Wire Magazine 494 - April 2025 - Raven Chacon

Inside this issue:

Raven Chacon: The Diné/Navajo composer foregrounds unheard and silenced voices in his radical works for ensembles, electronics and noise. By Esi Eshun

Ingrid Laubrock: The New York based reedist creates settings for koans and poems as part of a unique new compositional practice. By Stewart Smith

Bastard Assignments: The radical new music ensemble get lost in the woods with their satire of the English countryside. By Robert Barry

Infinity Knives: From Tom And Jerry to sociopolitics, rapper Tariq Ravelomanana keeps it unreal. By Lucy Thraves

Cleaners From Venus: Martin Newell’s songcraft and wordplay across many DIY albums evidence a uniquely wired mind. By Mike Barnes

Lukas De Clerck: Brussels musician extends ancient pipe instruments into the present moment. By Antonio Poscic

Penelope Trappes: Australian artist voices griefs past and present. By Spenser Tomson

Ciaran Mackle: Sample manipulator twists folk song into cubist forms. By Daryl Worthington

Invisible Jukebox: Jeff Mills: Will Detroit techno’s great conceptualist be a wizard IDing The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens

Unlimited Editions: Robert Ridley-Shackleton’s Cardboard Club cutouts

The Inner Sleeve: Loraine James on Circa Survive’s On Letting Go

Global Ear: Osaka’s proto-industrialists revitalise the city’s experimental music scene. By Jere Kilpinen

Epiphanies: Golem Mecanique rewinds to a treasured VHS tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone

Against The Grain: Mosi Reeves takes on underground hiphop’s gender imbalance

Soundcheck: Laura Agnusdei, Anzü Quartet, Apparitions, Backxwash, Black Rain, François J Bonnett/Sarah Davachi, Brûlez Les Meubles, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, Cliché Toupee, Clipping, Chick Corea, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Earth Ball, en creux, The Ex, Ash Fure, Geologist & DS, Gnod & White Hills, Judith Hamann, Lonnie Holley, Imperial Triumphant, Eiko Ishibashi, Kafka’s Ibiki, Kuunatic, Labyrinthe Des Esprits, Brandon Lopez, Brandon Lopez & DoYeon Kim, Lust For Youth & Croatian Amor, Masma Dream World, Will Mason Quartet, Zoë Mc Pherson, more eaze & claire rousay, Fred Moten & Brandon López, Bob Mould, Jérôme Noetinger, Conrad Pack, Panda Bear, Pink Must, Sophia Djebel Rose, Sandwell District, Colin Self, Sissy Spacek, Aleksandra Słyż, Wadada Leo Smith & Vijay Iyer, Spiral Deluxe, Hüma Utku, Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton, Anna Webber, Zhu Songjie, Rutger Zuydervelt, Various Aggregate: New Works For Automated Pipe Organs

The Columns: Avant Rock by Joseph Stannard; Critical Beats by Misha Farrant; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Sam Davies; Hiphop & R&B by John Morrison; Jazz & Improv by Andy Hamilton; Modern Composition by Julian Cowley; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Raymond Cummings; Size Matters by Byron Coley

The Boomerang: Cadentia Nova Danica; Tobe Hooper & Wayne Bell; Michael Gregory Jackson; Jaroslav Kořán; Oksana Linde; Ted Lucas; The Saints; The Sex Pistols; Smegma; Smith & Mighty; John Tchicai; Various Disco Charge Presents More Sin: Box Of Sin 2; Various Volcanic Tongue: A Time-Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To Late 20th-Century Underground Music

Print Run: 13 Ways Of Looking At AI, Art & Music by Jennifer Walshe; (A)tonal Adventures: A Chronicle Of Intakt Records by Patrik Landolt; Fusion! From Alice Coltrane To Moor Mother by Alex Coles; Volcanic Tongue: A Time-Travelling Evangelist’s Guide To Late 20th-Century Underground Music by David Keenan; What Do You Call It: From Grassroots To The Golden Era Of UK Rap by David Kane; MC5: An Oral Biography Of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band by Brad Tolinski, Jaan Uhelszki & Ben Edmonds; Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution And The Politics Of Improvisation by Daniel Spicer; Brötzmann In My Focus by Žiga Koritnik; Remixing Wong Kar-wai: Music, Bricolage And The Aesthetics Of Oblivion by Giorgio Biancorosso; Dark Dungeon Music: The Unlikely Story Of Dungeon Synth by Jordan Whiteman

On Location: David Murray/Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love, London, UK; Jamaaladeen Tacuma, London, UK; Unsound, Brussels, Belgium; Dedicated Play: BEAM SPLITTER x Xiu Xiu, Berlin, Germany + London, UK; Deep Time: Basquiat & Cage 8424, Edinburgh, UK; Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio, London, UK; Ben LaMar Gay, Berlin, Germany; Catalytic Sound Festival 2024, Chicago, US; Alexander Hawkins, London, UK; Roscoe Mitchell, Houston, US; MENT, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Laurie Anderson, Manchester, UK

On Site: Breaking Lines, London, UK; Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal, Los Angeles, US; Tanat Teeradakorn: National Opera Complex, London, UK

Plus: Letters, Charts, Out There