The Red Krayola
Since 1967, Texan guitarist Mayo Thompson has been pulverising the art and language of rock. By David Keenan

Invisible Jukebox: Carla Bozulich
The Country Improv queen puzzles over music by Patti Smith, Teenage Jesus and more. Tested by Edwin Pouncey

Pierre Schaeffer
Goran Vejvoda and Rob Young reappraise the life and work of France's founding father of musique concrète

This Heat
In the first in a new series revisiting significant musical sites, Mike Barnes returns to London's Cold Storage studio, which This Heat and David Cunningham established as the engine room of late 1970s British rock experiment

Wolf Eyes vs Anthony Braxton
Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton's alliance signals a changing of the gardes at the Canadian Festival Musique Actuelle. By Byron Coley

Marissa Nadler
The Boston artist and singer owes more to American Gothic than free folk's drifts. By Edwin Pouncey

The Skaters
Karaoke machines were never intended for the vocal experiments this Frisco duo put them through. By Jim Haynes

Ikuro Takahashi
The ex-Fushitsusha drummer on his switch to rape alarms and mechanical toys. By Alan Cummings

Global Ear
Pedro Gomes locates Lisbon's most creative musicians at the Galeria Zé Dos Bois

Epiphanies
How Steve Barker launced himself into the 1970s when Sun Ra touched down in Liverpool

Print Run
Turn The Beat Around: The Secret History Of Disco, by Peter Shapiro; Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted: The Life Of Brion Gysin, by John Geiger; Sun Ra The Immeasurable Equation: The Collected Poetry And Prose, edited by James L Wolf & Hartmut Geerken

Cross Platform
Anne Hilde Neset grills Björk about her soundtrack to Matthew Barney's new film.
Plus: Rising Tone Cross and Vision Volume 3 on DVD; Venice Biennale; sound installations by John Wynne; Eye & Ear Controlled film series; Thurston Moore's Mix Tape book; and Jaap Blonk at Cut And Splice. Plus, The Inner Sleeve: Steve Roden on Jury Gagarin In Space

On Location
Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain; Easy To Swallow, London, UK; Suoni Per Il Popolo, Montréal, Canada; Patti Smith's Meltdown, London, UK