Hurdy-Gurdy Madness
Clive Bell gets a handle on the crankiest medieval instrument of them all

Global Ear: Tokyo
Rob Young goes shopping for music in the Japanese capital, and enters a culture-shocking world of customised cassettes, vinyl exotica, and virtual DJs

The Secret History Of Film Music
In a time when movies are treated as marketing devices for CD compilations, Philip Brophy hails the narrative-enhancing use of records in the films of Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann

James Blood Ulmer
Is there still a place in the world for hardcore harmolodic punk-jazz? This legendary New York guitarist thinks so, and Steve Holtje agrees with him

Sonic Youth
The four members of the worlds most influential rock group since The Velvet Underground get together in New York City, and give Biba Kopf a lesson in how to grow old disgracefully

Robert Moog
When Walter Carlos released Switched-On Bach in 1969, the sound of music was changed forever. Mark Sinker meets the man who invented the instrument that made it all possible: the Moog synthesizer

Invisible Jukebox: LTJ Bukem
The oceanic Junglist enters our mysterious listening booth, and tries to identify tracks by Leroy Hutson, Pharoah Sanders, Wax Doctor, Double Dee & Steinski and more. Tested by Peter Shapiro

Royal Trux
Once they were strung out rock 'n' roll casualties. Today, avant rock's First Couple speculate on the stock market and espouse the universal music theories of Ornette Coleman. By Louise Gray