$quib - Erring (2026)

"One of the most striking musical developments in recent years has been the emergence of a hyper-online, dopamine-overloaded, post-everything kind of music from the furthest-reaching corners of online music communities. With streaming algorithms increasingly condensing all music into an impersonal genreless mush, and genuine boundary-pushing music becoming more and more marginalized in the public sphere, sounds that not too long ago would have had zero sense of cohesion with one another have taken on an entirely different context.

$quib’s music fits in well with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink maximalism of their peers. On Erring, well-crafted pop songcraft can give way to glitched-out breakbeats and cascading noise, sometimes over the course of a single three minute song. But even in a community defined by heady experimentalism and personal idiosyncrasies, $quib feels like something different. There’s an underlying tension and anxiety perforating this music, a simple yearning to feel human in a time when every semblance of a shared humanity seems to be undercut at every turn.

Rather than wholeheartedly embracing chaos, Erring makes peace with its ebbs and flows. There’s a tactile, homespun element to its sonic patchwork, a sense of collage as a means of rolling with the changes and engaging the senses. Part of what makes this music so distinct is that it doesn’t feel like just a scream into the void. There’s a tangible sense of emotional resonance and vulnerability, especially in the vocals, that remains present regardless of how far-out things venture musically. It’s a thread that gives every individual sound its own sense of cohesion, without ever feeling like red meat for the phone-addicted.

One of my favorite descriptions of any piece of music comes from a sticker I read on a reissue of Richard Youngs’ Advent: “the apocalyptic outlook of an intense young man trapped in a season of hope.” Erring sounds nothing like that album, and I wouldn’t describe $quib’s outlook as apocalyptic per say. But the intensity, the weight of feeling everything, the compulsive desire to keep moving forward all feels true to life. It’s like a soul-bearing singer-songwriter album crafted from the smoldering remains of the fabric of reality, but with a persistent sweetness and melodic craftsmanship that makes it difficult not to love.”

- Levi Dayan (The Wire, The Quietus)