Mew Zikwryder – RCRD LBL

May 11, 2026

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 Mew Zikwryder

Culture Clash Meets Grunge Grit: Q052’s Intense UK Tour Hits London & Brighton

Celebrated hip-hop act Q052 is gearing up for a career-defining series of shows in the United Kingdom, starting on 12 May at the Strongroom Bar in London. Q052 will be performing from 12 to 16 May in London and Brighton, including a performance at the renowned four-day music festival The Great Escape. Known for his gripping live performances, he shared the stage with iconic acts like Cypress Hill. He has also graced the stages of major festivals such as FEQ, La Noce, OFF Québec, Innu Nikamu, Festival Kwe!, FME, Festival Bleu Bleu, and Festival en chanson de Petite-Vallée.

His music has previously gained radio support from the likes of BBC Radio 6’s Don Letts’ Culture Clash Radio, NPR Music and landed numerous features on Radio Canada. Q052 has been supported by influential publications such as CLASH Magazine, Journal de Montréal, The Spill Mag, PLAYY. Magazine and Le Canal Auditif. Further, he was crowned the winner of Best Male Hip-Hop Artist at the 2023 International Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards. He has earned numerous prestigious nominations, including Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2021 ADISQ Gala, and nods at the 2022 Teweikan Gala in both the Expressive Music Artist/Group and Blues/Rock Artist/Group categories. His album also earned a 2022 GAMIQ nomination in the Hip-Hop Album category.

Quentin Condo came up with his stage name by combining the initial of his first name with 052 – the number assigned to his Indigenous First Nations community. Born and raised in Gesgapegiag, Gaspésie, and now based in Sherbrooke, Canada, Q052 is a fierce advocate for Indigenous peoples, particularly the struggles faced by youth and the protection of Indigenous women and girls. His father, also a musician, inspired him to pick up a guitar at age 3. With many family members involved in music, Q052 grew up surrounded by Irish, Mi’gmaq, and country songs, along with Catholic hymns from his time in US Catholic schools. Hip-hop is his true passion, however. Spending part of his life in the US and part on the reserve, he introduced hip-hop culture to his community, inspiring friends to breakdance and explore the genre.

Drawing from a kaleidoscope of influences – including Ty Segall, Immortal Technique, Cypress Hill, Black Sabbath, and Rage Against the Machine, amongst others – Q052 crafts a sound that is raw, searing and deeply political. On stage, Q052 channels this explosive energy into visceral performances that confront Indigenous identity, social justice, and personal struggle with unflinching honesty. His fusion of hip-hop, grunge, alternative rock and spoken word, wrapped in sharp, uncompromising lyricism, is sure to resonate with fans of other inspirations of his: Public Enemy, Run DMC, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

Q052 shared: “I’m super stoked to go over to the UK. The scene over there is raw and unapologetic, the punk scene is alive, it’s raw, people understand the concept of having to speak loud and to be real to ask for change. I hope it opens doors to go play with my whole band in the future!”

Q052 Upcoming Live Dates:

May 12th 2026 – Strongroom Bar – Canada House – London, UK – Tickets: info here
May 14th 2026 – The Brunswick – Brighton, UK – Tickets: info here
May 16th 2026 – The Great Escape – Brighton, UK – Tickets: info here

May 8, 2026

May 8, 2026May 8, 2026 Mew Zikwryder

Giora Charts New Territory with the Release of FREEWAY EP

Giora is a London-based artist whose work includes singing, songwriting, production, performance, creative direction and sound art. On May 1, they released the FREEWAY EP on their own label, Holypop. Giora began their musical training in North London with classical piano, voice and music theory, later joining bands as a teenager. They studied orchestral composition at Juilliard in New York, which shaped their self-taught approach to electronic production and led to their debut release in 2020. Their 2023 album It’s So Quiet But I Hear You, received strong support from CLASH Magazine and features in NOTION and Wonderland Magazine. Giora has performed with artists such as Isabella Lovestory, Varg, Babynymph, Elisabeth Elektra, Puce Mary, Kelora and Felix Lee, and at events including CREEPY TEEPEE Festival in the Czech Republic, KWIA in Berlin, Bike Jesus in Prague, and London venues such as Gossamer Fog, Spanners, The Divine and The Glory. They have created sound installations for exhibitions at Rich Mix and Stanley Arts, and run Holypop, a label that promotes live events for queer experimental artists from the UK and Europe.

The FREEWAY EP explores experimental pop, addressing themes of existentialism, liberation, personal power and truth. It is one of Giora’s most revealing works and will appeal to fans of Depeche Mode, SOPHIE and Charli XCX. Produced and mixed by Giora with Czech producer Oliver Torr, and mastered by Canadian composer Zac Tiessen, the record opens with the title track’s syncopated drums, swirling synths and deep bassline. It continues with ‘EARTHQUAKE,’ featuring rave-inspired synths and a sweeping soundscape, followed by the vulnerable ‘POWER CANDY’ with lush synths, a breakbeat chorus and guitar motif. The stripped-back ‘GOD’S GIFT’ precedes the centerpiece ‘LONG LIVE MUSIC,’ which uses 80s synths, commanding drums and a hypnotic melody to chart a personal journey to freedom through music. The EP concludes with ‘IN THE END,’ blending breakbeats, experimental electronica and trance to celebrate living beyond the binary.

Giora had this to say: “This EP is a statement piece about freedom, truth and love. The freeway is a promise of openness, travel, connection. It is an expression of human nature. Freedom is yours to build not at the expense of anyone or anything else. The free way is acceptance, transformation and the ability to be exactly as you please…staying real and holding your own power and doing it with love.“

Stream the Freeway EP:

Follow Giora:

Website – Instagram – Facebook – Soundcloud – TikTok – Youtube – Spotify

April 30, 2026

April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 Mew Zikwryder

Ollie Hunt Turns SPEEDY Into a Declaration of Pop Independence

Ollie Hunt does not want to walk forward; he wants to overtake in style. On ‘SPEEDY’, the Melbourne artist activates a fantasy of self-upgrade with glossy video-clip energy, a 2000s R&B pulse and an attitude that asks for no permission. The track moves with the confidence of someone who has already left doubt, emotional baggage and anyone unable to keep up firmly in the rear-view mirror.

The production has a flawless surface: tight drums, polished melodies and a hook built to linger after the first listen. There is something of Justin Timberlake’s sleek hedonism, Pharrell Williams’ rhythmic precision and the victorious coolness that connects with Tate McRae’s current pop universe. But Ollie Hunt does not simply copy references; he filters them through his own sensitivity, one that feels more confessional, more image-conscious and more aware of the emotional weight sitting beneath an apparently effortless pop song.

‘SPEEDY’ works because it turns “moving on” into a mental choreography. There is no excessive drama, no victimhood, no need to explain the wound. There is speed, style and a nearly cinematic confidence. It is a song about no longer justifying your growth to people who could not grow with you. Instead of looking back in anger, Hunt accelerates.

The context matters too. After the organic impact of ‘Running Back’, the growing reach of his EP Prelude and the strong response to ‘Ah!’, Ollie Hunt is starting to look like much more than a local promise. His world connects pop, fashion, vulnerability and global ambition with unusual clarity for an emerging artist. ‘SPEEDY’ does not just add another single to his catalogue; it points toward a sharper direction.

Stream ‘SPEEDY‘:

April 28, 2026

April 28, 2026April 28, 2026 Mew Zikwryder

MIN t Unveils ‘Last Day,’ a Vulnerable Electronic Prelude to ‘Before The After’

(MIN t / Image Credit: Wiktoria Rcyhlewski)

MIN t returns with ‘Last Day,’ released April 28 as the second single from her forthcoming album Before The After, out May 8. Now based in Berlin, the Polish-born producer and vocalist has built a formidable live reputation, supporting acts like HVOB, Angel Haze, Jess Glynne, and Vitalic, and performing over 300 shows at major festivals including Reeperbahn, Off Festival, Orange Warsaw, Open’er, and Y Not. Last autumn, she toured Europe alongside Saya Noé and OIEE, with stops in Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Wrocław, and Bochum. A Berklee College of Music alumna and the first Polish woman mentored by renowned engineer Susan Rogers, MIN t continues to carve out a distinct space in the electronic landscape.

Her 2021 album Shot To Pieces, co-produced with Leo Abrahams (Adele, Jon Hopkins, Brian Eno, Regina Spektor), marked a pivotal moment in her evolution. Classically trained from age seven in Wrocław, MIN t’s musical journey spans theatre, ballet, and a teenage immersion in jazz, electronic, pop, and soul. By sixteen, she was writing and performing in bands; by eighteen, she was self-producing in Ableton, forging a sound that resists genre boundaries and draws on influences from Aphex Twin and Autechre to Charli XCX, D’Angelo, FKA twigs, and Aretha Franklin.

Produced and mixed by MIN t, mastered by Conor Dalton, and co-written with her sister Patrycja Kubicz, ‘Last Day’ unfolds over swirling, breakbeat-inspired rhythms that avoid tipping into aggression. Drums ebb and flow beneath her silken vocals, lending weight to themes of mortality, destruction, and existential drift, yet imbuing them with a subtle sense of solace. The arrangement is carefully balanced: lyrics linger with the ennui of an ending both imminent and ongoing, while the production keeps the low end warm and the upper layers spacious, rendering the track intimate rather than catastrophic.

MIN t revealed: “The end of the world as we know it is approaching fast. Or maybe it’s already here? It’s easy to get lost in the flood of cruelty, disasters, and wars. They quickly become mundane, blending into one grotesque vision. Meanwhile, the illusion of comfort only serves as a reminder of our helplessness. The song ‘Last Day on Earth’ is about that very sense of boredom that refuses to fade, and about giving up the fight—even for one’s own survival.”

Stream ‘Last Day’: