Wire Magazine 491/492 - 2024 REWIND - January + February 2025

Inside this issue:

2024 Rewind: the Year in Underground Music

Releases of the Year: We asked our contributors to vote for their top ten records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes

Critics’ Reflections: our writers discuss their memorable cultural experiences of the year

Columnists’ Charts: our specialist critics delve deep into their musical niches from noise to modern composition

Archive Releases of the Year: we asked our contributors to vote for their top ten archive records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes

Let The Rhythm Hit Em: dream attack. By Drew Daniel

Coming Around Again: feedback with a vengeance. By Daryl Worthington

All Ears: taken aurally. By Louise Gray

Soldering On: analogue logic. By Deborah Nash

Perfect Sound Forever: compact discussions. By John Brien

YATTA: the New York based artist fuses noise, pop and improv with a spiritual sensibility. By Stephanie Phillips

Music Ex Machina: the epic history of algorithmic music is surveyed at a new exhibition in Lausanne. By Robert Barry

Bridget Hayden: the Vibracathedral Orchestra member swaps free rock for folk on a stark new album. By Lucy Thraves

Invisible Jukebox: Pat Thomas: will the pianist and improvisor have a grand time with The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Seymour Wright

Global Ear: Zurich: The peripatetic noise scene resists gentrification in Switzerland’s biggest city. By Elia Brülhart

Unlimited Editions: Tape label Strategic Tape Reserve prepares to fail. By Antonio Poscic

The Inner Sleeve: Pamela Z on Robert Rauschenberg’s Talking Heads cover

Sakina Abdou: Ground and improvisation. By Stewart Smith

Oranssi Pazuzu: Mutant metal. By Derek Walmsley

Black Rain: Neo-Neuromancer. By Phil Freeman

Michael J Schumacher: Living space sounds. By Kurt Gottschalk

Epiphanies: Rafael Toral learns that music is the boss

In the review sections:

Soundcheck: Michaela Antalová, Adrian Myhr, Arashi & Takeo Moriyama, Tyler Bates, BEAM SPLITTER + Phil Minton, Conal Blake/Regan Bowering/Li Song, Nicolás Carcavilla, Alvin Curran, Greg Davis, Degradation x Iceman Junglist Kru, Diemajin, Beatrice Dillon, Tashi Dorji, eat-girls, Fievel Is Glauque, Niklas Fite & Günter Christmann, Full Of Hell & Andrew Nolan, Pascal Gaigne, Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Gebru/Maya Dunietz, Fuubutsushi, The Haunting, Daniela Huerta, Hungry Ghosts, Jana Irmert, Kyosaku, Kendrick Lamar, Matilde Meireles, Abdullah Miniawy, Iker Munduate, NET GALA, Other Light Ensemble, Perila, Bogdan Raczynski, Raffertie, George Rayner-Law, Stonecirclesampler, The Residents, Mariam Rezaei, Crystabel Efemena Riley, Colin Self, Rojin Sharafi, Patrick Shiroishi, Patrick Shiroishi/Àlex Reviriego/Vasco Trilla, Sulla Lingua, Titi & Ale Hop, TRAINING + Ruth Goller, Toshiya Tsunoda & Taku Unami, Tungu, Usage/Efficiency/Variance/Platform/Domain, Various Tempat Angker: Horror Movie OSTs & Sound FX From Indonesia (1971–2015)

The Columns: Avant Rock by Tony Rettman; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Spenser Tomson; Hiphop & R&B by Richard Stacey; Jazz & Improv by Daniel Spicer; Modern Composition by Julian Cowley; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Raymond Cummings; Size Matters by Byron Coley

The Boomerang: The Apostles; Don Cherry & Okay Temiz; Clannad; Patrick Cowley; Miles Davis; Bryan Ferry; Jimi Hendrix; Catherine Christer Hennix; The High Llamas; Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10; Hypnosonics; The Jazzmen; Phil Manzanera; The Orb; Primitive Art Group; Rudimentary Peni; Throbbing Gristle; McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson; Various Electro Throwdown: Sci-Fi Inter-Planetary Electro Attack On Planet Earth 1982–89

Print Run: Solid Foundation: An Oral History Of Reggae by David Katz; Ultra-red: A Journal Of Militant Sound Inquiry, Vol 1 edited by Dont Rhine, David Albright & Christina Sanchez Juarez; Ghost Of An Idea: Hauntology, Folk Horror And The Spectre Of Nostalgia by Williams Burns; Cardiacs: A Big Book And A Band And The Whole World Window by Aaron Tanner; Bodies Of Sound: Becoming A Feminist Ear edited by Irene Revell & Sarah Shin; Sideways Through Time: An Oral History Of Hawkwind In The 1970s: Revised & Expanded by Joe Banks; Straight Up, Without Wings, The Musical Flight Of Joe McPhee by Joe McPhee

On Location: Meredith Monk, New York, US; Mary Lattimore + Walt McClements, London, UK; Sonica 2024, Glasgow, UK; Donaueschinger Musiktage, Donaueschingen, Germany; Wooley/Vandermark/Lytton, London, UK; Out.Fest, Barreiro, Portugal; Skaņu Mežs, Riga, Latvia; Artifacts Trio, London, UK; Semibreve, Braga, Portugal; The Lappetites + Ipek Odabaşi & Ignaz Schick, Berlin, Germany; Wadada Leo Smith/Raven Chacon, New York, US; Beatrice Dillon, London, UK; Ghosted, London, UK.

On Site: Terry Adkins, Disclosure, London, UK; Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea; Scott Myles, Head In A Bell, Glasgow, UK.

On Screen: Jeremy Marre Konkombe – The Nigerian Pop Music Scene.