Columns
Music in the gallery: Chin-stroking at the Noise dudes
July 2013
Nathan Budzinski on the ascendency of art galleries as music venues – pleasure at what cost?
The Portal
The Durian Brothers Portal
July 2013
Sound poet and lecturer Marc Matter, furniture designer and musician Stefan Schwander and artist Florian Meyer meet for a day at a time to record as The Durian Brothers. The trio, releasing on Fat Cat Records and featured in the July issue of The Wire, share an index of manifestos, neologisms and more.
Column
Composers Anonymous: Where's London's New Music?
June 2013
Philip Clark asks why London has always been "re" rather than "pro" active towards trends in composed music.
The Portal
David Novak’s online sound archives Portal
June 2013
The author of Japanoise: Music At The Edge Of Circulation and lecturer in the upcoming Music, Digitisation, Mediation conference in Oxford (11–13 July) shares his favourite online sound archives.
Column
Bell Labs: Improv Will Eat Itself
June 2013
"Retail is retail, whether it’s a cup of coffee or an Eliane Radigue CD" says Mark Wastell to Mr Bell.
Essay
Collateral Damage: Numero Group on the vinyl bubble
June 2013
The recent boom in vinyl merely reflects business’s desire to extract maximum commodity value from ‘manufactured rarities’. But, ask Numero Group’s Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley, what happens to the music when the bubble bursts?
Essay
Collateral Damage: Numero Group on the vinyl bubble
June 2013
The recent boom in vinyl merely reflects business’s desire to extract maximum commodity value from ‘manufactured rarities’. But, ask Numero Group’s Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley, what happens to the music when the bubble bursts?
The Mire
Mother Motherland & The Last Post
During a recent visit to Kiev as part of a selection panel for a
call for sound and art works made by the ECAS network , I visited the Ukranian
capital's World War Two memorial. I made my way through the Soviet
era metro and out to the hills overlooking the wide Dnieper River,
with clusters of imposing looking tower blocks beyond its opposite
banks. After passing through a park, the gold-domed Pechersk Lavra
and Memorial To The Holodomor Victims (the Ukrainian
“terror-famine” in the early 1930s) I enter a pedestrian boulevard.
At the head of it sit kiosks and cafes, with small groups of
visitors escaping from the hot weather, sipping beer in the shade
of umbrellas.
The broad boulevard stretches out under the hot sun for nearly a
kilometre. I hear the muffled sounds of distant music being played.
Suddenly, a loud and mournful male voice starts singing in
contrabass right next to me. The entire boulevard is...
The Portal
Maria Chavez: A Portal for turntablism, sound art and more
June 2013
The New York based sound artist and experimental turntablist shares her favourite online resources on turntablism, sound and visual art.
The Mire
Listen And Learn
The listening session, where writers are herded into a company
office to get the first spin of a new album, is now an everyday –
yet still clandestine – event. Big independents and major labels
are paranoid about their precious new albums leaking through
journalists (anecdotally, most leaks happen before it even goes out
to the media) so they operate an odd nannying operation whereby you
can come along and hear the album... but there's no chance of
getting it into your own hands.
There’s two types of listening session. The first and the most
excruciating is where a PR is detailed to sit in with you, giving
tedious behind-the-scenes gossip on how the artists got their shit
together, all the while trying to keep a sneaky eye on your
response to the music. It's like a waiter in a posh restaurant
painstakingly explaining all the ingredients to you, constantly
checking whether you enjoyed it, and asking if there's anything you
need,...
The Portal
The Portal: Mississippi Records's Eric Isaacson
May 2013
The reissue label boss (featured in The Wire 352) introduces us to his selection of underfunded independent cultural institutions: "Bear in mind I rarely surf the net for anything beyond movie showing times. Still, I happen to know these organisations are worth keeping an eye out for."
Column
Composers Anonymous: Classical Stockholm Syndrome
May 2013
Philip Clark muses the death of composer Steve Martland and the identikit obituary.
The Portal
Heatsick's Portal
May 2013
Steven Warwick's quick stop tour of his favourite bits of reading, watching and listening online, taking in drone aircraft technology, hybridisation and queer actor and director Fred Halsted.
Columns
Bell Labs: Requiem For Musical Instruments
May 2013
Clive Bell looks at the threatened ecology of instruments and the people who still play them.
Column
Abi Bliss: Invisible Women
April 2013
Fetishising female pioneers of electronic music risks banishing them to glass cases, away from the main exhibits in the museum of musical history, says Abi Bliss.
Interview
Little Machines for Singing: David Rothenberg takes on the swarm
April 2013
Mark Pilkington speaks to the man behind a book exploring the crossovers between insect noises and synthesized sounds.
Columns
Composers Anonymous: Tickling The Ivories
April 2013
In his latest column, Philip Clark asks whether the piano is still relevant – have things dropped off since Debussy, Ravel and Janáček?
The Portal
Ashley Paul Portal
April 2013
Follow Ashley Paul's top choice picks of the web. The US multi-instrumentalist was featured in The Wire 350, in an interview with Nick Southgate.
Column
Bell Labs: Total Immersion: The Inside Dope
April 2013
In the summer of 2012 my friend Stuart offered me a ticket for a
concert of Japanese music at London’s Barbican. The concert was
scheduled for a...
Interview
Dennis Johnson: Maths, Mars landings and minimalism
March 2013
Dennis Johnson's newly recorded piece November, which inspired La Monte Young's The Well Tuned Piano, rewrites the history of minimalism. Clive Bell talks to the elusive mathematician.