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The Wire 498. Cover photo by Mark Davis

Issue 498

August 2025

Subscribers: read this issue online.

Subscribe to the magazine. Buy issue 498.

Inside our brand new issue:

Bill Orcutt: The late blooming career of the former Harry Pussy guitarist is impossible to second guess. By Tony Rettman

Vanessa Rossetto: The Staten Island field recordist tells poignant and incongruous stories with loops and samples. By Ilia Rogatchevski

Slikback: Pushing beat-making software to the limits, the Poland based Kenyan producer conjures a world of posthuman rave music. By Hannah Pezzack

Michael Ranta: From Partch to Plank, the octogenarian percussionist and composer on a lifetime learning from the 20th century avant garde. By Derek Walmsley

Youth Code: Industrial shock unit. By Joseph Stannard

Fredrik Rasten: Not just intonation. By Peter Margasak

Nourished By Time: 808s and heartbreak. By Misha Farrant

Invisible Jukebox: Gina Birch: Will the Raincoat weather The Wire’s mystery record collection? Tested by Mike Barnes

Global Ear: NØNRANDØM events in Philippine capital Manila. By Simon Coates

Unlimited Editions: Building the fifth world with Italian tape label Artetetra. By Miloš Hroch

The Inner Sleeve: Adam Wiltzie of Stars Of The Lid on Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Virðulegu Forsetar

Against The Grain: Spotify is distorting the histories of UK Black musics, argues Derek Walmsley

Epiphanies: Post retirement, Larry Stabbins falls in love all over again with the saxophone

Soundcheck: æinter, Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons, Zoh Amba, Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin, Oren Ambarchi & Fredrik Rasten, The Austerity Program, Nelson Bandela, Ori Barel, Biosphere, Antonio Borghini & Banquet Of Consequences, Lawrence Casserley & Emil Karlsen, Das B, DJ DIE SOON, David Donohoe & Kate Carr, Silke Eberhard Trio, Silke Eberhard-Potsa Lotsa XL, Alexander Hawkins, Hekate, Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Stefan Keune/Ewen Smith/Damon Smith, Chloe Kim, Felix Kubin, Catherine Lamb x Ghost Ensemble, Susu Laroche, Charmaine Lee, Dave Liebman/Billy Hart/Adam Rudolph, Manton, Me Lost Me, Ava Mendoza/gabby fluke-mogul/Carolina Pérez, Abdullah Miniawy, Phil Minton & Ståle Liavik Solberg, MOBBS & Susu Laroche, Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp, Amina Claudine Myers, Alex Paxton, Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Pharaoh Overlord, Cyrus Pireh, Quadvium, Udo Schindler/Sandy Ewen/Damon Smith, Matthew Shipp, The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters, Spaces Unfolding & Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, DJ SPELL, Spiderwrap, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Salome Voegelin, Dan Weiss, Wevie Stonder, Various The Sky Was A Mouth Again

The Columns: Avant Rock by Joseph Stannard; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Spenser Tomson; Hiphop & R&B by Mosi Reeves; Jazz & Improv by Stewart Smith; Modern Composition by Julian Cowley; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Raymond Cummings; Size Matters by Byron Coley

The Boomerang: John Cameron Quartet; Electronic Sensoria Band with Gavin Duffy; Jackie-O Motherfucker; Joke Lanz; John McKay; The Sabres Of Paradise; Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley; Vainio & Vigroux; Ilpo Väisänen; White Noise Sound; Various Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground; Various Variātiōnēs: The VCS3 Variations

Print Run: World Countdown August 1966–July 1967 edited by Richard Morton Jack; Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde – Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop by J Hoberman; A Revolution In Music: The History Of The Groupe De Recherches Musicales by Évelyne Gayou; Take No Prisoners: The Desert Storm Sound System Story by Keith Robinson (edited by Iain Donnelly); MOR by Anonymous, with photographs by Wassily Bosch

On Screen: David Charles Rodrigues S/He Is Still Her/e: The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary

On Location: Oscillation: The Weather, Brussels, Belgium; Stihia, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan; Speech Muse, London, UK; ECOCIDE, Munich, Germany; The Swedish Music Miracle Part Three: Thanatosis, Stockholm, Sweden; Other Acts Of Living II, New York, US; When The Calabash Breaks, London, UK; Gibanja 2025, Zagreb, Croatia; Tomorrow Festival, Shenzhen, China; Circuit Des Yeux, London, UK; Chuck Roth/Maria Chávez/Greg Saunier/Shahzad Ismaily, New York, US; Mehfil-e-Rose Hill, Brighton, UK

On Site: John Zorn: Hermetic Cartography, New York, US; Hprizm: Sound Of The City, New York, US; Still Processing, Amsterdam, Netherlands