Inside

Cove r i l l u s t r a t i o n b y P r a c t i s e

Regulars The Masthead 6 Letters 8 Bitstream 10 Trawling for gossip with The Wire’s news net

Global Ear 18 Jorge Luis Fernández catches up with ex- Reynols member Alan Courtis in Buenos Aires

Charts 46 Out There 94 The pick of the month’s festivals, concerts, club spaces, radio and more; plus Trip Or Squeek

Subscribe 98 Back Issues 100 Epiphanies 106 Writer and comedian Stewart Lee learns how to laugh from Derek Bailey

Reviews Index 47 Soundcheck 48 This month’s records reviewed

Print Run 74 New music books digested

Cross Platform 76 Music and New Media, including sound artist Kenneth Atchley’s fountains and Julian House’s Inner Sleeve

On Location 80 Live reviews including Domino Festival in Brussels and Ornette Coleman, Einstürzende Neubauten, Shaman Voices and ESG in London

The Wire Tapper 13 4 Your track by track breakdown of this month’s free 20 track CD

The Books 12 Matthew Ingram subscribes to the sample library of this literate upstate New York duo

Cooper-Moore 14 Andy Hamilton has a run-in with the veteran NYC freedom jazz multi-instrumentalist

Clemens Gadenstätter 16 Brian Marley enjoys the wit and wisdom of Austria's latest comic sensation

Invisible Jukebox 20 Mark Stewart The Bristolian godfather of punk-funk learns to cope with The Wire’s blindfold challenge. Tested by Phil England Tod Dockstader 24 Ken Hollings meets a reclusive American tape music pioneer enjoying a new lease of digital life

Laugh Till It Hurts 32 The best music is as serious as your life, which is why laughter is one of its most important components. In a 14 page special, our squad of correspondents get their laughing gear around a century of sonic wit and musical jesters from Aphex to Zappa. Plus: David Stubbs explains how humour and music make for unlikely bedfellows, and David Toop muses on the comedy of the grand piano and the misery of Max Wall