Book Extract
Read an extract from Everybody’s Head Is Open To Sound: Writings On Tom Wilson
February 2026
In the introduction to her collection of writings on Tom Wilson, Anaïs Ngbanzo gives an overview of the influential producer's life
In the introduction to her collection of writings on Tom Wilson, Anaïs Ngbanzo gives an overview of the influential producer's life
In an extract from his new book, co-authored with Kennedy Block, Josh MacPhee outlines the role of workers' songs and the making of records in supporting labour movements in the US
In an extract from his new book, Mike Adcock explores the aural properties of stone and introduces some notable figures in the development of lithophones
In an extract from a new collection of writings and interviews by James Tenney – edited by Robert Wannamaker, Lauren Pratt and Tashi Wada – Douglas Kahn interviews the US Fluxus composer and theorist in 1999 about his influences and works
In an extract from his new book, Ian Thompson charts the development of Red Noise, a collection of anarchist and communist musicians brought together during the Paris protests of May 68
In an extract from his new book, Daniel Martin Feige outlines the basic principles and skills involved in improvisation
In an extract from his new book, Jamie Taylor remembers the first time he went to visit Ken Patten’s studio, home to early iterations of The Human League, Vice Versa (later ABC), Heaven 17 and Clock DVA
Read an extract from Daniel Spicer’s Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution And The Politics Of Improvisation, in which the author reconsiders the connections between the German saxophonist's playing and that of Albert Ayler
In an extract from his new book, US pianist Matthew Shipp outlines what he means when he talks about Black Mystery School pianists
Read an extract from Nicolas Collins’s Semi-Conducting – Rambles Through The Post-Cagean Thicket, in which the author describes his early experiments with feedback
In an extract from his new book, David Katz charts the emergence of Jamaica’s sound system culture in relation to social and political transformations that underpinned the country’s fight for independence
This extract from William Burns's book gives an overview of hauntological music and its preoccupation with the sound of decay, the evocation of nostalgia, and the allure of lost futures
This extract from new book Sonic Faction considers the possibilities and limitations of the audio essay as a form of sonic psychedelic experiment, prompted by three releases on Hyperdub’s Flatlines sub-label
In an extract from her new book Made in NuYoRico: Fania Records, Latin Music & Salsa’s Nuyorican Meanings, Marisol Negrón analyses the opening scene of music documentary Our Latin Thing, drawing out its references to the history and culture of community networks in New York’s Puerto Rican communities in the 1970s
In an exclusive extract from his new book, Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts In Dr John’s Gris-Gris, David Toop follows anthropologist turned writer Zora Neale Hurston into the New Orleans of the late 1920s to sample the beliefs, tall tales and magical workings that comprise the mythopoetic substance of Dr John’s peculiar character and sound
Repeater share the first two sections of Toby Manning’s ‘Top Ten’ introduction to his new book, which charts A Marxist History of Popular Music
Michael Veal shares an extract from the second chapter of his new book, in which he considers “the Africanist Grid as a mode of jazz consciousness”
Philip Freeman shares an excerpt from his new biography of Cecil Taylor, which takes the reader from the pianist and composer's birth in 1929 to his death in 2018 and beyond
Brendan Greaves shares an excerpt from his new authorised biography of US musician and visual artist Terry Allen. Chapter 16 recalls Allen’s one-off appearance on the TV show Shindig! on 4 August 1965, two years after Allen and his partner Jo Harvey married and made the move from Lubbock, Texas to Los Angeles.
A new compendium reflects on the activity of the German post-club platform and interdisciplinary art hub Creamcake, combining images from its archives with written accounts and new essays