Inside our brand new issue:
On the cover: Gnod: The hydra-headed Northern drone rockers’ cosmic journey shows no signs of slowing. By Stewart Lee
The New Blockaders: A new book about elusive North East refuseniks Richard and Philip Rupenus blows open five decades of anti-art, obfuscation and noise. By Nick Soulsby
Phil Durrant: From club tracks to mandolin to electronic experiments, nothing is off the table for the UK improvisor. By Seymour Wright
Mali Obomsawin: The First Nations bassist and composer dismantles genre through ancestral recordings. By Emily Pothast
Jay Mitta: The Tanzanian producer charges high-speed singeli with African, Arab and Indian influences. By April Clare Welsh
Invisible Jukebox: Sarah Davachi: Will the composer, theorist and organist pull out all the stops in The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Emily Bick
Dawuna: Avant R&B in the spirit of D’Angelo. By Hugh Morris
John Clyde-Evans: Travels across the UK psych universe. By Derek Walmsley
Global Ear: Crosscultural exchange in Colombo, Sri Lanka. By Simon Coates
Unlimited Editions: Blah Records rep the sounds of the North. By Tim Fish
The Inner Sleeve: Art Terry on Big Brown’s Between Heaven And Hell
Against the Grain: Music criticism needs to play its part in a wider intellectual discourse. By Rafael Lubner
The Secret History of Film Music: Philip Brophy on Mark Korven’s horror scores for The Black Phone and Them
Epiphanies: OOIOO’s YoshimiO is picking up good vibrations
Soundcheck: Abstract Concrete; Antiphon Trio; Honey Bane; Bethlehem; Iris Casling & Sam Spencer; Chrome Chasm; Chúpame El Dedo; Sylvie Courvoisier; Deathwish TV; Deeer; William D Drake; Randall Dunn; Elsmer; The Fall; Free Form Society; Limpe Fuchs; Gordan; Poppy H; Marina Herlop; Holy Tongue; Ingri Høyland; Huerta Ensamble; Masami Kawaguchi & Anla Courtis; Mike Ladd; Giovanni Lami; Mary Jane Leach; Liminal; Hanne Lippard & Renato Grieco; Lustmord Lombardo; Ans M; Manas; more eaze; Bilal Nasser; Nick Nicely; Noh Age; Pharaoh Overlord; Éliane Radigue; Teresa Riemann; Robyn Rocket & People You May Of Heard Of; Chuck Roth; Mikel Rouse; Rubbish Music; Rizan Said; Brandon Seabrook; Matthew Shipp & William Parker; Richard Skelton & Lawrence English; Spydergum; Striped Light; Mayo Thompson; Tirez Tirez; Byron Westbrook
The Columns: Avant Rock by Noel Gardner; Dub & Reggae by Steve Barker; Electronics by Leah Kardos; Global by Francis Gooding; Hiphop & R&B by Mosi Reeves; Jazz & Improv by Daniel Spicer; Noise, Industrial & Beyond by Erick Bradshaw; Size Matters by Byron Coley
Boomerang: Budgie; Loren Connors; Julian Cope; Roky Erickson & The Aliens; Brigitte Fontaine; Noothgrush; Popol Vuh; Psychic Ills; Johari Salleh; SAS Group; Alfonso Soliano; Stephen Thrower; Stevie Wonder; XTC
Print Run: Lou Reed: Metal Machine Mystic by David Holzer; Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why The Artist Must Take Sides by Saul Williams; Voiceworks by Sarah Hayden; A Nation Of Tinkerers: A History Of Electronic Music In Canada From 1945 To 1985 by Michael Rancic; Stray Dog In The Milky Way: The Experimental Brazilian Sound Of Tom Zé by Christopher Dunn; Folkways Records: A Visual History Of Folkways Records Cover Art by Stuart Baker
On Screen: Holger Preuße & Philipp Quiring Hans Werner Henze: Komponist, Kommunist, Dandy
On Location: The Residents, New York, US; Impromonday Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; Nwando Ebizie: Ecstasy Of The Virtues, London, UK; Sonica, Glasgow, UK; Minimum Wage Immanence Unit x Luigi Marino + Shuiqingqing He + Laura Phillips x Oliver Brouwer, Bristol, UK; Ten Years Alive, Stockholm, Sweden; Haruomi Hosono, New York, US; Elliott Sharp Residency, London, UK; XMTR, St Leonards-on-Sea, UK
