February 2011

The compositions of Iannis Xenakis are shot through with the sound of warfare, crowds, arcane mathematics and Chaos Theories. Ben Watson meets a composer whose attempts to transform Futurism into sound capsize the cliches of modern classical music. This article originally appeared in The Wire 136 (June 1995).

Interview from Issue 132

Caspar Brötzmann: Headfirst Into The Flames

March 2007

Caspar Brötzmann doesn't take kindly to being called a guitar player. But his attack on the instrument - explosive, obstreperous, large scale, textural, timbral - asserts the material facts of string-pickup-amplifier more bluntly than anyone else currently involved in rock... The Wire 132 (February 1995).

Interview from Issue 139

George Clinton: Rainbow Warrior

March 2007

As elder statesman of P-Funk, George Clinton refused to dim with age. Here, he trades conspiracies with Ben Watson, and tells how he triumphed over the big, bad record industry. This article originally appeared in The Wire 139 (September 1995).

Issue 246

August 2004

ON THE COVER: Wilco - Chicago's alt Country stars crack the cocoon of success to release the spirits within. By Edwin Pouncey

FEATURES: Phil Minton, Invisible Jukebox: Asian Dub Foundation, Primer: Noise, Margareth Kammerer, Beth Anderson, Hang On The Box

Issue 231

May 2003

ON THE COVER: Matthew Herbert - Electronica's self-styled mechanic of destruction has matured from sampling the sounds of domestic bliss to programming critiques of capitalism and social injustice. But where does the brass band fit in? By Rob Young

FEATURES: Invisible Jukebox: The Cramps, Eddie Prévost, The rise of Mego, Nonesuch Explorer Series, Jaga Jazzist, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Sarah Peebles, Akio Suzuki

Buy - £6.00

Issue 224

October 2002

ON THE COVER: Suicide - Blank indifference, riotous mobs: for 30 years Alan Vega and Martin Rev have survived them all. In New York, Alan Licht hears how their latest album American Supreme ties up the loose ends separating proto-punk and electroclash

FEATURES: Invisible Jukebox: Tony Allen, John Stevens, Mr Lif, Video Arcadia, Alan Lomax, Deerhoof, Jazzkammer, BARK!, Hiener Goebbels, Derek Bailey

Buy - £6.00

Issue 219

May 2002

ON THE COVER: John Oswald - Canada's prince of plunderphonia recalls his battles with the majors for his artistic right to reclaim his sound environment from the noise pollution of pop by recycling it through his plunderphonics system. By David Keenan

FEATURES: Shirley Collins, The Fall, Invisible Jukebox: El-P, Hillbillies, The Primer: The Old, Weird America, Jewelled Antler Collective, Mission of Burma, Mick Beck, Vinko Globokar

Buy - £6.00

Issue 217

March 2002

ON THE COVER: Sonic Youth - Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo talk through their involvement with the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Los Angeles, and dispense the secrets of eternal Youth. By Christoph Cox

FEATURES: Sam Rivers, Invisible Jukebox: Steinski, Christof Migone, Marc Almond, Rocket From the Tombs, Thomas Brinkmann, John Zorn, Bohman Brothers, Oslo's new Improv set, Thomas Buckner, Musée Mécanique, Cex

Issue 216

February 2002

ON THE COVER: Richard Hell - 25 years after defining punk's blank generation with Television and The Voidods, New York City's underworld chief has amassed a significant body of writing and poetry, but the freewheeling instinct remains strong. By Alan Licht

FEATURES: Gordon Mumma, Invisible Jukebox: Joëlle Léandre, Tangent: Music's lunatic fringe, Keith Rowe in Central Africa, Maxime De La Rochefoucauld, Rhythm And Sound, Gary Lucas on Florian Fricke, Keiji Haino's all night flight, Laub, Lydia Lunch, Fog

Buy - £6.00

Issue 215

January 2002

+ The Wire Tapper 08

ON THE COVER: Le Tigre - With roots in Riot Grrl but advancing into electropunk, IDM, and interventionist art, Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and JD Sampson's trio are agitating at ground zero of a female music explosion. By Joy Press

STUCK TO THE COVER: The Wire Tapper 8 - Our series of free new music compilations continues with new work from artists including Fog, Set Fire To Flames, Noxagt, 23 Skidoo, Cornelius, Xinlisupreme and many more

FEATURES: Cabaret Voltaire, Don Letts, 2001 Rewind, Badawi, Zeitkratzer, Sand, No-Neck Blues Band, Coil, Cornelius, Uri Caine, Evan Parker, Nobukazu Takemura, John Cale, Australian post-punk

Issue 213

November 2001

ON THE COVER: Jim O'Rourke - His recent appointment as Sonic Youth's fifth member hasn't cured avant music's most workaholic producer. David Keenan hears about O'Rourke's new LPs of Southern fried boogie and Mego electronica, and why Chicago sucks

FEATURES: Invisible Jukebox: Lol Coxhill, Kaija Saariaho, The Soviet noise network, Bobby Conn, Nagisa Ni te, Blectum From Blechdom, Charley Patton, Dave Douglas, Manhattan Stories: Lee Ranaldo, Stephen Vitiello, Skiz Fernando, Alan Licht and more

Buy - £6.00

Issue 207

May 2001

+ The Wire Tapper 07

ON THE COVER: Generative Music - Oval, Brian Eno, Autechre, Evan Parker and Michael Prime are only a handful of contemporary artists whose approach to systems, evolutionary processes and technology are advancing the musical zeitgeist. By David Toop

FEATURES: Invisible Jukebox: Current 93, Tangents: Apocalypse poetry, Keith Tippett, Bardo Pond, 20 years of Touch, Artistic Heritage Ensemble, All Tomorrow's Parties, Håkan Lidbo, Cannibal Ox, Khan, Plastic People Of The Universe

Issue 205

March 2001

ON THE COVER: Talvin Singh - With the release of his second album Ha, the multitasking tabla master has been promoted to the global music elite, hanging with cronies from Bill Laswell and Sakamato to Andrew Lloyd Webber. By Peter Shapiro

FEATURES: Ornette Coleman, Tangents: The Blank Generation, Invisible Jukebox: Stephen Malkmus, Phill Niblock, John Wall, Future Pilot AKA, Thighpaulsandra, Joy Division

Buy - £6.00

Issue 190

December 1999

ON THE COVER: Diamanda Galas - A Plague On All Your Houses

FEATURES: Mark Perry, Angus MacLise, Caetano Veloso's Jukebox, Matt Herbert, Jessica Bailiff, DJ Scud, Giya Kancheli,

Buy - £6.00

Issue 186

August 1999

On The Cover: Scanner: For a multimedia mogul such as Robin Rimbaud, music is just another node in a complex web of collaborative activity that defines the democratic processes of the digital world. By Rob Young

Features: Tony Oxley, The Primer: Japanese Psychedelia, Sound Art, Blixa Bargeld's Jukebox, Piano Magic, Plug Research, The Last Poets

Buy - £6.00

Issue 180

February 1999

ON THE COVER: Terre Thaemlitz - Rewiring the Man-Machine

FEATURES: Autechre's Jukebox, Will Oldham, David S Ware, Michael Finnissy, Todd Rundgren, Martin Tetreault

Buy - £6.00

Issue 178

December 1998

On The Cover: Portishead - Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley in "The Best Interview We Ever Did"

Features: Derek Bailey's Jukebox; LaMonte Young meets Pullp's Mark Webber - an epic, exclusive encounter; Timbaland - hiphop hooray; Marc Ribot - guitar for hire; Jeff Noon's epiphany; Frederic Galliano, Jarboe, New radio art

Buy - £6.00

Issue 177

November 1998

+ The Wire Tapper 02

On The Cover: Björk - In Reykjavik, the ice queen of avant pop talks to Louise Gray about the 'soulful experimentalists', from Stockhausen to 808 State, that keep her world turning

Features: Eugene Chadbourne, Squarepusher's Jukebox, The Primer: James Brown; Thomas Fehlmann, Alan Licht, Tied & Tickled Trio, John Mayer, Bob Dylan

Issue 170

April 1998

+ The Wire Tapper 01

On The Cover: Tony Conrad. Without the Buffalo violinist there would have been no Velvet Underground. Richard Henderson meets the Minimalist drone king who discovered a whole new musical universe in a single note

Features: The Primer: Captain Beefheart, Phuture, The Creators, David Thomas's Jukebox, Charles Bullen, The Pastels, Death Songs, Global Ear: Siberia, Jan Kopinski, Loren Mazzacane Connors, The Secret History of Film Music

Issue 166

December 1997

ON THE COVER: Alec Empire - Geist In The Machine

FEATURES: Bootsy Collins's jukebox, Cyro Baptista, Company Flow, Tim Berne, La Monte Young, Hariprasad, Chaurasia, Neurofunk flavas, The Grateful Dead, Alec Empire

Issue 165

November 1997

ON THE COVER: Jim O'Rourke - Underground Renaissance

FEATURES: Oskar Sala, Butch Morris, Faust, Ansuman Biswas, J Saul Kane, Hal Willner, 4 Hero's Jukebox

Issue 161

July 1997

ON THE COVER: Juan Atkins - Motor City Magus

FEATURES: Adrian Sherwood's jukebox, Kenny Wheeler, Origin Unknown, Brian Eno, John cage, Mark The 45 King

Issue 160

June 1997

ON THE COVER: Nurse With Wound - exiled from main street

FEATURES: Pierre Henry, AR Rahman, As One, John Russell, Workshop, Ivor Cutler's Jukebox

Buy - £6.00

Issue 157

March 1997

On The Cover: Panasonic and the warped world of weird audio

Features: ESP-Disk, Laika, Bill Drummond, Airo Moreira's jukebox, Jungle Brothers, Underdog, Metamkine

Issue 156

February 1997

On The Cover: Autechre

Features: The Orb, George Crumb, N U Turn, John Zorn, Ryoji Ikeda