The Wire
Founded in 1982, The Wire is a monthly British music magazine, which initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music. Since then it has covered hip hop, modern classical, free improvisation, post-rock, and various forms of electronic music.
325 articles
List of articles in the library
Beaver and Krause: Bernie Krause: Invisible Jukebox
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, August 2014
Each month we play a musician or group a series of records which they are asked to identify and comment on — with no prior ...
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, August 2014
Frances Morgan on red zone psych jams, and rock's hybridised machine afterlife ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2023
New projects involving Quiet Sun alumni Charles Hayward and Phil Manzanera keep the art rock flag flying ...
Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, December 2022
YAO BOBBY IS a rapper based in Togo, West Africa; Simon Grab is a producer from Switzerland. ...
Ka5sh, Signor Benedick The Moor: Ka5sh: Ka5sh, Signor Benedick The Moor: Toybox
Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, July 2017
LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT label Deathbomb Arc continue their tireless mission to offer a distinct alternative to trap's dwindling returns with two startling releases from the ...
John Fahey, Loren Connors, Laurie Spiegel: Various Artists: The Lanthanides
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, January 2004
The Table Of The Elements label celebrates its tenth birthday with a specially engraved series of LPs from John Fahey, Loren Connors, Arnold Dreyblatt and ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, June 2015
GRASSCUT ARE NOT alone in introducing themes of time and place in their music, but they explore them more assiduously than most. ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Domenic Priore: Smile – The Story Of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece
Book Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, June 2005
THE STORY OF SMILE has been hauled up into the light and examined more closely since Brian Wilson's shock announcement, in 2003, of his intention ...
Mike Falana: Off the Afrobeat Track
Retrospective by Val Wilmer, The Wire, June 2019
In the 1960s quicksilver Nigerian trumpeter Mike Falana was a vital cog in groups led by Graham Bond and Johnny Burch — then he disappeared ...
Rashied Ali: Once Upon A Time In Williamsburg
Retrospective by Val Wilmer, The Wire, June 2020
In the early 1970s a number of progressive artists, musicians and activists came together to build a bridgehead for the black avant garde in a ...
Captain Beefheart: Dark Carnival
Memoir by Gary Lucas, The Wire, February 2011
THE FIRST TIME I ever encountered the name "Captain Beefheart" was in summer 1968, when I saw it emblazoned in red magic marker, hand-lettered on ...
Duncan Heining Equinox: Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers – British Jazz, 1960-1975
Book Review by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2013
IN 1971, TRUMPETER Kenny Wheeler walked into a studio, greeted bassist Ken Baldock, organist Harry Stoneham, composer Duncan Lamont and others, and laid down a ...
Moor Mother: The Motionless Present
Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, May 2017
COMMISSIONED BY The Vinyl Factory for the 2017 CTM Festival, The Motionless Present handily returns Moor Mother at just the point where the memories of ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1996
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Captain Beefheart: Booglarized Wonderland
Memoir by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2011
IN EVERY PERSON'S experience of listening to music come certain crucial challenges in learning how to actually hear. ...
Alan Lomax: John Szwed: The Man Who Recorded The World – A Biography Of Alan Lomax
Book Review by Rob Young, The Wire, February 2011
WHO'D BE A folk song collector? ...
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Subcontinental Drift
Report and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, May 1996
In this extended edition of our monthly survey of sounds from around the planet, David Toop reports from the teeming streets, temples and concert halls ...
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, August 2022
With a visionary new African based film, vocalist, poet and actor Saul Williams has found a place to explore the polyglot power of language and ...
June Tyson, Sun Ra: June Tyson: Saturnian Queen Of The Sun Ra Arkestra
Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, June 2020
JUNE TYSON WASN'T just a collaborator with Sun Ra for 25 years, she was an integral Afrofuturist presence in The Arkestra, the only woman in ...
Ducktails: Ducktails III – Arcade Dynamics
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, February 2011
REMEMBER HOW slack and casual early Pavement releases like Slanted And Enchanted seemed at the time? ...
This Heat: Gareth Williams memorial concert: 93 Feet East, London
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, April 2002
DEDICATED TO THE memory of Gareth Williams, who died of cancer in December last year, this concert was a far from formal affair. ...
Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, November 1991
Wire's reputation — as the foremost quartet of art-formalists to have come out of punk — has shrouded them in enigma. Now a three-piece, with ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2007
ONE OF THE most disarming aspects of Japanese group Ghost is that they make no bones about scattering Prog rock elements throughout their ritualistic psychedelia. ...
Steve Reich: Electronic meditations
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1996
In his sixtieth year, composer Steve Reich is still looking to the future, incorporating sampling, environmental sound and video art into the fabric of recent ...
David Sanborn: Blowing out of hand
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, August 1991
David Sanborn — is he or isn't he? Richard Cook is on the spot as the wild man of funk-pop goes (almost) straight-ahead! ...
Barry Adamson: Oedipus Schmoedipus (Mute CD STUMM 134 CD)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, August 1998
WITHOUT JOHN Barry, 007 would be an unfeasibly smug playboy prick without an iota of cool; without Bernard Herrmann, Travis Bickle would have been less ...
Brian Eno: A Year with Swollen Appendices (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by John L. Walters, The Wire, June 1996
NOTE: This is a "director's cut" version of John's review of Eno's book. ...
Obituary by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1991
Richard Cook reflects on the great trumpeter's passing. ...
Unmen: Music In Motion (Vinyl Japan LEBCD34 CD)
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1995
UNMEN MIX up field recordings with programmed grooves, guitar, piano, brass — anything that sounds right. This approach is not so strange, considering that leader ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 1998
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band: Between My Head And The Sky Chimera
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, September 2009
YOKO ONO has long been a pariah figure for many, in both the rock and art worlds. She's been perceived as a baleful influence who ...
Richie Hawtin: Immaculate consumption
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 1998
In his Plastikman guise, Richie Hawtin used to bomb the dancefloor with bullet-hard Techno. Now he seeks solace and inspiration in the minimal artwork of ...
Tarwater: Animals, Suns & Atoms
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, June 2000
ANIMALS, SUNS & Atoms, Tarwater's third and best album, fascinates for several reasons Initially, it's drummer/singer/producer Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram's singular Anglophilia. Songs such ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: A huge, ever pulsating brain
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, July 1998
Mark Sinker reopens the music vs technology debate with Robert Moog, who invented the portable modular synthesizer to give the world an ever expanding index ...
Cluster, Julian Cope, Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Harmonic Convergence
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, November 1996
When Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius met his number one fan Julian Cope, Rob Young was there to hear the exchange. But first, he spoke to Roedelius ...
Vinicius Cantuária, Arto Lindsay: Arto Lindsay and Vinicius Cantuária: Songs for modern lovers
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, April 1999
Arto Lindsay transformed himself from extreme noise guitarist into the age's most intimate lover through his archaeology of Brazilian modernism. Now working in tandem with ...
Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1994
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
ENDGAME ARE a trio from Leicester, featuring brothers Alan and Steven Freeman, with musician, engineer and designer Jim Tetlow. ...
Kemper Norton: Loor (Front & Follow)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, October 2014
SELF-ANOINTED slurtronic folkologist Kemper Norton’s music has been labelled mysterious, occult and uncanny, the last of these being his preferred description for the vivid sound ...
Aphex Twin, David Toop: Aphex Twin: transparent messages
Essay by Rob Young, The Wire, April 1995
Music is finding new ways to simulate dream states, the latest being the twilight zone sonic reveries of Richard James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin. Rob Young ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Who was that masked man?
Retrospective by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, June 2015
The Lone Ranger, Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef ride again as dancehall deejays. ...
Alessandro Raina: Colonia Paradi'es
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, January 2000
THIS SCRATCHY PLAINT from pastoral Italy makes other Big Releases sound fatally self-absorbed, and too much in thrall to reigning paradigms; its topography of smaller ...
Paul Weller: invisible jukebox: Paul Weller
Interview by Philip Watson, The Wire, October 1993
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they’re asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what they’re ...
Stereolab: Invisible Jukebox: Stereolab
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, October 1997
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Sunn O))) & Ulver: Terrestrials /Ulver: Messe I.X – VI.X
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2014
THE LAST TIME American drone lords Sunn O))) and Norwegian lycanthropes Ulver came together in the studio was in 2003 for 'CutWOODED' on the cowled ...
Comment by Frances Morgan, The Wire, May 2014
Compiling by gender can expand rather than reduce sonic horizons. ...
No Fun Festival: Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York City
Live Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, September 2009
THE SIXTH New York instalment of the No Fun Festival was probably the last one in the US for a while. "Although," advises organiser Carlos ...
Miles Davis: Richard Williams: The Blue Moment (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, August 2009
MILES DAVIS's Kind of Blue is probably the most popular jazz recording of all time, equally so among those who don't own any other jazz ...
Tisziji Muñoz: Alpha-Nebula — The Prophecies (Anami Music)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
FOR MANY, the name of New York born, Puerto Rican guitarist Tisziji Muñoz will be unfamiliar, so perhaps a brief summary of his career is ...
Town and Country: Up Above (Thrilljockey)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2006
FEATURING, AS EVER, an impressively antique array of instrumentation, including harmonium, cello, viola, handbells and string bass, Up Above is Town And Country's sixth release, ...
Frank Zappa: Kevin Courrier: Dangerous Kitchen – The Subversive World of Frank Zappa
Book Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 2003
SINCE HIS death from prostate cancer in 1993, Frank Zappa's history and collective improvisations have been celebrated and picked over by a horde of musicologists ...
Book Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2015
WYNDAM WALLACE was a publicist for the City Slang record label in the late 1990s and our paths crossed many times. My memory of him ...
Shirley Collins: The Power Of The True Love Knot (Fledg'ling)
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, January 2001
THE POWER OF THE TRUE LOVE KNOT is a marvellous collection and a landmark release in English folk. ...
Barbara Thompson: Major Barbara: saxophonist and bandleader
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, March 1992
Barbara Thompson reflects on life at the top of British jazz. ...
Kanye West: The Life Of Pablo (GOOD Music/Def Jam)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, April 2016
The seventh album by Kanye West dismantles the traditional concept of the album while laying bare its author's inner conflicts. ...
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, October 2015
Cassette culture veterans Storm Bugs look forward to fabricating the past ...
Paul Weller: Invisible Jukebox: Paul Weller
Interview by Philip Watson, The Wire, October 1993
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, March 2018
IN A MUSIC world in which no one disappears, and even the most negligible figures can be persuaded to break their post-fame incommunicado isolation if ...
William Basinski: Invisible Jukebox: William Basinski
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, September 2009
Each month we play a musician a series of records which they are asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of ...
Sananda Maitreya: Pandora's PlayHouse (TreeHouse)
Review by Michael A. Gonzales, The Wire, April 2021
YEARS BEFORE Terence Trent D'Arby renamed himself Sananda Maitreya, he was a mid-1980s sensation embraced by the UK pop media, the US alternative press, Black ...
Current 93: Invisible Jukebox: Current 93
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2001
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, November 2002
Byron Coley appraises more archive treasures of free jazz and Improv unearthed in Atavistic's ongoing Unheard Music Series. ...
Taku Sugimoto: Italia (A Bruit Secret)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, September 2001
David Toop praises guitarist Taku Sugimoto's clerical era ...
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2007
It might feature a mad king's castle on its cover, but the first Pole LP in four years is a garden of abstract funk delights, ...
Keiji Haino: Experimental Mixture (Black Smoker)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2014
HAINO'S FIRST DJ mix album slipped out late in 2013 on Japanese label Black Smoker, followed by a further three CD set of mixes, In ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Wire, November 2015
The outsider electronics of Devo broke the Ramonic template of 1977 punk, says Jon Savage ...
Gary Lucas: Invisible Jukebox: Gary Lucas
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2001
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
John Sinclair: Invisible Jukebox: John Sinclair
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, January 2003
John Sinclair — poet, journalist and former manager of 60s revolutionary rockers The MC5 — was born in Flint, Michigan in 1941. His father worked ...
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme: The Complete Masters (USM/Impulse/Verve)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, November 2015
The complete session of the landmark John Coltrane album underlines the solemn rigour of the ritual. ...
Obituary by David Toop, The Wire, February 2005
David Toop laments the passing of a meticulous British improvisor and instrument builder ...
John Foxx: London Overgrown (Metamatic)
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2015
FASCINATED BY ruin and dereliction as a result of temporal processes, John Foxx has been filming, photographing and exploring London with what you could call ...
Marvin Gaye: Inner Sleeve: Marvin Gaye's I Want You (Tamla)
Comment by Michael A. Gonzales, The Wire, August 2018
This month's artwork chosen by Michael A Gonzales. Cover painting by Ernie Barnes ...
David Sylvian: The Good Son vs the Only Daughter: The Blemish Remixes (Samadhisound)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2005
2003's BLEMISH was a significant improvement on David Sylvian's previous album, the far from mediocre Dead Bees On A Cake. ...
Gary Lucas: Improve The Shining Hour: Rare Lumiere 1980–2000 (Knitting Factory)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, June 2000
THE GLITTERING career of US guitarist Gary Lucas has inevitably become overshadowed by the work he produced for Captain Beefheart during the early 80s on ...
Animal Collective, Ariel Pink: Animal Collective and Ariel Pink: Faun fables
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2005
Drawing on psychedelia's childlike bliss and Techno's electronic transmutations, Animal Collective have developed a uniquely woozy soundworld, winning over audiences with their shamanistic live presence. ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2001
For 20 years, Mike Harding and Jon Wozencraft's audiovisual Touch label has refused to dumb down its message of complexity in jouissance ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, January 2002
Born gritty "THE MANY and varied musical backgrounds of the current Sand line-up lead the group to argue violently at length about compositional and performance ideas, ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
"KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD period was sort of like when Miles went electric," enthuses jazz percussionist Gregg Bendian about the inspirational force behind his improvised tribute ...
Music Blues: Things Haven't Gone Well Thrill (Jockey)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2014
THE 2006 resurrection of Athens, Georgia doom rockers Harvey Milk was a cause for celebration among those who had faithfully followed the group's precarious career, ...
David Toop: Jeff Noon & David Toop: Needle In The Groove (Sulphur)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2000
AT A CERTAIN point in my journey through Jeff Noon and David Toop's shapeshifter alliance — an ingeniously treated setting of Noon's latest novel — ...
Otomo Yoshihide: Invisible Jukebox: Otomo Yoshihide
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2000
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Guide by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2016
Channelling the magick of Aleister Crowley and the neo-paganism of witchcraft, occult rock is the sound of rock 'n' roll's secret society. Edwin Pouncey reads ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2000
Fusing traditional musics and puppet displays, Heri Dono's extraordinary installations and sculptures satirise the trashed landscape of Indonesia. ...
Björk: Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2015
The grand drama of the latest Björk album reveals command of texture and mood as her survival mechanism. ...
Mica Levi: Loving the Alien: Mica Levi
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, February 2015
As a member of Micachu And The Shapes, Mica Levi was an archetypal underground pop star — then she wrote the soundtrack to Under The ...
Live Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 2000
LONDON's Ninja Tune label celebrated their first decade in the flirty, flighty, faddish, fickle world of UK dance with Xen Cuts — three consecutive nights ...
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, March 2000
23 years after their art attack first outpaced punk audiences, Wire have sprung back into action. Ian Penman meets the group in rehearsal and finds ...
Klara Lewis: Happy Accidents: Klara Lewis
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2016
The open canvases of Klara Lewis explore a landscape of found sounds, re-recordings, pop songs and audio byproducts. By Frances Morgan. ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2005
RICHTER 858 begins explosively with guitar, violin, viola and cello producing an atonal storm akin to George Crumb's Black Angels. This cedes to slow guitar ...
Retrospective by Ian Penman, The Wire, October 2000
Ian Penman celebrates the late Jack Nitzsche, the rogue composer whose soundtrack legacy reads like a rollcall of the Hollywood damned. ...
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2000
ANYONE DISILLUSIONED with rap should cock an ear to the sounds leaking out from under the bunker doors of Brooklyn's Wordsound collective. The Crooklyn crew ...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Yanqui UXO (Constellation)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2002
Veering between swarming guitar symphonies and Messiaenic tranquillity, Canadian refuseniks Godspeed You! Black Emperor are learning to love the bomb... not. ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Boxed Set (East Side Digital ESD 81422 4xCD)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, December 1999
GOD KNOWS, there are enough CDs out there that clamour to be recognised as expressions of posthuman synthesis and the 21st century Zeitgeist. Then a ...
Vladislav Delay: Against the grain
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2000
"I'm quite a moody person and I like blue music," says Vladislav Delay, the enigmatic 23 year old musician from Helsinki, and the latest prodigy ...
Robbie Basho: Visions of the Country (Gnome Life)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, January 2014
ROBBIE BASHO's singing is sometimes written about as if it's a rather regrettable aspect of his work. ...
Chrome: Half Machine From The Sun (King of Spades)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, January 2014
CHROME's Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves were released in 1978 and 1979, which makes them contemporaries of Mad Max, Philip K Dick's VALIS, ...
Matato'a: Global Ear: Easter Island
Report by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, March 2000
A survey of sounds from around the planet. This month … Easter Island ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Faces and Windows: Asian Dub Foundation
Profile and Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, January 2003
Community, collectivism, connection are keywords in Asian Dub Foundation's irresistible assaults on cultural apathy. From their Community Music roots they have established a broad popular ...
Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man: Out of Season
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, December 2002
Lighting out for a rural retreat, Portishead singer Beth Gibbons and ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb fashion a pastoral strain of folk rock. ...
The Soft Pink Truth: Why Do The Heathen Rage? (Thrill Jockey)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2014
I ONCE SAW Drew Daniel in his Soft Pink Truth guise provoke such a negative response from an audience member that he must have been ...
The Stooges: Heavy Liquid (Easy Action)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, October 2005
ASSEMBLED FROM a back catalogue of previously released sessions, rehearsals and various recording ephemera circa (1972–74) from what many believed to be The Stooges' last ...
Christian Marclay: djTRIO (Asphodel)
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, January 2005
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY's djTRIO is a changeable turntablist threesome with himself as the constant. The seven tracks here document seven different improvisations in as many locations. ...
Chet Baker, Jan Erik Vold: Jan Erik Vold & Chet Baker: Telemark Blue (Hot Club)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, March 2011
SO MANY paradoxes with Chet: a man who became a visual icon, but couldn't care less about his appearance; a man whose music was all ...
Harold Budd: Invisible Jukebox: Harold Budd
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, January 1997
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Sigur Rós: Desolation Angels: Icelandic music
Report and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, January 2001
Spearheaded by Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and the Kitchen Motors collective, Iceland’s hardy children of nature are proving stubbornly resistant to the World Rock ...
Radiohead: Walking on Thin Ice
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2001
Radiohead may be one of the biggest groups on the planet, but their dissenting voice and exploratory studio techniques conflict with the commercial pressure to ...
Fern Knight: Music For Witches And Alchemists
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2007
ON FIRST LISTENING, Music For Witches And Alchemists sounds like a richly melodic, if somewhat lightweight, set occupying a point in the musical spectrum somewhere ...
Stephen Malkmus, Pavement: Stephen Malkmus: Invisible jukebox
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2001
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Harold Budd, Cocteau Twins, Andy Partridge: Harold Budd: Sonic archaeologist
Profile and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, June 1994
What unearthly music is Harold Budd exhuming now? ...
Report by Jason Gross, The Wire, March 2001
A monthly survey of sounds from around the planet ...
Captain Beefheart: The Captain's Conjurors: The Magic Band
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, April 2003
With the 1982 LP Ice Cream For Crow, the legendary Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, laid the final incarnation of his Magic Band back ...
Add N to (X): Invisible Jukebox: Add N to (X)
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, November 2000
Every month we play a musician or group a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge ...
Timothy Day: A Century Of Recorded Music – Listening To Musical History (Yale University Press)
Book Review by David Toop, The Wire, February 2001
BANISH RECORDED MUSIC and 41 pages, including record company advertisements, vanish from the pages of last month's Wire. Erase any evidence, awareness or memory of ...
D'Angelo and the Vanguard: Black Messiah
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, February 2015
Soul revivalist D'Angelo channels voices of funk music's past but ends up lost in limbo. ...
Bill Laswell, Carlos Santana: Bill Laswell/Carlos Santana: Divine Light (Columbia Legacy)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
IN 1997, PRODUCER Bill Laswell was granted access to Columbia's tape vaults where, using the original masters, he put together Panthalassa, his devoted reconstruction of ...
Lester Bangs: Loud Bangs and Bestial Noises
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 2001
In the 20 years since Lester Bangs wrote his 'Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise', the multi-mediated world has largely assimilated the hostile sounds he espoused. ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 2000
Pole music combines glitch electronics with the cyclonic eddies of dub. In London, Rob Young meets its creator, Stefan Betke, to uncover a secret life ...
Robert Wyatt: Mid-Eighties (Rough Trade R2952 CD)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 1993
AT TIMES during the last ten years you might have wondered why Robert Wyatt didn't simply junk music and park outside supermarkets; his solemn Spartist ...
Shirley Collins: False True Lovers (Fledg’ling)
Review by Ken Hunt, The Wire, August 2001
FALSE TRUE LOVERS captures a vital contributor to the English folksong revival at a key stage in her development. ...
HIM, Doug Scharin: HIM: Our Point of Departure
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2000
DOUG SCHARIN certainly has the alchemists touch in assembling and directing groups of excellent musicians. ...
Laurie Anderson: Invisible Jukebox: Laurie Anderson
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2001
MOST PEOPLE first heard about Laurie Anderson when her 1980 single, 'O Superman', an eight minute voiceloop and vocoder incantation, reached number two in the ...
Streaming: The Inessential Collection
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, January 2020
The explosion of music streaming platforms in the 2010s makes Mark Sinker yearn to get back off the grid ...
Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Vol. 21 and Vol. 22 & View from the Vault II
Review by Ken Hunt, The Wire, August 2001
THE TWO latest Dick's Picks documents present live Grateful Dead shows from February 1968 (Vol. 22) and November 85 (Vol. 21), while the second in the ...
Merzbow, Richard Pinhas: Richard Pinhas & Merzbow: Paris 2008 and Rhizome (Cuneiform)
Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, October 2011
THE CONCEPT of French avant Prog guitarist Richard Pinhas and Japanese Noise king Merzbow playing together may not seem like the most natural pairing. But ...
Frank Black: Frank Black (4AD CAD 3004 CD/MC/LP)
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, April 1993
PUNCH ME out if I mention The Pixies more than twice. Times have changed and Black Francis wants us to call him Frank Black. This ...
Colin Newman, Wire: Invisible Jukebox: Colin Newman
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, April 2003
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
John Cage: David Grubbs: Records Ruin The Landscape – John Cage, The Sixties And Sound Recording
Book Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2014
JOHN CAGE can always be relied upon for a good quote. Here an apparently lighthearted comment, in which the composer compares sound recordings to postcards ...
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, November 2003
It's been a long trip for Richard D James, the notorious and misunderstood figure behind the Aphex Twin and co-founder of the Rephlex label. As ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2014
"AM I blowing this guy's mind with this bullshit?" Ariel Pink joked to his friend during an Invisible Jukebox interview (The Wire 309), held at ...
John Martyn: Couldn't Love You More (Permanent CD9)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 1993
JOHN MARTYN has roamed his own byways, apparently lost in a mythic search whose obstacles were all his own devising — only he knew the ...
Lily Greenham, Daphne Oram: Daphne Oram: Oramics/Lily Greenham: Lingual Music (Paradigm Discs)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, March 2007
David Toop recovers past visions of the future from the audio fragments of two English women in experimental music ...
Cut Hands: Festival Of The Dead (Blackest Ever Black)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, November 2014
THE SHOCK WAVES generated by Cut Hands' 2011 album Afro-Noise (Volume 1) have long dissipated. Ritualistic electronic music built around African drum rhythms is now ...
Not Not Fun label: New Age Outlaws
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 2011
Britt and Amanda Brown are the husband and wife team behind LA's Not Not Fun label, focal point of a networked international underground that includes ...
Book Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, May 2000
HIP HOP NEEDS its users' manuals. How many of the millions who bought their in-vogue Fugees CD, say, could untangle the dialectic that daisychains together ...
David Toop: Tokyo without a map
Report by David Toop, The Wire, May 2000
Sonic Boom curator David Toop visits the Japanese capital to network with a gaggle of young electronic sound artists, and finds the megalopolis as perplexing ...
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, September 2000
IS THERE any point in anyone trying to recast the lassitudinous spacesail of Tim Buckley? As a singer, Buckley belongs to the Eternal(s), so aren't ...
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2007
THE LYRIC to the title track of LCD Soundsystem's latest album is more of a mantra: "The sound of silver/Makes you want to be a ...
Report and Interview by Don Watson, The Wire, September 2002
A survey of sounds from around the planet. This month: Don Watson travels deep inside Russia’s Volga Basin to eavesdrop on the region’s new electronica ...
Neneh Cherry: Blank Project (Smalltown Supersound)
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, February 2014
NENEH CHERRY's re-emergence as a solo artist has been a long, gradual process. ...
George Russell: The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2011
THE LYDIAN Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organisation is seldom invoked these days, but jazz composer George Russell's theoretical attempt to lift jazz up and away ...
Folk music field recordings in the British Isles
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, September 2014
Various Artists: The Barley Mow: Field Recordings And A Film Made In Suffolk In The 1950s Various Artists/Topic /The Flax In Bloom: Traditional Songs, Airs ...
JPEGMAFIA x Freaky: The Second Amendment (Deathbomb Arc)
Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, January 2017
TIME AGAIN for hiphop to look beyond its normal loci of national and international significance and focus on those scenes so cut off from the ...
Toro y Moi: Underneath The Pine (Carpark)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 2011
HAVE YOU noticed? Pop music sounds shit these days. ...
Jazzanova: Remixes 1997–2000 (Jazzanova Compost)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 2000
IF YOU LISTEN forward from mid-90s Adam F to late 90s Shy FX to early noughties Hospital Recordings, it immediately becomes apparent that 'jazziness' in ...
The Clash, King Tubby, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae: Back to the Roots
Essay by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, September 2000
According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...
Jimi Tenor: Out Of Nowhere (Warp)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, September 2000
SOMETIMES YOU just need a Song: one that makes you feel electric angels are sitting on your shoulder and whispering arcane formulae of timeless Passion ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 1995
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Mick Harvey: Alta Marea & Vaterland (Mute IONIC 6 CD)
Review by Biba Kopf, The Wire, April 1993
A STRONG silent type, Mick Harvey is the unsung hero of The Birthday Party and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. He also guided the neglected Crime ...
Review by David Toop, The Wire, February 1993
ALWAYS PREJUDGE the intentions of a piece of music by its title. The judgement may not be entirely fair, yet its accuracy is frequently uncanny. ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, March 1996
Depending on your point of view, American group Tortoise are either cutting edge avant rock, or ponderous Prog revivalists. Either way, the buzz generated by ...
Grateful Dead, John Oswald: John Oswald: Rites of the Living Dead
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, December 1995
Following the death of Jerry Garcia, John Oswald's Grayfolded, a digital reworking of the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star', has assumed new, ghostly qualities. ...
Godflesh: Invisible Jukebox: Justin Broadrick
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, September 2014
JUSTIN BROADRICK was born in 1969 in Birmingham. Raised by his mother and stepfather, he was exposed to underground music at an early age and formed ...
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1991
OH. EVERYTHING hasn't quite changed, after all. Frith's excellent retrospective last year, Step Across The Border, seemed to demonstrate how much more New York and ...
Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer: Giorgio Moroder: Throbbery With Intent
Retrospective and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, April 1992
David Toop takes the pulse of disco pioneer GIORGIO MORODER ...
Melvin Gibbs, Power Tools, Sonny Sharrock: Sonny Sharrock & Melvin Gibbs: New York Is Now
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, March 1990
Guitar and bass tune up for the next wave of sonic assault, from Blind Willie's blues to M-BASE and beyond. Our man behind the amps ...
Lightnin' Rod: Great Recordings: Lightnin' Rod — Hustler's Convention
Retrospective by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, October 1993
In 1973, Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets changed his name to Lightnin' Rod and recorded Hustler's Convention, the first Blaxploitation audiodrama. Kodwo Eshun recalls ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2009
THIS COMPREHENSIVE collection of Teenage Jesus And The Jerks recordings features 'Orphans' and 'Less Of Me', both sides of their debut single for Charles Ball’s ...
Overview by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, December 1992
Kodwo Eshun digs up the history of Clubland UK, from Boodles to Style Wars to all-day nights on the Cybernet. * ...
Matthew Herbert: The Body Politician
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2003
If electronica constructed entirely from sampled body parts, stacked recordings of falling telephone directories or the noise of domestic appliances hasn't already established that utopian ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Traffic From Paradise (Geffen GED24602 CD/MC/LP)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, November 1993
RICKIE LEE Jones continues on her own singular way, making records which will not reap her the Four Non Blondes audience, will not return her ...
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, July 2000
Before their drums fell silent, 23 Skidoo’s percussion-heavy apocalypses ripped away the city’s civilised surface to reveal its primitive heart. Now the long wait is ...
Björk: Alone in the Dark: Björk on Vespertine
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, September 2001
Björk's eerie night songs are infused with the mythological landscapes of her native Iceland and the concrete fjords of Manhattan. She tells David Toop about ...
J Dilla, Slum Village: Slum Village: Fantastic Volume II (Wordplay/Source)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, June 2000
THE DEBUT album from Slum Village (aka Detroit trio Jay Dee, Baatin and TB) has had a three-year delivery, protracted by label mergers and unexplained ...
Robert Wyatt: Orchestra National De Jazz & Robert Wyatt: Around Robert Wyatt (Bee Jazz)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, July 2009
ROBERT WYATT has become more and more an object of attention and devotion with the passing of time, as if taking on the status of ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
THE RESURGENCE of Destroy All Monsters, the Detroit artists' collective group made up of founder members Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren, owes much ...
De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate (Big Life BLRCD 25 CD/MC/LP)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 1993
ALTERED STATES ...
Dagmar Krause: Invisible Jukebox: Dagmar Krause
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2016
Each month we play a musician or group a series of records which they are asked to comment on — with no prior knowledge of ...
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2006
"ONE AVANT GARDE child prodigy, two indie guitar nerds and one hard rock borderline metal drummer thrown together in a filthy basement studio in Brooklyn," ...
Pauline Oliveros: No Mo (Pogus)
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, August 2001
MADE AT Mills Tape Music Centre in California and the University of Toronto, Pauline Oliveros's 1965–67 electronic work includes I-V Of lV, Bye Bye Butterfly, ...
Eric Dolphy: Naima (Jazzway); Vintage Dolphy (ENJA)
Review by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1987
Naima (Jazzway MUTT-1502) ...
Chet Baker, Terry Riley: Terry Riley: The Gift (Organ of Corti)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
TO DATE, Organ of Corti's important release programme of rare and previously released material from master minimalist Terry Riley has been a somewhat frustrating exercise ...
wire200.net/minehost: Brainwashed.com
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, October 2000
Webmaster Jon Whitney controls Brainwashed.com, a central hub for music's outsider tendency, hosting sites for World Serpent, Tortoise, Kid606 and more. ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson, Last Exit: Ronald Shannon Jackson: A Jackson In Your House
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, January 1988
Lone-star sticksman Ronald Shannon Jackson — the percussive power behind Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Power Tools and Last Exit — plays rough with ...
Book Review by David Toop, The Wire, September 2000
THE REVOLUTIONARY tango music of Argentinian composer and bandoneon virtuoso Astor Piazzolla is one of the great treasures of 20th century art. ...
Dismember, N.W.A: Art on Trial
Comment by David Toop, The Wire, April 1993
By downplaying or ridiculing the potential impact of extreme artforms such as death metal and hardcore HipHop, do the defences in censorship trials call into ...
Laurie Anderson: Epiphanies: Laurie Anderson
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2000
Laurie Anderson tells Rob Young how a great white whale lured her towards her latest revelations ...
A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service (Epic)
Review by Michael A. Gonzales, The Wire, January 2017
With their secretly recorded sixth and final album, A Tribe Called Quest address the state of their nation with fury, humour and love. ...
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, November 1989
THERE'S PREJUDICE and there's prejudice, but answer me this — what kind of a narrow soundworld do you have to be living in for the ...
Albert Ayler: My Name is Albert Ayler
Retrospective by Richard Cook, The Wire, January 1988
Still misunderstood and neglected, the man who took jazz saxophone to its furthest limits awaits a new appreciation. Richard Cook offers a personal view. ...
Common: Black America Again (Def Jam/ARTium CD/DL)
Review by Michael A. Gonzales, The Wire, January 2017
HARKING BACK to the late 1960s/early 70s protest pop when The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron led the rhythmic revolution with powerful poetics soaked in ...
Flavor Flav, Tupac Shakur, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Hip Hop: Trials and Errors
Report by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, March 1994
Three of Hip Hop's major stars — Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2 Pac and Flavor Flav — are preparing to face various charges of attempted murder ...
Miles Davis: Teo Macero: Thoughts of Chairman Teo
Interview by Max Jones, The Wire, November 1984
TEO MACERO is best known as the producer of dozens of classic Miles Davis LPs, from Sketches Of Spain to Star People. Here he talks ...
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, January 2008
THE RELEASE of Burial's second album Untrue chimes in well with the coming of British winter, as the air turns chill and dirty, the days ...
Tricky: Pre-Millennium Tension (Fourth & Broadway BR 623 CD/MC/LP)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, October 1996
ANY MUSICIAN who debuts at creative boiling point is going to slap into problems before too long. A couple of years of press saturation, blind ...
Evan Parker: Invisible Jukebox: Evan Parker
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2000
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Can: Ulrich Adelt: Krautrock: German Music In The Seventies (University of Michigan Press)
Book Review by Rob Young, The Wire, April 2017
AS ULRICH ADELT points out in his introduction to this sweeping survey of German music, there have been relatively few books on krautrock, even fewer ...
John Cage, Keith Rowe: Seriously funny
Comment by David Stubbs, The Wire, June 2005
David Stubbs on discovering that humour and music do mix ...
Live Review by Rob Young, The Wire, September 1997
AH, A DUMBSHOW — now that's entertainment. In the middle of the floor in the largest of the Ministry Of Sound's three shapeless spaces, the ...
James Brown: James Brown By James Brown with Bruce Tucker (Sidgwick & Jackson, £12.95)
Book Review by Cynthia Rose, The Wire, November 1987
JAMES BROWN is the Andy Warhol of sound — it's just not possible to imagine modern music without him. Nor could there be a more ...
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, January 1988
In this rare interview, Europe's leading label boss explains exactly what ECM stands for. ...
Book Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2000
THIS BOOK — a book I was avid to read, whose subject I revere; whose life is a gift to any halfway capable biographer — ...
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, May 2000
ON THE FACE of it, Stefan Betke is producing a very samey, so-what? music; compared to some modern millenarians, the bunker dub he releases under ...
Column by Jason Gross, The Wire, December 2000
Jason Gross finds MP3 newsgroups are the way to sidestep Napster. ...
Evan Parker, Keith Rowe: Keith Rowe: Harsh, Guitar Solo; Evan Parker/Keith Rowe: Dark Rags
Review by David Toop, The Wire, December 2000
"AFTER SEVERAL years of bizarre playing in a sort of anti-jazz style that always ill-suited his supposed role of rhythm guitarist, Rowe now seems on ...
HIM, Doug Scharin: Doug Scharin: His Imperial Majesty
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2000
Doug Scharin's masterful polyrhythms provide the pulsing backbone for groups such as Rex, Codeine and Out In Worship, as well as his own outfit HIM. ...
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, December 2003
THIS IS THE soundtrack by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood to a unique film directed by Simon Pummell. It traces the journey from birth to death ...
Book Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, March 2016
THE LATE Bob Cobbing was an extraordinary individual. People, especially Americans such as myself, tend to be familiar with just one aspect of his long ...
Gary Lucas: Guitars and Monsters
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, June 1998
Former Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas might not have fulfilled his childhood ambition to become a vampire, but in wielding his avant-roots-noise music like a stiletto, ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2000
WITH THEIR FOURTH album Kid A, Oxford quintet Radiohead have caused a tsunami-sized wave of confusion by breaking with stadium rock orthodoxy to exhibit an ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2000
FEW MUSICIANS have fully understood how to make effective use of feedback in improvised music. If anybody can crank up their output and return part ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 2000
MARTIN REV might not be toppling too many new barriers, but the rhythmic and lyrical ghosts he summons up have an indefinable, haunting quality. ...
Marissa Nadler: Death Becomes Her
Profile and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2005
IN THE BACK of a small pub in South London, surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers, Marissa Nadler tunes up her acoustic 12-string guitar ...
Richard Meltzer: A Whore Just Like The Rest (Da Capo)
Book Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
"I'M FAT, I drink too much. I feel grey, I feel old, I am old. This could be my last book," is how writer, critic, ...
Dean Roberts: Lost City Rambler
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, April 2004
"I LIKE TO get songs to find their place in the air and sort of float there," says Dean Roberts, who began his career in ...
Lee Hazlewood: 13/The Cowboy And The Lady (Smells Like)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2000
LEE HAZLEWOOD is not one of those cult objects who, on closer inspection, looks like a frail talent protected by decades of vinyl scarcity and ...
Live Review by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2000
ZORN'S BACK: that part of his anatomy, clad in a casual red pullover above yellow-flecked combat slacks, is, in fact, what is presented to the ...
Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi (Warp)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, April 2002
LIKE YOU, NO doubt, I'm a sucker for what Marshall McLuhan called "participation mystique". ...
Epiphanies: Mr. Jazz and 'Coarse Fish'
Memoir by Byron Coley, The Wire, October 2002
In 1974, TV's 'Mr Jazz' threw a switch that scrambled Byron Coley's brain with the DIY cut-ups of Orchid Spangiafora. ...
Arthur Russell: The Flying Heart
Retrospective by David Toop, The Wire, January 2004
Arthur Russell is the great enigma of New York's music scene. A cellist, Buddhist and former music director at the legendary Kitchen, he was seduced ...
Ash Ra Tempel, Coil, Julian Cope: Julian Cope's Cornucopea: South Bank Centre, London
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
BILLED AS "a festival of plenty" by its curator Julian Cope, the two nights spent in the company of his various label mates, old mates ...
Devo: Jade Dellinger & David Giffels: Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!
Book Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, December 2003
DEPENDING ON which side of the critical fence you were standing at the time, '70s art rock group Devo from Akron, Ohio were either "the ...
The High Llamas: High Llamas: Harmonies Don't Hurt
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, October 1999
"THERE IS A fear that pop music instils in a certain bunch of people, because they can't deal with tunes," says Sean O'Hagan, leader of ...
Konono No. 1: Konono No 1: Congotronics
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2005
IN AFRICA, corrupt and irresponsible governance has led some of the continent's most prominent modern musicians to cast themselves as surrogate leader figures — think ...
Memoir by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 2002
Well, there are worse ways of making a living. Richard Cook tells how a compulsive jones for collecting records — only partly sated by music ...
Bill Fay: Tomorrow Never Knows
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2005
AFTER MAKING TWO OF THE FINEST BUT OVERLOOKED APOCALYPTIC SINGER-SONGWRITER ALBUMS OF THE EARLY 70S — WITH JAZZ ARRANGER MIKE GIBBS AND FREE GUITARIST RAY ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, September 1999
Every month we play a musician a series of recordswhich they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what they're ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 2000
Now living by the sea, Coil tap the tidal flows and lunar tugs shaping England's occult history for their visionary nocturnal music. ...
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, July 1999
Since unburdening himself of Swans' legacy of extreme body music, Michael Gira has aspired to a state of grace with his new group, Angels Of ...
Review by Rob Chapman, The Wire, May 2006
IN DECEMBER 1972, when the late Ian MacDonald wrote the first authoritative, and still near-definitive, guide to German experimental rock for NME he sorted the ...
Review by David Toop, The Wire, June 2003
With contributions from Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz, David Sylvian's new record is his most adventurous departure yet. ...
Book Review by Rob Young, The Wire, July 2005
PRACTICALLY EVERY city in Britain has a roster of musical hod carriers with appalling names. This exhaustive history of Sheffield's music scene is crammed with ...
Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Volume 16: Fillmore Auditorium 11/8/69 (Grateful Dead GD4036 3XCD)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
ALTHOUGH GRATEFUL Dead tape archivist Dick Latvala died last year, his guiding hand still pushes along the project that carries his name. That Grateful Dead ...
Band of Susans, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth and the Blast First axis
Retrospective by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2013
A previously unpublished essay by David Stubbs, on Paul Smith's Blast First label and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's Sonic Youth. ...
Blacksand: Black Widow Russian Submarine, Medway River (near Strood), UK
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2008
LIFE ON A U475 Hunter-Killer submarine must have been tough, even during the Cold War. ...
John Fahey: Blood on the Frets
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 1998
The original American Primitive, John Fahey's raw mixes of blues, folk and musique concrete embody the spirit of American alternative music. But during the 60s ...
Book Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1999
OF THE alliance at the heart of the original Velvet Underground, John Cale writes: "We hated everybody and everything. Other musicians were viewed as competition. ...
Sunn O))): Invisible Jukebox: Sunn O)))
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 2004
EVERY MONTH WE PLAY A MUSICIAN A SERIES OF RECORDS WHICH THEY ARE ASKED TO IDENTIFY AND COMMENT ON WITH NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT ...
Jem Finer, The Pogues: Cross Platform: Jem Finer
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, May 2004
Sound in other media. This month: David Toop talks to Jem Finer about his transition from banjo plucking with The Pogues to computer-decomposed improvisations and ...
Report by Chris Campion, The Wire, March 1996
ALIGHTING FROM the famed Marrakech Express, Frank Rynne, Joe Ambrose and myself were hustled into an illegal taxi. It careered along Boulevard Mohamed V, the ...
Steve Reich: Barbican Hall, London
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2005
ANTICIPATION WAS high at Ensemble Modern's UK premiere of Steve Reich's new piece, You Are (Variations), which earned enthusiastic press when first performed in the ...
Suicide: Invisible Jukebox: Suicide
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, March 1998
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Waiting For The Sun by Barney Hoskyns (Viking)
Book Review by Richard Cook, The Wire, July 1996
The darkside of LA music ...
Retrospective by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 1999
In the latest in our series uncovering the hidden wiring of 20th century music, Edwin Pouncey shows how rock 'n' roll's face was changed forever ...
Silver Apples: Oscillate Wildly
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 1997
After 30 years of universal neglect, New York's Silver Apples are finally getting recognition for their pioneering electronic rock. ...
Radiohead: Amnesiac (Parlophone CDFHEIT45101 CD/MC/2XLP)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2001
Radiohead's Amnesiac pursues the detours into electronica essayed on last year's Kid A, but Ian Penman's world remains unrocked ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 1999
IN THE 1960s Brazil declared war on rock 'n' roll. Any popular music betraying American or English influences — and that included the use of ...
Memoir by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2004
David Stubbs recalls early arousals caused by Faust's "wonderful wooden reason". ...
David Sylvian: Life in the Beehive
Report and Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1989
DAVID SYLVIAN sits back and thinks about the work. "There are evident failures and occasional successes, but my opinion of the work doesn't change much. ...
Pink Floyd: Epiphanies: Ummagumma
Memoir by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1998
For Mike Barnes, life would have been a bummer, were it not for Ummagumma. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 1997
Now into his fifth decade at the doors of perception, label boss ALAN DOUGLAS hasworked with many of the century's underground greats, from Lenny Bruce, ...
Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane: Alice Coltrane: Enduring Love
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 2002
AFTER HER KEY ROLE IN JOHN COLTRANE'S ECSTATIC JAZZ EXPERIMENTS OF THE LATE 60S, PIANIST AND HARPIST ALICE COLTRANE EMBARKED ON A JOURNEY INTO THE OUTER SPIRALS ...
Can, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt: Can: Paladium, Cologne, Germany
Live Review by Don Watson, The Wire, May 1999
DURING THEIR heyday in the mid-70s, Can put great emphasis on the subjugation of the individual to the sound of the group. At their best ...
Tony Allen: Invisible Jukebox: Tony Allen
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, October 2002
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
John Fahey: Commemorating one of the New Weird America's founding fathers
Comment by Byron Coley, The Wire, February 2013
THE TERM New Weird America (NWA) was used by The Wire's David Keenan to describe the music at the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival in 2003. ...
Nina Simone: Always Searching for a Key
Obituary by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2003
The realisation that she was black in a country run by whites, a woman in a world run by men, turned Nina Simone into the ...
Missy Elliott: Miss E... So Addictive (The Gold Mind Inc/Elektra 7559626392)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2001
Ian Penman gets out of his head on Miss E ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 1998
Whether upfront on his own projects or undercover in groups like Naked City guitarist FRED FRITH has sought ever more imaginative ways to keep the ...
Book Review by Don Watson, The Wire, March 1999
JG BALLARD once said that rock journalism at its best was a medium for the "real news", a means of conveying what he called the ...
Boards Of Canada: Protect and Survive
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, October 2005
In a rare face to face interview at their Scottish retreat, Boards Of Canada break their self-imposed isolation to scotch the myths that have coalesced ...
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 1998
IN 1997 THE toilers on rock's margins buffed their edges, dubbed in some breathing space and inserted enough kitsch samples to bring their experiments closer ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Invisible Jukebox: Arthur Lee
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2002
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Live Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, August 2003
ON PAPER, what a line-up, what a dub melding of nonconformist minds: The Mad Professor (aka Neil Fraser), who through his remixes of Primal Scream ...
Autechre: The Futurologists: Autechre
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, April 2003
The world of electronica might have become overcrowded since their first releases a decade ago, but Autechre are still burrowing through microscopic cracks into the ...
Basement Jaxx: House That Jaxx Built
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 1999
WITHOUT FANFARE, House has crept forward to become the leading edge of dance culture again — just like it was over a decade ago. It's ...
N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, September 2002
JUST GOES to show how wrong I can be. Figured me plus a few brainiac dumdums were the only ones nebbish enough to catch the ...
Scritti Politti: Epiphanies: Scritti Politti
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, June 2001
Simon Reynolds swoons to the sound of Scritti Politti's seditious soul music ...
Ice-T: Invisible Jukebox: Ice-T
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 1996
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Can: Can Box: Book By Hildegard Schmidt & Wolf Kampmann (Medium Music Books PBK £16.99)
Book Review by Biba Kopf, The Wire, March 1999
IN ITS COMPLETE form, Can Box will contain a live double CD and a video concert, alongside the generically named Book. Amazingly, the live recording ...
The Boredoms: Drilled to Infinity
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2002
Over 15 years, Osaka's Boredoms have mutated from a splatterpunk avant noise group to the streamlined ferocity of their current mantric percussion barrage. In London, ...
Book Review by Dave Rimmer, The Wire, November 1999
ONE NIGHT IN the summer of 1996 I went to a rave in an unfashionable district of Prague. It was in a community hall on ...
John Martyn: Felling Gravity's Pull
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 1998
After rising to prominence with the late 60s electric folk renaissance, John Martyn uprooted songform and subjected it to a serious sonic makeover on a ...
Björk: SelmaSongs (One Little Indian TPLP1 51 CD)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, November 2000
THE FIRST admission to make is that I haven't yet seen Lars Von Trier's Dancer In The Dark, the film that stars Björk and features ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 1998
Every month we play an artist or musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge ...
Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson Presents Smile (Nonesuch CD)
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, October 2004
Three and a half decades after it was abandoned, leaving its creator in a state of nervous collapse, Brian Wilson's troubled masterpiece has finally been ...
Portishead: Tangled Up In Blue
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, December 1998
After three albums and a world tour which nearly put paid to them, the members of Portishead are resting up. In Bristol, Geoff Barrow and ...
Retrospective by David Stubbs, The Wire, June 2004
On the 40th anniversary of the death of Eric Dolphy, David Stubbs offers a personal benediction to one of the most enigmatic and neglected figures ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, September 1998
As one of the few drum 'n' bass starfighters still standing, is it too late for the lone Grooverider to save Jungle from burning out? ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, July 2005
Digital avant funk sound boffin and flamboyant vocalist by turns, Jamie Lidell's live appearances are spectacular feats of improvised technology and showmanship. On the release ...
Ron Geesin, Hamilton Yarns: Friends Meeting House, Brighton
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2005
THIS RARE live appearance by multi-instrumentalist, composer and poet Ron Geesin — only his second in seven years or so — took place in the ...
The Residents: The Primer: The Residents
Discography by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2001
A bi-monthly series in which we offer a user's guide to recordings of some of our favourite musicians. This month, Edwin Pouncey takes a duck ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2000
Pound for pound, the trailer park noise symphonies of Royal Trux out-weird everything this side of Ornette Coleman and The Grateful Dead. Edwin Pouncey travels ...
Profile and Interview by Mike Atherton, The Wire, September 1987
Our blues section opens with a profile of the man who put a chill on the heart of the music. ...
Dave Brubeck: The Unsquare Dance
Retrospective by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1986
DAVE BRUBECK looked the part. The face that stared out from a Time magazine cover 30-odd years ago had the sober, shaven outline of a ...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Matt Sweeney: Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Superwolf
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2005
IT'S STILL DIFFICULT for me to listen to the music of Will Oldham – aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy – without thinking back to when I ...
Buck 65: Secret House Against the World
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2005
Though some deplore Buck 65's drift away from Anticon hiphop, Mike Barnes welcomes his blended but more mature songwriting direction. ...
Kevin Ayers: Invisible Jukebox
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2002
KEVIN AYERS was one of many curious teenagers who gravitated towards Wellington House at Lydden, near Canterbury, in the early '60s. The house was owned ...
Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth And the Blast First Axis
Essay by David Stubbs, The Wire, 12 February 2009
AS FAR AS many people were concerned in the 80s, in the UK in particular, rock was a discredited medium. ...
Captain Beefheart: Grow Fins: Rarities (1965-1982)
Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, May 1999
ALTHOUGH IT WAS their third released album, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band arrived with 1969's sprawling Trout Mask Replica. The ability to appreciate its ...
Mark Hollis, Talk Talk: Return from Eden: Mark Hollis
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, January 1998
As the prime mover behind Talk Talk, Mark Hollis threw off the shackles of a pop existence to create the bleakest, yet most lyrical orchestral ...
David Bedford: Albion's Astronaut
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2011
Trained by the European avant garde, British composer David Bedford helped launch Mike Oldfield and Kevin Ayers's pastoral rock into orbit with his cosmically aligned ...
Bert Jansch: Invisible Jukebox
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2007
Complete draft of the feature originally published in The Wire 276, Feb 2007 ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy Pop: Coming Through Slaughter
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 1999
Where lesser rock gods have become overweight and obsolete, Iggy Pop endures. In Miami, prompted by the bitter-sweet musings of his 13th album, he reflects ...
This Heat and Cold Storage: Once upon a time in Brixton
Retrospective by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2005
"A former meat storage room that became This Heat's rehearsal room then an 8-track studio then a 16-track studio then a 24-track studio then a ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2004
"IF I PLAYED you all the Wilco songs in chronological order on an acoustic guitar, they probably wouldn't sound that different," declares Wilco leader Jeff ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2007
"I DIDN'T HAVE white tunnels, but I did have the feeling that if I got too tired, which at a certain point might have been ...
Profile and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, September 2003
"Ron Geesin, composer for all media, live performer and one-man record company, works from his own studio both writing for musicians and working with complex ...
Can, Damo Suzuki: Damo Suzuki: The Accidental Anarchist
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 2004
Damo Suzuki is the legendary vocalist with German group Can, but he has been perfecting his unique mode of 'instant composition' all his life. Having ...
Shirley Collins: Spirit Of Eden: Shirley Collins
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2002
"The main body of [folk music] is just based on myth and the Bible and plague and famine and all kinds of things like that ...
Diamanda Galas: Concert For The Damned
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 1998
DIAMANDA GALAS has various modes of presentation, none of them easy. She has staged her AIDS trilogy as a multivoiced one-woman opera; she's sung her ...
Faust: The Faust Tapes: Faust Epiphany
Retrospective by Don Watson, The Wire, September 2000
ONE OF THE EFFECTS of the rabid reissue programs that accompanied the CD revolution was to offer shrinkwrapped package tours into your teenage bedrom. Music, ...
Vincent Gallo: Recordings Of Music For Films (Warp)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, May 2002
NOTE THAT STRICTLY utile title. Here we find not vanity project Muzak for 'imaginary' films, projected by some vain musclehead Hollyweird jerk-off with more friends ...
Elvis Costello: Can I Be Frank…?
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1992
2005 note: The original manuscript began and ended with some kind of lyrical gibberish swansong for the song as a music-form (in the age of ...
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Dust Sucker (Milksafe)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2002
THE FULL STORY of Captain Beefheart's ill-fated Bat Chain Puller – potentially his greatest musical statement after Trout Mask Replica – has already been admirably ...
Evan Parker, Jah Wobble: Jah Wobble & Evan Parker: Passage To Hades (30 HERTZ)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, February 2001
PERHAPS THIS IS a disingenuous flash of hindsight on my part, but I'm convinced that when I heard Public Image Limited's first album, back in ...
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1992
SIX COMPOSERS, too shy to make claims for themselves, go to make it up. But Brian Hodgson, who's worked with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop since ...
Public Enemy, Sun Ra: Loving The Alien In Advance Of The Landing
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1992
"IN THE MEANTIME," he said, speaking relentlessly but mesmerically softly, as gurus will, "I finally went to Chicago. I determined not to be a musician ...
John Cale: Music for the Last Day
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, July 1994
JOHN CALE IS rock's international traveller, his work a trans-continental drift of moons and maps, seas and seachange, envoys and ennui. From his early (unfashionable) ...
Overview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1995
The story of the first electronic instruments is as twisted and circuitous as their primitive, labyrinthine wiring. Mark Sinker goes in search of these often ...
David Bowie, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Frank Zappa: Contract Breakers
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, June 1996
2005 note: Savage Pencil did a nice illustration for this: John and Yoko hilariously naked, among other excellent things. It also elicited an angry postcard ...
Amon Düül (I & II): Communing With Chaos: Amon Düül II
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 1996
WHEN THE GERMAN rock explosion (now recognised as Krautrock) first hit these shores in the early 70s, the temptation to label it as a thriving ...
Essay by David Toop, The Wire, September 1992
"Whoever doesn't like what I did, 20 years from now they can go back and redo it."Teo Macero, discussing his method of recording Miles Davis ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis - The 50s
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1992
PERHAPS THE most unexpected thing about RCA/BMG's Presley-project is how unexpected so much of it is. ...
Brian Eno: Taking Modern Culture By Strategy: Brian Eno
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1992
2005 note: It’s not a sensible criticism of a conjuror that his craft does not involve actual real magical powers. Eno is fascinated by the ...
The Fall: Watching The City Hobgoblins: The Fall
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, August 1986
Author's 2005 note: In which I find my voice? In between all the "important rock does this" droning. ...
Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1993
2005 note: Much of the cultural rhetoric surrounding funk is just teacher’s-pet attempts to plod-cram the music back into the squarest box available – I ...
Guide by David Toop, The Wire, March 1996
In its original incarnation, Electro was black science fiction teleported to the dancefloors of New York, Miami and LA; a super-stoopid fusion of video games, ...
Incredibly Strange and Highly Exotic
Essay by David Toop, The Wire, October 1994
The Incredibly Strange Music books are mondo archaeology for vinyl fetishists. They exhume a hidden world of plastic where exotic Easy Listening, modern primitives, suburban ...
Tim Buckley: T.B. Sheets: In Praise of Tim Buckley
Retrospective by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 1994
TIM BUCKLEY was small - "this little man," as he said in one of his slow sly seducer's songs - he was small, and white, ...
Frank Zappa: From Z to A and Back Again, or: QUANTITIES AND LEER
Comment by Ian Penman, The Wire, July 1995
I CANNOT FOR the pop life of me see why anyone over the age of 17 would ever want to listen to Frank Zappa again, ...
Tricky: [the Phantoms of] TRICKNOLOGY [versus a Politics of Authenticity]
Essay by Ian Penman, The Wire, March 1995
"Machine technology is a type of transformation." Martin Heidegger ...
Jon Hassell: Behind the Blue Screen: Jon Hassell
Profile and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, August 1994
Jon Hassell's music with his group Bluescreen is an exotic domain of ritualised sex, strange tonalities, erotic transgressions and invisible connections. David Toop enters the ...
Anita Baker: The Deep Dark Soul
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, September 1986
THE BAND PLAYS a slow, rough-textured groove, flesh laid on the dark bones of the bass. Three women set up a vocal counterpoint, rich with ...
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, September 1994
Pete Namlook is one of the more remarkable figures of 90s electronic music. Since December 1992, he has released over 150 albums on his own ...
Bill Laswell: An Interview with Bill Laswell
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, December 1994
For almost two decades, Bill Laswell's music has traced a long, humid trail across continents, genres, moods, atmospheres and numerous collaborations. David Toop met him ...
Elvis Costello: El Hath No Fury: Elvis Costello
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Wire, June 1991
"WHEN YOU GET OLD IT'S LIKE they go to the file for the opinions on you," said Elvis Costello last time he was on the ...
Retrospective by David Toop, The Wire, April 1995
This New York composer, who died in obscurity of AIDS in 1992, was a true visionary, traversing dub, disco and minimalism and anticipating the '90s ...
Jah Shaka: Dub It Up: A Whistlestop Tour Through Reggae's Echo Chambers
Guide by David Toop, The Wire, May 1994
A is for Alpha & Omega The odd couple of '90s roots and culture. Bassist Christine Woodbridge and melodica puffer John Sprosen conjure cultural spirits ...
Nelson George: The Death of Rhythm & Blues (Omnibus)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Wire, 1987
NELSON GEORGE, self-described "B-Boy intellectual" and one of pop culture's few black writers of note, has written a book which (sort of) argues that the ...
Futurebeat: Vorschtsprung dürch Techno
Essay by Dave Rimmer, The Wire, Spring 1994
"The only possible challenge to repetitive power takes the route of a breach in social repetition and the control of noisemaking. In more day-to-day political ...
Laurie Anderson: Clarity’s Angel
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, March 1992
First, Laurie Anderson chronicled the United States of America. What’s next for the leading performance-person of our day? ...
Lou Reed: Alchemical Engineering
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 1992
Lou Reed is one of the few 60s figures who has kept up any serious exploration of rock's sounds and words. In this exclusive New ...
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, May 1995
Scott Walker, perhaps the most enigmatic singer in recent times, has returned with his first recording since 1984. But is it a work of experimental ...
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