Global Ear: San Fransisco
Erik Davies parties on with the urban primitives of Recombinant 96

Khan & Jammin' Unit
Disguising their various projects behind a series of obscure aliases, these German brothers are pushing electronic music into new realms of hybrid hyperactivity. By Rob Young

Nippon Noise Squad
At the end of 1996 a platoon of Tokyo noise terrorists, including members of Musica Transonic, mainliner and Toho Sara, infiltrated the UK for a series of surprise attack concerts. Biba Kopf hears their stories

John White
Meet the invisible man of UK experimental music as he joins the dots between lo-fi electronics, orchestral whimsy and the birth of Ambient. By John L Walters

Hoppy Kamiyama
Who's that man in the blonde wig and green feather boa? It's Tokyo's premier cross-dressing avant garde label boss, of course. By Clive Bell

Laibach
Dismissed by some as tin-pot dictators in disguise, hailed by others as the most subversive rock group on the planet, this Slovenian quartet are still laying siege to the smug citadels of world pop.

Prince Paul
In the psychiatrist's chair: the HipHop producer behind Stetsasonic's get-fresh funk, the Daisy Age rap of De La Soul and the Gothic horror of The Gravediggaz. By Peter Shapiro

1996 Rewind
Charting 12 months of essential underground music activity: we name our Records Of The Year and ask a few musical aquaintances to give us their highlights of 1996

Invisible Jukebox: Harold Budd
Mike Barnes listens as the Ambient auteur attempts to identify music by John Coltrane, Labradford, Jon Hassell, Allen Ginsberg, Joe Zawinul and more