The drone has bewitched for millennia, exhorting us to succumb to the joy of hypnotic immersion - author Harry Sword writes in the Guardian introducing his new book 'Monolithic Undertow' where he traces drone from its ancient beginnings through the 20th century. As a starting point to the genre drone he suggests: Éliane Radigue, Rolling Stone Brian Jones' early live albums, Earth, the original Velvet Underground drummer Angus MacLise, The Bug-Justin Broadrick-Moor Mother collab Zonal, and Sarah Davachi.

A heavy-metal lover named Prince Midnight has constructed a guitar out of his uncle Filip’s bones. The uncle died more than 20 years ago as the result of a car accident, and his skeleton had been donated to a college in Greece, where it was used for educational purposes for two decades. After they returned it to the family, Prince Midnight, who got into heavy-metal thanks to his uncle Filip, decided to build the guitar from the skeleton. The torso serves as the body of the guitar, to which Prince Midnight added a neck, pickups, volume knobs, and more. The name of the guitar - Filip Skelecaster. Metal Sucks brings the pictures of the guitar-building process.

Unable to play in "standard" venus due to the pandemic, the artists had to come up with novel ideas for places to play. It seems as if they're just getting started. Hot Since 82 played his sets from a hot air balloon and from under a pier, Liam Gallagher played aboard a barge as it floated down the River Thames with London's lockdown skyline and landmarks in full view, Biffy Clyro played from within a cube, Disclosure played a DJ set from above a waterfall at a national park... BBC reports about the start of something really new.

Over 280,000 people signed a petition calling for visa-free touring for UK bands through the EU. The campaign was also debated in the parliament, but it all ended in the UK government essentially ignoring the idea and doubling down on the EU being at fault, NME reports. The Conservative Minister for Culture Caroline Dineage did not suggest that negotiating visa-free touring was an option and repeated that “the UK pushed for ambitious arrangements” but that “quite simply the EU rejected this and there was no counter offer”.

Behemoth frontman Nergal is facing a charge of blasphemy in his native Poland due to an image in which he is seen stepping on artwork that depicts the Virgin Mary, Loudwire reports. The Polish musician, real name Adam Darski, is accused of “publicly insulting the object of Christian religious worship in the form of the person of the Mother of God” by sharing the offending image on social media. Nergal confirmed there was “another lawsuit in the process”, but claimed it was “nonsense”.

The spoken-word collaboration by 92-year-old Torben Ulrich with cellist Lori Goldston is titled 'Oakland moments: cello, voice, reuniting (rejoicing)' and it features Torben reciting text and poetry over Goldston’s cello, Louder reports. Recitations on 'Oakland' explore “athleticism, philosophy and mysticism”, including spiritual aspects of “alchemy, dance, yogic studies, Buddhism, Kabbalah, Sufism, Taoism, etc.”. Ulrich senior has maintained a lifelong presence in the Danish art world as a poet, musician, journalist, painter, filmmaker, and a tennis athlete.

Vocalist Mary Wilson, who co-founded the Supremes as a 15-year-old in a Detroit housing project and stayed with the hitmaking Motown trio until 1977,  died on Monday night at her home in Las Vegas at the age of 76, CNN reports. Some of their biggest hits include 'Baby Love', 'Stop! In the Name of Love', 'You Can’t Hurry Love', 'You Keep Me Hanging On'. Just two days prior to her death, Wilson put up a video on her YouTube channel announcing that she was working with Universal Music on releasing solo material, including the unreleased album 'Red Hot' she recorded in the 1970s with producer Gus Dudgeon.

The YouTuber-turned-rapper KSI says he has earned enough money and is ready for a change in his life. The 27-year-old made his debut on the Heat Rich List last year, with estimated earnings of $12 million over 12 months, which seems to be enough for him - "I have reached peak happiness with the money I have. I don't need anymore, so I am just trying to do what I can, help who I can, support charities and have a good time man" - Music News reports.

Performers and songwriters "make all this stuff and we are last in the chain when it comes to remuneration", Blur drummer David Rowntree - now a city councillor - told BBC about unfair music streaming payments to songwriters and artists. "If something isn't done about it, that is terminal for the music industry" he said - "bands like mine will be fine, but the next generation of bands will be hit - bands living hand-to-mouth like we did for the first 10 years".

The Weekend was the big star at this year's Super Bowl and, for the first time in the game's 55-year history, he was largely forced to perform from the stands, rather than the pitch. His 12-minute show, which put the emphasis on his songs, was "watched" by thousands of cardboard cut-outs, Rolling Stone reports. The Weeknd spent $7m of his own money on the production, which included a set modelled on the city in Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'. Rendition of 'America the Beautiful' by H.E.R. was also all about the music - R'n'B singer displayed her powerful voice and added a pyrotechnic guitar solo.

Morgan Wallen's racial slur scandal proved beneficial for his album sales in the US, the latest Billboard 200 chart shows. His double album 'Dangerous' earned 149,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 4, which is up 14% when compared to the previous week, Billboard reports. It is Walen's fourth week in a row on top of Billboard 200. The last country album to spend its first four weeks at No. 1 on this chart was Shania Twain's 'Up!' in 2003.

Phoebe Bridgers smashing her guitar on Saturday Night Live has become a very controversial topic, with one tweet going viral for saying that musician's guitar smash "seemed extra". Bridgers responded by taking on a lighter note retweeting comedian Caleb Hearon's tweet asking "did phoebe's guitar write this". Jason Isbell said - "that was like an 85 dollar guitar she smashed come on guys". Bridgers responded that guitar manufacturer Danelectro was in on it - "I told danelectro I was going to do it and they wished me luck and told me they’re hard to break". Isbell summoned the story up calling it "a salute to both Rock and Roll and fine craftsmanship".

Zambian-born, Limerick-based Denise Chaila is very proud of her Zambian-Irish identity, and quite eager to spread her message of freedom and unity with much self-confidence, as she said on an Irish TV show - "I would regret the things that I do not say far more than I would regret anything that I do say". He explored her identity very early on with her song 'Duel Citizenship', and last month her first mixtape 'Go Bravely' was nominated for Ireland’s Choice Music prize, both for best album, and best song for a track 'Chaila', about her name. Her latest song 'ANSEO' might just be her big break.

Fucked Up release an epic 19-minute punk beast 'Year Of The Horse – Act One'; Night Beats are part psychedelia part garage in 'New Day', a fun strange song; The Armed release a familiar-sounding yet new 'All Futures'; it took Neil Young decades to share his folk-waltz 'Daughters', well it's here now.

An unknown track 'Choose Your Weapon' by the unknown British electronic producer Scaramanga Silk has sold for over $41,000 (£29,800) on Discogs, making it the site’s most expensive record ever, and one of the most expensive records ever sold anywhere, Guardian reports. The vinyl was self-released in 2008, and there were only 20 copies made of the edition. It is the only time 'Choose Your Weapon' has been sold on the site, and artist, who earns nothing from the sale, is baffled by the price - “It is very difficult to understand why the release went for that kind of money, as I do not believe that any record is worthy of such a valuation”. Previous Discogs record was $27,500 paid for Prince's 1987 record 'The Black Album' that he had deleted before it went on sale.

After country star Morgan Wallen was caught on camera using a racial slur, his music was pulled from hundreds of radio stations in the US, his radio play fell 70% and his record contract was suspended. On the other hand, however, sales of his music skyrocketed by 339%, according to Billboard. The day before the story about his use of the n-word broke, he sold 5,000 total units, about 1,000 of which were copies of his recent release 'Dangerous: The Double Album'. As the backlash grew, on the first day of the scandal, he sold 7,000 albums and 22,500 total units, an increase of 339% compared to sales the day before. Breaking down album vs. song sales, Wallen's albums sold a little over 8,000 copies Feb. 3, up 593% from 1,000 on Feb. 2, while his songs sold 14,000 downloads Feb. 3, up 261% from 4,000 on Feb. 2.

Apart from the biggest streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music, classical music can be found on other services, in high audio quality. Qobuz hosts all genres, many albums are available in a better-than-CD quality, it features plenty of editorial material; it goes for a 50% higher price than Spotify. Idagio is classical music only, with the flexibility of their search and the richness with which the results are presented unrivaled by others; it’s supplemented by an excellent range of editorial material. Primephonic also hosts exclusively classical music, in high audio quality. Bach Track presents them all.

Indian government launched an unprecedented backlash against Rihanna, just hours after she posted a tweet about protest of Indian farmers. BBC reports. Tens of thousands of farmers have been protesting on the borders of the capital Delhi for more than two months against new laws that will loosen the rules around the sale, pricing and storage of agricultural produce. Her tweet linked to a news story about the internet blockade at the protest sites and soon went viral, gaining more than 700,000 likes. The government pushback was swift, led by Home Minister Amit Shah who tweeted - "No propaganda can deter India's unity! No propaganda can stop India to attain new heights!".

“I still go into a restaurant and people say, ‘I love your dad's work’” - Grammy-winning Jakob Dylan complained about being "a son of Bob Dylan" in other people's eyes, and not an established artist. Some don't even try to move further on from their parent's legacy, like the Bob Marley sons continuing the reggae tradition while keeping the family name. Some try and distinguish - Redfoo and SkyBlu, the electronic duo of LMFAO and the son and grandson of Motown Records founder, Berry Gordy changed music and their names. Sting’s daughter Eliot Sumner, adopted a pseudonym, Vaal, with which to launch her DJ career. Nas stepped into a completely different realm from his father, Olu Dara's jazz. Independent talks to them about being children of famous musicians.

TikTok user ido_coke on Jan. 19 published a TikTok video using the line “I’m not a perfect person” from the song 'The Reason' by early-aughts nu-metal band Hoobastank to underscore how she’d only recently learned it was not true that “hibernation meant the animals go to sleep for literally 4-6 months”. The video has garnered 1.7 million likes, and other users have generated some 48,000 videos in which young folks shared embarrassing facts about themselves to the song line. Those videos in turn have received more than 145 million views. The Daily Beast brings the interesting story.

Miss Grit releases noise-y and club-y 'Grow Up To'; a nice touch on 'Sixers' - hip-hop producer Old City samples Black Flag; one jazz great Alan Braufman gets remixed by one other jazz great - Angel Bat Dawid, on 'Sunrise'; Death From Above 1979 just play some rawk on 'One + One'; Julien Baker is joined by her boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus on 'Favor'; producer Adrian Younge shared a moving/disturbing 'American Negro'; hip-hop producer The Lasso of Small Bills shares the collaboration with Hemlock Ernst of Future Islands - 'Will We Be Us Again'.

The newly-established UK fund Round Hill has just acquired over 18,000 songs from another Round Hill-managed fund, for $282m, and it now owns Beatles classics ('She Loves You', 'I Saw Here Standing There'), plus songs recorded by The Rolling Stones, Backstreet Boys, Otis Redding, Britney Spears, John Lee Hooker, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, and The Supremes. Next up for Round Hill’s UK-listed fund is the acquisition of a 29% stake in the 100,000 copyrights previously owned by music publisher Carlin, which includes classic songs recorded by artists such as Elvis Presley, Meatloaf, James Brown, and Billie Holiday, for an estimated $81m, Music Business Worldwide reports.

Spotify’s pre-tax loss in 2020 weighed in at €709m, five times the equivalent loss seen at the company in the prior year, Music Business Worldwide reports on the financial year of the biggest music streaming service. Other infos are much better - share price surged from $152.50 on January 3 to $341.66 on December 31, up 106%. Spotify's revenues grew 93% from 2017 (€4.09bn) to 2020 (€7.88bn). Spotify’s Sales & Marketing expenditure bounded up in 2020 - it jumped a full 25% to surpass a billion euros (€1.03bn) for the first time ever, doubling in the three years from 2017 to 2020.

'Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson from the Roots won the Grand Jury Prize for the best documentary as well as Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the Wrap reports. Built around long-unseen concert footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-weekend event, that first-time director Questlove uses 'Summer of Soul' as a launching pad to explore race relations and Black culture in that tumultuous time.

British musician and actor Riz Ahmed is nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama category for his role as a metal-drummer losing his hearing in 'The Sound of Metal', CNN reports. Another music movie in the same category - 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', with Chadwick Boseman. Viola Davis is nominated in the female category with the same movie, as well as Andra Day in 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday'. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are nominated - twice - in the Best Original Score category - for the biopic 'Mank', and, next to Jon Batiste, in the animated movie 'Soul'. The other nominees are Alexandre Desplat for 'The Midnight Sky', Ludwig Göransson for 'Tenet', and James Newton Howard for 'News Of The World'. Directorial debut by Sia, 'Music' with Kate Hudson, is nominated in Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. In Best Original Song - Motion Picture the nominees are: 'Fight For You' by H.E.R., from 'Judas And The Black Messiah', 'Hear My Voice' by Daniel Pemberton from 'The Trial Of The Chicago', 'Io Sì (Seen)' by Diane Warren from 'The Life Ahead', 'Speak Now' by Leslie Odom Jr and Sam Ashworth from 'One Night In Miami...', and 'Tigress & Tweed' by Andra Day and Raphael Saadiq from 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday'. Check out all the nominees - here.

Sony’s recorded music and music publishing operations grew 13% to 187.11 billion yen in the company’s fiscal third quarter, which ended December 31, from 165.66 billion yen in the year-earlier period, Billboard reports. Additionally, Visual Media/Platform grew by 54.8% to 74.62 billion yen from 48.21 billion yen, thanks to the 'Demon Slayer' movie. The company posted 59.69 billion yen in operating income, a whopping 64.7% increase over the prior year’s total of 36.25 billion yen.

"We’ll never run out of lyrics because there are so many sutras we can choose from” Jon Chang, rhythm guitarist of the Taiwanese Buddhist death-metal band Dharma says in LA Times interview - all the band's lyrics are Buddhist sutras or mantras. Five of the musicians dress in black and sport some make-up, but the singer seems to come from a continent away - head shaved and dressed in her religion’s traditional orange robe, Buddhist nun Miao Ben fronts the Buddhist metal band.

US country music star Morgan Wallen has been removed from more than 400 US radio playlists after a video emerged of him saying the n-word to a friend, Variety reports. In the footage, reportedly filmed by a neighbor last weekend, the 27-year-old Nashville star is seen saying goodbye to some friends and using the racial slur. Wallen, who is currently one of the biggest country stars in the US, and had a No. 1 album in the US for the past three weeks, has apologized - "I'm embarrassed and sorry. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I promise to do better".

Afghan-born Hamburg-based producer Farhot shares 'Feel Ugly' featuring soulful Tiggs Da Author; Drakeo the Ruler shares mellow and ice-cool 'Too Icey'; Miss Lava share heavy and melodic psychedelia in 'Brotherhood of Eternal Love'; Algiers' members Lee Tesche and Ryan Mahan share a dark clubby song 'Stealth Empire' by their project Nun Gun; DJINN share a bit of exotic psychedelia 'Love Divine'.

Starting Tuesday, Spotify users in South Korea will have access to more than 60 million tracks and over 4 billion playlists from around the world, ZDnet reports. Upon launch, Spotify will exert most of its domestic efforts on the global phenomenon of K-pop. In the last six years, Spotify listeners have streamed more than 180 billion minutes of K-pop with the share of K-pop listening increasing by more than 2,000% in the same period. Spotify’s customer base now stands at 320 million monthly active users and 144 million subscribers worldwide.