Essay
The Wellness Trap
January 2025
In The Wire 491/492, James Gormley argues that redrawing the line between public and private space has coined a dubious new currency in sonic self-help and healing experiences
In The Wire 491/492, James Gormley argues that redrawing the line between public and private space has coined a dubious new currency in sonic self-help and healing experiences
The US filmmaker has died aged 78. As a tribute, we have made the extended cover feature on Lynch that appeared in The Wire 486 free to read in our online library. The feature includes a cover designed by Lynch, an interview with the director and his music collaborator Chrystabell, and 12 pages of essays exploring the unique sound world created by his films.
In The Wire 491/492, James Gui reviews three releases that take inspiration from the world of Asian horror – with mixed results
In The Wire 491/492, Louise Gray recalls developing a new relationship to sound while bed-bound in hospital following an accident
In The Wire 491/492, Drew Daniel recounts a dream of a strange new music style, whose subsequent online virality revealed the need to test the limits of genres
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
The Indian tabla virtuoso died on 15 December aged 73. In December 2000 he was interviewed for the cover story of The Wire 202, discussing his work with John McLaughlin, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Talvin Singh. As a tribute, we have made the article free to read in our online library.
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
David Grundy attends a week long event in Berlin designed to forward a global avant garde of Black music composers
Ahead of his celebration of Max Roach, trumpeter Charles Tolliver talks to Gabriel Bristow about playing alongside the legendary drummer, studying at Howard University with Donny Hathaway and Stokely Carmichael, and the legacy of Strata-East Records
The great US drummer died on 12 November aged 99. In 2000, Philip Clark interviewed him, discussing some of the stellar moments in a jazz life that traversed the entire history of the music and encounters with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton and more
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
Edwin Pouncey pays tribute to the bass player who drove The Grateful Dead’s furthest out moments to infinity and back
In San Diego, Bill Perrine celebrates the return of the American composer’s instrumentarium
The American singer, guitarist and political activist died on 20 October aged 97. As a tribute we have made Emily Pothast’s 2023 interview with Dane free to read in our online magazine library.
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
Mark Wastell relates how he came to own one of the most famous pieces of kit in improvised music, 30 years after it disappeared
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
Dean Roberts died aged 49 on 10 August. As a tribute to the New Zealand born, Berlin based nomadic avantist, we have made Jon Dale's 2008 interview with Roberts free to read via our online magazine library.