The Weeknd

DOWNLOAD: Spaceape – Xorcism EP

Download a free EP from Kode9 collaborator Spaceape, entitled Xorcism, below

Eric Chenaux Trio

Delights of My Life

Woozy, semi-improvised jazz ballads collide with celestial sophisti-pop as the Canadian songwriter jams loose with Philippe Melanson and Ryan Driver

Saturated Energy: Mbongwana Star Interviewed

From Kinshasa, the debut album by the Central African band, is one of the year's finest. Richie Troughton finds out about capturing the sound of the Congolese capital on record through two generations of street musicians

The Killers To Split?

Band want temporary break, claims tabloid journalist

Open Doors: Gavin Friday’s Favourite Albums

From the intensity of working with Scott Walker, to the transformative thrill of seeing Joy Division live, via Mahler, Brel and Bowie, former Virgin Prunes frontman Gavin Friday takes Julian Marszalek through the 13 albums that shaped him

WATCH: Toy Session

tQ favourites play new song. Toy photograph by Joseph Tovey Frost

An Exchange Of Feelings: Felicia Atkinson’s Baker’s Dozen

Soon to play at Portugal’s Semibreve Festival with Violeta Azevado, Felicia Atkinson guides Alex Rigotti through thirteen eclectic albums that have informed her musical practise the most

Blood Orange

Cupid Deluxe

Eyal Maoz and Eugene Chadbourne

The Coincidence Masters

Two guitarists improvising freely sound only rarely like guitars (and often quite comical), finds Antonio Poscic

Organic Intelligence VI: Iranian Pop On Caltex Records

In our subscriber only series, Mariam Rezaei revisits her childhood introduction to the glorious world of Iranian pop via Caltex Records

“Stupid Things Are Best”: Conny Plank – The Potential of Noise

A new film by the producer's son charts Conny Plank's mastery as a producer – and failures as a parent

Lamin Fofana

Works In Metal

The Sierra Leonean artist welds and solders his sonic materials on an album inspired by the writings of activist and Surrealist Suzanne Césaire

25 Years On: Tricky’s Maxinquaye Revisited

David Bennun interviewed Tricky several times for Melody Maker in the 1990s and reviewed Maxinquaye on its release. He assesses how his relationship to this landmark album has changed over the intervening decades

LIVE REPORT: Recombinant Festival

Our man in San Francisco Ned Raggett ponders Demdike Stare, GAS and more at this winter's Recombinant festival. All photographs courtesy of Sahra Jajarmi

The Strange World of… Mike Vest

From demon-riffing drone-lords Bong to gruelling, piledriver punks Drunk In Hell, power trident-pronged psych outfit Blown Out, experimental soundtracking with Artifacts & Uranium, the atomic noise rock of Melting Hand and the crushing cosmic doom of 11Paranoias, plus a plethora of collaborations with luminaries from the Japanese psych underground, Mike Vest’s discography over the last decade is as dizzying as it gets. Ryan Walker attempts to deliver a guide to the 10 best points of entry

Let it Rot: Snapped Ankles Interviewed

Returning with their first album in four years, the masked electro-punk group speak to Alastair Shuttleworth about defecating statues, jaded audiences and pitting Brian Eno against Conny Plank on AI music. All portraits by Louise Mason