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On the cover: Cosey Fanni Tutti: The industrial music icon has been to Hull and back with her new album 2t2. By Claire Biddles; Quinton Barnes: The Montreal rapper and producer flips the script in a new project with free musicians. By Emily Pothast; David Van Tieghem: The percussionist who has played with everyone on the Downtown scene receives a dedicated collection of his own work. By Robert Barry; Happy Family: Over four decades the Japanese group have moved from rigorous prog to euphoric harmony. By Daniel Spicer; Amina Claudine Myers: Honing her skills on the old school nightclub circuit, the keyboardist is now forging ambitious suites for choir and pipe organ. By Stewart Smith; Quade: Landmark album. By Lucy Thraves; Milk Eyed Sigh: Let it bleed. By Misha Farrant; Liu Zhenyang: Language games. By Josh Feola; Invisible Jukebox: billy woods: Will The Wire’s mystery record collection be recognised by Backwoodz Studioz’s main man? Tested by Mosi Reeves; Global Ear: Bratislava’s LGBTQI+ scene creates safe spaces amid repressive policing. By Chiara Rendeková; Unlimited Editions: LA’s Colorfield label creates spontaneous studio magic. By Daniel Spicer; The Inner Sleeve: Circuit Des Yeux on Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising; Against The Grain: Jo Hutton celebrates radiophonic art as a unique field of creative endeavour; Epiphanies: Daniel O’Sullivan steps outside of himself via the ambiguous, understated moods of library music. Plus 40 pages of reviews including Stereolab: Electrically repossessed. By John Morrison; Only sounds that tremble through us: Palestinian soundscapes. By Xenia Benivolski; Julee Cruise: Night flights. By Dan Barrow; Studio Electrophonique: The Sheffield Space Age From The Human League To Pulp: Deindustrial estate. By Leah Kardos; and much, much more.
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The 8 May edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by billy woods, Youth Code, Fatboi Sharif & Driveway, Flying Lotus, Pixel Grip, Youth Code and many more
Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our June 2025 issue
A collection of new electronic and experimental music compiled and annotated by SHAPE+ for The Wire. Like all releases in the Below The Radar series, this edition can be downloaded by both print and digital subscribers to The Wire
The 1 May edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Nadah El Shazly, Arturas Bumsteinas, Wukir Suryadi, Li Jianhong, IZ, Noor Zehra Kazim, Der Expander Des Fortschritts and more
To accompany his interview in The Wire 495, the Vietnamese producer and video artist Trân Uy Đúc curates a special Wire mix in collaboration with Glasgow based DJ Maicol
Read an extract from Daniel Spicer’s Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution And The Politics Of Improvisation, in which the author reconsiders the connections between the German saxophonist’s playing and that of Albert Ayler
In The Wire 495, Daniel Spicer reviews five albums that form part of a Strata-East reissue programme that celebrates the rich legacy of the New York label
Josh Feola compiles an annotated playlist to accompany his report on the Danish capital’s DIY underground in The Wire 495
The 24 April edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Sun Ra, Ambrose Akinmusire, Stefan Niculescu, Ukandanz, Maggie Nicols & Dan Johnson, Chris Cochrane’s Collapsible Shoulder Big Band, Poor Creature, and more
In an extract from his new book, US pianist Matthew Shipp outlines what he means when he talks about Black Mystery School pianists
In the third instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses two horror scores by Gazelle Twin – Black Cab (2024) and Nocturne (2020) – and considers how psychological turmoil can be expressed in sound
Following the release of a new LP by the Orchestra Of Futurist Noise Intoners, director Luciano Chessa and Sanatorium Of Sound director Gerard Lebik discuss the legacy of Italian Futurist composer Luigi Russolo
In The Wire 495, Hugh Morris argues that the word jazzy denotes a cluster of cliches that neglects to engage with jazz itself
To accompany his interview in The Wire 495, the composer and string player John King compiles an exclusive Wire mix
Listen to the music we played to Alvin Curran during his Invisible Jukebox interview in The Wire 495
To accompany his report on Greyfade in The Wire 495, Philip Watson explores a playlist selected by label founder Joseph Branciforte
Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our May 2025 issue
Volume 47 of The Wire’s subscriber-only download series includes tracks by Larry Wish, Bianca Scout, Semay Wu, Abdullah Miniawy, Ava Mendoza & Malcom Mooney, Lulenga, and more
The 3 April edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by OHYUNG, Raisa K, Nazar, Roberto Cassani & Graeme Stephen, Rainy Miller, Seven Angels, KLAUDIO, Bengal Chemicals, Florence Sinclair and more
Watch a short film accompanying “The Second Before Slipping”, from the debut album by Zurich based duo Sopraterra
In The Wire 494, Ken Hollings reviews two albums inspired by William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer
The 27 March edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, Quade, Goldie, Angel Bat Dawid & Naima Nefertari, Maxine Funke, aya and more
In the second instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury’s scores for the Alex Garland films Civil War (2024) and Annihilation (2018)
In The Wire 494, Daniel Spicer reviews a new collection of writing and criticism by long time Wire contributor and novelist David Keenan
Jere Kilpinen compiles an annotated playlist to accompany his report on Osaka’s experimental noise scene in The Wire 494
The 20 March edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured music by Ben Bertrand, Strategy, Sophie Agnel & Joke Lanz, Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force, and more
The Wire Salon returns in April with the first of three events exploring the relationship of AI and music. In advance, read Emily Bick’s 2023 interview with composer patten in which he discusses using AI-generated samples to map music’s infinite complexities
To accompany his interview in The Wire 494, London based experimental musician Ciaran Mackle compiles an exclusive Wire mix
In The Wire 494, Mosi Reeves argues that, while women set the tone in mainstream rap, the underground hiphop scene lags far behind
The 13 March edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured a guest mix by Portuguese musician Ana Lua Caiano alongside a selection of new and recent releases by Om Unit, Nadah El Shazly, Lollise, Shit And Shine, Darkchild x SKRS INTL, and more
To accompany his report on Cardboard Club in The Wire 494, Spenser Tomson explores a playlist selected by label boss Robert Ridley-Shackleton
To celebrate 30 years of the pioneering drum ’n’ bass label, Metalheadz’s Sam Oliver, aka Friske, curates a special Wire mix
Listen to the music we played to Jeff Mills during his Invisible Jukebox interview in The Wire 494
The 6 March edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Cleaners From Venus, Marina Zispin, Kuunatic, Circuit Des Yeux, Backxwash, Nazar, and many more
Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our April 2025 issue
Erik DeLuca shares a mix of sound recordings of Philadelphia’s forgotten and abandoned objects
The 27 February edition of The Wire’s weekly show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Klein, Q Lazzarus, Vacuous, Dead Pioneers, Zoë Mc Pherson, Knives, and many more
Juan San Cristóbal Lizama compiles an annotated playlist to accompany his report on Tijuana’s Static Discos label in The Wire 493
The UK outsider singer-songwriter has died aged 81. As a tribute, we have made Rob Young’s 2005 interview in The Wire 253 free to read in our online library.
Philip Brophy sets out his intentions for the return of his long running Wire column on film music
In The Wire 493, Claire Biddles reviews Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for Luca Guadagnino’s film of William S Burroughs’s semi-autobiographical novel
The 20 February edition of The Wire’s weekly show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Tori Kudo, SBR, Cheng Daoyuan, Sophia Djebel Rose, Crystal Axis and others
Pierre Crépon explores the career of American jazz singer Ellen Christi, from her work on New York’s 1970s loft jazz scene to her recent album with bassist William Parker
The Egyptian-French composer creates an exclusive mix of music to accompany his interview with Miloš Hroch in The Wire 493
To accompany his report on Pointless Geometry in The Wire 493, Daryl Worthington selects music from the back catalogue of the eclectic Polish label
The 13 February edition of The Wire‚s weekly show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Sopa Boba, Amand, Clipping, Zakir Hussain & Third Coast Percussion, Janek Schaefer, Fred Moten & Brandon Lopez, Joe Armon-Jones and many more
The influential grime producer Terror Danjah (real name Rodney Pryce) has died. As a tribute, we have made his Invisible Jukebox interview with Joe Muggs that appeared in The Wire 343 available to read for free in our online magazine library.
Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our March 2025 issue
In The Wire 493, George Rayner-Law argues that as interest in English folk song grows once again, practitioners, critics and listeners should consider carefully the ideological currents beneath the surface
Listen to the music we played to Lydia Lunch during her Invisible Jukebox interview in The Wire 493
The 6 February edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured music by Girl Pusher, aya, Zoë Mc Pherson, Kilbourne, Sunik Kim, Tisakorean and more
Read an extract from Nicolas Collins’s Semi-Conducting – Rambles Through The Post-Cagean Thicket, in which the author describes his early experiments with feedback
The French saxophonist creates an exclusive mix of tracks that have been inspiring her recent playing, including her latest album Hammer, Roll And Leaf
David Grundy watches recently unearthed footage of saxophonist Albert Ayler in concert from 1966
The 30 January edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured music by Circuit Des Yeux, Infinity Knives, John Wall, Annette Peacock, Lonnie Holley, Lucrecia Dalt and more
In The Wire 491/492, Stewart Smith reviews a new autobiography by the multi-instrumentalist, composer and poet
In The Wire 491/492, John Brien argues that the humble compact disc offers efficient delivery of pure audio that bypasses the artisan fetishism of the vinyl industry
The 23 January edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured music by Mattie Barbier, Yves De Mey, Simon J Karis, Rojin Sharafi, Raed Yassin, Laura Agnusdei and more
In The Wire 491/492, Peter Margasak reviews an album of inventive new settings for the compositions of Ethiopian musician Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
In The Wire 491/492, James Gormley argues that redrawing the line between public and private space has coined a dubious new currency in sonic self-help and healing experiences
The 16 January edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured a guest mix by Lebanese musician, producer and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal, plus music by Grup Ses & Gökalp K, Sansouni, King Jammy, and more
The US filmmaker has died aged 78. As a tribute, we have made the extended cover feature on Lynch that appeared in The Wire 486 free to read in our online library. The feature includes a cover designed by Lynch, an interview with the director and his music collaborator Chrystabell, and 12 pages of essays exploring the unique sound world created by his films.
In The Wire 491/492, James Gui reviews three releases that take inspiration from the world of Asian horror – with mixed results
In The Wire 491/492, Louise Gray recalls developing a new relationship to sound while bed-bound in hospital following an accident
Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother) present a special Wire mix ahead of the publication of Dismantling The Master’s Clock, Phillips’s forthcoming book exploring time, temporality and Black liberation
Stonecircesampler, aka Luke J Murray, curates an exclusive compilation of edits, alternative mixes and unreleased music to conjure a hauntological landscape
In The Wire 491/492, Drew Daniel recounts a dream of a strange new music style, whose subsequent online virality revealed the need to test the limits of genres
In an extract from his new book, David Katz charts the emergence of Jamaica’s sound system culture in relation to social and political transformations that underpinned the country’s fight for independence
The Portuguese experimentalist creates an exclusive mix of tracks that have been inspiring his own most recent music
Elia Brülhart compiles an annotated playlist to accompany his report on Zurich’s underground noise scene in The Wire 491/492
The Indian tabla virtuoso died on 15 December aged 73. In December 2000 he was interviewed for the cover story of The Wire 202, discussing his work with John McLaughlin, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Talvin Singh. As a tribute, we have made the article free to read in our online library.
To accompany his report on Strategic Tape Reserve in The Wire 491/492, Antonio Poscic selects music from the back catalogue of the playful Cologne label
This extract from William Burns’s book gives an overview of hauntological music and its preoccupation with the sound of decay, the evocation of nostalgia, and the allure of lost futures
The 12 December edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Kate Bush, The Unthanks, The High Llamas, Annette Peacock and more
The Wire’s Releases of the Year chart for 2024 was compiled from the individual votes of the magazine’s staff and contributors – here are those votes in full
Listen to a selection of tracks from our Top 50 Releases of the Year, as voted for by The Wire’s team of staff and contributors. You can read more about the albums featured in our chart, as well as those featured in the Top 50 Archive Releases of the Year, in The Wire 491/492
This volume in The Wire’s ongoing series of subscriber-only anthologies compiles 15 tracks from albums released by Cafe OTO’s in-house label Otoroku. Featuring Pat Thomas, Maggie Nicols, Loren Connors & Alan Licht, Elaine Mitchener, Black Top, Ecka Mordecai, and more
The 5 December edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast featured tracks by Ash Ra Tempel, Circuit Des Yeux, Katharina Ernst & schne, Keiji Haino & Jun Morita, Tori Kudo and more
Listen to an exclusive mix exploring the programme at this year’s London Contemporary Music Festival
To mark Nonclassical’s 20th anniversary, the Kenyan born musician KMRU creates an exclusive mix of experimental classical and electronic music for The Wire
The 28 November edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Terry Riley, Dub Syndicate, Able Noise, Mariam Rezaei, Bill Frisell/Kit Downes/Andrew Cyrille, Colin Self, Roger Robinson, General Magic, Abadir & Nahash, Alex Ward/Dominic Lash/Mark Sanders and more
James Gui compiles an annotated playlist to accompany his report on Taipei’s underground rock scene in The Wire 490
Watch a short film that accompanies three tracks from sound artist and musician Adrián de Alfonso’s new album Viator.
The 21 November edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Stonecirclesampler, Net Gala, Ra Kalam Bob Moses & Jerome Bryerton, Dawuna, DJ Lycox, Kay Grant/Ian McLachlan/Daniel Thompson, and more
This extract from new book Sonic Faction considers the possibilities and limitations of the audio essay as a form of sonic psychedelic experiment, prompted by three releases on Hyperdub’s Flatlines sub-label
David Grundy attends a week long event in Berlin designed to forward a global avant garde of Black music composers
Flickers From The Fen’s Mercian Sam compiles an exclusive mix of dungeon synth to accompany his interview with Louis Pattison in The Wire 490.
Ahead of his celebration of Max Roach, trumpeter Charles Tolliver talks to Gabriel Bristow about playing alongside the legendary drummer, studying at Howard University with Donny Hathaway and Stokely Carmichael, and the legacy of Strata-East Records
The 14 November edition of The Wire’s weekly broadcast on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured tracks by Moin, Bridget Hayden & The Apparitions, Gong Gong Gong 工工工 & Mong Tong, YATTA, Richard Dawson, and more
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