Essay
Automatic for the People
December 2025
The music industry's uptake of AI complicates the boundaries between listener, artist and music in troubling new ways, argues DeForrest Brown, Jr
The music industry's uptake of AI complicates the boundaries between listener, artist and music in troubling new ways, argues DeForrest Brown, Jr
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
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
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
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
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
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
The London based MayDay Rooms’ anarcho-punk archive is a valuable resource for radical cultures and politics today, writes Seth Wheeler in The Wire 503/4
Abi Bliss reviews a new project that draws on the sound archive of BBC Radiophonic Workshop co-founder and electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram in The Wire 502
Irene Revell reflects on the life and work of Fluxus co-founder Alison Knowles, who died in October
In his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses the musicalisation of purgatory in Japanese sci-fi series Alice In Borderland
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 The Wire 502, Holly Dicker argues that in a post-pandemic age dominated by social media and celebrity, the physical engagement and countercultural spirit of rave is under imminent threat
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
The creative scope of French pianist Sophie Agnel is demonstrated across two remarkable albums, writes Stewart Smith in The Wire 501
In The Wire 501, Robin James argues that the influential cultural theory of hauntology does not account for developments in Black creative practices and music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries
A new Foley based production at London's Royal Court Theatre invites us into the sound-making world of animals, writes Giles Bailey
Six Finger Satellite frontman and synth player J Ryan talks to Joseph Stannard about the making of the Rhode Island group’s newly reissued 1995 Severe Exposure album
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 his latest Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy considers how Justin Hurwitz manipulates, distorts, multiplies and caricatures jazz traditions in his collaborations with director Damien Chazelle