want something off-kilter but catchy this is the good stuff

Big Voyage

Angular and noisy, punk-proggy but catchy, clipped and DIY/post-punky but with unexpectedly complex melodies; it’s only February and I’m convinced I’ve already heard one of my top 10 albums here. Favorite track: Walls.

Gafne Rostow

If you’re worried there aren’t any bands capable of combining the best of early Zappa, Fripp, fancy crunchy guitars, fantastical synths, powerful vocals, and killer drums with their own incredible talent, here’s some relief. Support them!

D3la.HOZ

At some places it sounds like
Stump (London) & the Fall (Madchester)
Indeed did have a great meeting.

“Peoples New Fave Band”
Yes, They Only Just Need To Discover it is

John Peel’s Ghost

Tinned Meats have struck a winning formula with this album. A perfect balance between lush beauty and utter chaos, between unabashed insanity and earworm-rich compositions – Kilter is a breath of fresh air in my music collection.

This album is one of those classic “it shouldn’t work, but it does” stories. The sound palette is wonderfully weird in an addictive way. I adore everything about it. Favorite track: Chorea\

FAEDEC

Mind expanding stuff; catchy grooves and great melodies coralling noise punk shrapnel. Elements offset, interlock, and rebalance in endlessly compelling ways.

scyurick

Radio Shows

Cosmic Church, Ep. 80 – Tinned Meats break down Kilter track by track! Plus music by SUSS, Setting, Carnivorous Plants, Tanya Tagaq and many more! (h/t Dillon)

The post Report Cards // Tinned Meats – Kilter (Pt. 1) appeared first on I Heart Noise.

Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet, editor and musician from the North of England. His non-fiction book, Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for two major literary prizes in the UK, including Best Political Book By A Non-Parliamentarian at the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2023. His debut novel Keshed, published in February this year by Ortac Press, was praised by the TLS as “An exceptional debut. Difficult, original and revelatory,” and by The Irish Times as “exhilarating yet heartbreaking.” His short fiction, essays, poetry, criticism and other work has been featured widely online and in print by Prospect, Broken Sleep Books, Tangerine Press, White Rabbit, 3:AM, minor literature[s], Lune, Lunate, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Visual Verse and many others. His next book, Disappear Here: Bret Easton Ellis’ America, is forthcoming in 2027 with Ortac Press. He also plays guitar in the rock band Kamień.

Keshed is available now from all the usual high street and online retailers in the UK. If you’re overseas and think this might be up your alley, Blackwells UK have copies available with minimal international shipping so that’s your best bet. And if you fancy checking out my band, we have a charity single available on Bandcamp or there’s a great recording of most of our headline set at The Brewery Tap in Idle in December on my YouTube channel. We’re back in the studio in a couple of weeks, so if you like the idea of an English Stevie Nicks fronting early Sabbath, watch this space.

What’s that old thing about writers being failed rock stars? I’d fuckin love to say that was the case with me; cos for one thing it’d imply it might have been a real possibility once but never quite got there. But while that’d tap into a whole bunch of romantic Replacements fantasies shooting up fabulous musical disasters and glorious self-sabotage in the name of punk rock n roll, it’d be a bullshit narrative. Yeah, I’ve played in a band or two, still do, and hopefully always will, but they’ve only ever been local concerns, done for the sheer hell of it and the unspeakable pleasure of making a racket with my mates – why the fuck else would you do it? – but none of it was ever gonna go any further than that, and that’s fine. Some kind of writing “career” – not that I like the ‘c’ word – was always far more realistic, and that’s where most of my creative energy has always been focused.

Between full-time work, full-time writing and raising two kids in their early teens, I Do Not Have Fucking Time To Be In A Band Right Now; but I don’t have a choice. Music is what I do to switch off, by turning on something else. Band rehearsals are pretty much the only time when I don’t think about writing. When I’m performing – whether that’s playing onstage or recording stupid fucking covers in my bedroom – it’s a state of transcendence where words, and just about everything else, lose all meaning in the blissful high-gain churn of the noise and the sweat and the now. I quit drinking five years ago and without that release I’d be fucked. It’s totally legit, then, when most of my interviews have a question asking if there’s any link between my writing and music, or if the two creative processes are related. The short, and boring, answer to the second part is no.

Writing is my life. It’s infinite graft in the frozen silence of space, perpetual study, ceaseless learning, a pathological obsession pursued with such laser-focus it ruins my physical and mental health and sometimes personal relationships too. It’s surgical, forensic, microscopic, sub-atomic attention to detail, all about precision, mastery of forms, styles, voices, techniques and obtaining and maintaining the highest level of control, constantly, forever. Music is spontaneity, energy, release, freedom, screaming, noise, bleeding fingers, banging something out and meaning it, three chords (or two, or one), the truth, and what little I know about technique can go and get fucked. As a mode of expression it’s the diametric opposite of writing in terms of how I approach it, why I do it, what I get out of it, and how invested I am in the quality of the end product. I’m bipolar and have ADHD so I’m a shit or bust kinda guy in everything I do, and I guess this is all just part and parcel of that whole trainwreck-slash-occasional-superpower; and none of it means music has no place in my written work, just that it’s not part of the process.

I talk a lot about music on my socials. A big part of my online network is made up of music peeps – whether they’re musicians, labels, or “just” fellow travellers, incurable obsessives who listen to music like most people breathe and live their lives to a soundtrack that’s created minute by minute, day by day, in the jukebox of their brain whether they’re actually listening to anything at a given time or not. I love chatting shit with those folk, wherever they are. How the hell else would an upper-lower-tier English writer come to be writing a blogpost for an independent record label in Boston (a city which, incidentally, is home to the Bouncing Souls, one of my very favourite bands)?!

Even before Keshed was published I said a film version of it would be scored by Mogwai and Joy Division, and the OST would be full of songs by Elliott Smith, whose lyrics speak more profoundly to the text (and me personally, for decades) than any other artist you could throw at it. Mogwai’s doomy atmospherics are perfect for the novel’s shifting moods, the undercurrent of creeping dread, downbeat by default, splinters of occasional beauty, light and respite obliterated by sudden detonations of howling dissonance.

A similar vibe to Joy Division, sans vox. Few bands have a sound the embodies a sense of place like JD; an entire chapter of Keshed set in Manchester is named after my favourite song off Unknown Pleasures, their music so instantly visual to me the novel even contains the line, “Silhouetted against the gunmetal grey of the sky, the cityscape looked like a Joy Division song.” When I was interviewed recently on a local radio show I was asked to choose two songs related to the book in some way. New Dawn Fades was one of them; the other was A Fond Farewell by Elliott Smith, which starts to play in my fantasy film version as soon as the credits roll.

Someone in the chat at the online launch wanted to know how much of a presence music is in Keshed and I said I didn’t think it was, noticeably. My writing can be, and often is, full of pop culture, with music at the top of the mix, but only when the text warrants it – there’s nothing worse than a fully grown adult trying to shoehorn lists of their obscure record and/or movie/book collections into a novel like a teenager trying to score cool points. It’s fucking ridiculous and is guaranteed to make me wanna hurl a book out the window.

The protagonist of Keshed is into music in an implicit way – there’s talk of gig-going in the drunken old days and he wears the odd band t-shirt, but it’s not a prominent part of his character as far as the narrative goes so there wasn’t a lot of need for widespread namedropping. On reflection, there’s a bit more in there than I first remembered, as much in terms of background music for scenes in bars and stuff like that, and a few people said they liked the idea of a soundtrack when I first started talking about the imaginary film one, so here it is, of a fashion.

These are mostly songs/artists that are specifically referenced in the novel; occasionally I’ve chosen something that fits a vibe where a scene might mention a specific genre of music is playing, for example, ambient techno. Tracks 3 – 5 are by three of the bands that were active in the amazing north Leeds DIY scene of the early noughties, which is alluded to in the second chapter, but without any specific acts being named. [Incidentally, a whole bunch of stuff from that scene was put out by Squirrel Records, well worth investigation.]

Before we get into all that, it’s probably a good idea to introduce the novel. You can read what some writers with far higher public profiles than me though about it here, but here’s what it says on the back.

In the derelict shell of what was once his family home, a dying man surveys the wreckage of his former life and drinks himself senseless, haunted by the chain of events that led him there. Dark, complex, and visceral, Keshed is an unflinching character study exploring class, belonging, fatherhood, and conflicting ideals of modern masculinity. At heart, it’s the story of a relationship struggling to cope with the impossible pressures of raising a child under late-stage capitalism; but it’s also a love letter to the working-class North, from the grinding poverty of Thatcher’s ’80s to the present day.

It starts with a tableau of a dying man in a living room, narrated in a hallucinatory, disorientating, fractured voice which recurs sporadically and isn’t the easiest to describe; to save me trying, you can read the first part online thanks to minor literature[s]. And while you’re doing it, check out Pure Misanthropia by Stalaghhh, which would score all five of the short sections in the book that use this voice, including the ending, and is about as close to the experience I was trying to recreate on the page as it’s possible to get. If that’s too much, Diamanda Galas’ Plague Mass will do instead, whatever headfucked psychosis best floats your boat.

And the rest? Goes something like this……

1. Rockaway Beach – Ramones
2. Jet Boy – New York Dolls
3. Misery City – Manhattan Love Suicides
4. Nailbomb – That Fucking Tank
5. The Fuckover – Bilge Pump
6. Sunday Morning – Velvet Underground
7. Ancient Lights – Shorelights
8. Rose Parade – Elliott Smith
9. Temptation Or Restraint – Madball
10. Tourettes – Nirvana
11. The Shy Retirer – Arab Strap
12. Under Sad Stars – Crooked Fingers
13. None A Jah Jah Children No Cry – Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus
14. Kill the Hostages – NOFX
15. My Perfect Cousin – Undertones
16. Skulls – the Misfits
17. New Dawn Fades – Joy Division
18. Raw Power – Iggy + Stooges
19. The End – the Doors
20. Strawberry Gashes – Jack Off Jill
21. Black No.1 – Type O Negative
22. Common People – Pulp
23. Spooky – Dusty Springfield
24. Tears Dry On Their Own – Amy Winehouse
25. In A Darkened Room – Skid Row
26. Angel Of Death – Slayer
27. Just Like Heaven – the Cure
28. Waltz For Aidan – Mogwai
29. A Fond Farewell – Elliott Smith

The post Keshed: The Soundtrack by Stu Hennigan appeared first on I Heart Noise.

Of particular interest to me are two journalistic takes that emerged lately. One was by Megan McArdle of Washington Post who proclaimed Bluesky will die off in not so distant future. The other one was by Nate Silver who maintains that all social media sucks, albeit still prefers Twitter himself. Worth adding too that Elon, being a master of eloquence that he is, called Nate an r-word in response to the said take. But I digress.

While Nate avoids Bluesky like a plague, I had a chance to talk to Megan McArdle. She maintains that her take wasn’t done out of hatred for Bsky, but out of sheer userbase comparisons between the two platforms. On the surface it makes a lot of sense, but if you dig deeper the take/opinion just falls apart.

For one – what does it matter if the Twitter userbase is bigger? Its borderline unusuable, Elon Musk is a proud bigot/racist/chauvinist and much of the platform by now is occupied by either bots or MAGA or 4Chan fanboys. Not the kind of place I would touch with a ten-foot pole, by any means. Facebook/Meta isn’t much of an improvement either.

Where I do agree with both Silver and McArdle is the declining use of Bluesky. It definitely starts to feel like fewer people are visiting site on a daily basis and its very likely the things coming from Bluesky devs/team did not make it any more attractive to the population at large. Neither did endless mainstream journalistic hot takes dismissing Bluesky as novelty, an echo chamber or something worse altogether. Unfortunately Bsky might’ve put in a lot effort to enshittify itself, as if often happens these days – the post from Why being a nadir of developers being completely tone-deaf.

I maintain that there’s still a time for Bluesky to turn the ship around. Its running out very fast, however, and increasingly likely scenarios are that it will either

A) end up being overrun by bots/MAGA

B) shut down due to bankruptcy / inability to monetize the platform

Hopefully neither scenario will come to pass. But in the meantime there’s a million dollar question – where do people that leave social media migrate? Our follower Uncle Brucy suggested something that gave me hope

I’ve seen this in the media, and among my own kids and their friends, but The Youth seem to be pulling away a bit and getting more into older things. Digital cameras, mp3 players, physical media upticks, etc., all on the rise.

— brucy (@realbrucy.bsky.social) 10 апреля 2026 г. в 10:40

I’m sure some, but (and not to be too earnest) I think they are finding community more than anything. The death of monoculture split us into smaller microcultures? Something like that maybe. My sample size is small, but it is a little encouraging.

— brucy (@realbrucy.bsky.social) 10 апреля 2026 г. в 10:51

That scenario certainly beats one involving everyone migrating to chatbots. Something that, I’m afraid Google, Amazon, Twitter et al desperately want to happen and if so I’d much prefer everyone going back to offline life or whatever remnants of it are still out there.

I miss social media of old and will deeply regret Bluesky’s ongoing decline/eventual death, but as the poet laureate once said “Nothing last forever. Even cold November rain”. Perhaps the disappearance of social media will open up new avenues for people to explore offline life in full and will result in emergence of new real-life third places. Here’s to hoping.

The post Rants // On Further Decline of Social Media appeared first on I Heart Noise.

Graham Dunning – Quern (Jollies Records) / New Graham Dunning mechanical techno LP here (A++ for track titles and erratic orbits)  – Dan Hayhurst

Daryl Groetsch – Fathoms / aka Pulse Emitter

St James Infirmary – At the Globe (Wormhole World)

JK Flesh / Monrella – Shouting the Odds (h/t Stefan)

Steve Gunn – Shape of a Wave (h/t Richard Hayes)

Listening Recommendations

Marta Mist – Windows / Quick reminder that I do another band with Sophie, called Marta Mist. Been putting out stuff since like 2010 or something, and the last thing we had out was this, which was nearly 2 years ago(!!) now- Gavin Miller

Asteroid Death Cult – V A P O R S (h/t aeon)

Nikmis – Depends on Much (Third Kind)

The post Dispatches from the Underground // April 2026 – Pt. 1 appeared first on I Heart Noise.

And yes – we still got two pre-orders on tap! One is a vinyl edition of Kilter by Tinned Meats and the other one is Filth Film, second LP from Boston’s Dystopiate. Former is for all of you Cardiacs/The Fall/Zappa/Mothers fans, while latter is a furious d-beat/crust/black metal excursion, heavily influenced by Dischard, Motorhead and Amebix.

Keir Hardie / jovike  – thank you for buying IHNDIGS002 // Boston Not LA – Vol. 1

Philippe Simon / Brent Davis / Carlos Luis Aguirre / Pleasure Killer / Eric Lay / d3LA.HOZ–  thank you for buying/pre-ordering IHN015 // Filth Film by Dystopiate

Pete Twentythree – thank you for buying IHN004 // Burn My Letters by William Carlos Whitten

ifyoucandigititisdoug / Christopher Potter – thank you for buying IHN012 //  Telepaths by William Carlos Whitten / Diana Crash /  IHN014 // Kilter by Tinned Meats / VA – 2025 Sampler

Allister Thompson / bickleyisheaven / woj / drhexen– thank you for buying IHN014 // Kilter by Tinned Meats

Graham Reznick  – thank you for buying VA – 2025 Sampler

And thank you for being our Bandcamp followers

the_doc / Insectoid Intelligence / peretsky / alexcory / sentionaut-plus / F.S. / Nuclear Girl / Deth_SpoOn / fanks4 / Mr. He / The Letter

The post Bandcamp Tuesday // Thank You for Making March Great! (II) appeared first on I Heart Noise.

The post Radio Shows // Cosmic Church of I Heart Noise – Ep. 80 appeared first on I Heart Noise.