In the last couple of days, two Swiss bands have announced great news.
On August 1, the female-fronted metal band Expellow won the 2025 „Wacken Metal Battle“, competing against 29 other artists. Expellow are the first Swiss band ever to claim this title. This triumph is the result of a long journey: The band was founded in 2006 and has been performing with an unchanged line-up since 2015. Here’s our short news report with some archive photos from when Expellow played at Negative White’s 5th anniversary.
Secondly, indie-pop quintet Soft Loft is nominated for this year’s prestigious Anchor Award, presented by Reeperbahn Festival. Selected by an industry expert panel, the nomination is already a great recognition—and having seen Soft Loft perform on stage, I’d reckon: They’ve a significant shot to take the top spot. Learn more about the award and the band here.
On Tuesday evening, I visited a panel at Zurich Music Week, hosted by the Swiss royalty collecting society SUISA. Title: „Dance with and around AI“. Frankly, it was rather tiptoeing around it. Supporters can read a brief recap of the event in today‘s newsletter.
Best wishes,
P.S. If you are near Winterthur next week, I highly recommend the Musikfestwochen and especially the line-up on Friday: TTSSFU, Chalk, and IDLES on stage. There are still tickets… for now.
Review: DEBBY FRIDAY's The Starr Of The Queen Of Life
There is no particle filter through which DEBBY FRIDAY exhales her promiscuous fuel. And so her spaceship zooms through the flickering synth infinity to the pulse of crisp reactor beats. The jumpsuits lie on the clinically clean floor, beads of sweat glisten on bare skin.
On her sophomore album, The Starr Of The Queen Of Life, Toronto-based artist DEBBY FRIDAY delivers a sound that writhes lasciviously between electronica, hyperpop, and hip-hop in the sheets. After recommending the track Arcadia in the latest Weekly5, I delved deeper into her captivating universe. The full review is now online.
📚 What to read/watch/listen
Some worthwhile things from around the web.
- Read: Decoding Hayley Williams' 17-Song Masterpiece
Sean Adams from Drowned In Sound passionately dissects the new release (is it an album anyway?) by Hayley Williams and explains why the format-breaking release is essential listening for doomscrollers. - Listen/Watch: How Spotify Is Making Music Worse
Liz Pelly, author of Mood Machine, in conversation with Adam Conover, unpacking Spotify and how the music industry is being dragged into the „creator economy“. - Read: O Superfan: How Rock & Pop’s Elite Screw their Loyal Supporters – and why it won’t Work
How the most loyal fans get screwd by the music business trying to capitalise on the so-called superfans.
🤖 Tiptoeing around AI—a brief recap
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