Patrick Clarke
@paddyclarke.bsky.social
Deputy Editor and folk music columnist at The Quietus // my book Bedsit Land: The Strange Worlds Of Soft Cell is out now // demented forces push me madly round a treadmill
Pinned
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
Personally, in terms of physical/mental health, housing, loss of loved ones, skintness, creative knockbacks etc, 2025 was deeply grim
It might be trite to say, but helping build the best AOTY chart and full of so much good music that I really believe in means that even still 2025 ends on a high
It might be trite to say, but helping build the best AOTY chart and full of so much good music that I really believe in means that even still 2025 ends on a high
Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts
What have been your top picks of the year?
buff.ly/sltLcA7
What have been your top picks of the year?
buff.ly/sltLcA7
December 2, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Personally, in terms of physical/mental health, housing, loss of loved ones, skintness, creative knockbacks etc, 2025 was deeply grim
It might be trite to say, but helping build the best AOTY chart and full of so much good music that I really believe in means that even still 2025 ends on a high
It might be trite to say, but helping build the best AOTY chart and full of so much good music that I really believe in means that even still 2025 ends on a high
tQAOTY is here plz read it’s a killer list
Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts
What have been your top picks of the year?
buff.ly/sltLcA7
What have been your top picks of the year?
buff.ly/sltLcA7
December 1, 2025 at 10:39 AM
tQAOTY is here plz read it’s a killer list
Bonus bump for my latest folk music column for The Quietus - plz read if you enjoy radical and interesting and strange takes on traditional music and/or instrumentation thanks
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Bonus bump for my latest folk music column for The Quietus - plz read if you enjoy radical and interesting and strange takes on traditional music and/or instrumentation thanks
I absolutely love the latest entry in our new North American music column
My absolute fave MaxelleTalena has her first piece up at The Quietus this week and it’s a doozy: trü underground nyc noise and pop narcotics, w/ H20 and Michael Rappaport slander thrown in for taste. I guarantee that this is the stuff not covered anywhere else. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
North American Music: tQ in New York City, by Maxelle Talena
New York isn’t dead, says Maxelle Talena in the latest of tQ’s dispatches from the North American underground. It’s being killed.
thequietus.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:52 AM
I absolutely love the latest entry in our new North American music column
Just seen this band live at the Windmill and it’s blown my head clean off - they’re doing Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds next and if you live even slightly near those places you’d be insane not to go
Always the way that as soon as EOY list season is done I come across something that would have been straight in my top 10 - this rager from Detroit via Lebanon is fucking ACE
prostituteband.bandcamp.com/album/attemp...
prostituteband.bandcamp.com/album/attemp...
Attempted Martyr, by Prostitute
9 track album
prostituteband.bandcamp.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Just seen this band live at the Windmill and it’s blown my head clean off - they’re doing Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds next and if you live even slightly near those places you’d be insane not to go
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
#Folk fans! 🥁🥁🥁
More of that Radical Traditional from @paddyclarke.bsky.social — always essential nourishment.
Really glad to see Greet on there – we performed in Lore last year with him (www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/lore/). Not to mention them Goblins, who we had a show with in Colchester Castle...
More of that Radical Traditional from @paddyclarke.bsky.social — always essential nourishment.
Really glad to see Greet on there – we performed in Lore last year with him (www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/lore/). Not to mention them Goblins, who we had a show with in Colchester Castle...
One of my favourite regulars on @thequietus.com is deputy ed @paddyclarke.bsky.social's folk column, this month opening with fine reflections on a recent event devoted to Martin Carthy. Looking forward to digging into the ten contemporary selections that follow too:
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM
#Folk fans! 🥁🥁🥁
More of that Radical Traditional from @paddyclarke.bsky.social — always essential nourishment.
Really glad to see Greet on there – we performed in Lore last year with him (www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/lore/). Not to mention them Goblins, who we had a show with in Colchester Castle...
More of that Radical Traditional from @paddyclarke.bsky.social — always essential nourishment.
Really glad to see Greet on there – we performed in Lore last year with him (www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/lore/). Not to mention them Goblins, who we had a show with in Colchester Castle...
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
Friends fear he's considering a folk podcast
November 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Friends fear he's considering a folk podcast
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
One of my favourite regulars on @thequietus.com is deputy ed @paddyclarke.bsky.social's folk column, this month opening with fine reflections on a recent event devoted to Martin Carthy. Looking forward to digging into the ten contemporary selections that follow too:
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:53 PM
One of my favourite regulars on @thequietus.com is deputy ed @paddyclarke.bsky.social's folk column, this month opening with fine reflections on a recent event devoted to Martin Carthy. Looking forward to digging into the ten contemporary selections that follow too:
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Autumn, by Patrick Clarke | The Quietus
The room that is now Dalston’s EartH Theatre first opened as a cinema in 1936, five years before the birth of Martin Carthy. In the decades since both man and room have endured swings in fortune. One ...
thequietus.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The new edition of my folk music column has just come out on
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
@thequietus.com! 10 of my favourite new releases, from abstract banjo freakouts to Japanese court music via Herefordshire hauntings, the King of Zulu Guitar, Occitan psychedelia and much much more!
(this time with the correct link)
I don’t know why I bother trying to make notes when reviewing dark gigs when I’m left with this to work with the following morning
November 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I don’t know why I bother trying to make notes when reviewing dark gigs when I’m left with this to work with the following morning
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
A wonderful, heartfelt tribute to Dave Ball by @paddyclarke.bsky.social for @thequietus.com. It acutely reminds us what a musical trailblazer Dave was, is, and always will be.
Dave Ball of #SoftCell and #TheGrid, should be remembered as a hitmaker, but as one of the most ceaselessly explorative, pioneering musicians of his generation, says Patrick Clarke
Remembering #DaveBall
buff.ly/PmbgoaL
Remembering #DaveBall
buff.ly/PmbgoaL
October 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM
A wonderful, heartfelt tribute to Dave Ball by @paddyclarke.bsky.social for @thequietus.com. It acutely reminds us what a musical trailblazer Dave was, is, and always will be.
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
This is great from @paddyclarke.bsky.social: thequietus.com/news/remembe... My memories of Soft Cell from back in the day circle around just how transgressive and strange they were. In part cos they created their own world. And it was, errm, different to where I grew up in rural North Devon.
Remembering Dave Ball, by Patrick Clarke
In a moving tribute to his late Soft Cell bandmate Dave Ball, who died this week at the age of 66, Marc Almond remarked that the two were “chalk and cheese”. When I interviewed several dozen of the mu...
thequietus.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
This is great from @paddyclarke.bsky.social: thequietus.com/news/remembe... My memories of Soft Cell from back in the day circle around just how transgressive and strange they were. In part cos they created their own world. And it was, errm, different to where I grew up in rural North Devon.
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
Lovely tribute by Patrick Clarke, author of the definitive Soft Cell book Bedsit land. thequietus.com/news/remembe...
Remembering Dave Ball, by Patrick Clarke
In a moving tribute to his late Soft Cell bandmate Dave Ball, who died this week at the age of 66, Marc Almond remarked that the two were “chalk and cheese”. When I interviewed several dozen of the mu...
thequietus.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Lovely tribute by Patrick Clarke, author of the definitive Soft Cell book Bedsit land. thequietus.com/news/remembe...
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
"Ball wasn’t just a bloke from Blackpool – he, too, was a radical, as bold and as forward-thinking as any of his contemporaries." Thanks to @paddyclarke.bsky.social for this lovely tribute to Dave Ball of Soft Cell and The Grid
thequietus.com/news/remembe...
thequietus.com/news/remembe...
Remembering Dave Ball, by Patrick Clarke
In a moving tribute to his late Soft Cell bandmate Dave Ball, who died this week at the age of 66, Marc Almond remarked that the two were “chalk and cheese”. When I interviewed several dozen of the mu...
thequietus.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:29 AM
"Ball wasn’t just a bloke from Blackpool – he, too, was a radical, as bold and as forward-thinking as any of his contemporaries." Thanks to @paddyclarke.bsky.social for this lovely tribute to Dave Ball of Soft Cell and The Grid
thequietus.com/news/remembe...
thequietus.com/news/remembe...
I wrote a piece on the late, great Dave Ball for @thequietus.com
Remembering Dave Ball, by Patrick Clarke
In a moving tribute to his late Soft Cell bandmate Dave Ball, who died this week at the age of 66, Marc Almond remarked that the two were “chalk and cheese”. When I interviewed several dozen of the mu...
thequietus.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:45 AM
I wrote a piece on the late, great Dave Ball for @thequietus.com
My favourite soft cell record is This Last Night in Sodom, and that’s because it was the first where Dave sacked off the label and did all the music himself, it’s incredible
youtu.be/dpQaX4mB5qI?...
youtu.be/dpQaX4mB5qI?...
October 23, 2025 at 3:33 PM
My favourite soft cell record is This Last Night in Sodom, and that’s because it was the first where Dave sacked off the label and did all the music himself, it’s incredible
youtu.be/dpQaX4mB5qI?...
youtu.be/dpQaX4mB5qI?...
Just gutted about Dave Ball. When I was working on my Soft Cell book he was unbelievably generous, a warm and mischievous and outrageously funny interviewee. My book would have a fraction of the quality were it not for his help.
October 23, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Just gutted about Dave Ball. When I was working on my Soft Cell book he was unbelievably generous, a warm and mischievous and outrageously funny interviewee. My book would have a fraction of the quality were it not for his help.
For The Guardian I reviewed Sigur Ros, a show which was very lovely but too smooth around the edges for me - that was until they got Anna Lapwood on the Albert Hall's 9,999 pipe organ for a fuck-off blast of enormous noise at the end that very much hit the spot
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Sigur Rós and the London Contemporary Orchestra review – crashing waves of refined harmony
Perhaps the band that can best justify a mid-career gig with classical backing, the extra heft of the orchestra adds power to the Icelanders’ beautiful crescendos
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 2:01 PM
For The Guardian I reviewed Sigur Ros, a show which was very lovely but too smooth around the edges for me - that was until they got Anna Lapwood on the Albert Hall's 9,999 pipe organ for a fuck-off blast of enormous noise at the end that very much hit the spot
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Currently prepping the next edition of my Radical Traditional column for The Quietus - keen for any and all tips on new music that focuses on both tradition and experimentation
Here are 10 of my favourite new experimental trad folk releases, compiled and reviewed for your pleasure in my latest Radical Traditional column over at @thequietus.com !
Radical Traditional: Folk Music for Summer, by Patrick Clarke
Patrick Clarke's guide to the best in strange, left-field and underground traditional music returns, with reviews of 10 essential new releases
thequietus.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Currently prepping the next edition of my Radical Traditional column for The Quietus - keen for any and all tips on new music that focuses on both tradition and experimentation
Reposted by Patrick Clarke
Bookmarked this a while ago and only just got around to reading it. Surprisingly moved by morris dancing at the 2023 BRIT awards to Chaise Longue.
For @thequietus.com today, I wrote an essay about why we should stop scoffing about morris dancing, and instead view it as something radical, transgressive, and powerful enough to completely alter one's brain
In Defense of the Progressive Power of Morris Dancing
Cecil Sharp spent the Christmas of 1899 unwell. Recuperating in a cottage on the outskirts of Oxford, the mental fug of the lingering illness must have intensified the strangeness of what he saw throu...
thequietus.com
September 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Bookmarked this a while ago and only just got around to reading it. Surprisingly moved by morris dancing at the 2023 BRIT awards to Chaise Longue.
I've just been told I've got pleurisy - unenjoyable experience, enjoyably medieval sounding disease
September 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I've just been told I've got pleurisy - unenjoyable experience, enjoyably medieval sounding disease
Missed the news that the brilliant Širom are back - this is wonderful
For You, This Eve, the Wolves Will Be Enchantingly Forsaken
YouTube video by Širom - Topic
www.youtube.com
September 16, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Missed the news that the brilliant Širom are back - this is wonderful
This album is indeed very great
This is an incredibly mature piece of art. I found it by happenstance and I'm very excited. There's been some music journalism about it (@spinal-bap.bsky.social, @callinamagician.bsky.social, @paddyclarke.bsky.social), but I think it merits more.
wormery.bandcamp.com/album/pantilde
wormery.bandcamp.com/album/pantilde
Pantilde, by The Worm
12 track album
wormery.bandcamp.com
September 15, 2025 at 6:06 PM
This album is indeed very great