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The Wire 505

March 2026

Current issue in shops now

On the cover: dälek: The New Jersey hiphop duo’s new album continues an extraordinary orbit taking in improv, hardcore and metal along the way. By Joseph Stannard; The Primer: Bring The Noise: From scratched vinyl to the cyborg kick of a Roland 808, hiphop beats have always been built from noise. By Rob Turner; O Ghettão: The Portuguese producer supergroup turbocharging batida’s dance music evolution. By Joseph Francis; Vic Bang: The Buenos Aires musician shapes homespun computer music using global folk sources. By Daryl Worthington; Pascal Comelade: Toy instruments and song shards are moving parts in the Catalan musician’s sly minimalism. By Julian Cowley; Invisible Jukebox: Daniel Blumberg: How will the soundtrack composer score against The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Claire Biddles; Zu: Doom mongering monsters of industrial skronk. By Miloš Hroch; London Clay: Post-punk palimpsests. By Leah Kardos; Global Ear: Creative solutions to gentrification in Marseille. By Mathias Kulpinski; Unlimited Editions: High tech meets noise rock in Julien Fernandez’s Computer Students label. By Louis Pattison; The Inner Sleeve: Evicshen on Lightning Bolt’s Hypermagic Mountain; Against The Grain: Capitalist and patriarchal modes of listening neglect spiritual dimensions of music, argues Julia Úlehla; Epiphanies: A late night Egyptian Lover set changes the game for RP Boo; Plus 37 pages of reviews including: Shane Parish: Autechre unplugged. By Derek Walmsley; Nkisi: Wax poetics. By Andrea Zarza; Stan Hubbs: Crystal methods. By Edwin Pouncey; A Brief History Of Sound Recording: A subjective survey of audio ephemera and archives. By Derek Walmsley; Deep Time: I See Red: Raven Chacon programmes resistance and turmoil in Edinburgh. By Dorian Fraser-Moore; GIOfest XVII: An Indonesian collective and gamelan break down hierarchies in Glasgow. By Derek Walmsley; Le Guess Who? The Utrecht event’s globalist ethos defies anti-immigration crackdowns. By Marinus De Ruiter; Afrosonica: Soundscapes: Surveying the sonic practices of Africa and its diaspora. By Esi Eshun, and much more.

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Essay

A line in the sand

A line in the sand

As AI use spreads further into the creative industries, platforms like Bandcamp must be bold in their efforts to sort the good faith from the bad, argues Erick Bradshaw

Essay

Authorship under automation

Authorship under automation

In the first essay of a short series exploring Bandcamp’s ban on AI-generated music, Vicki Bennett argues that the platform’s decision rests on the belief in a stable binary between computer and human made music

Tracks

Wire mix: Hilary Woods

Wire mix: Hilary Woods

To complement her interview in The Wire 503/504, Irish composer and filmmaker Hilary Woods curates an exclusive Wire mix

Essay

Colin Stetson: Hot Breath and Dark Tones

Colin Stetson: Hot Breath and Dark Tones

Philip Brophy analyses Colin Stetson’s use of the saxophone’s physical dimensions to evoke the disturbed voices and bodies of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) and Hereditary (2018)

Tracks

Wire playlist: Alpha Maid

Wire playlist: Alpha Maid

Leisha Thomas – aka Alpha Maid – compiles an annotated playlist that charts her work alongside and within the South London experimental scene that also includes Mica Levi and Coby Sey

Essay

Process of Time

Process of Time

To make sense of ongoing tech revolutions, a new generation of musicians is making music that metabolises electronic processes through analogue forms, argues Ryan Meehan

Essay

Hybrid Vigour

Hybrid Vigour

Far beyond novelty or experiment, 2025 was the year that crossover projects rejected genre labels for endless sonic possibilities, writes Stewart Smith in The Wire 503/504

Essay

Extended Play

Extended Play

In The Wire 503/504, Xenia Benivolski writes that as the speed of events and information flows increases, drone based slowness offers another mode of perception

Essay

Time out of Joint

Time out of Joint

Traditional instruments, folk cultures and mythic ideas of futurity offer slip roads exiting AI’s highway to a hollow future, argues Daryl Worthington in The Wire 503/504

Essay

Arch Rivals

Arch Rivals

London’s extensive railway infrastructure is both a refuge for DIY nightlife and under threat from gentrification, writes Deborah Nash in The Wire 503/504

Essay

Style Counsel

Style Counsel

In The Wire 503/504, Lucy Thraves argues that luxury labels and conglomerates are keen to purchase some avant garde glory, but at a cost to experimental music and the ecosystem that supports it

Essay

Automatic for the People

Automatic for the People

The music industry's uptake of AI complicates the boundaries between listener, artist and music in troubling new ways, argues DeForrest Brown, Jr

Essay

Against the Stream

Against the Stream

DIY online radio stations allow humanity and personality to surface in a tide of soulless and reductive algorithmic playlists, argues Paul Rekret in The Wire 503/504

On Air

Shane Woolman presents Adventures In Sound And Music

Shane Woolman presents Adventures In Sound And Music

The 18 December edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra featured music from The Wire's Top 50 Releases of the Year, including Natural Information Society, DJ Haram and Valentina Magaletti & YPY

Charts

2025 Rewind: Contributors’ Charts

2025 Rewind: Contributors’ Charts

The Wire’s Releases of the Year chart for 2025 was compiled from the individual votes of the magazine’s staff and contributors – here are those votes in full

Tracks

The Wire’s Releases of the Year 2025 playlist

The Wire’s Releases of the Year 2025 playlist

Listen to a selection of tracks from our Top 50 Releases of the Year, as voted for by The Wire’s team of staff and contributors. You can read more about the albums featured in our chart, as well as those featured in the Top 50 Archive Releases of the Year, in The Wire 503/504

Download

Below The Radar 49

Below The Radar 49

Volume 49 of The Wire’s subscriber only download compilation includes tracks by Hilary Woods, Lo Egin, Nika Ticciati & Beth Veasey, S280F, Deer Park, Yuhan Su, otta & Powerplant and more

Tracks

Office Ambience 502

Office Ambience 502

Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our December 2025 issue

The Portal

Jack DeJohnette (9 August 1942–26 October 2025)

Jack DeJohnette (9 August 1942–26 October 2025)

The US drummer, pianist and composer died on 26 October aged 83. In the February 1989 issue of The Wire, he was interviewed by the magazine’s then editor Richard Cook. As a tribute, we have made that article free to read in our online library

Tracks

Wire playlist: Alien Territory Archives

Wire playlist: Alien Territory Archives

Nyahh Records’ label runner Willie Stewart compiles a playlist to accompany new boxset The Alien Territory Archives: A Collection Of Radical, Experimental & Irrelevant Music From 1970s San Diego, a companion to Bill Perrine’s book of the same name

On Air

Shane Woolman presents Adventures In Sound And Music

Shane Woolman presents Adventures In Sound And Music

The 23 October edition of The Wire’s weekly radio show on Resonance FM and Resonance Extra included a special guest mix by Cairo-based DJ, producer and multidisciplinary artist El Kontessa, plus tracks by Alien Trackers, Sanaa Moussa and more

Tracks

Wire playlist: Sonny Simmons

Wire playlist: Sonny Simmons

Pierre Crépon selects tracks from the catalogue of US saxophonist Sonny Simmons, with input from Marc Chaloin, co-author of new autobiography Better Do It Now Before You Die Later

Tracks

Wire mix: Kinlaw & Franco Franco

Wire mix: Kinlaw & Franco Franco

To accompany their interview in The Wire 501, Bristol duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco curates an exclusive Wire mix of celestial musings, cyber-noir, and trappist beats

Tracks

Office Ambience 501

Office Ambience 501

Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our November 2025 issue

Essay

Why listen to animals?

Why listen to animals?

A new Foley based production at London's Royal Court Theatre invites us into the sound-making world of animals, writes Giles Bailey

Tracks

Wire mix: Weston Olencki

Wire mix: Weston Olencki

To accompany their interview in The Wire 500, Berlin based US composer Weston Olencki curates an exclusive Wire mix of music by their close collaborators

Tracks

Office Ambience 500

Office Ambience 500

Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our October 2025 issue

Tracks

Unlimited Editions: Ftarri

Unlimited Editions: Ftarri

To accompany his report on Ftarri in The Wire 499, Derek Walmsley explores a playlist of recent releases from the Japanese improv label

Tracks

Wire mix: SANAM

Wire mix: SANAM

Beirut based avant rock group SANAM curate a special mix of music to accompany their interview in The Wire 499

Tracks

Wire playlist: Chris Burn

Wire playlist: Chris Burn

To complement his interview with Chris Burn in The Wire 499, Seymour Wright discusses tracks from across the musician’s varied career

Tracks

Global Ear: Bologna

Global Ear: Bologna

Seth Wheeler and Jamila Squire compile an annotated playlist to accompany their report on Bologna’s experimental music centre in The Wire 499

Tracks

Office Ambience 499

Office Ambience 499

Stream a selection of tracks from releases we listened to during the making of our September 2025 issue

Download

Below The Radar 48

Below The Radar 48

Volume 48 of The Wire's subscriber only download compilation includes tracks by Crystabel Efemena Riley, Meat Strap, Labake Sabbath, Violeta Garcia & Hora Lunga, Nahja Mora, Annie Bloch & Emily Wittbrodt, Master Of Inane Conversation and more