After recently confirming several North American dates in September and October, the band are set to hit Europe in late October, starting in Germany on Oct 23. They are scheduled to perform in Leeds and London – on Nov 7 at Project House in Leeds, and on Nov 9 and 10 in London at Electric Brixton.

We’re thrilled to announce the return of SWANS! The post-rock innovators will be performing pieces from their upcoming album ‘Birthing’ at Leeds’ Project House and London’s Electric Brixton this November.

Tickets available Friday 10am:https://t.co/MIneztITHl pic.twitter.com/sBPL46qy6N

— FORM (@formpresents) April 24, 2025

Frontman Michael Gira has confirmed the band members who will be joining for this tour: Kristof Hahn, Dana Schechter, Larry Mullins, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, Norman Westberg and Michael himself. The band has gone through several member changes through its career, with a ‘dynamic lineup’ that has only kept Michael Gira as a constant part.

The band, who’ve influenced countless musicians from Nirvana to Napalm Death, are set to release their seventeenth album, ‘Birthing’ on May 30, 2025. A preview of the album can be found with the recently released single, ‘I Am A Tower’, a hypnotic, haunting track that builds up in atmosphere as it goes along. Gira shared some insight on the new album, as he suggests he’ll be stepping down as the main producer and finding a new sound for Swans after ‘Birthing’ is released:

“The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a yearlong Swans tour, during 2023 – 2024 (‘The Healers,’ ‘I Am a Tower,’ ‘Birthing,’ ‘Guardian Spirit,’ ‘Rope,’ and ‘Away’), then recorded and further orchestrated and rearranged in the studio. Two pieces were created and performed in the studio (‘Red Yellow,’ ‘The Merge’).

In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs. I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live, and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance), over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection.

This album, coupled with the recent live release, Live Rope, constitutes my final foray (as producer / impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years. We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it.”

Swans were formed in 1982 by Michael Gira in New York City. Both their lineup and their musical direction have changed many times, with their earlier 80’s albums like ‘Filth’ and ‘Cop’ featuring heavier, more dissonant textures. After that they explored different genres, such as acoustic styles on ‘The Burning World’ (1989) or alternative atmospheric sounds on ‘Love of Life’ (1993). Gira disbanded Swans in 1996, choosing to focus on other projects before reforming the group on 2010 with the critically acclaimed album ‘My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky’. Since then, the band has continued release records and tour.

All dates for the Swans 2025 European/UK tour can be found here. ‘Birthing’ is also available to pre-order here.

‘Fanzine Made of Flesh‘ opens with ambient synths that gradually build into a rich blend of guitars and percussion. The track’s intricate composition highlights Mogwai’s mastery of balancing tension and release. It seamlessly transitions from moments of quietness to bursts of powerful, textured sound and this has created something both unique and captivating.

Accompanying the single is a video that blends abstract visuals with storytelling. Directed by Agnes Haus, the video features a narrative based around two people forming a connection in the modern world. It has a dreamlike narrative, vibrant colour schemes, and fleeting moments of human interaction that convey both doom and hope. The video compliments Mogwai’s vibe perfectly, adding another layer to the immersive experience they are known for. 

Since their formation in Glasgow in 1995, Mogwai has cemented their status as one of the most influential bands in post-rock. The group, consisting of Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Martin Bulloch, and Barry Burns, gained recognition with their debut album, ‘Mogwai Young Team’, released in 1997. The album consisted of tracks like ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ and ‘Like Herod’, which became instant classics. Over the years, the band has built an impressive discography that includes standout albums such as ‘Come On Die Young’, ‘Mr Beast’, and ‘Rave Tapes’. Their 2021 album, ‘As The Love Continues’, however, marked a career milestone, topping the UK Album Charts and highlighting their enduring relevance in the forever-changing music industry. 

As Mogwai gears up for the exciting release of The Bad Fire, fans have already gotten a taste of what is to be expected from the album. Singles like God Gets You Back and Lion Rumpus have set the tone for the release, and now the new record clearly continues Mogwai’s tradition of pushing creative boundaries. 

In support of the album, Mogwai will embark on a global tour in 2025, spanning Europe, Asia, and North America. Beginning in Amsterdam this February, the tour will feature performances in major cities like London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York, giving fans all over the world the opportunity to experience their music in a live setting. Known for their powerful and immersive performances, Mogwai’s concerts promise to be a highlight of the year for fans. 

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With ‘Fanzine Made of Flesh’ setting the stage, 2025 is shaping up to be a crazy year for Mogwai. Their continued ability to craft music that resonates across generations reaffirms their position as trailblazers in their field. As ‘The Bad Fire’ approaches, Mogwai’s new album promises to captivate listeners and further solidify their undefeated legacy in the music world. 

Ticket information can be found here.

The tour will feature five UK dates and five European dates, with the UK leg starting at St Luke’s in Glasgow on September 14th and concluding at Chalk in Brighton on the 18th, while the European leg kicks off at La Maroquinerie in Paris on September 21st and rounds off at Hole 44 in Berlin on the 25th.

The entirety of their well-received fifth album Wild Light will be performed in full during the tour, and will be followed by, as mentioned in a press release, a ‘second set of other bits and pieces‘, which may leave fans of the experimental outfit hopeful of new material.

The press release has also stated that the group, best known for combining noise rock, experimental rock and electronic rock throughout their years of existence, has also announced a new project, the so-called Wild Light Decade, that will, in the months leading up to their string of live shows, see the outfit release ‘never heard before‘ recordings that were made during a period between 2010 and 2013 and what is now known as the Wild Light Sessions.

The releasing of these previously unheard recordings will be available on the band’s patreon page on a subscription basis for five pounds a month. The patreon page can be found here.

65daysofstatic were formed in Sheffield in 2001 by instrumentalists Paul Wolinski, Joe Shrewsbury, Rob Jones and Simon Wright, and released their first album, The Fall of Math, in 2004 to widespread favourable reviews. The band’s sound with their debut LP focused on math and noise rock, and this fitting of the post-rock genre continued with two of their subsequent releases, One Time for All Time (2005) and The Destruction of Small Ideas (2007).

Watch the music video for ‘Retreat! Retreat!‘, from 65daysofstatic’s first album, The Fall of Math, below:

With the release of their fourth album, however, in 2010, the band shifted, musically, to a more electronic sound. We Were Exploding Anyway featured more dance elements, including more dance beats and electronic bass and drum tracks. Their fifth and sixth albums (Wild Light, 2013, and replicr, 2019) feature a combination of their earlier post-rock and noise rock sound with the electronica sound inspired in their fourth release.

Listen to ‘Unmake the Wild Light’ below:

The tour dates in full can be found below:

14/09/2023 – St Luke’s – Glasgow
15/09 – New Century Hall – Manchester
16/09 – Electric Brixton – London
17/09 – Trinity – Bristol
18/09 – Chalk – Brighton
21/09 – La Maroquinerie – Paris
22/09 – Trix – Antwerp
23/09 – Paradiso – Amsterdam
24/09 – Knust – Hamburg
25/09 – Hole 44 – Berlin

You can purchase tickets for the live shows here.

Wild Light received critical acclaim, scoring 82 on Metacritic, with NME stating “next time someone tells you guitar music has run out of new ideas, simply point them in the direction of Wild Light”.

The band hail from Sheffield, and formed in 2001. Since then they have released nine studio albums, and in 2017 they created the accompanying soundtrack for the game No Man’s Sky.

In 2021, the band began an innovative project entitled Wreckage Systems which is a live-streamed broadcast that employs software written by the band to generate endless new material. The project uses samples of music made by the band during lockdown, but turns them into live audio, ensuring that all new generated audio is unique. The band have stated on their website that Wreckage Systems is “fast, rough, and responsive to the world in which it’s getting made”. The project was on hiatus but appears to be back up and running, and you can stream it 24/7 here.

Aside from this ongoing (infinite) project, the band plan to continue releasing ‘regular’ records. Band member Paul Wolinski (known as Polinski on solo projects) also has an upcoming album, Telex From MIDI City, coming out on the 24^th February. The lead single, ‘Distant Friend, I Love You!’ is available to stream now on all platforms, plus an accompanying music video.

Tickets for the upcoming tour are available here!

UK Tour Dates:

 14/09/23 – St. Luke’s – Glasgow

15/09 – New Century Hall – Manchester

16/09 – Electric Brixton – London

17/09 – Trinity – Bristol

18/09 – CHALK – Brighton

The streams content is being described on their Patreon as “an audio-visual companion, broadcast worldwide twenty-four hours a day from an undisclosed location.” It will play new unreleased music from the expanding musical output of the band. An announcement video featuring synths and ominous female narration was uploaded to the bands official YouTube channel yesterday evening. The two-minute-long teaser following a dystopian theme announces the stream and the new 65LABS Patreon. The service has three subscription tiers ranging from £5 to £20 per month that enables fans to support the band and keep the livestream up and running, also giving users access to music downloads, research notes and a behind the scenes blog. As of today, the project has received over £1500 in donations prior to its official release.

In an FAQ about the project, they delve into some detail about how the broadcast will sound, stating  “more soundscape-y/soundtrack-y than the kind of 65daysofstatic songs you might expect to hear on our regular albums.” This news comes as no surprise considering the bands previous ventures. In 2016 a collaborative project was released for the sci-fi exploration game ‘No Man’s Sky’ with the developers, where the band created a dynamic soundtrack that played an array of pieces throughout the open world. This led to the release of a companion album ‘No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe’, which has since become one of their most successful pieces in the streaming age.

Get caught up in the world of Wreckage Systems with the announcement video.

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Here’s @deathcrashdeathcrash performing ‘people thought my windows were stars’ Just one thing – watch until the end. Full video in our bio

A post shared by stolen sessions (@stolensessions) on Sep 30, 2020 at 5:09am PDT

The reverent nature of the location is reflected in the solemnity of the fifteen-minute performance, which takes its listener on an epic and honest sonic journey. It opens with a sample taken from an educational video produced by the American Counselling Association, which talks about the process of recovering from abusive behavioural patterns within relationships. A man drawls in an American accent that the first stage of ‘healing’ is recognising the relationship as ‘unhealthy’.

Then Tiernan Banks’ vulnerable vocals break over simple guitar chords: ‘I’ll sing of you all the way// by the moonlight, every day// I’ll be with you, on the train// My dear departed, whose to blame?’. These elegiac lyrics, combined with the choice of sample, allude to the dissolution of a relationship. Lyrics like: ‘there’s a sickness, that we cling too’ suggest that said relationship is a dysfunctional one.

The heavy timbre and subject matter make for a powerful, emotive song. The poetic lyrics and delicate yet intense vocals feel reminiscent of lo-fi indie rock musicians such as Elliot Smith. What makes deathcrash so unique, though, is their ability to change the tone of a track when the listener least expects it.

After the reappearance of the sample and the building sound of static, the hiss fades out and the drums enter for the first time. It sounds like the sun breaking through a film of cloud. There is a more optimistic feeling, things are moving forward. Drummer Noah Bennett has a determined look of intensity on his face and there is a suggestion that some resolution is coming for the troubled romance. The song, after all, is about hopefulness, not despair.

In the final section, a slinky bass line underpins Bank’s as he wistfully sings: ‘Will you still love me// as we grow apart?…I hope you do just what you want to do// It seems like you could’. Then the instruments gain momentum, culminating in a sublime crescendo: deathcrash have changed the tone gain. This final feeling is one of uncertainty and ambiguity, the fates’ of the song’s protagonists is left to interpretation.

Perhaps this sense of uncertainty can be explained by the fact that the original track was recorded on the eve of lockdown, over the course of an entire night. The band were aware that they would likely not play together for a while, as the world teetered on the brink of an unknown future. The future for deathcrash, however, is certainly bright. The vinyl version of ‘People thought my windows were stars’ is avaliable for pre-order now, and the band will hopefully be delivering new music soon.

Don’t Mind is their debut single, and starts off atmospheric with a dream like keyboard jingle setting the tone for the next five minutes, taking you on a journey throughout musical boundaries, touching down on a bit of indie, along with alternative rock. It is the post-rock sound that hits hardest, with the soaring gang vocals and distant electric guitar sending the listener into a trance, and letting the music take control.

Mountain Bird are led by the brainchild of the operation, Adam Ohman, who takes up producing duties, as well as provides vocals, writes the songs and arranges it all. Backed up by a stellar studio line up and a differing one for their onstage antics, while the line up may not be consistent, the quality always will be. With a sound that resembles the ambition of Sigur Ros mixed in with the self inspection of Mogwai, keep your eyes and ears out for Mountain Bird, a band that will be going places. Check out Don’t Mind below to see for yourself.