Subscribers: read this issue online.

Subscribe to the magazine. Buy issue 503/4.

2025 Rewind: the Year in Underground Music

50 Releases of the Year: We asked our contributors to vote for their top ten releases of 2025 then added up the votes

Columnists’ Charts: Our specialist critics delve deep into their musical niches from noise to modern composition

50 Archive Releases of the Year: We asked our contributors to vote for their top ten archive releases of 2025, then added up the votes

Critics’ Reflections: Our writers discuss their memorable cultural experiences of the year

Style Counsel: Experimental music’s uneasy flirtation with high fashion. By Lucy Thraves

Against the Stream: DIY radio subverts the hierarchies and algorithms of the mega-platforms. By Paul Rekret

Time out of Joint: Old school instruments and ancient wisdom connects past and present. By Daryl Worthington

Arch Rivals: London’s crumbling infrastructure provides a haven for experimentation. By Deborah Nash

Hybrid Vigour: Jazzing up improvisation via beats, noise and rhymes. By Stewart Smith

Extended Play: Drones and duration versus doomscrolling. By Xenia Benivolski

Hilary Woods: The Irish songwriter’s craft explores trauma and terror. By Leah Kardos

Company: Derek Bailey’s rekindled improvisation meet-up recalled. By Mark Wastell

Tristan Perich: 1-bit electronics hook listeners into the cosmic circuit. By Antonio Poscic

Anna Högberg: The Swedish saxophonist blowing burnout away. By Peter Margasak

Makaya McCraven: Group recordings are reworked to infinity in his kaleidoscopic jazz. By Melvin Gibbs

Carrier: Antwerp beatmaker follows in the footsteps of Torsten Pröfrock with his technoid breakbeat constructions. By Christian Eede;

Hypomanic Daydream: Marie McAuliffe’s creations gene-splice Rock In Opposition, video games and heavy metal. By Kek-w

Erwan Keravec: The Breton piper brings global and experimental approaches to trad sounds. By Francis Gooding

Invisible Jukebox: Ikonika: Will the London beatmaker get all mixed up with The Wire’s mystery record selection? By April Clare Welsh

Global Ear: Chicago’s jazz and blues scene stands tall in the face of racist immigration raids. By Howard Mandel

Unlimited Editions: Warm Winters Ltd. By Antonio Poscic

The Inner Sleeve: Tony Herrington on Here & Now/Alternative TV’s What You See... Is What You Are

Against The Grain: MayDay Rooms’ anarcho-punk archive disinterred by Chumbawumba vocalist. By Seth Wheeler

Epiphanies: Cosey Fanni Tutti reflects on a life in art.

Soundcheck: Marja Ahti & Manja Ristić; Alpha Maid; Beat; Matt Berry; Infinite Coles; Richie Culver; Tashi Dorji; EarthBall; Gerald Eckert; Ergot Project; Mark Fell & Pat Thomas; Ghostface Killah; Philip Glass/Suzanne Vega/Collegium Vocale Gent/Ictus; Jean-Luc Guionnet; Trey Gunn & Robert Forlano; Agnes Haus; Anna von Hausswolff; Eva-Maria Houben; Ikonika; Tessa Rose Jackson; Julinko; KIK; Komara; Ann Kroeber & Alan Splet; Éric La Casa & Jérôme Noetinger; Makaya McCraven; Miniseries; Juana Molina; Anthony Moore with AKA & Friends; Moor Mother; Rie Nakajima & David Toop; MJ Noble; Luigi Nono/Roberto Fabbriciani; Organs Obsolete; Daisy Rickman; Rosalía; Vanessa Rossetto; Saint Abdullah & Jason Nazary; Scanner; Scanner & Gareth Davis; Shell Company featuring Richie Culver & Lindt; Chad Taylor Quintet; Asmus Tietchens & Thorsten Soltau; Penelope Trappes; Jakob Ullmann; Webber/Morris Big Band; Jim White; Hilary Woods; Xiu Xiu

The Columns: Avant Rock by Antonio Poscic; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Spenser Tomson; Global by Francis Gooding; Jazz & Improv by Stewart Smith; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Emily Pothast; Size Matters by Byron Coley

The Boomerang: 90 Day Men; Aksak Maboul; William Basinski; Patrick Cowley; Don Martin Three; Rupert Hine; Alan Lamb; Jeff Mills; Mujician; Nijiumu; Gary Numan; Sister Irene O’Connor; Pita; Test Dept; Tiger Milk; Tiger Milk with John Russell; Tiger Milk with Alan Wilkinson; Gina X; Various The Bottle Tapes: Selections From The Empty Bottle Jazz & Improvised Music Series (1996–2005)

Print Run: Feedback: Translations From The IrRational by Elliott Sharp; Turn My Head Into Sound: A History Of Kevin Shields And My Bloody Valentine by Andrew Perer; Shock Factory: The Visual Culture Of Industrial Music by Nicolas Ballet; Strike While The Needle Is Hot: A Discography Of Workers’ Revolt by Josh MacPhee & Kennedy Block; Mothership Connected: The Women Of Parliament-Funkadelic by Seth Neblett

On Screen: Bryn Chainey Rabbit Trap

On Location: Semibreve, Braga, Portugal; Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Edinburgh, UK; 160 Unity x BUMPAH, London, UK; Insomnia Festival, Tromsø, Norway; Ill Japonia + BBBBBBB, London, UK; Unsound, Kraków, Poland; Wadada Leo Smith & Vijay Iyer, London, UK; Cabaret Voltaire, Sheffield, UK; Biennale Musica 2025, Venice, Italy; Of Two: Yan Jun + Seiji Morimoto + Mizuki Ishikawa + Eric Wong + Jun-Y Ciao + Sun Yizhou + Hunter Brown + Dominic Coles, Berlin, Germany; Minor Music At The End Of The World, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Blood Incantation + Oranssi Pazuzu, London, UK

On Site: Lina Lapelytė In The Dark, We Play, London, UK; Eve Stainton The Joystick And The Reins, Leeds, UK; Stephen Prina A Lick And A Promise, New York, US