Shame have announced their next album: Cutthroat lands on September 5 via Dead Oceans. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the title track, which is danceable yet frenetic. Check it out and find the album cover and tracklist below.
“I was reading a lot of Oscar Wilde plays where everything was about paradox,” vocalist Charlie Steen said of the new single. “In ‘Cutthroat’, it’s that whole idea from Lady Windermere’s Fan, ‘Life’s far too important to be taken seriously’.”
The follow-up to 2023’s Food for Worms was made with producer John Congleton. “It’s about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites,” Steen explained. “Let’s face it, there’s a lot of them around right now.” He added, “This is about who we are. Our live shows aren’t performance art – they’re direct, confrontational and raw. That’s always been the root of us. We live in crazy times. But it’s not about ‘Poor me.’ It’s about ‘Fuck you’.”
Collectively, Shame had this to say about the album:
Cutthroat is a joyride. It’s for the inexperienced driver. The one who wants to go fast for no reason other than it’s fun. It’s driven by hunger. Hunger for something better. For something you’ve been told you don’t deserve. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s unapologetic. It’s the person who turns up to the party uninvited. ’Cause when you’ve been pushed down, there’s nowhere to go but up. When you ain’t got nothing, you ain’t got nothing to lose.
Cutthroat Cover Artwork:
Cutthroat Tracklist:
1. Cutthroat
2. Cowards Around
3. Quiet Life
4. Nothing Better
5. Plaster
6. Spartak
7. To and Fro
8. Lampião
9. After Party
10. Screwdriver
11. Packshot
12. Axis of Evil
Shame 2025 Tour Dates:
Jun 4 – London, UK – Brixton Jamm [sold out]
Sep 28 – Paris, FR – La Cigale
Sep 29 – Antwerp, BE – TRIX
Sep 30 – Cologne, DE Gebäude 9
Oct 2 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
Oct 3 – Nijmegen, NL – Doornroosje
Oct 4 – Hamburg, DE – Knust
Oct 6 – Copenhagen, DK – Pumphuset
Oct 7- Oslo, NO – Parkteatret AS
Oct 8 – Stockholm, SE – Slaktkyrkan
Oct 10 – Helsinki, FI – Korjaamo
Oct 11 – Tallinn, EE – Paavli Kultuurivabrik
Oct 12 – Riga, LV – Palladium
Oct 14 – Vilnius, LT – Kablys
Oct 15 – Warsaw, PL – NIEBO
Oct 16 – Berlin, DE – SO36
Oct 18 – Prague, CZ – MeetFactory
Oct 19 – Bratislava Nova, SK – Cvernovka
Oct 20 – Vienna, AU – Chelsea
Oct 22 – Zagreb, HR – Club Mochvara
Oct 23 – Belgrade, RS – Zappa Baza
Oct 24 – Sofia, BG – Mixtape 5
Oct 26 – Istanbul, TK – Blind
Oct 28 – Bucharest, RO Control
Oct 29 – Cluj, RO – Atelier
Oct 30 – Budapest, HU A38
Oct 31 – Munich, DE – Strom
Nov 2 – Zurich, CH – Plaza
Nov 3 – Milan, IT – Magazzini Generali
Nov 5 – Lyon, FR – L’Epicerie Moderne
Nov 6 – Reims, FR – La Cartonnerie
Nov 7 – Lille, FR – L’Aeronef
Nov 9 – Southampton, UK – 1865
Nov 10 – Leeds, UK – Project House
Nov 12 – Dublin, IE – National Stadium
Nov 13 – Cork, IE – Cyprus Avenue
Nov 15 – Manchester, UK – New Century
Nov 16 – Glasgow, UK – The Garage
Nov 17 – Bristol, UK – Electric Bristol
Nov 19 – Brighton, UK – Chalk
Nov 20 – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town
Free streaming websites like MyFlixer may test your patience, but your bank account stays intact. Also, platforms like MyFlixer offer tons of movies and TV shows, and all it costs is a few clicks. However, MyFlixer faces frequent domain changes and legal shutdowns. On the contrary, everyone will love streaming without ad interruptions on subscription-based platforms. Unfortunately, this kind of love comes with a price — a couple of bucks a month and climbing. Streaming can be frustrating at some point. And what will help is a list of alternatives that will help you find the best choice.
Check out these five great streaming options and learn more on Reddit threads.
Top Five Suggested MyFlixer Alternatives
Disney+
Disney+ prioritizes quality and legality, so yes, it is a paid streaming platform. But if you look past the price, you will find some of the best content out there! More specifically, users can watch movies and shows from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, Star Wars, and Star.
Soaper TV
Soaper TV is a free streaming website that delivers a vast library of movies and TV series. Additionally, anyone who accesses the website can immediately watch without the need to pay subscription fees. People can choose across various genres, too.
PrimeWire
PrimeWire continues to resist the struggle of shutdowns and other concerns. Through its free streaming service, it still provides online users with joy and entertainment. Moreover, individuals can stream thousands of content with no registrations or subscriptions.
WatchSeriesHD
WatchSeriesHD is a website that allows users to stream TV shows and series for free. While it does not mainly offer movies, you will find its rich collection more than enough. On top of that, new episodes are added quickly.
Putlocker
Putlocker provides a free streaming service to movie lovers as long as they have an internet connection. In addition, the platform utilizes a user-friendly interface. Plus, all content is available in high definition with multiple sources per title.
Mirror Sites for MyFlixer
Based on web results, there are currently no available mirrors or duplicate sites for MyFlixer. Nevertheless, even if you find one yourself, it is not advisable to access it as you may expose your device to malware and scam dangers.
Latest Reddit Updates
The most recent news about MyFlixer on the r/Piracy thread on Reddit is the following:
Appropriate_Job4185:“Just tried to access the site, and I got a message saying Sky has blocked the site to protect copyright.”
Sufficient-Quail1797: “I watch movies on websites like Soap2day, MyFlixer, HDToday, etc, and the movies are always freezing or buffering.”
The Bottom Line
Whether you choose to stream using free websites or paid platforms, do not forget your responsibilities. For free streaming sites, always use a reliable ad-blocker and beware of suspicious buttons. For subscription-based platforms, do not forget to cancel that free trial again.
If you ask anybody about their favorite streaming service, they would probably say Netflix or other subscription-based platforms. On the other hand, if you ask your wallet the same question — it will choose the one that costs nothing. Mainly because sometimes, the best subscription is the one you do not have to pay for. In connection, WatchSeriesHD has been one of the top picks in streaming various shows and series for free. However, viewers must be constantly on the lookout for working alternatives, especially in the fast-changing world of online streaming.
Take a look at five platforms that can serve as good alternatives and how Reddit plays a role in informing viewers.
Top Five Suggested WatchSeriesHD Alternatives
Peacock (Free Trial)
Peacock may technically be a subscription-based streaming platform. However, it does offer a seven-day free trial. It may be short, but these seven days give you full access to Peacock’s content. You can find many hit movies, TV series, originals, live sports, and more.
Goku
Goku is not an anime character. Yes, there is one with the same name, but this is a free streaming website. More concretely, it allows users to watch with no advertisements and even without an account. In short, you will enjoy streaming instantly and in HD quality!
Movie4K
Movie4K remains active in providing a wide range of free movies and TV series in high quality. On top of that, it continues to build and expand its library of content. Moreover, users can indulge themselves with tons of titles from different genres.
The Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is not only for Roku devices. It is also available on web browsers. Additionally, this website enables individuals to catch hit films, famous TV series, sports programs, and live news. Plus, its content lineup updates regularly.
Afdah
Afdah promises free streaming of the latest movies and TV shows without the need for membership. Also, it has a massive collection of content that is organized by genre, country, and release year. Further, its interface is pretty straightforward, which makes the experience user-friendly.
Mirrors Sites for WatchSeriesHD
While several articles list proxy sites for WatchSeriesHD, most of the mirrors on the lists are not working properly. With that, it is safe to assume that they are also not safe to use, even if they work. As you all know, mirror sites operate in gray areas, which makes them susceptible to online threats.
Latest Reddit Updates
A discussion from a year ago about WatchSeriesHD on r/Piracy revolved around the shutting down of the .mx domain. Subsequently, one of the users replied this:
With free streaming, your entertainment budget just got a whole lot happier. At the same time, do not forget to make the most out of free trials! As you continue your streaming journey, remember this idea: Stream on, spend less, and keep the popcorn coming.
Founded in 2023 by Alexis Collins, PayIDGambler started to quickly gather popularity and trust among Australian gamblers and PayID users, and offers a lot to its readers.. This guide website offers comprehensive and handy tips on gambling with PayID. Currently, Collins, as an editor-in-chief, and her team of experts, are working on the platform’s improvement and expansion and are willing to share their deep knowledge about gambling in general and this banking option especially with all interested Australian players.
In this article, we are going to research why Aussie users should trust the opinion of PayIDGambler and the expert Alexis is going to share her opinion about PayID and its future.
Top Reliable Gambling with PayID Guides
PayID is now one of the most common ways for Australian players to make a deposit or a withdrawal. It was established in 2018, and over the years of its operation, the popularity of the payment option has only increased and is continuously growing. Many gamblers prefer PayID over other payment methods thanks to its transparency, security and efficiency. PayID allows its users to link their bank accounts with their phone number or email, which greatly simplifies and speeds up all payment processes and even contributes to the security of transactions. It is no wonder that now the service has over 12 million users in Australia, most of whom use it for gambling.
So, having a reliable and trustworthy guide to PayID, which will provide high-quality information and ensure that players make mindful and informed decisions, is essential for all Aussie players. That’s why PayIDGambler is a decent choice for those who are looking for a platform which is going to improve your gaming experience. This is a website that was designed by a team of Australian players who have been in the iGaming industry for years. Now, the team of experts are working on the development of the platform — Alexis Collins is a founder and the head of PayIDGambler. She decided to share about the website and its work:
“I have always wanted to be a part of a project that contributes to making the gambling experience for players safer and better. And I believe that what we are doing on PayIDGambler is something that brings me closer to achieving this goal. PayID has gained impressive popularity among Australian gamblers. Moreover, it keeps growing every day. Therefore, I am confident that having a reliable source of knowledge about this payment method is important.
On our platform, we provide top-tier guides to different aspects of using PayID, including the withdrawing and depositing process, PayID pokies, limits, and even alternative payment methods. We strive to make each page as complete and educational as possible by sharing all our knowledge and conducting thorough research. Of course, there are a lot of plans on how we want to enhance the website in the near future, for example improving the communication with our readers and adding even more engaging pages. I believe that these changes will make PayIDGambler an even better source of knowledge about gambling.”
PayID’s Features and Its Future
PayID is, without any doubts, becoming more and more popular and has the potential to become the leading payment option for Australian players, that’s why the gambling expert of PayIDGambler Collins decided to share her honest perspective on PayID:
“So, as in my gambling journey I usually prefer PayID, I personally know all its advantages and drawbacks, and I want to share my honest opinion about this form of payment, so the readers of PayIDGambler could decide themselves if this method is suitable for them. Firstly, PayID provides a very convenient feature, which means that the users can link their bank accounts to an easy-remembering identifier, such as email or phone number. Moreover, it offers first-class security, as all the PayID’s operations are based on SSL (Security Socket Layer), which guarantees total security of all operations. Secondly, this payment method is fully free in use, as it doesn’t need any additional fees, which makes PayID available for all the players. And finally, it offers almost instant payments of both small deposits of $10 and big withdrawals of $15,000, which doesn’t allow any waste of time.
In general, PayID combines high-quality security, productivity, convenience, and fast processing of all kinds of payments. However, like every banking option, it does have drawbacks.In 2019 there was a case when the personal data of almost 100,000 PayID users were exposed due to some system glitch. However, I sincerely believe that after a while PayID disadvantages will be gone, and it will be the number one payment method in the Australian online gambling sphere.”
If you still have unanswered questions about PayID, you should definitely visit PayIDGambler or text the website’s team by email info@payid-gambler.net.
BetPokies.co.nz is a website that offers comprehensive and high-quality content for gamblers in New Zealand. Founded in 2020 by John Gold, the site has quickly evolved into one of the most trusted gambling-related platforms, as it now covers a great variety of topics that may interest players, like unbiased casino reviews, fresh news articles, and, of course, guides to different aspects, including providers, games, bonuses, payment methods, and many more. Now, the website is operated by ZehrMedia LTD and continues evolving into a complete manual for the iGaming industry for Kiwi players. Together with his team, John Gold is working on meeting the need for top-notch content about gambling of every player by offering unique features and game-changing content.
Reliable Guides to Many Gambling Aspects
The founder of BetPokies NZ, John Gold, decided to share:
“BetPokies.co.nz is a platform that was made by gamblers for gamblers. Therefore, we always know for sure what players want to see when they refer to a platform with gambling guides and reviews, and we are trying our best to make sure that we provide them with everything they expect and even more. On BetPokies.co.nz, Kiwi gambling enthusiasts can inform themselves about many relevant topics such as casinos, game types, bonuses, banking, news, providers, and others.
We try to make our guides as deep and filled with knowledge as possible, and at the same time, we want to be clear and transparent so that there aren’t any doubts left for gamblers after reading our guide. So, while working on the content for BetPokies NZ, my team and I are trying to gather all our knowledge and expertise in an accessible way. In addition, we always deeply research the casinos we are recommending on our website, so we choose only the most trustworthy and transparent sites from many platforms.”
The effort and dedication the team puts into creating content for BetPokies NZ is obvious.Moreover, the gamblers seem to also appreciate the high-quality content the website offers, making it one of the most well-trusted portals about gambling in New Zealand.All guides on BetPokies NZ feature a wealth of insights and certainly come in handy for players, so if you, for any reason, haven’t been using BetPokies New Zealand to guide you through the gambling field, you definitely should start now.
Try Games in Demo Version on BetPokies.co.nz
The content you can find on BetPokies NZ is surely great. However, there’s something else that the platform offers to gamblers. Every interested Kiwi gambler can test more than 170 online pokies directly in their browser without downloads or registration! Charlotte Wilson, the BetPokies’ writer, shares:
“Demo version games are a unique feature of BetPokies, designed by many gambling experts in order to fulfil the wishes of New Zealand gamblers. While choosing and creating a new theme or feature to post on our website, we always monitor the freshest trends by checking the gamblers’ requests on different forums and pay attention to reviews and suggestions, received via contacts, mentioned on our site. We are trying our best to keep the Kiwi gamblers up to date with the freshest trends and earn even more trust by providing interactive and relevant content!”
BetPokies’ Blog with the Industry’s Fresh News
If you want to be updated on all the news about many aspects considering gambling, you should visit the blog section on BetPokies New Zealand, as it offers fresh and unbiased insights into different payment systems, fresh news of the iGaming industry, analyses of how to get big wins in different casinos, and many other engaging topics there. Besides, in the blog section, you can find analytical articles on different casino types. For example, in the freshest article, you can find tips on winning at $2 deposit casinos, which now are gaining more and more attention.
“I consider the BetPokies’ Blog section as a unique feature that offers a chance to go deeper into the subjects of iGaming and get answers to unusual gaming questions. All in all, our goal is to meet the need of Kiwi players in having a trustworthy gambling guide that would cover all aspects of gambling online,” — shares John Gold
The attention to detail and consideration of all gamblers’ needs make BetPokies.co.nz a go-to guide and reliable source of knowledge, and the expertise of the team that makes the trust of their readers their main priority only one more time proves that BetPokies is one of the best gambling review site not only for gambling beginners, looking for a reliable source of information, but also for experienced gamblers, as here everyone will definitely learn something new!
Panda Bear has unveiled a new song, ‘Virginia Tech’, a track previously available only as the B-side of the 7″of Sinister Grift’s lead single ‘Defense’. It features Noah Lennox’s Animal Collective bandmate Josh “Deakin” Dibb on synthesizer and percussion, as well as additional production by Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin. Listen to it below, and scroll down for Panda Bear’s newly announced tour dates.
Jun 2 – Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
Jun 3 – Birmingham, England – Castle & Falcon
Jun 4 – Manchester, England – Gorilla
Jun 5 – Bristol, England – Bristol Beacon
Jun 6 – Brighton, England – Chalk
Jun 7 – London, England – Victoria Park
Aug 15 – Crickhowell, Wales – Green Man Festival
Sep 15 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
Sep 16 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Sep 17 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
Sep 18 – Queens, NY – Knockdown Center
Sep 20-21 – Accord, NY – Woodsist Festival
Sep 19-21 – Philadelphia, PA – Making Time
Sep 22 – Millvale, PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre
Sep 23 – Lexington, KY – The Burl
Sep 25 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
Sep 26 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre
Sep 27 – Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
Sep 29 – Kansas City, MO – Warehouse on Broadway
Sep 30 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
Oct 1 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
Oct 4 – Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall
Oct 5 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
Oct 7 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
Oct 8 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
Oct 3 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival
Oct 10 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival
Oct 30 – Nantes, France – Le Lieu Unique
Oct 31 – Rouen, France – Le 106
Nov 2 – Brussels, Belgium – Les Nuits Weekender
Nov 3 – Lille, France – L’aéronef
Nov 4 – Paris, France – Pitchfork Music Festival Paris
Nov 5 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
Nov 9 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Studie 2
Nov 10 – Aarhus, Denmark – Voxhall
Nov 12 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Nefertiti
Nov 14 – Oslo, Norway – Blå
Nov 15 – Stockholm, Sweden – Slaktkyrkan
Nov 17 – Berlin, Germany – Festsaal Kreuzberg
Pop stars are prone to hyperbole. Artists at every level of fame, in fact, are prompted to promote their new material by at least slightly depreciating their older music. But it still felt like a vulnerable admission when Miley Cyrus, a pop star known for flitting between genres in ways that often scan as identity-shaking more than just exploratory, described “the last 20 years of my career” as “white noise” in an interview with Zane Lowe: “essentially everything happening all at the same time.” On ‘More to Lose’, the one true ballad on her grandiose and courageous new album, which she executive-produced with Shawn Everett, she sings, “I throw away my pride/ It happens all the time.” Actual white noise might be a component of the “extremely experimental” record she’s already promised fans, but Something Beautiful is lushly orchestrated and satisfyingly varied, building to a narrative rebirth even if it doesn’t get to the heart of her shattered eo. It’s not a roaring return or a career-defining effort; more like clearing the path forward in glorious fashion.
1. Prelude
A spoken-word intro that drags a little too long but saves its best, most succinctly poetic lines for last: “Aching to be seen, aching to become real/ But the beauty one finds alone/ Is a prayer that longs to be shared.“ The track was co-written with Model/Actriz’s Cole Haden, who you wish had a bigger role in any of the other songs. Still, it’s an entrancing introduction that not only signals the kind of journey we’re headed towads, but frames the loneliness leading up to it.
2. Something Beautiful
It’s thrilling to hear Cyrus juxtapose Something Beautiful’s luxurious aesthetic with its more explosive, experimental tendencies; the allure and messiness of desire. The thunderous power chords, sax, and drums that blast through the chorus, over Cyrus’ distorted voice, sound more like something out of the UK’s thriving post-punk scene than the entirety of Black Country, New Road’s latest album, but it does’t scan as a purely stylistic choice; it cuts through the appearance of beauty, plunging into obsession.
3. End of the World
More jarring than how heavy ‘Something Beautiful’ gets is the transition to a track more musically aligned with the breezy ‘80s pop of Endless Summer Vacation. It might have felt like a step back were it not for tasteful writing and production contributions from Shawn Everett, Michael Pollack, Jonathan Rado, and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley, with both Alvvays members providing lyrics and playing on the song. If only it were a little punchier to match the apocalyptic stakes.
4. More to Lose
Here were get a more traditional ballad that’s a showcase for Cyrus’ vocal chops more so than her vulnerability; what stands out is her indignation and fatigue over an ex that’s “looking like a movie star in a worn-out coat.” She stays when the ecstasy’s long gone, she declares, but retains enough of the emotion to make her performance feel like more than a knowing sigh. Jonathan Rado’s saxophone solo is a treat, too.
5. Interlude 1
A compelling interlude that would fare better as a fleshed-out song. It obviously ties to the cinematic vision of the record, but imagine more of that seeping into the album’s accessible songs, as in the title track.
6. Easy Lover
Cyrus wrote the song during the Plastic Hearts era, then revisited it with Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter in mind, though they ended up going with ‘II MOST WANTED’. It’s got a strong enough hook that you get why Cyrus wanted the track to land somewhere, but even sandwiched between two interludes, it does feel a little out of place. The “Tell ’em, B” ad-lib now nods to Brittany Howard, who plays electric guitar on the track, which is cool.
7. Interlude 2
Another flashy orchestrated interlude, this time serving as a bridge to the second part of the album, which boasts its most radiant songs.
8. Golden Burning Sun
Again, this mid-tempo song might have fallen flat were it not for the swirling textures in the production, stitched together by Everett, Rado, Michael Pollack, and BJ Burton. It underlines the sentiment Cyrus delivers when the music clears: “I’m just so lost in this moment.” So close to the longing being fulfilled, if only the other heeds her call to surrender to it, too.
9. Walk of Fame
Something Beautiful reaches its peak with ‘Walk of Fame’: glorious, confident, and absolutely earning its 6-minute runtime. Britanny Howard is featured more prominently, her magnetic voice lending the song an otherworldly flair as it soars in the space between timelessness and self-delusion. “You’ll live forever in our hearts and minds,” Howard declares in the outro. But it’s far from the end of the story.
10. Pretend You’re God
Despite lush, layered production and a weirdly post-punky bass line reminiscent of Editors, the songwriting falls flat – and, more importantly, short of the kind of derangement Cyrus’ performance hints at. “Do you still love me?” she wonders, “I gotta know/ Never mind, just keep it quiet if you don’t.” She sings about being haunted like she’s already way past it.
11. Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved
Naomi Campbell delivering spoken word on the same song with writing credits from members of Alvvays – that’s quite something. Pollack, Everett, and Rado all previously worked on the Miley Cyrus collab that appeared on Cowboy Carter, but ‘Pose’ leans way closer to the Renaissance universe, especially in its outro. There’s some overlap here with the song ‘End of the World’, but it’s got way more pazzaz. Cyrus’ lyrics are less hesitant, too, though not as powerful as Campbell’s one-word instruction: “Pose.”
12. Reborn
Perhaps by this point, the central question of the song, and much of the album – “Would you promise that I’m enough if I give you all of my love?” – is starting to cloy. But ‘Reborn’ makes up for it by continuing to dive into hypnotic, rave-ready territory, rounding out the album’s stylistic trajectory, and housing one of its catchiest choruses. “If heaven exists, I’ve been there before/ Kill my ego, let’s be reborn,” she sings – to her every self, of course, as well as everybody looking up to an illusory, idealized image of it.
13. Give Me Love
An idyllic, downright angelic conclusion that rests on the imagination but feels true nevertheless. “While lovers lay with boundaries erased once you get past the gray,” she sings, “Behind the curtain, terror awaits.” You get a glimpse of that ego death on Something Beautiful, those boundaries erasing, but hardly any terror. Maybe she’s saving some of that for her “extremely experimental” next album. Beautiful as it surely is, it leaves you wanting more.
El Michels Affair have announced a new album, 24 Hr Sports, which is set for release on September 5. Bandleader Leon Michels, who co-produced Clairo’s delightful 2024 album Charm, has tapped the singer-songwriter for its lead single, ‘Anticipate’, which would’ve fit snugly into that record. Check it out below, and scroll down for the cover art and tracklist.
In addition to Clairo, the follow-up to 2023’s Glorious Game features appearances from Norah Jones, Shintaro Sakamoto, Florence Adooni, Rogê, Dave Guy, and a sample from the late Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Michels took inspiration from Sports Illustrated magazines, he explained: “The graphic design, the look, the pictures, and the way people dressed… that kind of super colorful but very two-dimensional design. I wanted to make music that sounds like that.”
“I think the evolution of my sound is this: It’s coming from old records, so it references the past a lot, but I’m not a purist, I’m a fan of modern technology,” Michels added. “I think what I’m doing is new. It’s a merging of the past and present, not unprecedented, but a good mix of then and now.”
24 Hr Sports Cover Artwork:
24 Hr Sports Tracklist:
1. Drumline
2. Mágica [feat. Rogê]
3. 24 Hr Sports Theme No. 1
4. Say Goodbye [feat. Florence Adooni]
5. Oakley’s Car Wash [feat. Dave Guy]
6. Anticipate [feat. Clairo]
7. Eastside
8. Clean The Line
9. Cortex
10. Shining
11. 24 Hr Sports Theme No. 2
12. Indifference [feat. Shintaro Sakamoto]
13. Carry Me Away [feat. Norah Jones]
14. Take My Hand [feat. Rahsaan Roland Kirk]
15. Open Season
16. Victory Lap
In the silence between materials, Wuchao Feng makes language. Salt crystals crunch underfoot, uneven pearls spell aphasic fragments, and a red heap dissolves into migration trails—each gesture a poetics of the inarticulable. If her earlier work offered a visual grammar of fluid identity, her most recent explorations in salt and pearl have shifted toward a dense, embodied metaphysics—one in which materiality is both archive and oracle.
Feng, born in the port city of Ningbo and now based in London, mines her work from the sediment of a dual inheritance: saltwater economies and the migratory churn of postnational subjectivity. “Dilution” (2020), a long-evolving performance and installation project, maps a symbolic topography of identity through the dispersal of sea salt. Here, Feng treats salt not only as substance but as semiotic residue—each crystalline trace a metaphor for the disarticulation of the self in transit. The female body becomes a salt body, not fixed but in states of gathering and dissipation.
The image of the scar, a healing wound that refuses to vanish, haunts Feng’s Pearl series even more explicitly. Unlike salt, which liquefies with time, pearls calcify around intrusion. This fact—biological yet metaphorical—becomes the heart of Feng’s formal inquiry. Her “Pearls of Wisdom” (2023) series uses misshapen, rejected pearls to form words and phrases. In the delicately grotesque forms of these pearls, one reads trauma not as rupture, but as the beginning of formation. A wound enters the oyster; a gloss of survival accrues. These textual clusters—“Recognition without Control,” “Intimacy without Mastery”—hover in backlit vitrines, glowing with the quiet urgency of unspoken truths.
Where salt dispersed the subject, pearls insist on coherence, but a coherence born through resistance. These are not metaphors of feminine delicacy but of a kind of mineralized endurance. The feminist logic is clear: the body absorbs its violence and metabolizes it into form, not closure. Echoing theorists like Elaine Scarry and Judith Butler, Feng understands the body not only as a site of injury but as a site of inscription. Her alphabet pearls do not just spell—they scar. And yet they shimmer.
What is striking is the way Feng situates these processes in a transcultural terrain. The salt, harvested from Ningbo’s traditional salt fields, references histories of labor and survival specific to China’s coastal economies. The pearls, sourced from flawed industrial batches, nod to both the feminized labor of pearl cultivation and the global circuits through which value is assigned to aesthetic purity. Feng’s use of these materials, and her refusal to aestheticize them into perfection, instead, she materializes cultural specificity through the lens of personal—and gendered—trauma.
Language becomes unstable under her hands. Not just because it is formed from irregular pearls, but because the words themselves stutter across meaning. Feng is not interested in clarity but in the failures of translation: between cultures, between bodies, between pain and speech. Her phrases, suspended like relics in lightboxes, function as open wounds—ungrammatical, yet exact in their evocation. There is no neutral tongue here; there is only the muteness of affect, slowly reconstituted into something almost—but not quite—sayable.
In conversation, Feng has spoken of her own struggles with expression across languages—Mandarin, English, dialects, and the voiceless syntax of trauma. This multiplicity is not resolved in her work but embraced as the condition of its genesis. Like a poem composed from borrowed alphabets, her practice reclaims the right to speak with brokenness.
It is within this fragmentary ethos that her engagement with feminist and transcultural discourse becomes most potent. Her salt trails crisscross, interrupt, and disappear—much like the diasporic experiences that inform them. And her pearls do not align neatly into syntactical order but drift into loose constellations—suggesting not mastery of language, but intimate cohabitation with its limits.
If some artists construct worlds, Feng reconstructs injuries. Her installations are not landscapes but woundscapes—terrains where pain, memory, and place collide. Yet they are never solely about her. In refraining from autobiographical legibility, she allows her viewers to enter these landscapes not as voyeurs but as witnesses.
In an era when identity is often weaponized as static declaration, Feng offers something riskier: an aesthetic of becoming, of slow accumulation, of intimate estrangement. She does not illustrate theory but enacts it—in salt, in pearl, in the invisible membranes between language and material. Through her work, trauma is neither fetishized nor resolved. It is translated, haltingly, into a shared visual syntax—one that, like all good metaphors, both reveals and refuses.
As she continues her practice within the context of the UK’s art world—most notably through her residency at Bomb Factory Art Foundation—Feng’s work promises to deepen these lines of inquiry. Her commitment to bio-material research and feminist methodologies speaks not only to personal evolution but to a broader collective reckoning with how we remember, how we endure, and how we speak.
Wuchao Feng does not ask us to understand. She asks us to listen—to what language cannot hold, but materials can.
Superchunk have announced their 13th studio LP, the fantastically titled Songs in the Key of Yikes. Arriving August 22 via Merge, it features the previously released Rosali collab ‘Bruised Lung’, as well as the newly unveiled opening track, ‘Is It Making You Feel Something’, which is lively and anthemic. Check it out and find the album’s cover artwork and tracklist below.
Songs in the Key of Yikes, the follow-up to 2022’s Wild Loneliness, also marks the band’s first album since longtime drummer Jon Wurster left the band the following year. With Laura King now a permanent member after two years as their touring drummer, the album also includes contributions from Bella Quinlan and Holly Thomas of Quivers, as well as touring bassist Betsy Wright. It was engineered by Paul Voran (The Menzingers, Hurray for the Riff Raff) and Eli Webb, and mixed by Mike Montgomery (The Breeders, Protomartyr).
“It’s always been the case that everyone is going through something that you may not be aware of,” the band’s Mac McCaughan reflected in a press release. “This is currently more true than ever—but also the case that we are all going through some things together. In the face of that, what good is art and where is happiness found? (Spoiler alert: I don’t know.)”
About the new single, he added: “This song is about not second-guessing yourself in the very second-guessable process of writing words and music. It’s about the legitimate question of ‘who needs this and what is it good for?’ but also about not setting such a high bar for making art that you never get started. ‘Is it making you feel something?’ OK, that’s a place to start.”
Songs in the Key of Yikes Cover Artwork:
Songs in the Key of Yikes Tracklist:
1. Is It Making You Feel Something
2. Bruised Lung
3. No Hope
4. Care Less
5. Climb the Walls
6. Cue
7. Everybody Dies
8. Stuck in a Dream
9. Train on Fire
10. Some Green
