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 The Wire 495, Daniel Spicer reviews five albums that form part of a Strata-East reissue programme that celebrates the rich legacy of the New York label

In an extract from his new book, US pianist Matthew Shipp outlines what he means when he talks about Black Mystery School pianists

In the third instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses two horror scores by Gazelle Twin – Black Cab (2024) and Nocturne (2020) – and considers how psychological turmoil can be expressed in sound

Following the release of a new LP by the Orchestra Of Futurist Noise Intoners, director Luciano Chessa and Sanatorium Of Sound director Gerard Lebik discuss the legacy of Italian Futurist composer Luigi Russolo

In The Wire 495, Hugh Morris argues that the word jazzy denotes a cluster of cliches that neglects to engage with jazz itself

Following Michael Hurley’s death on 1 April, Ryan Meehan tracks the outsider folk singer and cartoonist’s journeys across America and remembers the restless bohemian spirit that powered them

In The Wire 494, Ken Hollings reviews two albums inspired by William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer

In the second instalment of his rebooted Secret History of Film Music column, Philip Brophy analyses Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury’s scores for the Alex Garland films Civil War (2024) and Annihilation (2018)

In The Wire 494, Daniel Spicer reviews a new collection of writing and criticism by long time Wire contributor and novelist David Keenan

The Wire Salon returns in April with the first of three events exploring the relationship of AI and music. In advance, read Emily Bick’s 2023 interview with composer patten in which he discusses using AI-generated samples to map music’s infinite complexities

In The Wire 494, Mosi Reeves argues that, while women set the tone in mainstream rap, the underground hiphop scene lags far behind

The UK outsider singer-songwriter has died aged 81. As a tribute, we have made Rob Young’s 2005 interview in The Wire 253 free to read in our online library.

Philip Brophy sets out his intentions for the return of his long running Wire column on film music

In The Wire 493, Claire Biddles reviews Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for Luca Guadagnino’s film of William S Burroughs’s semi-autobiographical novel