The Wire: Music Mags for Grown-Ups # 1

The Wire is a beautifully produced monthly magazine, published in London but read around the globe. It grew out of left-field jazz to cover improv, avant garde and art music in numerous niche genres.

Esoteric is an understatement: I rarely recognize more than half a dozen of the names in each issue. If I know more than that, I automatically buy a copy. Over the years, I’ve bought cover isssues on Miles Davis, Van Morrison and The Fall, but most cover subjects are far more recherché than these.

The Wire is an aspirational organ – I aspire to knowing more about more of the music it covers. I’d much rather be challenged in my music reading by mags like The Wire than plough through yet another piece of PR fluff, promoting yet more dubious new product, which is the role of most music mags.


Here’s the contents of the new issue - check out how many names you recognise!



INSIDE THE WIRE 280 (June 2007) (on sale NOW)

Previewed here: http://www.thewire.co.uk/current/

ON THE COVER: Wiley. Grime's self-appointed Eskimo king invites Derek Walmsley into his Roll Deep Studio to explain how his blizzard of beats and rhymes gathers momentum in East London's streets

FEATURES: The Sea And Cake, Invisible Jukebox: Neil Campbell, Kassin + Moreno + Domenico, Cross Platform: Modified Toy Orchestra, Tomas Korber, Jozef van Wissem, Zavoloka

REVIEWS:

SOUNDCHECK: John Abercrombie, Alog, Amp, Badgerlore, Mick Barr, Adam Bohman & Roger Smith, The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Peter Brötzmann/Marino Pliakas/Michael Wertmüller, Cato Salsa Experience & The Thing with Joe McPhee, The Cherry Blossoms, CJA, Philip Corner, Courtis/The Moglass/Andrey Kiritchenko, Betty Davis, Deadbeat, The Dead C, Daouda Dembele, Jim Denley, Dungen, Max Eastley & Michael Prime, Erikm (Luc Ferrari) & Thomas Lehn, Thomas Fehlmann, The Field, 500mg, Fred Frith & Chris Cutler, Fursaxa, Frank Gratkowski/Thomas Lehn/, Melvyn Poore, Mats Gustafsson & Yoshimi, Hugh Hopper, Islaja, Jazzkammer & Howard Stelzer, Andrey Kiritchenko, KTL, Michel Lambert, Alvin Lucier, Lasse Marhaug, Marhaug Åsheim, Merzbow/Carlos Giffoni/Jim O'Rourke 47, Pekos & Yoro Diallo, Roscoe Mitchell, Chie Mukai, My Cat Is An Alien, Conlon Nancarrow, Luigi Nono, KK Null, Original Silence, William Parker & Hamid Drake, Parts & Labor, Plants, Rahkim, Religious Knives, Stephen Scott, The
Sea And Cake, September Collective, Wally Shoup, Skeletons And The Kings Of All Cities, Chris Smith, Chris Smith & Justin Fuller, Marnie Stern, Strategy, Damo Suzuki & Now, Text Of Light, Tied And Tickled Trio, Tight Meat Duo, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Various Bougouni Yaalali, Various Box Of Dub, Various Hyphy Hitz, Various Soundboy Punishments, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Stephen Vitiello, Von Südenfed, Strountes, David S Ware Quartet, Felix Werder, Wooden Wand, Wraiths and
more...

PRINT RUN: Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland And How Hip Hop Became A Southern Thing, by Roni Sarig; Footprints: The Life And Work Of Wayne Shorter, by Michelle Mercer; Guitar Army: Rock And Revolution With MC5 And The White Panther Party, by John Sinclair

ON SCREEN: Tim Buckley: A Review And Critique Of The Man And His Music (DVD), Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House (DVD), Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain & El Topo (DVDs)

ON SITE: Kill Your Timid Notion, Dundee, UK; c/o The Velvet Underground, New York, USA; Allora & Calzadilla, London, UK

ON LOCATION: All Tomorrow's Parties, Minehead, UK; Free Noise London, UK; Maerzmusik, Berlin, Germany; BLOC Weekend, Hemsby, UK; Donau Festival, Krems, Austria

PLUS: Epiphanies: Novelist Michel Faber recalls a random encounter with a life-affirming Prog group in Budapest; Global Ear: In San Francisco, Ken Hollings immerses himself in a 360° audiovisual experience at Asphodel's Recombinant Media Labs; Savage Pencil's Trip Or Squeek; Charts; News; and more

http://www.thewire.co.uk/current/



Gerry Smith