Keiji Haino
Alan Cummings penetrates the universal consciousness of the Tokyo shaman, who has conducted a 30 year quest to outdo the Big Bang with his Fushitsusha and Aihiyo groups, solo guitar noise, percussion rituals and DJ sets

John Coltrane
Commemorating 35 years since the saxophonist's death, Howard Mandel's personal memoir recalls how Coltrane's last, cosmic, acid-fuelled free jazz blew all-comers out of the water, on albums like Ascension and Interstellar Space

Primer: Nurse With Wound
A user's guide to two decades' worth of macabre surrealism, dream visions, dissecting-table logic and automatic music, all emanating from the fertile imagination of Steven Stapleton and friends. By David Keenan

Wordsound
Skiz Fernando's HipHop label has been predicting apocalypse via the urban pressure sounds of Spectre, Prince Paul, Sensational and others. Now he blows the cover of the music industry hustle in his Crooked film. By Hua Hsu

Philip Jeck
Amplifying dust crackles and scratches, the English turntablist loads up his Dansettes with melancholy, deeply affecting requiems that attempt to resurrect vinyl memories from the dustbins of history. By Clive Bell

Invisible Jukebox: Simon Fisher Turner
The former King of Luxembourg, Derek Jarman soundtracker and Ambient musician turns blue trying to identify tracks by Bowie, Eno, PiL, Walter Ruttmann, Bid, Wishmountain and more. Tested by Mike Barnes

DJ /Rupture
Anecdotal evidence from Jace Clayton proves the mix is more than the sum of its parts. By Hua Hsu

Goodiepal
Jerome Maunsell meets the Danish electronic musician undermining and celebrating corporate brands

Al Margolis
The American composer and cassette-activist has also got his hands dirty with label management. Dave Mandl explains.

Global Ear
David A Edwards finds a vibrant Space for creative music in Wellington, New Zealand

Epiphanies
Late Junction's Verity Sharp tunes in to the animal mechanics of Sergey Kuryokhin

Print Run
Castles Made of Sound: The Story of Gil Evans, by Larry Hicock; Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition, by Thomas B Holmes; Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music, edited by Norman Kelley; Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs, by Brendan Mullen with Don Bolles & Adam Parfrey; Bill Evans: Everything Happens To Me: A Musical Biography, by Keith Shadwick; Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-65, by Kenny Mathieson; Soundart: The Swedish Scene, by Teddy Hultberg; Back In The Days, Jamel Shabazz

Cross Platform
A new exhibition of videogames scores high on the music content, says Ken Hollings
Plus: Reviews of: Sampling/ Christian Marclay; Christina Kubisch: Thirty-three Fields; and DVDs by: Autechre and Takagi Masakatsu

On Location
Festival International De Musique Actuelle, Victoriaville Various Venues, Canada; Turntable Hell, London Queen Elizabeth Hall, UK; Cinematic Orchestra, Londn Hanover Grand, UK; Eletronika Festival, Belo Horizonte Various Venues, Brazil; Bang On a Can With Cecil Taylor, London Barbican, UK; Adventures, New York Symphony Space, USA; Tikiman & Scion, San Francisco Recombinant Labs Compound, USA