Inside
The Wire 494 April 2025
Reviews
Features
47 Reviews Index 48 Soundcheck New vinyl, CDs, downloads and streams, plus reissues and specialist columns, including: 49 Backxwash Done and dusted. By Claire Biddles 57 Labyrinthe Des Esprits Therapeutic settings. By Spenser Tomson 71 The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre OST Pleasures of the flesh. By Philip Brophy 74 Print Run New music books 79 On Screen New films and DVDs 80 On Location Recent live events, including: 81 Dedicated Play: BEAM
SPLITTER x Xiu Xiu Pan-Asian improv. By Daniel Glassman 87 On Site Recent gallery shows and exhibitions
4 The Wire Tapper 67 A track-by-track guide to this issue’s free CD 6 Masthead 8 Letters 46 Charts The Office Ambience and other playlists 98 Out There Festivals and gig listings 104 Subscriptions Print, digital, downloads,
CDs, plus selections from our online magazine library
10 Global Ear Osaka’s proto-industrialists revitalise the city’s experimental music scene. By Jere Kilpinen 12 Unlimited Editions Robert Ridley-Shackleton’s
Cardboard Club cutouts. By Spenser Tomson 14 The Inner Sleeve Loraine James on Circe
Survive’s On Letting Go 16 Against The Grain Mosi Reeves takes on underground hiphop’s gender imbalance 18 Lukas De Clerck Brussels musician extends ancient pipe instruments into the present moment. By Antonio Poscic
20 Penelope Trappes Australian artist voices griefs past and present. By Spenser Tomson 21 Ciaran Mackle Sample manipulator twists folk song into cubist forms. By Daryl Worthington 106 Epiphanies Golem Mecanique rewinds to a treasured VHS tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone
22 Invisible Jukebox Jeff Mills Will Detroit techno’s great conceptualist be a wizard IDing The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Chal Ravens
26 Bastard Assignments The radical new music ensemble get lost in the woods with their satire of the English countryside. By Robert Barry
30 Cleaners From Venus Martin Newell’s songcraft and wordplay across many DIY albums evidence a uniquely wired mind. By Mike Barnes
34 Infinity Knives From Tom And Jerry to sociopolitics, rapper Tariq Ravelomanana keeps it unreal. By Lucy Thraves
36 Ingrid Laubrock The New York based reedist creates settings for koans and poems as part of a unique new compositional practice. By Stewart Smith
40 Raven Chacon The Diné/Navajo composer foregrounds unheard and silenced voices in his radical works for ensembles, electronics and noise. By Esi Eshun
Cover photography by Ramsay de Give