Autechre
Holed up in their Sheffield studio, Sean Booth and Rob Brown transmit cryptic bulletins to the hardy denizens of Electro city. By Rob Young

Invisible Jukebox: The Orb's Alex Paterson
The good doctgor of Ambient dub struggles to identify tracks by King Tubby, Bill Laswell, Viv Stanshall, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Robert Fripp and others. Inquisition conducted by Mike Barnes

George Crumb This US composer has written just 30 minutes of music in the last ten years. No matter: with their representations of war and alien life, his compositions can still upset concert hall decorum. By Nick Kimberley

The Primer
Simon Hopkins provides a beginner's guide to the recordings of New York's premier avant-nerd, from the Gothic collages of Naked City to Painkiller's sado-hardcore thrash

No U Turn
Drenched in distortion and sub-bass pressure, the records released on this London label, home to Nico, Ed Rush and DJ Trace, are carrying breakbeat culture into the Industrial twilight zone. By Will Montgomery

Ryoji Ikeda
Inspired by the austere plains of minimalist art and architecture, this Japanese composer is emerging as a Zen master of the new binary music. By Brian Duguid

Ascension
Stefan Jaworzyn is an opinionated motor-mouth skulking around the fringes of counterculture activity. He also happens to be one half of the world's most incendiary guitar-noise duo. By Ben Watson

Global Ear: Istanbul Turkey's whirling dervishes set Peter Culshaw's head spinning