Essays

Digital transparency has revealed dimensions to African music beyond Western received ideas. But how to market it sympathetically, asks Brian Shimkovitz

Circulating music as resource-free downloads might reduce carbon footprints, but the fast turnover of the computers, MP3 players and mobile phones we play them on costs the Earth plenty, argues Phil England.

Arthur Russell died in obscurity of AIDS in 1992. Yet this New York composer was a true visionary, traversing dub, disco and minimalism and anticipating the 90s obsession with musical hybrids. David Toop pays tribute. This article first appeared in The Wire 134, April 1995.

A public resignation from David Toop. Published in The Wire 166, December 1997.

When John Richards of Dirty Electronics began manufacturing interactive sound devices such as a hand-held analogue synth, he tapped into a participatory social experiment in revitalising digitally numbed senses

In the early 2000s, increased bandwidth allowed recombinant artists to enter the gift economy. It’s a freedom we should defend at all costs, argues Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us

Don’t confuse online culture with digital culture, argues Terre Thaemlitz, whose latest project pushes the MP3 format to its absolute limits.

Bulk giveaways of music online make it impossible for listeners to make any sense of an artist’s work, argues James Kirby

In response to The Wire's two previous Albert Ayler pieces (in The Wire 3), Mike Hames reveals the true circumstances of the saxophonist's death, and reassesses his controversial experiments with soul, R&B, and gospel music.

Two life long Albert Ayler enthusiasts – Bill Smith and Brian Case – remember the legendary, lost tenorman. This feature first appeared in The Wire 3, Spring 1983.