New Weird America
Sunburned Hand of the Man are spearheading the groundswell of the US free folk revolution. By David Keenan

Primer: Fela Kuti
Peter Shapiro is your guide through the controversial Nigerian bandleader's enormous recorded output

Robert Ashley
Meet the electronic pioneer who took opera into the multimedia agae. By Thom Holmes

Phew
The Japanese singer who found her own voice in encounters with punk, Can, Otomo and Boredoms. By Biba Kopf

Mike Paradinas
We let the man behind µ-Ziq out of his lunatic harness to endure our blindfold challenge. Tested by Mike Barnes

The Pastels
Mia Clarke explores the shambolic Scots relationship with the Last Great Wilderness

Niobe
Chris Sharp finds the past and future, rational and mystic in the organic electronic music of Yvonne Cornelius

Cedric Im Brooks
How Jamaica's premier saxophonist and reggae institution found inspiration in American jazz and Nigerian funk. By Clive Bell

Global Ear
Andy Hamilton hears a multitude of voices in Bastia, Corsica

Epiphanies
Jerome Maunsell has a mind-altering close encounter with rave collective Spiral Tribe

Print Run
England's Hidden Reverse, by David Keenan; Ragged Glories, by Barney Hoskyns; Where You're At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hiphop Planet, by Patrick Neate; Sedition and Alchemy: A Biography of John Cale, by Tim Mitchell

Cross Platform
Italian duo Tu m' guide Dan Warburton through the liquid borders between electronica, Improv, Duchampian readymades and video
Plus: Reviews of Venice Biennale: Dreams and Conflicts - The Dictatorship of the Viewer and DVDs by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anton Corbijn, Erkki Kurenniemi. And: Stanley Donwood's Inner Sleeve featuring Crass

On Location
Sonar 2003, Barcelona, Spain; Meltdown: Michael Franti & Spearhead + The Sun Ra Arkestra + DJ Spooky, London Royal Festival Hall; Meltdown: Tricky + Lee 'Scratch' Perry + The Mad Professor, London Royal Festival Hall; Rocket From the Tombs, New York City Village Underground; Faust, Berlin Volksbühne, Germany; Alvin Lucier, New York Chelsea Art Museum