Category: Uncategorized

Here’s a rundown of new releases out today, including new albums and EPs on DSPs and physical releases…

Tributes have been paid to early Siouxsie And The Banshees drummer, Kenny Morris, who has died aged 68.

Morris was the sticksman for the iconic post-punk band during their formative years. News of his passing was confirmed yesterday (Thursday January 15) by various outlets, including Louder Than War.

That publication is run by journalist John Robb, who was also a friend of Morris.

“Kenny was a friend of ours, and it was always a pleasure to see and hang out with him when visiting Cork in Ireland, where he had been living,” Robb wrote. “He was sweet, articulate, artistic and fascinating company and his beautiful eccentricity was adorable.

“He would turn up in a suit and a dress with open handcuffs on one hand and the next time in a totally different yet perfectly created bricolage of style, whilst still dressing in the artful confrontation of the 1976 punk era that he was such a key part of.”

As highlighted by Consequence, the very first drummer to join Siouxsie and the Banshees was Sid Vicious, who played one show with them in the mid-‘70s before joining Sex Pistols.

In terms of recorded music, it was Morris who paved the way for the band, playing on their first two albums: 1978’s ‘The Scream’ and 1979’s ‘Join Hands’. He joined initially in 1977, and left the group alongside guitarist John McKay in late 1979 following a disagreement.

View this post on Instagram

As well as John Robb, other tributes have come in across social media, including from renowned publicist, Murray Chalmers.

“Kenny was so amazing. Play their debut album ‘The Scream’ today and it pins you to the wall, just as it did in 1978. ‘The Scream’ is my favourite album of all time and ‘Jigsaw Feeling’ my favourite song of all time,” he wrote on Instagram, sharing a portrait of the group and describing it as his “favourite band shot ever”.

“That’s a lot of favourites for one group. I followed early Banshees around like a teenage groupie, except I didn’t want to sleep with them – I wanted to be them. They changed my life as much as Bowie had done a few years earlier,” he added. “At the peak of their powers no one could beat the Banshees, and Kenny was a vital part of that intensity, tension and power. What a drummer!”

Writer Jon Savage paid tribute on X/Twitter and said: “RIP Kenny Morris: original punk, Banshee drummer extraordinaire. I knew him well in the Banshees and was in touch with him recently about his memoir. Which I hope will be published. God bless you Kenny.”

RIP Kenny Morris: original punk, Banshee drummer extraordinaire. I knew him well in the Banshees and was in touch with him recently about his memoir. Which I hope will be published. God bless you Kenny pic.twitter.com/Z9UeNENLoL

— Jon Savage (@JonSavage1966) January 15, 2026

Biographer Mark Paytress shared: “Farewell, sweet Kenny Morris. His clockwork, Glitter Band-influenced playing on the first two Banshees albums set the standard for post-punk drumming. Spent a few late nights w/ him on the phone while working on the Banshees biog. A kind, delicate, cool and talented soul.”

A fan added: “Rest in Punk Kenny Morris – drummer, artist, lovely human”. Check out more tributes below.

Farewell, sweet Kenny Morris (far left). His clockwork, Glitter Band-influenced playing on the first 2 Banshees albums set the standard for post-punk drumming. Spent a few late nights w/ him on the phone while working on the Banshees biog. A kind, delicate, cool & talented soul. pic.twitter.com/L5RkjCjqVa

— Mark Paytress (@Paytress) January 15, 2026

Rest in Punk Kenny Morris – drummer, artist, lovely human
pic.twitter.com/eYXqgrbVOB

— ANgiE tAYLoR (@theAngieTaylor) January 15, 2026

Such sad news. Former Siouxsie and The Banshees drummer, Kenny Morris, has passed away at the age of 68. He was the backbone of the sound and style of the classic line-up of SATB. Our blessed thoughts with his family, loved ones and friends https://t.co/35aA3DuhKT pic.twitter.com/FT2POiaHng

— Paul Lewis – Wycombe Gigs (@wycombegigs) January 15, 2026

I just read in the news that Kenny Morris has passed away at the age of 68.We will miss you very much.
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Metal , live Oct. 1977 pic.twitter.com/C3i4YtQJnb

— Schnitzel (@Schnitzel63) January 15, 2026

I thought at the time that our best song was “Love In A Void” and that it should be the first single, but our manager decided on “Hong Kong Garden” because the very first few seconds that you hear on the radio or driving in a car, you’re hooked straight away.
Kenny Morris RIP pic.twitter.com/Qto0kEoMpV

— Nik D (@nikidoog) January 15, 2026

Rest in peace Kenny Morris, Siouxsie And The Banshees’ founding drummer pic.twitter.com/KR8nVHz5BE

— goth music videos (@goth_videos) January 15, 2026

After leaving Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1979, Morris went on to work with other artists as a drummer, also joining forces with singer Helen Terry. He also turned his sights to directing and worked on a number of short films over the years.

During the ‘90s, he relocated to Ireland and ran an art gallery. He also worked as an art teacher, according to Consequence, and had been working on a memoir in more recent years. It was slated to be released in 2026, although no details have been shared about the book following his death.

At the time of writing, no information has been publicly shared about his cause of death.

It was The Slits’ drummer Budgie, who took on the role of drummer in Siouxsie and the Banshees after Morris’ departure, and stayed with the group until 1996.

The post Tributes paid to early Siouxsie And The Banshees drummer Kenny Morris, age 68: “A kind, delicate, cool and talented soul” appeared first on NME.

The visuals in last night’s performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird, Pacific Symphony of Orange County, California, used AI generated clips, we understand from members of the audience.

The originator of the visuals, Fowler Amusement, says: ‘For the look of the Firebird projected media, we drew inspiration from theater, dance, and classic illustrations of NC Wyeth, Arthur Rackham, and Howard Pyle from the early 20th century, among others. Our cinema influences include the greats of early cinema, as well as Zefferelli, Miyazaki et al.’

What has yet to be tested – in both artistic and legal terms – is whether is is appropriate to diminish a live, human performance of a work of music with a robotic automation.

One spectator tells us: ‘I think it’s absolutely despicable and contrary to their artistic integrity.’

Your views?

The post Controversy: Orchestra uses AI clips in live concert appeared first on Slippedisc.

It has been made known that Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway will join the Oslo Philharmonic on tour in Paris next week. It is the first time a monarch has hooked up with the orchestra abroad.

Apparently HM is keen to see the Philharmonie hall, on which Oslo is modelling its new concert venue.

Well, no Queen would come to London for that.

Lisa Batiashvili, Her Majesty Queen Sonja and Klaus Mäkelä at the Oslo Concert Hall © John-Halvdan Olsen-Halvorsen ­
­ ­

The post The Queen joins an orchestra tour appeared first on Slippedisc.

Gorillaz have dropped two new singles, ‘The Hardest Thing’ and ‘Orange County’, which feature collaborations from Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar. Check it out below.

• READ MORE: Gorillaz – ‘Cracker Island’ review: conventional, but richly satisfying

They are the latest singles to be shared from their forthcoming album, ‘The Mountain’, which is set for release on February 27. Like all the songs on the tracklist, both were given a live preview by Gorillaz at their phone-free ‘House Of Kong’ mystery show in London back in September.

On the album, ‘Orange County’ is paired with a companion track, ‘The Hardest Thing’. That song opens with the voice of longtime collaborator and friend, drummer Tony Allen, who passed away in 2020.

Both tackle themes of grief and hope, like much of the album, although ‘Orange County’ has more of an uplifting, optimistic approach.

It sees Damon Albarn joined by songwriter and former U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson on vocals, and by 14-time Grammy-nominated sitar player Anoushka Shankar.

Jackson co-wrote the song with Albarn, as did four-time Latin Grammy-winning Argentine artist, producer and musical innovator Bizarrap.

“You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye/To someone you love/That’s the hardest thing,” 2D (Albarn) sings in a melancholic tone, backed by simple, cheerful instrumentals. “Every face you forgot/ Father’s jaw/ They suspend the clock/ Another start/ Get another chance to love,” Jackson continues. Check both out below.

The new singles are the fifth and sixth to be shared so far from ‘The Mountain’, following on from ‘The God Of Lying’ (featuring Idles), ‘The Happy Dictator’ (feat. Sparks), ‘The Manifesto’ with Trueno and late D12 member Proof, and ‘Damascus’.

The latter features Syrian superstar of Bedouin music Omar Souleyman and rapper/singer Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def), and was also given a live preview at the huge Together For Palestine charity gig at Wembley Arena, organised by Brian Eno last year.

Other artists who have joined Albarn and Jamie Hewett for the record include Black Thought, Asha Puthli, Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, The London Arab Orchestra, Demon Strings, Chris Storr, James Copus and Matthew Gunner.

As well as Tony Allen, other now-deceased acts to feature include Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, De La Soul‘s Dave Jolicoeur, and the late Mark E Smith of The Fall. They are billed as ‘Voices from Elsewhere’.

In March, Gorillaz will head out on a UK and Ireland tour, which includes a one-off headline show at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Before then, the band will also play some warm-up shows in Bradford, and go on to make stops at numerous European festivals over the summer, including Electric Picnic, Primavera Sound Barcelona and Porto, and Rock Werchter.

Visit here for tickets.

Last year, Albarn opened up about how the record was partly inspired after both he and Jamie Hewlett lost their fathers and went to India to cope with the grief.

“I did things I’d never done before. I swam in the Ganges in Varanasi. I watched the bodies being burnt on the banks of the Ganges. I took my dad’s ashes there and I cast them in the river. It was very beautiful.”

The post Gorillaz share two companion tracks, ‘The Hardest Thing’ and ‘Orange County’, featuring Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar appeared first on NME.

By the summer of 1975, Peter Frampton was four studio albums into his solo career. Seven years had passed since, at 18, he was famously named by Rave magazine as the “Face of ’68,” towards the end of his first phase of pop success as a member of The Herd.

Respected industry-wide as a singer, songwriter and especially as a guitarist, Frampton could call on the likes of Ringo Starr, Billy Preston and sidemen such as Klaus Voorman, Andy Bown, Rick Wills, and Nicky Hopkins to contribute to his records, from 1972’s Wind Of Change onwards. He toured extensively, and the albums routinely made the bottom half of Billboard’s Top 200 chart.

Little did he know what was coming next. It all began to come together on June 13, 1975 at a San Francisco concert, and culminated in an epic run at No.1 after he released the historic live album Frampton Comes Alive! on January 16, 1976.

That hot summer, Frampton was on the road, touring the A&M album he’d released in March that year, simply called Frampton. Produced by the guitarist with Chris Kimsey, it included the studio versions of “Baby, I Love Your Way” and “Show Me The Way.” The latter song featured a distinctive and then-innovative talkbox effect on Peter’s voice that would become one of his trademarks.

Click to load video

On that June night, Frampton and his band played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. “We owned the airwaves in San Francisco,” he said in 2003. “After the Frampton record I could do no wrong there, and this was my first time headlining.

Wish we’d recorded it…

“Well, as soon as we walked on the stage, there’s like 7,500 people out there and I was like ‘Oh my God.’ And I think it gave us such a kick up the arse, we did this show that’s one where you walk off and go ‘Oh, wish we’d recorded that’ – well, we did. So it was just very special.”

Listen to the best of Peter Frampton on Apple Music and Spotify.

Along with further shows at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, California, the Island Music Center in Commack, New York, and the State University of New York campus in Plattsburgh, New York, these were the recordings that made up one of the most successful live albums of all time, Frampton Comes Alive.

Click to load video

The double album made a tentative first chart appearance at No.191 on the Billboard chart two weeks later. Fueled by “Show Me The Way,” which became a radio smash and climbed into the Top 10 in the US, UK, and beyond, the album rose relentlessly. On April 10, sensationally, the English guitarist found himself at No.1. Frampton Comes Alive wrested the top spot from the Eagles’ Greatest Hits 1971-1975 compilation to spend a total of ten weeks at the summit, flip-flopping at the top with Wings’ At The Speed Of Sound.

The first million

That same week, Comes Alive won its first platinum certification in America for one million shipments. By June, Frampton had another hit single from the album on his hands with “Baby, I Love Your Way”; by September, another still with “Do You Feel Like We Do,” which peaked at No.10 on the Hot 100 charts of November 13 and 20.

Click to load video

Frampton recalled that when the album was released, “we thought, this might be a gold record, 500,000. And of course it virtually did that in the first two weeks. Within six weeks, I think, it was No.1, and it went 1-2-1-2 all summer, it was unbelievable.”

The evolution of Peter Frampton

Chris Welch in Melody Maker wrote that the album “marks the evolution of Peter Frampton into a major rock figure, armed with years of experience.” Comes Alive became America’s bestselling album of 1976, and it never stopped selling. In the summer of 2011, the RIAA certified it eight-times platinum, and worldwide sales stand have been reported at twice that total.

Frampton would never scale quite such dizzy sales heights again, but in the summer of 1977, he was ready with his next studio album, I’m In You. That spent a month at No.2 in the US, the title track lead single also hitting the runner-up spot on the Hot 100. From that historic 1975 night in San Francisco onwards, Peter Frampton’s career had new distinction, and a multi-platinum glow was just over the horizon.

Buy the exclusive Vinylphyle edition of Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive here.

Horror fans are excited for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, but what songs are included on the soundtrack? Find out below.

• READ MORE: ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ review: sensational horror sequel will shake you to the core

The film is a sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later, which itself served as a return to the universe that was set up by Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later in 2002.

The Bone Temple was filmed back-to-back with its predecessor and was directed by Nia DaCosta (Hedda, The Marvels, Candyman), and sees Ralph Fiennes return as Dr. Ian Kelson, a former GP dedicated to memorialising the victims of the rage virus epidemic.

Jack O’Connell reprises his role of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal from the final scene of 28 Years Later, while Alfie Williams returns as Spike, the teenager who sets out alone in the previous film.

The film was released in UK cinemas on Wednesday (January 14), and you can check out the trailer here:

In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “DaCosta and accomplished writer Alex Garland (Warfare, Ex Machina, Civil War) delight in exploring a desolate, gruesome and lawless Britain, ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world. Some jokers might say that it sounds like a documentary but the goings-on here wouldn’t happen in your local high street. Not this week, anyway.”

“With a uniformly impressive cast, spectacular scenes of carnage and the unshakeable feeling that anything could happen, this zombie franchise is as thrilling as it’s ever been. It’s well worth taking a trip to The Bone Temple.”

28 Years Later was also named as NME’s second best film of 2025.

Every song on the 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple soundtrack

The film includes an original score from Hildur Guðnadóttir, the experimental Icelandic composer known for her work on Joker, Tar and DaCosta’s previous films Candyman and Hedda.

The ending of the film also sees it refer back to the first film in the franchise by including ‘In The House, In A Heartbeat’, composed by John Murphy for 28 Days Later.

On top of that, the new film makes dramatic use of some huge needle drops – including Radiohead’s ‘Everything In Its Right Place’. Some tracks from Fiennes’ character’s personal record collection also get an airing, including Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’, ‘Girls On Film’ and ‘Rio’, and Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number Of The Beast’.

The post Every song on the ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ soundtrack appeared first on NME.

Dublin-based five-piece Cable Boy release their debut album Forever on April 17th. A new single ‘Something In My…