Via their releases on Sheffield's Warp label, the Autechre duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown are searching out new dimensions in electronic sound. Meanwhile, their Disengage radio show has become a community news bulletin for fellow digital denizens. Interview by Rob Young. This article originally appeared in The Wire 156 (February 1997).
In the world of live electronics, Hugh Davies is a pioneering figure, forging strange, new sounds from home-made musical instruments and working with collaborators as diverse as Stockhausen and Talk Talk. This article originally appeared in The Wire 168 (February 1998).
Once upon a time, Andrew Weatherall was the out-of-control speedfreak of UK club culture. Now following a long cooling off period, he's reinventing himself with Two Lone Swordsmen as a purveyor of primal underground Electronica. Interview by Rob Young. This article originally appeared in The Wire 148 (June 1996).
For three decades, Evan Parker's mission has been to boldly go where no other musician has gone before. Now he's exploring music's outer limits with a new generation of musicians half his age. Interview by Rob Young. This article originally appeared in The Wire 144 (February 1996).
Read the full unedited transcript of Rob Young's interview with Carsten Nicolai and Blixa Bargeld
Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is an unlikely star – a religious recluse whose sensibility is more in tune with the deep past than the present. Rob Young goes in search of the ancient spirits that haunt Pärt’s music. Illustration by Julian Kulpa. This article originally appeared in The Wire 117 (November 1993).
Cologne and Düsseldorf are hives of musical activity. A loose community of musicians, label owners, club runners and sonic theorists is building on the legacies of Can, Kraftwerk and DAF, creating the electronic soundtrack for a united Europe. Rob Young meets the stars of selten gehörte Musik: Mouse On Mars, Mike Ink, Dr Walker, A-Musik, Pluramon and more. This article originally appeared in The Wire 159 (May 1997).
Earlier this year, Radio 3 sent a package of tapes to Karlheinz Stockhausen. The tapes contained music by Aphex Twin, Plastikman, Scanner and Daniel Pemberton. Then in August, the station’s reporter Dick Witts travelled to Salzburg to meet Stockhausen and ask him for his opinion on the music of these four “Technocrats”. But first, they talked about the German composer’s own youthful experiments in electronic synthesis. This article originally appeared in The Wire 141 (November 1995).
After three albums and a world tour which nearly put paid to them, the members of Portishead are resting up. In Bristol, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley discuss the workings of the decade's most unlikely global pop phenomenon with Rob Young. This article was originally published in The Wire 178 (December 1998).
In a galaxy far, far away, home-studio visionaries such as Squarepusher, Mike Paradinas, Luke Vibert and Witchman are feverishly reinventing the cult of the breakbeat. This article originally appeared in The Wire 149 (July 1996).
How Mouse On Mars injected a virus into the machines. By Rob Young. This article originally appeared in The Wire 130 (December 1994).
Melting the borders between art and science, a new wave of musicians are sourcing sounds from ever more alien domains. Report by Rob Young. This article originally appeared in The Wire 157 (March 1997).
Music is finding new ways to simulate dream states, the latest being the twilight zone sonic reveries of Richard James, aka Aphex Twin. This article originally appeared in The Wire 134 (April 1995).
In the mid-60s, AMM destroyed the last remaining ground rules of free music with their aesthetic of 'total sound'. Rob Young reflects on the group's achievements over 30 years, and finds their collective approach very much alive. This article originally appeared in The Wire 132 (February 1995).
Unedited transcript of Rob Young's interview with Joanna Newsom, following the release of her second album Ys