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10 New Songs Out Today to Listen To: CHVRCHES, Krill, and More

There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, September 22, 2026.


CHVRCHES – ‘Roses’

CHVRCHES are back with their first new music in three years. ‘Roses’ “serves as a mission statement for the band’s sonic shift,” according to a press release, “letting us in on the opening chapter of an entirely new era.” Even though the song’s political commentary scans as new territory for the band, the sound, swirling and propulsive, should satisfy longtime fans. “This is the longest break we had ever taken between albums and when we got together to write new music, we wanted to really push ourselves and not be retreading ground we’d walked before,” Lauren Mayberry commented. “I really think we achieved that. It feels like the most coherent vision we’ve had as a band. We’re excited to be back…”

Krill – ‘Dominate’

The recently reunited Krill have announced a new LP, Secret Language, out November 13 via Exploding in Sound. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the chugging new single ‘Dominate’, alongside a Heavenly Tedious-directed video. “‘Dominate’ is a song about growing up in the 90s and 00s in the heart of empire, the violence of wanting to win, how we teach our children to want to dominate others, a US TV culture of watching gladiator-like scenes of rule by power,” vocalist-bassist Jonah Furman explained. “It’s about war, it’s about basketball, it’s about childhood.”

Perfume Genius – ‘Natural High’

Our 2024 AOTY was Fashion Club’s Scrutiny, which featured a collaboration with Perfume Genius. Now, Mike Hadreas’ luminous new single ‘Natural High’ was co-produced by Fashion Club’s Pascal Stevenson. It was written for a new dance work called The Lesson, which reunites Hadreas with choreographer Kate Wallich, following their 2019 collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here, which led to the 2022 LP Ugly Season. “I’ve always thought of my albums as soundtracks to films that do not exist,” Hadreas commented. “There is a freedom to inhabiting something imagined and purely sonic. I can be every character or not exist at all or body swap at will. Scenes can shift immediately just because I feel like it. That doesn’t change when creating a performance with Kate, all the mystery and thrill of going somewhere lawless and dreamlike stays intact — but I’m not alone in building the world and it literally fleshes out in real time. Body swapping feels very different when you are actually in a room holding the other person.”

Lily Konigsberg – ‘Free Byrd’

Lily Konigsberg has returned with her first new music in four year, ‘Free Byrd’. It follows the singer-songwriter’s 2022 album with Nate Amos of This Is Lorelei/Water From Your Eyes as My Idea, and if you’ve been enjoying This Is Lorelei’s recently country-leaning material, the new song, which teases a forthcoming album, will definitely be up your alley.

Catherine Elicson – ‘Figure’

Emapth’s Catherine Elicson has announced her first solo album, River of Fat. Out November 6 on Community Music, it’s led by the stark yet gauzy single ‘Figure’. She record, using a droning Korg, a Roland SP-404, a vintage Stratocaster, and a Tascam 4-track tape machine.

Julia Jacklin – ‘If I Had the Hand of God’

Julia Jacklin is tapping into the If I only could make a deal with God genre of songs with the latest preview of The Gem ahead of its release on Friday. The song was, in fact, written about a trip to Nashville, meditating on the life of a touring musician and the idea of legacy. It comes paired with a video filmed by Nick Mckk.

Snooper – ‘Mouth Closed’

Nashville punk outift Snooper are back with a frantically infectious new tune, ‘Mouth Closed’. It arrives alongside a video directed by Teddy Cruz.

Dis Fig – ‘The Snake You Built’

Dis Fig has unveiled ‘The Snake You Built’, a brooding preview of the Berlin-based vocalist and producer’s first solo album in seven years, What To Make Of These Mortal Hands. “For most of this record, I was quite intentional with lyrics,” she explained. “But this one beamed out differently. Rather than writing lyrics to replace the original take, I used my own kind of language, dictated by emotion rather than fitting meaning to what could not be expressed in linguistic form.” The track features drums from Lee Buford (The Body), strings from Diana Miron, and bass textures from Liam Andrews.

gash – ‘holiday time’

Ahead of the release of their new album and label debut, at least you know what you’re laughing at, Eau Claire experimentalists gash have shared one more entrancing preview, ‘holiday time’. It follows previous cuts ‘good and bad’, ‘risking heaven’, and ‘data master’.

Elissa Mielke – ‘Lemon Tree’

Canadian singer-songwriter Elissa Mielke has shared a strikingly gentle new song, ‘Lemon Tree’, which is produced by Philip Weinrobe. It follows ‘Don’t Have to Hate You’, which came out earlier this summer.

Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Breaks Record for Longest-Running No. 1 Hit of All Time

Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ has become the longest-running No. 1 hit in the US, having spent its 23rd total week atop the Billboard Hot 100. Last week, on a run that started July 4, it tied Mariah Carey’s perennial hit ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’.

Ella Langley has two hits in the top 10, with the follow-up to ‘Choosin’ Texas’, ‘Be Her’, lingering at No. 10. Langley released ‘Choosin’ Texas’, which leads her third studio album, Dandelion, in October 2025, and it first topped the Hot 100 back in February. The album also debuted atop the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts. Langley’s July single ‘Loving Life Again’ and the Morgan Wallen duet ‘I Can’t Love You Anymore’ also charted, with the latter peaking at No. 4. Her duet partner currently holds the No. 3 position with ‘Been By Now’.

Outside the US, Langley also became the first country artist in more than 20 years to reach No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. ‘Choosin’ Texas’ claimed the title of longest-running No. 1 single by a female artist in Canada, too, and by a country artist in Australia.

Perfume Genius Releases New Song ‘Natural High’

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, has reunited with choreographer Kate Wallich for a new music and dance work called The Lesson. Commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group, it follows their 2019 collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here and was inspired by The Piano Teacher. Today, Hadreas has shared ‘Natural High’, a resplendent single from his score that was co-produced by Fashion Club’s Pascal Stevenson. Check it out below, and scroll down for dates for The Lesson.

“When we started searching for a framework for this new piece, we kept coming back to The Piano Teacher,” Wallich said in press materials. “We are all drawn to the dynamics between what is good and what is bad…how we’re supposed to behave, and how we aren’t, how to balance desire and restraint.”

Hadreas added: “I’ve always thought of my albums as soundtracks to films that do not exist. There is a freedom to inhabiting something imagined and purely sonic. I can be every character or not exist at all or body swap at will. Scenes can shift immediately just because I feel like it. That doesn’t change when creating a performance with Kate, all the mystery and thrill of going somewhere lawless and dreamlike stays intact — but I’m not alone in building the world and it literally fleshes out in real time. Body swapping feels very different when you are actually in a room holding the other person.”

Perfume Genius’ most recent album was last year’s Glory.

The Lesson 2027 Tour Dates:

Feb 6 – MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (Work-in-Progress Showing) (Tickets)
Feb 18–20 & February 25–27 – REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA (World Premiere) (Tickets)
Mar 4–6 – Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY (Tickets)
Mar 17–18 – Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France (Tickets)
Mar 21 Barbican Centre – London, United Kingdom (Tickets)
Mar 24 – Birds of Paradise Festival – Utrecht, Netherlands (Tickets)
Mar 27 – National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland (Tickets)
Apr 1 – Liquid Music / Northrop, Minneapolis, MN (Tickets)
Apr 9 – The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle, WA

MobLand Season 3: Cast, Rumours & Release Date

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Crime drama MobLand is back with season 2. Available on Paramount+, the series follows a skilled fixer who works for a powerful crime family. The fact that the cast features the likes of Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren is the cherry on top.

That said, reports of behind-the-scenes drama hinted that the show’s future may be in jeopardy. Could that be the case, or will fans be able to enjoy more episodes? Here’s what we know so far.

MobLand Season 3 Release Date

Turns out, the rumours that Hardy has been fired from the series have been exaggerated. Not only will MobLand season 3 happen, but the fixer isn’t going anywhere.

As for when the third installment will drop, we estimate late 2027.

MobLand Cast

  • Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza
  • Pierce Brosnan as Conrad Harrigan
  • Paddy Considine as Kevin Harrigan
  • Joanne Froggatt as Jan Da Souza
  • Lara Pulver as Isabella “Bella” Harrigan
  • Anson Boon as Eddie Harrigan
  • Jasmine Jobson as Zosia
  • Mandeep Dhillon as Seraphina Harrigan
  • Helen Mirren as Maeve Harrigan

What Could Happen in MobLand Season 3?

In MobLand, Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, a highly capable fixer who works for the Harrigan family. At the centre of the clan are ruthless patriarch Conrad and his equally formidable wife, Maeve.

Harry’s job? To solve problems before they escalate. Over the course of the first season, however, a violent feud with a rival family exposes fractures within the Harrigans themselves. Once you tune in, you can expect betrayals, assassinations, corrupt police officers, drugs, and power struggles amid London’s criminal underworld.

Season 2, which premiered recently, picks up following the chaos of the season 1 finale. Harry has to clean up after a bloody shootout as his personal life is slowly but steadily falling apart. He also continues to be caught in the middle of the Harrigan drama, so it’s safe to assume that he might reach a boiling point soon.

As for MobLand season 3, it’s a bit early to speculate. Given that Hardy will be back, though, it will be interesting to see for how much longer Harry will remain an ally to the Harrigans rather than turn against them. For now, you can catch season 2 episodes weekly on Paramount+. The finale arrives in late November.

Are There Other Shows Like MobLand?

If you enjoy MobLand, shows with similar vibes include The Sopranos, Ray Donovan, Gangs of London, Top Boy, and Peaky Blinders.

For more Paramount+ goodies, check out Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Lioness, and The Agency.

Michael Fassbender Net Worth, Salary & Highest Grossing Movies

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If you think Michael Fassbender, you quickly conjure up a diverse filmography. Over the course of his career, he has played everything from addicts to soldiers, revolutionaries, assassins, historical figures, superheroes, and businessmen.

Rather than sticking to one genre, he gravitates toward intriguing characters with a lot going on under their rough exterior. This versatility makes him particularly sought-after. As a result, Fassbender’s net worth should be impressive by now, right? Here’s what we know about the actor’s earnings.

Michael Fassbender Net Worth

In 2026, Michael Fassbender’s net worth is estimated to be $40 million.

The bulk of it is due to his acting career. Fassbender made his debut in 2001 in acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He spent much of the early 2000s taking television roles. Credits include Hearts and Bones, NCS: Manhunt, Hex, and Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

The actor’s big break came in 2007, when he played Spartan warrior Stelios in 300. The following year, he appeared in Steve McQueen’s Hunger, a role that transformed his career. Fassbender lost weight for the part and performed an extended single-take confrontation with Liam Cunningham. The film earned him a reputation for committing to difficult material.

He followed it with titles including Eden Lake, Fish Tank, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Centurion, Jonah Hex, and Jane Eyre. In 2011, he played Magneto in X-Men: First Class, one of his most recognisable roles. That same year, he starred in Shame as a man struggling with compulsive sexual behavior. The performance earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

Over the next few years, Fassbender became an integral part of the X-Men franchise. That said, he alternated between large studio productions and challenging dramas. He appeared in Prometheus, 12 Years a Slave, The Counselor, Frank, Macbeth, and Steve Jobs. You might have also seen him in Assassin’s Creed or Alien: Covenant.

After X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Fassbender stepped away from acting for several years to focus on motor racing. He had been interested in racing since childhood and began competing professionally.

Fassbender returned to Hollywood in 2023 with The Killer and Next Goal Wins. In 2025, he appeared in spy thriller Black Bag, and he’s been starring in TV series The Agency since 2024. Besides acting and motor racing, Fassbender is a successful producer.

Michael Fassbender Salary

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about Fassbender’s usual fee, since actor salaries are typically kept under wraps. He was among the highest-paid actors in 2014, however.

It’s safe to assume he can command a few million dollars per role, depending on the production’s budget.

Michael Fassbender Highest Grossing Movies

Fassbender’s highest-grossing movies are X-Men: Days of Future Past ($747 million) and X-Men: Apocalypse ($544 million). 300 and Prometheus also did well at the box office.

This year, fans can catch Fassbender in South Korean sci-fi thriller Hope, currently in cinemas. Next up, he’s set to appear in comedy Kung Fury 2 and western The Origin of the World.

The Cross-Cultural Artistic Journey of Illustrator Yuanyuan Zhou

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Milwaukee based illustrator Yuanyuan Zhou builds a distinctive visual world through vibrant color, stylized figures, and richly narrative scenes. Zhou has long been interested in the subtle yet enduring connections between people and the rhythms of everyday life: how a cup of tea can connect land and culture, how a plant can carry historical memory, and how an everyday custom can become a way for humans to engage with the natural world.

Looking through Zhou’s work, one rarely encounters grand theatrical gestures or scenes driven by dramatic conflict. Instead, the momentum of her storytelling comes from quieter moments unfolding through everyday life: the relaxed expression of a stranger in a café, the ways people gather and interact at a market, or the small rituals of making tea and preparing food. Such observations of the real world form the most immediate source material for her characters.

The figures in Zhou’s work bear a highly recognizable personal signature. Their bodies are gently exaggerated and their contours simplified, while subtle emotional nuances remain visible in their eyes and expressions. They possess the warmth and approachability of characters from a fairy tale without drifting into pure fantasy. Rather, they function as parallel reflections of the real world, carrying traces of the places and cultures from which they emerge. In scenes inspired by neighborhood tea houses in Türkiye, for example, people simply sit together and talk. Nothing overtly dramatic occurs, yet the atmosphere and texture of local life are preserved in their entirety.

Color, in Zhou’s hands, is more than a device for attracting attention. Highly saturated hues give her images an exuberant sense of life, yet restrained compositions keep that intensity in balance, preventing the work from becoming visually overwhelming. She also adapts her visual language to the demands of each subject. In observational scenes of everyday urban life, contours may be crisp and decisive, accompanied by abundant detail. When working with subjects rooted in cultures and places farther afield, she may soften or remove those hard edges, shifting the emphasis toward material texture and atmosphere.

This flexibility is also informed by her engagement with a wide range of media. Alongside digital illustration, her hands-on experience with RISO printing, bookbinding, and GIF animation continually introduces a tactile sensibility into her digital work. For Zhou, style is not a fixed template but an expressive tool—one that serves the story and changes with the subject at hand.

Her recent personal practice has increasingly centered on herbs, plants, and flowers, a body of work whose origins, once again, can be traced back to the ordinary rituals of eating and drinking.

Freshly Picked! began with something as simple as a tea recipe. As the project developed, Zhou’s attention gradually moved beyond the recipe itself toward an entire cycle of life: seeds germinate, plants grow, people harvest and prepare them, and they eventually become part of food, social interaction, and everyday ritual. Rather than turning the work into a botanical catalogue, Zhou employs a multi-scene composition in which harvesting, food preparation, gathering, and tea drinking unfold as miniature narratives scattered throughout the image.

If Freshly Picked! looks inward to uncover the poetry embedded in everyday food rituals, Mate de Coca extends outward into a more complex exploration of cross-cultural understanding. The work grew out of Zhou’s own travels in Peru. The meaning of coca tea can shift dramatically depending on its cultural context. Rather than reducing the plant through the assumptions of an outsider, Zhou deliberately sets aside preconceived ideas in order to understand what coca means within local communities—as a gift from nature deeply rooted in everyday life and Indigenous traditions.

On the canvas, Zhou uses images to create spaces for cultural dialogue. Beyond the studio, her parallel roles as an educator and juror allow her to return the experience she has accumulated through her own practice to the wider artistic community. These roles do not compete for her attention; instead, they form an interconnected cycle in which each continually nourishes the others. Teaching prompts her to revisit and articulate her own creative process, while reviewing the work of emerging artists continually broadens her perspective on the field, feeding new insights back into her own artistic thinking.

As an AICAD Teaching Fellow at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), while also having taught at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design (PCAD) and MICA Open Studies, Zhou’s teaching extends far beyond technical instruction. Drawing on firsthand experience with international commissions, gallery exhibitions, and public-facing projects—including her ongoing editorial work for The Guardian US, her solo exhibition Fresh at iidrr: Gallery in New York, she gives emerging artists a practical understanding of the profession: how to preserve an individual artistic voice within the constraints of commercial assignments, and how to build a sustainable long-term creative career. At the same time, the process of translating her experience into teaching gives Zhou an opportunity to reconsider the decisions and compromises that have shaped her own path.

Her frequent participation as a portfolio reviewer and juror has opened another window onto the contemporary illustration landscape. Through roles including Milwaukee National Portfolio Day Reviewer, 40th Anniversary Artscape Artist Market Juror, and PCAD Junior Student Portfolio Review Juror, Zhou has encountered the work of numerous emerging artists. For her, jurying is not about measuring every artist against a single standard or simply selecting winners. It is about protecting the plurality of artistic expression. Encountering the fresh ideas of younger generations allows her to recognize new currents within the field while simultaneously reconsidering the boundaries of her own practice—a process of continuous artistic renewal.

If teaching and jurying provide a path of inward reflection, exhibitions and international commissions propel Zhou’s practice outward, beyond the white cube of the gallery and into editorial pages and public spaces.

Her exhibition practice spans solo presentations, institutional group exhibitions, and public art. Her 2024 solo exhibition Fresh at iidrr: Gallery in New York brought together a body of work reflecting a particular stage in her artistic development. That same year, she participated in Dreams at Home, a MICA faculty group exhibition in Maryland, as well as Everyone Deserves Art at the Delaplaine Arts Center.

Zhou’s ongoing commissions for The Guardian US form an important part of her editorial illustration practice. Her contributions have ranged from title and spot illustrations for food features to a series of illustrations for Radical Thinking, as well as the title illustration for the social commentary feature The Lousiest CEOs of 2022. Through these projects, she uses images to engage with contemporary issues while balancing journalistic immediacy, the seriousness of the subject matter, and her own artistic language.

Beyond The Guardian, Zhou created a series of illustrations for The Enterprising Farmer for Full Bleed Magazine, developing a visual narrative around the relationships between agriculture, land, and people. She has also produced commissioned illustration for the independent publication Cake Zine, contributing her visual voice to independent editorial culture.

This sustained practice has also brought Zhou recognition across the international illustration community. Her accolades include Creative Quarterly CQ74 Runners-up, the iJungle 2024 Merit Award, and LICC 2024 Official Selection. She also received the 2024 PCAD Faculty Research and Practice Professional Development Grant, providing institutional support for the continued development of her creative practice.

Zhou exemplifies the multifaceted possibilities for contemporary illustrators: she responds to public‑interest themes through commercial commissions, pursues in‑depth cultural reflection in her personal work, and gives back to the industry through jury practice. Rejecting exoticized cross‑cultural narratives, she draws upon universal everyday experiences such as food and plants to foster empathy and understanding through imagery. Moving forward, she will keep exploring the cultural depth embedded in natural motifs and further expand the intellectual boundaries of illustration as a medium.

Perya Game, But Make It Digital: What Happened to the Carnival Experience?

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Remember the classic Perya Game experience? Colorful booths, noisy surroundings, people gathered around games, and enough lights and sounds to make a quiet evening feel impossible.

Now imagine taking that entire concept and squeezing it into a screen. That is essentially what digital entertainment has done with Perya-inspired games.

A familiar Perya Game can now appear through a digital interface with automated results, faster rounds, animations, and online interaction. Platforms such as GameZone illustrate this broader shift by adapting familiar Perya-related formats for digital environments.

But this is not simply a case of putting an old game on a phone or computer. Once Perya moves online, the way people interact with the game changes too.

The Perya Booth Has Been Replaced by the Interface

Traditional Perya is inseparable from its physical setting.

Players encounter games at fiestas, fairs, and temporary carnival spaces. Walking around the venue is part of the experience. So is seeing other people play, hearing nearby games, and reacting to what happens around you.

Digital versions remove that physical layer.

The interface becomes the new environment. Menus replace booths. Automated results replace some physical processes. Countdown timers can structure rounds, while animations and sound effects provide visual and audio feedback.

A 2003 research article identified event frequency, interactivity, immersion, and electronic transactions as characteristics that distinguish online gambling from traditional forms.

That creates an important difference: digital Perya is not simply traditional Perya in a smaller box. It is entertainment adapted to a different medium.

Why Game Design Matters More Online

In a physical carnival, the environment does a lot of the work.

A brightly decorated booth attracts attention. An operator guides the activity. A crowd creates energy. The surrounding noise adds atmosphere, whether anyone asked for that noise or not.

Online, developers have to recreate the experience through design.

That can involve:

  • Animations that emphasize game events
  • Sound effects that signal results or transitions
  • Countdowns that organize rounds
  • Menus that connect different activities
  • Automated systems that handle parts of the game process

These features do not automatically determine what players do. However, research suggests that structural characteristics of online games can be associated with engagement.

One 2022 study examined more than 43,000 online players and approximately 763,000 sessions. It found that game characteristics, particularly event frequency, were associated with the number of games played during sessions, while individual player factors also remained important.

In other words, game design is part of the experience, not just decoration.

From “One More Round” to a Much Faster Cycle

Physical Perya comes with built-in interruptions.

You might have to wait for the next round. Maybe another booth catches your attention. Perhaps you walk away for food or chat with someone. Eventually, you leave the venue.

Digital entertainment can remove some of those natural stopping points.

Research has identified continuous availability, rapid transactions, and privacy as characteristics that can distinguish online gambling environments from traditional settings.

This does not mean every player behaves differently online. It means digital platforms can make it easier to move from one round to another without the physical pauses that occur at a carnival.

That makes personal boundaries particularly important.

The screen does not know when you planned to stop. It is a screen. It has absolutely no interest in your schedule.

Social Interaction Did Not Vanish. It Moved.

One might assume that putting Perya online would eliminate the social element. Not necessarily.

Traditional Perya offers face-to-face interaction. People can watch the same game, comment on results, and share the experience with friends and family.

Digital environments can shift some of that interaction to:

  • Online communities
  • Chats
  • Social media
  • Shared digital experiences
  • Other network-based interactions

A systematic review of online gambling communities found that social influence, perceived norms, and community interactions can affect gambling-related behavior.

The difference is therefore less about whether social interaction exists and more about where it happens.

The physical crowd becomes a digital network.

Why Digital Perya Feels Different

Modern digital users are accustomed to immediate feedback.

Tap something. Something happens.

Finish one activity. The next one is ready.

Open a menu. Another option appears.

This expectation of speed can influence how familiar Perya concepts are presented online.

GameZone provides an example of this broader transition, with Perya-related entertainment adapted for a digital environment rather than attempting to reproduce every detail of a physical carnival booth.

That distinction matters.

Digital Perya-inspired games can preserve recognizable concepts while changing the presentation, pace, interface, and surrounding environment.

The familiar idea remains, but the medium has changed.

Responsible Gaming Gets a Digital Upgrade

Responsible gaming is relevant in both physical and digital environments.

However, online access can create different conditions. Continuous availability and faster game cycles may make repeated play easier because fewer physical interruptions stand between one round and the next.

For players, practical safeguards include:

  • Set a spending limit before playing.
  • Set a time limit with a clear stopping point.
  • Understand the rules of the specific game.
  • Recognize randomness and avoid treating previous results as predictions.
  • Avoid chasing losses by increasing spending to recover previous losses.
  • Use available player-protection tools where applicable.

In the Philippines, PAGCOR’s responsible gaming framework includes measures covering age restrictions and exclusion mechanisms. PAGCOR states that individuals below 21 are prohibited from playing and provides exclusion options for people seeking to regulate their participation.

The point is not to make digital entertainment complicated. It is to recognize that convenience changes the playing environment.

So, What Does the Future Perya Look Like?

The next generation of digital Perya may involve more than simply improving graphics or making games easier to access.

Emerging technologies could affect how games are personalized, how players interact, and how protection systems operate.

AI and Personalized Experiences

Artificial intelligence can support applications such as personalized interfaces, behavioral monitoring, recommendations, and risk detection.

Research on AI and gambling has identified personalization, predictive analytics, player engagement, regulation, and ethics as areas of growing interest.

That could make digital environments more responsive, but it also raises questions about privacy and responsible use.

Smarter Player-Protection Tools

The same behavioral data used to understand player activity could potentially support responsible-gaming systems.

A 2026 systematic review examined applications including behavioral monitoring, risk prediction, decision-support systems, and limit-setting or self-exclusion tools. It also highlighted concerns involving privacy and inaccurate risk classification.

More technology can create more tools, but it does not eliminate the need for careful design and oversight.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

VR and AR could take the digital Perya concept another step toward physical immersion.

Research involving virtual-reality gambling environments has reported greater immersion and arousal compared with conventional laboratory play. However, experimental findings should not automatically be applied to every future digital platform.

Still, the direction is clear: digital entertainment can increasingly simulate elements of physical environments.

More Community Features

Future digital platforms may also experiment with stronger social features.

Shared spaces, community interactions, and other digital tools could recreate aspects of the social atmosphere associated with traditional Perya.

The challenge will be creating social experiences without turning interaction itself into a reason for unnecessary or excessive participation.

The Carnival Experience Has Changed, Not Disappeared

The biggest change in the Perya Game is not that traditional entertainment suddenly became digital. It is that the environment surrounding the game has been transformed.

Physical Perya brings together location, people, atmosphere, and occasion. Digital versions can separate familiar game concepts from those physical boundaries and introduce automated systems, faster interactions, online communities, and new forms of game design.

For players, that means understanding both the game and the environment in which it is presented. Knowing the rules, recognizing the role of chance, and setting personal limits remain practical parts of responsible participation.

For developers and platforms, the transition presents a broader design challenge. Digital Perya needs to consider accessibility and engagement alongside transparency, responsible design, and player protection.

The classic carnival experience may no longer require a booth, a tent, or a crowded fairground. Its digital successor can live on a screen instead.

Same familiar spirit, different playground.

Book Review: Amy Fusselman, ‘Cloud Six’

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If there has been an uptick in the amount of stories concerning death recently, it might have something to do with the global peril that is constantly snaking up at us through our phones. Climate catastrophe, gun violence, fascistic regimes, scapegoating of the most fragile in our society—it’s all a ridiculous, bloody march to the end. “We’re walking on a runway going straight to hell,” Charli xcx says on “SS26,” “No hope for any of it.”

It makes sense why writers would just think beyond it all. Matthew Haigh’s The Midnight Library (2020) was a retrospective dissection of Sylvia Plath’s fig tree problem, with a woman being shown all the lives she could have left, and George Saunders’ Vigil, from this year gave its climate-corruping oil executive, K.J Boone, one last chance to admit his wrongdoing before Jill “Doll” Blaine ushers him into the afterlife. Joining this ring is Amy Fusselman’s Cloud Six, an affecting and earnest Kelly Link-ian romp where Mam and Bunko, fresh off a plane crash, arrive at the lowest rung of heaven. Frankly, it’s a little too close to hell for their comfort. “Heaven and hell are not vertically oriented,” Fusselman’s intern, Byron, interjects at one point. “They are positioned side by side, like two row houses. They share what’s known as a party wall and also a huge, beautiful backyard.”

After attending a book club that focused on a manual for moving homes rather than a friendly, simple novel, Mam and Bunko—a duo with both Kath & Kim and Lois and Peter Griffin energy—board a plane for a Connecticut vacation, and, supplied with gummy edibles, are passed out when the aircraft explodes, killing everyone on board. Mam’s daughter, Penny, a sixteen-year-old struggling through an essay on the Reign of Terror, is now under the care of Bill, her uncle who has just surpassed drinking age and is currently enrolled as a freshman at ASU. Mam and Bunko are whisked up to Cloud Six, where a demon in the form of Mam’s frenemy politely informs them that they have died, and they’re in heaven, but it’s not as nice as you’re expecting. Mam thought she’d reconnect with her childhood dog, but instead, in order to get a glimpse of her beloved Penny, she has to travel to a bodega with a bar in the back, avoiding gunmen while traveling on foot, trampling handkerchiefs swaying in the wind. It’s Dr. Seuss meets Minecraft Flatland mode, with more than a bit of absurd danger. “Why are we running?” Mam asks, dodging bullets. “Aren’t we already dead?” (Lincoln In the Bardo, Saunders’ 2017 novel, also dealt with post-life morality limbo.)

The book’s kicker is its queasy marriage of tender-hearted optimism and pragmatic pessimism. Fables are interrupted by gunshots, and Satan or Fusselman’s intern, Byron, interrupts to yank the story away, forbidding her from writing about specific topics, like hell. It is, sometimes, too eager to make a statement on gun violence, noting that the United States has had 435 school shootings since 1999. “By the time this manuscript is published, that number will be higher. Too bad we can’t do anything about that,” she writes, zinging with that oft-used The Onion headline (‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”) There’s a lot of softly written insights of our relationship with our natural surroundings, too—in the book’s driest moments, a nonbinary plant named Gloria wiggles with Bill and Penny, or an ancient tree named Ernestine misunderstands human motivation when Mam says she’s desperate to help her child. “Don’t people want to help other people whether they are in a parent-child relationship or not?” Mam says, yes, it sounds weird, but sometimes humans don’t help other humans. “People must be very confused,” Ernestine says, a tad too much Giving Tree meets Sesame Street.

But even so, Fusselman’s jokes build on top of themselves, and her writing zips with the energy and spirit of someone having a truly good time. She’ll mold a scene to fit the fictional bar at the center of the sitcom Cheers simply because she can, craft a robust catalog of plant literature, pull from a real Quora discussion forum asking how to write a gunshot in text, or introduce the Fusselman persona just to yank her away, much like a cane whisking away an emcee, leaving their hat to spin wildly in the air after they’ve gone. She directs all concerns and questions to Byron, who can be reached at officeofamyfusselman@gmail.com. (Despite his fictional quitting later in the novel, Byron responded to my message.) In other words, Cloud Six is deeply silly. With many other books culling their sentences to pare away any emotions, it’s nice to read a novel hell-bent on making its reader feel something.


Cloud Six is out now.

Lydia Loveless Announces New EP ‘Accolades’, Shares Single

Lydia Loveless has announced a new EP, Accolades, which is due October 30 via Bloodshot Records. It’s led by the title track, a different version of which closes out the record. Check out its Katie Harriman-directed video below.

“I think for me the heart of ‘Accolades’ is trying to return to a place of quiet observation and meditation, the deep dark hole being more a place to sit and think about motivation for doing things as opposed to a place to wallow,” Loveless explained in a statement. “Of course, there’s some nostalgia in there too, not for the good old days exactly but for a sense of self.”

The Accolades EP was engineered and co-produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, Dr. Dog, Jason Isbell). It follows Loveless’ 2023 LP Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again. “Anyone can get on the internet and voice their opinion – until it’s everyone’s opinion piled on top of each other, of everyone saying the same thing and having the same stupid hot take. Myself included,” Loveless commented. “I miss the mental quiet that came before we all knew what everyone was thinking all the time.”

Accolades EP Cover Artwork:

Lydia-Loveless-Accolades-EP-Digital-Cover-scaled

 

Accolades EP Tracklist:

1. Accolades
2. Avoiding Highways
3. Let Me Get My Hopes Up
4. Oklahoma
5. What We Learned
6. Accolades Reprise

Protomartyr Release New Single ‘Exalted Eagles’

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Ahead of the release of their new album Hotel Usona on Friday (September 25), Protomartyr have shared one final single, ‘Exalted Eagles’. It follows previous cuts ‘Feed the Sewer’ and ‘Sounds We Cannot Hear’. “So now that you’ve heard a third of the album are you sold?” vocalist Joe Casey commented in a press release. “If in doubt, remember: Annuit cœptis! PS: please leave a review and tell your friends. The algorithm needs all the help it can get.” Take a listen below.