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Inside this issue:
Rewind 2017:

Releases of the year: We asked our contributors to nominate their top ten records, CDs, downloads and streams of the year, then we counted up the votes

Critic's reflections: Our contributors look back on 2017's cultural highs and lows

Bordering On Chaos: Joe Muggs on the increasing importance of global music networks

Performing Miracles: Robert Barry on the narrowing gap between modern composition and performance

Survival Instinct: Marc Masters on post break-up bands

In The Grey Area: Britt Brown examines the legacy of Oakland's Ghost Ship fire

Columnists' charts: Our specialist critics select music that rocked their corner of the subculture, from avant rock to the outer limits

Artists' reflections: A cast of 2017's most active movers and shakers shine the spotlight on their cultural year

Archive releases of the year: Our contributors voted for their top 10 archival records, CDs, downloads and streams, and we counted them all up

Bites:

Wilted Woman: Producer Lizzie Davis stays home and gets anxious. By Chal Ravens

Domas Strupinskas & Saulius Petreikis: The Lithuanian folk duo get creatively anachronistic. By Francis Gooding

Rakta: The Brazilian witch rock trio bring mythology to screaming life. By Meg Woof

Global Ear: Lagos: Meeting challenges from new media, the Nigerian capital's broadcasters are stepping up their game. By Jack Pepper

Collateral Damage: Box Set Blues: The box set has consequences for the very music it is designed to celebrate and preserve. By Sam Lefebvre

Invisible Jukebox: Hessle Audio: Will Ben UFO and Pearson Sound find themselves “Blanked” by The Wire's mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens

The Inner Sleeve: Joachim Nordwall on Cabaret Voltaire's The Voice Of America

Epiphanies: Neil Kulkarni recalls a whacked out juvenile trance

On Screen: Theo Anthony Rat Film

Print Run: Designed For Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP In Midcentury America by Janet Borgerson & Jonathan Schroeder; Punk Is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night edited by Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix; Du Piano-Épave: The Well Weathered Piano by Ross Bolleter; The Raincoats’ The Raincoats by Jenn Pelly; Personal Stereo by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow; Treatise On Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines by Pierre Schaeffer

On Site: Sonica Festival, Glasgow, UK; John Akomfrah, London, UK

On Location Digging The Global South, Cologne, Germany; Shabaka And The Ancestors, London, UK; Simple Things, Bristol, UK; Zhao Cong + Zhu Wenbo + Satoshi Yashiro + Hiroyuki Ura, Tokyo, Japan; Moondog For Gamelan, London, UK

Soundcheck:

AGF, Altered Natives, Ariadne, Attempt, Becoming Animal, Bitchin Bajas, Blackdown, Black Mountain Transmitter, Butcher Brown, Chra, CoH, Compton White, Conway, The Chick Corea & Steve Gadd Band, Robert Crotty & Loren Connors, Danger Incorporated, Dead Neanderthals, Roger Eno, Erik Enocksson, JK Flesh, France, Gaika, Gardener, Girlsperm, Godflesh, Tomoko Sauvage, Hans Hassler, Hello Skinny, Ill Considered, Insub Meta Orchestra, Invisible Church & Marie Davidson, Niko Karlsson, Mike Kitcher, Felix Kubin, Michul Kuun, La Téne, Meyhem, Lauren & DJ Muggs, Matthew Lux’s Communications Arts Quartet, Mae.Sun, Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II, Jake Meginsky, Lisa Mezzacappa, Nah, Orphax, The Ed Palermo Big Band, Nicola Ratti, Marcelo Dos Reis, Marcelo Dos Reis & Eve Risser, Scanner, Hvide Sejl/Varg/F Valentin, Nadah El Shazly, The Telescopes, Umbra, Westside Gunn, Wildflower, Various The Killing Of A Sacred Deer OST, Various NC5: 5 Years Of NoCorner, Various Organ For The Senses, Various We Roll 100 Deep

Boomerang:

Art Zoyd, Ornette Coleman, Dub Syndicate, Dub Syndicate with Doctor Pablo, John Frusciante, Gundella, Richard Horowitz, Kicking Giant, Basil Kirchin, Geoffrey Landers, Magma, Blaine L Reininger, The Residents, Various Andina: Huayno, Carnaval & Cumbia: The Sound Of The Peruvian Andes 1968–1978, Various Black Man’s Pride, Various Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture, Various Trax Test (Excerpts From The Modular Network 1981–1987)