Starless & Bible Black Starless & Bible Black Charcoalesque female vocals, antique guitar folk and dark chamber torch song with radiophonic Moogness.

Locust CD

Jackie O’Motherfucker America Mystica A collection of four sprawling live recordings, combining raw blues, layered drones, and hypnotic percussion with pulsing micro-tones, bells, whispers, and jive talk, to create a poetic, trance-psych classic.

Very Friendly 2CD/Dirter Promotions Limited Vinyl

Various I Killed The Monster Massive (70+minutes) compilation featuring the songs of Daniel Johnston... feat Sufjan Stevens, Jad Fair & Kramer, Kimya Dawson

Second Shimmy CD

Sharron Kraus/Meg Baird/Helena Espvall Leaves From Off The Tree A beautiful recording of traditional folk material, with the most stunning singing and arrangements of some of England and Appalachia’s finest songs. Features Sharron Kraus, Meg Baird & Helena Espvall (Espers)

bo’ weavil CD

Shitmat Hang The DJ The master of mashup returns with his most ferocious attack on pop music yet with Hang The DJ, the loudest, fastest and hardest Shitmat record yet.

Wrong Music Limited Vinyl & CD

Various A Raga For Peter Walker First tracks in 37 years from folk-raga pioneer. Plus James Blackshaw, Thurston Moore, Jack Rose, et al

Tompkins Square CD

Robbie Basho Venus In Cancer First-ever CD reissue of 1969 classic. “His voice is from another world” – Pete Townshend, 2006

Tompkins Square CD

Hefner Maida Vale A ten song live set with brass section recorded for the John Peel show. Also features Amelia Fletcher.

Belka CD

The Treecreepers At The Mill “Back In Your Town” mainstays Pete Flood & Ian R Watson’s debut. Spontaneous duets recomposed & remixed, sonically akin to Spaceheads & Humcrush.

Sartorial CD

Destroyer Rubies Bejar’s Dylanesque flare for biting and sardonic wit and his nods to the glam and bombastic folk approaches of early Tyrannosaurus Rex and Bowie recordings have clearly distanced Destroyer from the more straightforward pop of his “other” band, The New Pornographers.

Acuarela CD

Apse Spirit Spirit absorbs the listener in rough, bold percussion and dark, churning basslines, arguably referencing The Liars’ 2006 Drum’s Not Dead or the locking cyclical rhythm of early Echo And The Bunnymen.

Acuarela CD

Steffen Basho-Junghans Late Summer Morning Late Summer Morning is “minimalist trance-folk”, a modern masterpiece of where Guitar Soli has gone, and where it can go next.

Strange Attractors CD

Cul de Sac ECIM ECIM is a time-tested album well ahead of the curve. A modern classic, and a cornerstone of recent musical history.

Strange Attractors CD

Below The Sea Blame It On The Past “In the wake of Godspeed You Black Emperor!’s international success, many Montreal post-rock groups tried their chance, but none sounded as sincere and promising as Below the Sea’ – AMG wherearemyrecords.com

Where Are My Records CD

Monopolka Noise Wendy “Sounds like someone vomiting up 250lb of random noises or spike jones jammin with meltbanana in a hurricane” – Shitmat “Dramatic pulp noise halloween hardcore with Nailbomb tape and stuff” – Monopolka

Wrong Music CD

Circle Miljard Exploding walls of psychedelic guitars, “ingenious pop compositions”, motorik krautrock, melodic harmonies, intensive riffs and ecstatic vocal performances? This album does NOT contain any of the things previously mentioned! Slow-moving abstract atmospherics, inspiring and determined wandering and a stagnant universe of winter are present on Circle’s new double album.

Ektro 2CD

17 Heathmans Road, Parsons Green, London, SW6 4TJ • phone 020 7731 5125 • fax 020 7731 3866 email info@cargorecords.co.uk • www.cargorecords.co.uk Inside The Wire 274 December 2006

Regulars

The Masthead 6 Letters 8 Bitstream 10 Trawling for gossip withThe Wire’s news net. PlusTrip Or Squeek Global Ear 18 In Ethiopia, Chris Sharp succumbs to the hypnotic rhythms of Tigrean music Charts 48 Out There 92 The pick of the month’s festivals, concerts, club spaces, radio and more Subscribe 96 Back Issues 98 Epiphanies 106 Sitting in on a recording session at Abbey Road in 1965, Barry Miles watches The Beatles reinvent pop music

Melvins photographed by Kareem Black

Features

The Wire Tapper 16 4 Your track-by-track guide to this month’s free CD Reanimator 12 The Portland duo’s low-tech, analogue debut is infused with spectral Techno rhythms. By Philip Sherburne

Hisato Higuchi 14 Alan Cummings uncovers the workplace stress and urban alienation which frustrate and inspire the Japanese guitarist

Beat Furrer 16 The Swiss composer’s Fama project expounds his concept of a ‘listening theatre’. By Andy Hamilton

Cross Platform Charles Atlas 20 Louise Gray connects the dots of the US fi lm maker’s work, which links Merce Cunningham to Sonic Youth and Fennesz

Invisible Jukebox Marc Ribot 22 The versatile and prolifi c guitarist picks up the duende in tracks by Albert Ayler, Giacinto Scelsi, Ry Cooder and more. Tested by Alan Licht

Steve Mackay 28 Best known for his blowing on The Stooges’ Fun House, the saxophonist fi nally makes his solo debut with two albums of blazing free jazz and electronics. By Edwin Pouncey

John Surman 30 The veteran saxophonist’s early 70s work with The Trio, John McLaughlin and Dave Holland produced some of the most visionary moments in British jazz. By Julian Cowley

Melvins 36 The unpredictable California based quartet intersperse neo-Metal albums with art fi lm soundtracks, avant garde provocations and audience baiting antics. By Phil Freeman

Reviews

Index 49 Soundcheck 50 This month’s selected CDs and vinyl, including Janek Schaefer, Sandy Bull, Robbie Basho, Hototogisu and more. Plus specialist columns on avant rock, critical beats, dub, electronica, hiphop, jazz & Improv, modern composition, outer limits, reissues, compilations and unusual formats The Inner Sleeve 77 Adam Kidd on Why?/ Odd Nosdam’s split EP Print Run 78 New music books, including a VJing compendium, a collection of Studs Terkel’s interviews, John Cage discussed and more On Screen 80 New music DVDs, including Faust and Jeff Tweedy On Site 81 Installations and gallery events, including Maryanne Amacher’s Music For Sound Joined Room Series On Location 82 Concert and festival reviews, including Instal in Glasgow, Adventures In Modern Music in Chicago and more

The Primer Texan Hiphop 42 Cough syrup at the ready, Dave Stelfox presents a user’s guide to the Lone Star State’s own brand of ‘screwed and chopped’ hiphop