Global Ear: Beijing
In the Chinese capital, musicians such as Dadawa, Zheng Jun and Wang Yong are becoming sonic travellers, sourcing inspiration from the border zones of Tibet and Mongolia. By Steven Schwankert

Faust
When Germany's premier anarcho-hippy wrecking crew appeared at Edinburgh's Flux festival, they brought an arsenal of pyrotechnic devices-and proceeded to burn the house down. Ed Baxter reports

Bites
J Saul Kane Shaolin shapeshifter Nils Petter Nolvaer Brass 'n' big beats Hal Willne King of the tribute album Label lore: Barooni

Le Post-rock Francais
French rock used to mean the conceptual excesses of Magma, until post-rockers like Bastard, Odd Size, Sister Iodine, and Tone Rec discovered new forms through new technologies. By Rahma Khazam

Ansuman Biswas
Emerging from the fringes of the New Asian Kool, this Bengali-born percussionist is on a mission of cosmic proportions: to harness the acoustic laws which govern the universe. By Rob Young

The Secret History of Film Music
In his latest reel, Philip Brophy gets looney over Carl Stalling's Roadrunner and Coyote tunes, and explores how sound design in blockbusters like Robocop explodes the myth of Hollywood conservatism

Butch Morris
Via the patent method of 'conduction', this Viet vet distills the energies of black free jazz into an immersive stew of sonic surrealism and underground politics. By Ben Watson

Jim O'Rourke
Whether as guitarist, demixer or concrete collagist, Chicago's reluctant underground star is currently the world's most in-demand omni-musician. Cristoph Cox meets a New Music Renaissance man

Oskar Sala
The last man alive who can play the Trautonium, a proto-synthesizer invented in Germany in 1929, recalls how he developed this revolutionary instrument during the Third Reich and after. By Georg Misch

Windsor For The Derby
Straight outta Texas, the dislocated trio are putting a post-rock spin on the tombstone blues. By Peter Shapiro

Invisible Jukebox: 4 Hero
Chris Sharp plays Herbie Hancock, John Barry, Rhythim is Rhythim, Larry Heard, Roni Size, Squarepusher and more to the West London Junglists