Peter Shapiro
Tracks from Issue 349
Playlist: US hardcore Primer
March 2013
These bands could be your life! Stream a playlist based on Peter Shapiro's breakdown of the precision-drilled punk songs that came out of America's underground in the early 1980s, featured in The Wire 349.
Issue 349
March 2013
On the cover: Mats Gustafsson – Behind the Swedish saxophonist’s confrontational sound is a musician committed to collective action, from power trios to 30 piece groups. By Daniel Spicer. Plus: Ergo Phizmiz, Little Annie's Jukebox, a Primer on US hardcore, Lonnie Holley and more.
Essay from Issue 300
The Wire 300: Peter Shapiro celebrates two landmark moments in cut ’n’ paste culture
February 2013
Previously unpublished essay commissioned to celebrate The Wire's 300th issue.
Undercurrents - The Hidden Wiring Of Modern Music ed. Rob Young
Issue 338
April 2012
+ The Wire Tapper 28
On the cover: Sun Araw: Cameron Stallones takes a trip through time, space and musical perception in his recent collaboration with The Congos. By Derek Walmsley. Stuck to the cover: The Wire Tapper 28. Plus: Tom Moulton's Invisible Jukebox, Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Gayle, Simon Reynolds on David Toop, Elizabeth Price, Nate Wooley and more.
Issue 333
November 2011
+ The Wire Tapper 27
On the cover: DJ /Rupture - Peter Shapiro meets prolific producer Jace Clayton to hear about post-colonial Bass music, The Shining remade in Dubai and Sufi Plug-Ins. Stuck to the cover: The Wire Tapper 27 (plus a subscriber-only CD Estonian Music Now 2011). Plus: David Lynch, Radu Malfatti, Gang Gang Dance, Christoph Heemann, Matmos's Drew Daniel on queer sound and more.
Issue 318
August 2010
On the cover: Chris Watson - Ken Hollings meets the sound recordist and Cabaret Voltaire founder whose mic penetrates the wild places humans can't reach. Plus: Howard Riley, Surgeon, Chicks On Speed, Rhodri Davies's Invisible Jukebox, Peter Shapiro on Cosmic Disco, Julian Lynch, Helena Gough, Terror Danjah
Issue 303
May 2009
On The Cover: Kode9 - Celebrating five years of the Hyperdub label, the philosophy don of dubstep invites Derek Walmsley to a seminar on sonic warfare and futurist dance moves. Plus: Sublime Frequencies tour report, The Primer on the Roland TB-303, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo's Jukebox, Alexis O'Hara, Belbury Poly, Lee Patterson, The Hospitals, Richard Foreman, Momus's Epiphany, Pom Pom Records, Moondog and more
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Issue 271
September 2006
ON THE COVER: Kool Keith - Hiphop's premier streetwise satirist and scatologist, Dr Octagon, is back - just one of the former Ultramagnetic MC's raft of comeback projects in 2006. By Peter Shapiro
FEATURES: Charalambides, Primer: AMM, Merce Cunningham, Invisible Jukebox: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Cross Platform: Ira Cohen, Digital Mystikz, Excepter, Jason Lescalleet
Issue 270
August 2006
ON THE COVER: Smegma - Three decades of free rock mayhem hasn't dimmed the enthusiasm of the LA freakout troupe who have worked with Wild Man Fischer, Richard Meltzer, Merzbow and Wolf Eyes. By David Keenan
FEATURES: Dabrye, Invisible Jukebox: Biosphere, Akio Suzuki & John Butcher, Die Trip Computer Die, Cross Platform: Brian Eno, Philip Samartzis, Leopard Leg, John Wiese
Issue 252
February 2005
ON THE COVER: Anthony Braxton. The grandmaster's apocalyptic new music is informed by a panoramic take on ancient civilisations.
FEATURES: The Soft Pink Truth's Invisible Jukebox, Mike Ladd, A User's Guide to Subterranean Metal, Gang Gang Dance, Hugh Davies, Dylan Nyoukis, Oki
Issue 251
January 2005
ON THE COVER: LCD Soundsystem. LCD frontman and DFA co-producer James Murphy brings meta-disco back to NYC.
FEATURES: 2004 Rewind: The Wire looks back at a year in music, Invisible Jukebox: Glenn Jones, Zeitkratzer, Joanna Newsom, Nils Okland, My Cat Is An Alien, Dälek, Afrirampo
Issue 248
October 2004
ON THE COVER: Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori. Steve Smith hears strange fruit from the harp and drum machine of downtown NYC's hardest working women
FEATURES: Henry Flynt, Mats Gustafsson, Primer: Psychedelic Soul, Invisible Jukebox: Jennifer Herrema, Radian, Juana Molina, Comets On Fire
Issue 234
August 2003
ON THE COVER: New Weird America - Sunburned Hand of the Man are spearheading the groundswell of the US free folk revolution. By David Keenan
FEATURES: Primer: Fela Kuti, Robert Ashley, Phew, Mike Paradinas, The Pastels, Niobe, Cedric Im Brooks, Tu m'
Issue 228
February 2003
ON THE COVER: Lou Reed - The great naysayer has just delivered his most sprawling work since Metal Machine Music: a sonic drama based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. In New York, he reflects on a lifetime of imbalance. By Alan Licht
FEATURES: Alan Silva, Primer: Mutant disco, Invisible Jukebox: Spring Heel Jack, Supersilent, Helmut Lachenmann, Out Hud, Charalambides
Issue 226
December 2002
ON THE COVER: Jackie-O Motherfucker - From their base in America's far North West, the ramshackle free rock collective has developed a liberating aesthetic of harmonious noise as a bulwark against the forcces of conservatism and commodification. By Edwin Pouncey
FEATURES: Keith Levene, Erstwhile in Tokyo, Invisible Jukebox: Kevin Ayers, Acoustic Ecology, Hrvatski, Fursaxa, Soft Pink Truth, Beth Gibbons, Tony Conrad & Faust, Mark E Smith
Issue 225
November 2002
+ The Wire Tapper 09 (this CD is no longer available)
ON THE COVER: 20th Anniversary Issue - We made it. In this ten page special anniversary feature, we leaf though two decades of this magazine's back pages to hear how we kept on an even keel in choppy musical and financial seas
FEATURES: Anticon, No Wave Primer, Invisible Jukebox: Steve Lacy, Kimmo Pohjonen, Annette Krebs, Steve Mackey
Issue 220
June 2002
ON THE COVER: DJ Shadow - In pursuance of the pure HipHop strain on his new Private Press LP, the retiring Californian beatmaster has stood back from the brink of superstardom to keep his melancholy variant on instrumental cut-ups keen. By Hua Hsu
FEATURES: Frederic Rzewski, Invisible Jukebox: Super_Collider, Bernhard Günter, Susie Ibarra, The People Band, Murcof, The Sealed Knot, Taj Mahal Travellers, Otomo Yoshihide, Sonic Youth, Zeitkratzer & Lou Reed, Vincent Gallo, Coil
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
Issue 218
April 2002
ON THE COVER: Alice Coltrane - In an exclusive interview at her California home, Edwin Pouncey explores the cosmic jazz legend's ongoing quest for universal consciousness, from her part in Coltrane's ecstatic jazz through an illustrious solo career
FEATURES: Steve Beresford, Invisible Jukebox: David Grubbs, Bootlegs & plagiarhythms, Rebuilding Berlin Techno, Taylor Dupree, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunn 0))), Boards of Canada, Antipop Consortium, Reynols, Vinko Globokar, Frank Zappa
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
Issue 214
December 2001
ON THE COVER: Mercury Rev - Ten years of turmoil, substance abuse and swirling guitars may sound like your typical sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll tale, but David Keenan hears how encounters with the US avant garde influenced their New York State of mind
FEATURES: Primer: Music of Islam, Invisible Jukebox: Kirk Degiorgio, Cornelius Cardew, Playgroup, Madlib, Axel Dörner, Alog, Jim O'Rourke, Coil, No-Neck Blues Band, Shoji Hano, DJ Shadow
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
Issue 212
October 2001
ON THE COVER: Kid 606 - Oakland's hyperactive electronica whizz Miguel Depedro is a one man tiger economy, pumping out words almost as fast as he cranks out his giddy laptop beatnoise. Just don't call it ephemeral, he tells Peter Shapiro
FEATURES: Primer: Wu-Tang Clan, Christina Kubisch, Invisible Jukebox: Richie Hawtin, Techno Animal, Henry Flynt, Oneness of Juju, William Winant, Henry Cow, Aphex Twin, Coltrane's last date
Issue 211
September 2001
ON THE COVER: Björk - Flitting between London, Reykjavik and Manhattan, Iceland's queen of the night has been singing round the digital campfire with Matmos, Matthew Herbert and others on her new Vespertine album. By David Toop
FEATURES: Q-Bert, Pandit Pran Nath, Stereolab, Mike Patton, Lester Bangs, Stephan Mathieu, Gregg Bendian, Radu Malfatti, Lightning Bolt, Patti Smith, Crass