Welcome to a bit of a collab edition of our weekly newsletter, with Emma (that's me, hi!) and Sean tag-teaming.
Before we get into it, we've started building a resource for you. It's a guide to confirmed releases. It's pretty basic for now but we'd love you to feedback as to whether it's useful and anything else you'd like to go with it.
Also in this week's newsletter:
- 5 must hear albums due before the end of 2025
- A thumping track of the week
- Cost of living friendly ticket offer
- Grassroots venue news
- Who's on this week's podcast about indie sleaze?
- The future of music journalism?
What's Out When? Bookmark This Resource
Sean Adams
5 Must Hear Albums Coming Before The End of 2025
Welcome to that time of year where decision paralysis really works against you. Album of the year season has circled back around at a frankly terrifying speed (it doesn't feel like long ago since I was watching Slipknot at The O2 just a few days before Christmas 2024), a time to comb through the year's releases, fill in the gaps and celebrate what a great year for music has passed. It's an amusing problem to have - so much good music, so much different music, and no easy way to put it all in order.
To add to that, while most of the major release days have passed, there's still quite a few big albums still to arrive. Here are a few of the big hitters which might still make a dent in your AOTY list - and here's a few potentials for next year's AOTY list as January 2026 creeps ever closer.
Melody's Echo Chamber - Unclouded
Sean: There's dream-pop and then there's the dreamiest french-pop you ever did hear. Melody's Echo Chamber has long been curled up in the sun of the latter category, swishing around in an ornate garden somewhere between Broadcast, Tame Impala, Stereolab, and Camera Obscura. Which is to say, she does all the good floaty shoegazy stuff. The three tracks released so far from Unclouded have that big sky with pink sunset magic we've come to expect from Melody Prochet and I can't wait to hear this record. | Release date: December 5th
Drain - .... is your friend
Emma: The best sorts of hardcore records make you feel violently, viscerally alive. It's what Drain love to do, and they do it with the biggest of smiles. From the sounds of the singles so far, including 'Scared Of Everything And Nothing' and 'Nights Like These' their forthcoming third album aims to be one big hell yeah of a record, an instant passport to a small, sauna-like room filled with joy. | Release date: 7th November | Bandcamp
FKA Twigs - EUSEXUA AFTERGLOW
Emma: FKA Twigs has had a colossal 2025 with her acclaimed EUSEXUA and it's about to get even bigger. Twigs is building on the silken textures and ethereal atmosphere of her hypnotic third album, which scored a Mercury nomination, with a sequel of sorts. From the sounds of early preview 'Cheap Hotel', it's set to be just as lush, thrumming with a hedonistic spirit. | Release date: 14th November
HEALTH - CONFLICT DLC
Emma: Need more music to mosh in a dungeon to? HEALTH's forthcoming album is the ideal early Christmas present. The two singles so far, previous TOTW 'ORDINARY LOSS' and the freshly-released 'VIBE COP', are sounding even more monstrous than usual, doubling down hard on their violent riffs. It's time to headbang the existential dread away. | Release date: 12th December | Bandcamp
Sky Ferreira - Masochism
Sean: I honestly don't think this long-awaited album will come out before the end of the year, so this is just me summoning it into existence with wishful thinking. The follow-up to 2013's sublime Night Time, My Time has a long time coming but the anticipation shifted gears with the release of the My Bloody Valentine at the club shoe-pop jams 'Leash' and 'Don't Forget' stepping out onto the internetz earlier this year. According to the records pretty detailed wiki, Ferreira has said that the record will be produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, Justin Raisen, Mike Dean, and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. Here's hoping we get a nice surprise under the tree this Xmas.
Track Of The Week
132 Techno’ by Kelly Lee Owens
Words by Sean Adams
Squelch. Bloop. Swooooon. Everything about the meticulous way Kelly Lee Owens makes music leaves me feeling non-verbal, lost in the throes of sensory satisfying textures. At least on first listen. Then when I’ve had a few moreish spins I find myself at my most verbose, unable to stop writing as thoughts and visuals ricochet around my head, the brain box throbbing in time to the undeniable kick.
Like a video game avatar regenerating, ‘132 Techno’ plops you on a travellator heading into the clouds, and as it gets higher and more intense, the song deconstructs briefly before blowing back in.
Every second of this 5 minute and 34 second masterpiece has something shifting or swirling. It’s the Welsh maker of “Girls Love Techno” tees doing what she does best: creating transcendent dance floors in your imagination before making you need to be on one irl.The track is taken from Kelly Lee Owens forthcoming EP Kelly (out Nov 21st), which she describes as being “about embodying those collective, physical experiences we only really have in clubs or at music events.”Adding that this track is “ominous, uneasy, sometimes even uncomfortable,” which perfectly reflects the state of the world right now doesn’t it? | Bandcamp
🎧 Hear our track of the week on our 2025 Favourites Playlist on QoBuz or on YouTube.
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Grassroots initiatives! Grassroots initiatives everywhere!
The last few days have seen the Music Venue Trust make some very exciting swings in the name of bringing fans into their local grassroots venues. For one, they've teamed up with Marshall for a new nationwide series of gigs featuring over 60 emerging artists in grassroots venues across the UK.
Details are thin on the ground at the moment, but what we do know is the first venues thar will get involved are Brighton's Green Door Store, Fuel in Cardiff (one of my personal favourite rock clubs), The Rum Shack in Glasgow and Sheffield's Yellow Arch.
Meanwhile, they're also working with Manchester City Council to launch a £245,000 fund as a "targeted fix to stop vital venues being priced out of the city they helped put on the map". It started up in response to cuts to UK Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Rate Relief and Manchester venues can apply for 35 per cent of their 2025/26 business rates liability for up to £20,000.
Community Prompt
Piehouse Co-Op needs your help
I've never been in a space quite like Piehouse Co-Op in Deptford, south-east London before. It was where I spent my Halloween, enjoying an eclectic bill put on by How To Catch A Pig including last week's TOTW artist YAKKIE and a variety of music, comedy, poetry and even pole dancing. The venue, re-opened as a workers' co-op earlier this year and bills itself as a "proudly queer, wheelchair accessible and anti-capitalist venue", putting on a huge, diverse programme bringing marginalised people front and centre. They even have a BDS compliant bar - and yes, it sells pies.
While I was there, the toilets were flooded due to a leak caused by heavy rain. It later transpired that the damage was more extensive, with water pouring through the lighting fixtures and damaging the electrics and sound system. They had to remain closed for what should have been one of their busiest weekends of the year, losing thousands of pounds.
They've already been crowdfunding to level up the venue, but they need the support now more than ever. If you've got some spare change, feel free to send it their way.
Hopeful Story of the Week
Cheap gig tickets, anyone?
Even in bank-breaking times, there are good eggs out there offering ways to escape from the world and see live music for those in financial hardship.
First up, the Green Door Store in Brighton has made their flagship GDS Presents shows, which showcases emerging talent from across the city, free entry. The fans get an affordable night out, the bands get bigger crowds - sounds to us like a win for everyone.
The Anchoress has also made some half-price concessionary tickets available for her show at London's Union Chapel on 14th November, aimed at students, the unemployed and anyone on low incomes. To claim a concessionary ticket, reply to her Substack email with the subject line “Concessionary Ticket” - no questions asked, no proof required.
That's all for this week. Keep an eye on your podcast feeds for our interview with Paul Smith from Maxïmo Park on why indie sleaze didn't exist and 20 years of A Certain Trigger. Be sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts or YouTube to get a notification when that's live.
Further Reading
To mark 25 years of DiS, Sean wrote this piece for HUCK about the mess music journalism is in (don't worry, it's oddly hopeful)
