Daniel Land

Pearl Daddy, by Daniel Land 2 track album

For any shoegaze fans: happy to share my new concept single "Pearl Daddy", out today 🎶 Two companion tracks with a subtle Moroccan twist, pressed on white 7″ vinyl, with a 12-page booklet. Any listens gratefully received! And downloads available too of course! danielland.bandcamp.com/album/pearl-...

THIS.

Think of how bad things must be for a Supreme Court Justice to feel he has to explain why it's a good idea to have laws enacted by legislators instead of decreed by wannabe dictators

If the stats I get from my digital distributor are correct (reporting is a bit iffy from China) it seems they've got a few Spotify competitors over there that are state sanctioned, as it were. Even if there's underreporting, the fact that a couple of mine are on 1+ million streams blows my mind

Yeah, it's bonkers. Meanwhile I was sinking money into PR campaigns and radio plugging and seeing minimal returns in the UK / EU / USA, small uptick in Spotify etc. And this just happens out of nowhere. I don't think any of us Europeans truly comprehend the size of the Chinese economy right now!

James Wolcott · What you can get away with: Updike Reconsidered Betwixt and between is a strange place for any major writer to be more than a decade and a half after their death, and...

‘With the villainous Gore Vidal (said with utmost respect), there was never a falling out because there was never a falling in. He and Updike were never destined to compare notes on lady gardens.’

@jwolcott.bsky.social reads John Updike’s letters.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

https://open.substack.com/pub/statesofindependence/p/an-unexpected-return?r=4bh19&utm_medium=ios

I wrote about an unexpected side-note to giving up booze like a thousand years ago.

open.substack.com/pub/statesof...

‘It’s a nice surprise to be treated like kings!’ Why are mid-level British indie bands massive in China? My group, Swim Deep, plays to crowds of hundreds across the UK – but in China, we play to tens of thousands. And we’re not the only ones

I'd been thinking of writing something like this. Chinese audiences were mostly responsible for my previous album outselling x4 anything I've released before, and a handful of my tracks have racked up 1.2+ million streams on Chinese streaming services, all totally without promotion in the territory.

Second of two ambient albums I announced this weekend, and something for the Eno fans out there: a longform, 15-hour variation of the generative "A Secret Cove" composition that I released last year under my ambient side-project, riverrun. Details here: riverrun.bandcamp.com/album/a-secr...

For any ambient fans, I announced a couple of ambient albums this weekend: first up is the latest album by my droney guitar alias "Alan Lidden" (an anagram of my name!) here: alanlidden.bandcamp.com/album/the-no...

One of the best podcast episodes I've listened to in a good few years

Thanks for the spin 🙏♥️

COBWEBS AND STRANGE #441 [2026-01-21] Listen to COBWEBS AND STRANGE #441 [2026-01-21] by CobwebsAndStrange

Cobwebs And Strange Radio Show #441 is now available for your listening enjoyment - anytime night or day.

www.mixcloud.com/CobwebsAndSt...

David Runciman · Calling Dr Jekyll: What Kamala Harris got wrong Normally, being revealed as a hypocrite is kryptonite for a politician running for office. But Harris doesn’t know...

‘Harris claims she was bubbling with ideas to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. Yet most of the specific proposals she mentions relate to government positions and the people who might occupy them.’

David Runciman reads Kamala Harris’s campaign memoir.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Power of Poetry   with things falling apart and anarchy let loose,   it was only poetry, he found, which had any use,   so he reached for his copy   of The Complete Works of Yeats   and bludgeoned the President of the United States Brian Bilston

Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

Colm Tóibín · Yeats, Auden, Eliot: 1939, 1940, 1941 Who​ was English; who was American? If Auden was English, was T.S. Eliot American? Or was it the other way around?...

‘Auden, like Yeats before him, had begun to feel guilt over lines he himself had written, lines that began to haunt him – what he called “false emotions, inflated rhetoric, empty sonorities”. He strove instead to trust his gift.’

Colm Tóibín on Yeats, Eliot and Auden:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

@authorsmstevens.bsky.social shares her novel Beautiful & Terrible Things about a diverse cast of friends, social justice activities living in today's America. Plus a free short story & novelette cut from the book for you. buff.ly/m209fTg #booktalk #bi #queer #black #latino #filipino #socialjustice

Grammar nerd thought: perhaps once a month I smile thinking of how Leonard Cohen followed his album "Death of a Ladies’ Man" with his poetry volume "Death of a Lady’s Man". Quite envious of that: the sly humour in that apostrophe change. I often wish to do something similar with two of my releases 🙃

Thank you for the support 🙏😊

New Tracks Weekend, January 9-11, 2026 - DKFM Shoegaze Radio Didn't expect the whole bushel of new tracks for the weekend's festivities, and we got behind sorting and batching all of them! Headliners this weekend include Whitelands, Callière, Waving Blue, ghost girl in my bed, Scorche, Daniel Land, Sleep Keeper (pictured above), winter sun, mariin k., Crux of Faith. and glister. But there's so much

TONIGHT, and all weekend, we're spinning up Callière, Whitelands, Waving Blue, ghost girl in my bed, Sleep Keeper, Scorche, Daniel Land, Winter Sun, mariin k., Crux of Faith, Glister and more! 🥂

Thank you, sir! ☺️

I can genuinely highly recommend any release from Daniel, this is no different ⭐️

Daniel Land returns to share his concept single: Pearl Daddy. He wrote two singles that compliment each other and tell a love story with each track from one lover's perspective. We also discuss the North African influences that ghost into the music. buff.ly/UWTkBBj #music #gay #pearldaddy #bilal

For any shoegaze fans out there! I’ve just announced my latest release: a limited-edition 7-inch "Concept Single", exploring desire and queer middle age, inspired by writers like Forster, Burroughs & Ginsberg in North African locations, particularly Tangier: danielland.bandcamp.com/album/pearl-...

Be gentle… my @theguardian.com debut. All about levenslied.

Picture of a very cute black and white cat contentedly sleeping on the sofa with a blurry, out of focus Christmas tree in the background

Four fifths of a band in a break in rehearsals

Chris Thorpe, our drummer, adjusting his kit

Rob Sykes, our bass player, regarding a bass amp as big as he is...

Gary Bruce, our guitar player, dialling in just the right amount of reverb

Rehearsals, birthday edition, and band Christmas gathering. What a lovely day.

Keyboard sessions by the sea

There are worse places in the world to be putting the finishing touches to an album, that's for sure 😊

In all the many years I have been coming to West Somerset, this has been the sunniest and loveliest autumn I can remember.

David Runciman · Down the Rabbit Hole: Britain’s Europe Problem From Macmillan to Wilson to Heath to Thatcher to Major to Blair to Cameron, a succession of prime ministers persuaded...

‘A succession of prime ministers persuaded themselves that their country was somehow different from the rest: it could pick and choose from the menu of European options in the way that suited it best. They were all mistaken.’

David Runciman on the road to Brexit:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...