2025 sees the release of The Residents' most sonically contrasting release Doctor Dark- the project's forty-seventh studio album.  It blends sad and swooning strings/piano keys, with blunt 'n' crude heavy metal, and a side order of electro beats, off-Broadway theatricality, mocked-up news reports, and twittering bird field recordings/uneasy ambience. Lyrical/theme-wise, the album blends 80’s heavy metal influenced shotgun suicide, and a creepy doctor involved in euthanasia. We were lucky enough to get an email interview with the project's Homer Flynn- key graphic designer, spokesman & manager. We discuss the new album, the compilation Buy Or Die- Ralph Records 1972-1982- looking at the project's label, their late 2024 EP Dookietown, and much more.

Ennaytch is a US project that creates a creative, layer detailed, and often ambient-focused take on walled noise. It started in 2021, having fifty-plus releases to its name. It’s probably most known for the seemingly unending ‘Vacuum Cleaner Music’ series, which weaves a storyline into ‘wall’ kind. It regards an abused housewife who rebels against misogyny, murders her husband, and goes on a killing spree- though this was just the start of the story, which has now been expanded into some fairly wacky/ bizarre places. Below is an email interview with the man behind Ennaytch Tommy Lenahan, where we discuss how the project started, the VCM series, it’s other work, and beyond

Dead, Dead Swans (aka Milwaukee, Wisconsin's John E Swan) play a blend of raw and world-weary American folk music, with some real tuneful edges. I first became aware of the band late last year with the release of their second album Even Still, We Were Together, on Punkerton Records. I’ve recently just heard and reviewed the reissue of their first album, 2022 Lenses (also on Punkerton) - so I thought what better time to track down Mr Swan for an email interview.

Formed in 2022, Sebastian Tomb is a Berlin wall noise project that adds creative touches to its sound such as synth elements, morphed ‘n’ warped dialogue,  and generally unbalancing sound craft. It also uses pictures of women from the past- so an interesting blend of sound and theme. I’ve been very impressed with most of the projects' output- so I decided to track down the person behind the ‘wall’/ project- Joris Martin Sabinius for an email interview.

Since the early 1980’s Alien Sex Fiend have gleefully dodged genre labels and brackets. The UK two-piece darkly tongue-in (rotten) cheek sound mixes elements of Goth, psychobilly, punk, electro-fired shock rock, and various brands of electronica- for a distinctive and one-off experience. Last year Cherry Red Records- their long-running label- released the third in their classic album boxset series- The 13th Moon Years. This features the project's last four albums, as well as a ton of bonus tracks- taking in Nocturnal Emissions (1997), Information Overload (2004), Death Trip (2010), and Possessed (2018).  Both members of the band-Nik Fiend and Mrs Fiend, kindly agreed to give us a rare/ in-depth email interview- discussing the bands' origins, their career, and of course The 13th Moon Years boxset.

As the end of the year rolls to the end. Here are our writer's best-of lists for 2024, and as always, it’s a highly genre-varied mixed selection of titles- highlighting the site's mission statement- be genre-varied.  Some writers list taking in both music/ sound and film, or just music/ sound- depending on what they review on M[m]