Leftfield

Review: O! Kult was a post-punk and industrial band from Yugoslavia that was active in the 1980s. Like many of their peers at the time, they were censored by the communist party that was in charge but that didn't stop them from making music and gaining a cult following. Their cut 'Zvestoba' has been found in old Radio student archives and brought back to life here and then remixed by modern luminaries Silent Servant, Christian Kroupa (who is one half of Black Dot) and 198319831983. They add weighty tech, EBM and moody electro vibes to make for a strong package.

Review: Larry Manteca's Zombie Mandingo album arrived back in 2013 and in the danced plus has only ever been available digitally. Now it makes its debut on wax and remains a bold listen that was devised as a soundtrack to a non-existent exploitation film. It fuses funk, jazz, and Afrobeat influences with plenty of niche cinematic references such as the zombies in Lucio Fulci's horrors and Umberto Lenzi's cannibalistic adventures. The resulting mash up is beguiling to say the least with horror-tinged exotica next to Fela Kuti rhythms and elements of Italian Library music and colourful psychedelia. A boundary pushing work to say the least.

Review: M Parent's penchant for texture is laid bare on this searing and arresting new EP for Zement. It opens with 'Gravel Pit' which sounds like an audio diary from a car-wrecking plant. Twisted metal, fizzing battery acid, and crushed glass all feature over a distorted baseline and broken rhythm. Those same scuzzy sounds define the rest of the EP from the acid-laced 'Ideal Future' to the coruscated funk of 'Acid Thirst' via the caustic intensity of closer Climb These Walls'. An impressively unique offering that very much has its own singularly sound palette.

Review: There is a huge interest in video game soundtracks as well as game-themed LPs and tributes right now and few are as popular as Mikel's Zelda & Chill series. This third volume offers up 14 brand-new and super fresh beats from the world of the Legend of Zelda. It comes five years after the first volume which broke new ground and got rave reviews across the board. It paved the way for the trend that is now so popular and this new volume is another gorgeous one packed with zoned out sounds, deep cuts and classics from the much loved Zelda series including Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask amongst more.

Review: Discovered after 55 years, the previously unreleased soundtrack to the 1964 noir film You're Not From Around Here finally emerges from the Louis Wayne Moody archive. Laden with twangy tremolo and reverb-drenched revenge, it navigates themes of alienation, paranoia, and existential echo. Packaged in a replica film canister with rusted varnishes and a debossed logo, it immerses you in a world of moral ambiguity. This Cabinet of Curiosities release by Numero delves into the esoteric possibilities of curation, weaving threads of intentionality and psychic connections through music history. It's a tribute to the DIY museum and the emotionally charged artifacts of post-industrial consumerism.

Review: Container is a long-running project from Ren Schofield but he has hasn't released anything since back in 2021 when he delighted techno heads with his Creamer EP. His manic sound has recently taken him to some sold out shows around the world and now comes Tacker, a new album that fuses rock with electronic stylings on Alter. Nirvana's 'Oh, The Guilt', Mindflayer's album 'It's Always 1999', and the Rah Bras song 'Sooop Toe Pump Girls' have all been given as points of inspiration for this most brain-fizzing, hardcore collision of worlds.

Review: Brothers in sounds (and lineage) Mark and Clive Ives deal with two of the biggest issues impacting music right now on one incredible record.WOO have a reputation for taking parts of archived sounds and formulating new things from those segments, and in this case the work is born from excerpts of four-track tape recordings made in the late-1980s. They then began reflecting on the "imminent nature of humanoid robots", and starting to create Xylophonics/Robot X. From artificial intelligence to reuse and sample politics and economics, these themes seem to guide the sounds themselves, which feel strangely nostalgic and futuristic, a vision of tomorrow that is inseprtable from the humans that made it - their understanding of the unfolding machine age through weird distorted jazz tech, deconstructed dub and psychedelic electronica. So, remembering all this is a reconfigured version of stuff made almost 35 years ago is truly mind-blowing.

Review: Nuke Watch made a big debut on this label back in 2021 and since dropped live snapshots on the likes of NYPD Records and WEEDING but now return with new full-length World's Gone M.A.D.. The ensemble features Chris Hontos and Aaron Anderson and between them, they explore modal jazz infused with dub undercurrents and plenty of rhythmic and electronic invention. Spoken words and warped folk guitar lines, plucked strings and ritualistic dances, whirring machines and drifting sax notes all make this a record that is alive with detail and brilliantly beguiling.

Review: Black Truffle continues to document the late-era work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier with a second volume of Works For The Ever Present Orchestra from Alvin Lucier. He passed away aged 90 back in 2021 but leaves a fine legacy including these two works which were written for Zurich ensemble The Ever Present Orchestra in 2016. They are drone pieces built around the electric guitar he had begun to explore back in 2013. In his hands, they sound like slow sweep pure wave oscillators and make for suspense sound worlds full of tension and inherent drama. The flip side piece is the more austere of the two.

Review: It's always fascinating to discover a completely different side to an artist like Gerald Woodruff. Jezz to most, he's best known for his spell with the mighty Black Sabbath, appearing on the Technical Ecstasy album, and performing on both that tour and the dates in support of landmark LP Sabotage. He also recorded with Robert Plant and Phil Collins on the former's debut album, Pictures at Eleven. As such he's probably not the first artist you'd expect to have made an underwater soundtrack to a forgotten marine life epic, Wonders of the Underwater World. A production two years in the making, Woodroffe's accompaniment uses a number of synths and electronic instruments that Vangelis was fond of at the time, lending a sense of the miraculous and unknown to the score, while the crew at Trunk Record have also created a retro sleeve complete with sticker sheet, meaning you can create your own seabed scene on the cover

Review: Kareem Lotfy and Heith are back with their Ghost Lemurs project, and arguably their most conceptual and captivating record to date. Describing Wombs & Spirit Aliens as "a type of folk music devoid of a specific homeland, but resulting from the authors' heritages, simultaneously divided and united by the Mediterranean Sea", it feels like stepping out of our traditional timeline and into another dimension. Unarguably psychedelic - you can almost hear the shooting stars wisp by core arrangements as you desperately try and stargaze in the mind's eye - it's also unarguably earthly. Polyrhythms and melodic motifs seem to be taken straight from the ceremonial practices of long lost communities and tribes. Those who built their civilisations around a connection with the terrestrial and extraterrestrial, something most of us can only really hope to imagine in 2024.

Review: Woman by Monica Lassen & The Sounds is a rare and beautiful album that has finally been reissued on vinyl in 2024. Originally released in 1970, the album is a mix of easy listening and jazz-funk with a distinctly cinematic feel. The lack of vocals gives the music a dreamy and evocative quality, perfect for soundtracking your own mental movies. If you're a fan of either easy listening or jazz-funk, or if you're just looking for something new and different, we highly recommend checking out this rare piece of Japanese music. It's a truly unique and special album that deserves a place in any music lover's collection.

Notes: Inside our brand new issue:

Still House Plants: London's post-post-punk trio use deconstructed songform to tap emotions others cannot reach. By Frances Morgan

FUJI|||||||||||TA: Pulling out the stops with homemade pipe organs. By Antonio Poscic

Cheer-Accident: Thymme Jones's motley crew of Chicago outsiders flip the conventions of the rock band. By Peter Margasak

Lolina: One half of influential duo Hype Williams explores a comic book dystopia in new project Unrecognisable. By Claire Biddles

NikNak: The British musician turns the tables on sound art. By Tayyab Amin

Invisible Jukebox: Kristin Hersh: Will the songwriter and author find her muse in The Wire's mystery record selection? Tested by Emily Pothast

Unlimited Editions: Tripalium Corp

Unofficial Channels: Billdifferen

Ana Lua Caiano: Portuguese tradition made anew by the musician and audiovisual artist. By Shane Woolman

BBBBBBB: The Japanese trio present their scum manifesto. By James Hadfield

Fatboi Sharif: The Garden State Gargoyle raps a dance of the macabre. By Joseph Stannard

Angelica Sanchez: A set of monster jams from the East Coast pianist. By Stewart Smith

The Inner Sleeve: Lee Gamble on Various Artists' Decay Product

Epiphanies: Jlin maximises her creative potential with Philip Glass

Soundcheck: [Ahmed], Ancine, Andrea & Mud, Maria Bertel Et Nina Garcia, Alan Braufman, Anthony Braxton, Kyle Bruckman, Natalia Cappa, John Carpenter/Cody Carpenter/Daniel Davies, Cheer-Accident, Clarissa Connelly, Anastasia Coope, Viv Corringham, Alison Cotton, Couch Slut, Richie Culver, Elkhorn & Mike Gangloff, Phil Geraldi, Carlos Giffoni, Allen Ginsberg, Allen Ginsberg & Youth, Grackles, groundsound, Liz Helman, Julia Holter, Jack O'The Clock, Goran Kajfes Tropiques, Kowloon Spider Temples, Sean Ono Lennon, Magic Tuber String Band, DJ Marcelle, Melvins, Monopoly Child Nightlife, Monopoly Child, Star Searchers, NOUT, Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, Organum Electronics, OU, Pye Corner Audio, Quiet Husband, Mikel Rouse, Bianca Scout, sinono, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ches Smith, Kavain Wayne Space & XT, Guido Spannochi, Malini Sridharan, Luke Stewart Silt Trio, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Thollem, Thollem & Ka, Thollem/Terry Riley/Nels Cline, tilt, Toadliquor, Alan Tomlinson & Lawrence Casserley, Alan Tomlinson Trio, Kamasi Washington, Larry Wish, Cody Yantis, Zombi, Various Resist Colonial Power By Any Means Necessary

The Boomerang: Amon Duul, As One, Cranes, Curve, Brian Eno, Brian Eno/Holger Czukay/J Peter Schwalm, NRG Ensemble, Pharoah Sanders, Linda Smith, Twelve Cubic Feet, Vile Cherubs, Mars Williams & Hamid Drake, Mars Williams/Darin Gray/Chris Corsano, Bernie Worrell, Bernie Worrell/Cindy Blackman Santana/John King, Various Aceh Punx Compilation, Various Groucho Marxist Record Co.Operative, Various Noise Of Cologne 3, Various Punk KS, Various Trouble Brews: A Belfast Punk Compilation

Print Run: Basta Now: Women, Trans & Non-binary In Experimental Music by Fanny Chiarello; Dream Machines: Electronic Music In Britain From Doctor Who To Acid House by Matthew Collin; Ears To The Ground: Adventures In Field Recording And Electronic Music by Ben Murphy; Ain't It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk In The Secret City by Aaron Lange; 20 000 Words: Interviews With Antoine Le Bousse by Sylvain Darrifourcq; Switched On: The Dawn Of Electronic Sound By Latin American Women edited by Luis Alvarado & Alejandra Cardenas; The Future Of Songwriting by Kristin Hersh; Elizabethan Tape Loops by Drew Mulholland; The Notebooks Of Sonny Rollins by Sonny Rollins with Sam VH Reese (Editor)

On Screen: Neo Sora Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus

On Location: Andre 3000, San Francisco, US; Fred Frith & Susana Santos Silva, London, UK; FLEA Presents Random Gear Festival + Rashad Becker + Joanne Robertson + Callahan & Witscher + Nick Malkin, London, UK; Cassie Kinoshi with seed. + NikNak + London Contemporary Orchestra, London, UK; Fortuna 2024, Tokyo, Japan; Charlemagne Palestine, Amsterdam, Netherlands; On An Endless Road: It? Noe And The Women Composers Of Her Time, London, UK; Ustad Noor Bakhsh, London, UK; Glamorous Pharmacy, Shenzhen, China; ML Buch + Astrid Sonne, London, UK; Life After Death, London, UK; Brighde Chaimbeul, London, UK

On Site: Pan Daijing Mute, Munich, Germany; Ginsberg In London, London, UK

Notes: Inside this brand new issue:

The Haxan Cloak: From his bedroom in Wakefield to the City of Angels, the UK born producer, composer and musician talks darkness, light and scoring the unspeakable. By Joseph Stannard

DJ Znobia: The Angolan kuduro innovator relates the invention and evolution of the influential dance style. By April Clare Welsh

Linda Smith: The return of the Baltimore songwriter who amassed a wealth of lo-fi pop in the 1980s and 90s. By Claire Biddles

Ariel Kalma: The electronic music veteran maintains his cosmic trajectory well into his seventies. By Daniel Spicer

Invisible Jukebox Kahil El'Zabar: Will the US bandleader know What It Is! when faced with The Wire's mystery record selection? Tested by Howard Mandel

Unlimited Editions: Thanatosis Produktion

Unofficial Channels: The Blindboy Podcast

The Inner Sleeve: Teresa Winter on Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha

Global Ear: Santiago Underground resistance in the Chilean capital. By Juan San Cristobal Lizama

Billy Bultheel: Queer cyberaesthetics from the Belgian composer. By Edward Henderson

Lumpeks: Franco-Polish folk jazz fun. By Gabriel Bristow

Yasuhiro Morinaga: Concrete traditionalism from the Japanese sound recordist. By Clive Bell

John Pope: Geordie improv bassist gets communal. By Abi Bliss

Epiphanies: Edward Ka-Spel makes hay with Faust

Print Run: Eric Dolphy by Guillaume Belhomme; Where We Come From: Rap, Home And Hope In Modern Britain by Aniefiok Ekpoudom; Transfigured New York: Interviews With Experimental Artists And Musicians, 1980-1990 by Brooke Wentz; Tokyo Jazz Joints by Philip Arneill with James Catchpole; Hans Reichel: Daxophonie edited by Klaus Untiet & Peter Klassen; Love, Sex & War: Terry Day Lyrics by Terry Day & Blanca Regina (Editor); Split Friction by Birgit Ulher; Trad, Gras Och Stenar: A Collective History by Hakan Agnsater, Mats Eriksson Duner, Jakob Sjoholm & Jonas Stal

On Screen: Daniel Weintraub Deep Listening: The Story Of Pauline Oliveros

On Location: Jazz Rumours, London, UK; Construction Festival, Dnipro, Ukraine; En Masse, Bristol, UK; Mariam Rezaei + Angharad Davies + Atzi Muramatsu + Semay Wu, London, UK; MAVI + Armand Hammer + Fly Anakin, Manchester, UK; Tashi Dorji & Alex Zhang Hungtai, New York, US; Le Guess Who?, Utrecht, Netherlands; Jazzfest Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Other Minds, San Francisco, US; Haunted Dancehall, Dublin, Ireland; Ska?u Mess, Riga, Latvia

On Site: Lutz Bacher AYE!, London, UK; Reynols 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Don Van Vliet, Standing On One Hand, London, UK

Soundcheck: Al Karpenter, Al Karpenter & CIA Debutante, Among The Rocks And Roots, Marc Baron & Mark Vernon, The Body & Dis Fig, Joseph Branciforte & Theo Bleckmann, Allison Burik, N Chambers, George Crumb, Dez Dare, Darkspace, Divine Horsemen, Samuel Goff/Camila Nebbia/Patrick Shiroishi, Kim Gordon, Madison Greenstone, Keiji Haino/Jim O'Rourke/ Oren Ambarchi, Mary Halvorson, Hieroglyphic Being, Mark Van Hoen, The Dave Howard Singularity, Anja Huwe, Mayssa Jallad, Jlin, Locust, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Kali Malone, Moor Mother, Dorothy Moskowitz, Naum Gabo, Ov Pain, Gruff Rhys, Laetitia Sadier, Sombat Simla, The Smile, John Surman, Valerio Tricoli, Univers Zero, Mark Vernon, Xmal Deutschland, Various Our Trip Is Short Vol 7

The Boomerang: Fred Anderson Quartet, Electric Sun, Emeralds, Bill Fay Group, Dredd Foole & The Din, FUSE, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Mark McGuire, Microstoria, Sam Morrison, Plastikman, Speedy J, Nisse Sandstr?m Group, Pauline Anna Strom, Techno Animal, Various Fantastic Voyage: New Sounds For The European Canon 1977-1981

Notes: Inside this brand new issue:

Releases of the Year: Wire asked their contributors to vote for their top ten records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes

Critics' Reflections: Wire's writers discuss their memorable cultural experiences of the year

Columnists' Charts: Wire's specialist critics delve deep into their musical niches from noise to modern composition

Archive Releases of the Year: Wire asked their contributors to vote for their top ten archive records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes.

Engineered Phantoms: AI for the masses. By Abi Bliss

Back to the Land: Strange as folk. By Louis Pattison

Rival Camps: Crossing the streams. By Britt Brown

Weapons of Mass Distraction: Artists and Gaza. By GAIKA

Invisible Jukebox: Linton Kwesi Johnson: The veteran reggae poet faces down The Wire's mystery record selection. Tested by Gabriel Bristow

Laetitia Sadier: The Stereolab founder promotes community and healing with her new solo work. By Claire Biddles

Fred Frith: The Henry Cow co-founder returns to his groundbreaking 1974 album Guitar Solos with a reissue and a new album. By Clive Bell

Unlimited Editions: Bead Records

Unofficial Channels: Lanner Chronicle

Phil Geraldi: Road head music. By Emily Bick

HUUUM: Viennese whirl. By Ilia Rogatchevski

Lisa Ullen: Piano magic. By Peter Margasak

Thomas Ignatius: Medieval synthpop. By Leah Kardos

Global Ear: Chicago Democracy and improv in the Midwest. By Levi Dayan

The Inner Sleeve: Vince Clarke on The Human League's Travelogue

Epiphanies: Mariam Rezaei on Persian pitch-shifting

Print Run: Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dance Culture by Beth Lesser; Lost In Room: Mark Perry, Alternative TV And Related, 1977-1981 by Richard Johnson; Deep Blues 1960-1988 by Val Wilmer; Ukrainian Field Notes edited by Gianmarco Del Re; At The Vanguard Of Vinyl by Darren Mueller; Too Much Too Young: Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation - The 2 Tone Records Story by Daniel Rachel; NOTHING IS POSSIBLE NERVOUSNESS, OR IMMORALITY DON'T WAIT TO BE HUNTED TO HIDE/ SPOILT HEALTH by TRS: The Fucking Terrible Receding Shapes, Trading As TRIPLE NEGATIVE

On Screen: Midori Takada: Japan On Film; Robert Fantinatto Subotnick Portrait Of An Electronic Music Pioneer

On Location: Recombinant Festival, San Francisco, US; Sir Richard Bishop, Edinburgh, UK; Week-End Fest, Cologne, Germany; Black Industrial | Noise Event 4: Ain Bailey, London, UK; Out.Fest, Barreiro, Portugal; Gonerfest 20, Memphis, US; Sonica Surge, Glasgow, UK; People Like Us, London, UK; Loraine James, San Francisco, US; Usurper: That's That Then, Edinburgh, UK; Easter Margins Road 2 Redline Tour with OverMyBody Taipei, Taiwan; Donaueschinger Musiktage 2023, Donaueschingen, Germany

On Site: Val Wilmer Blue Moments, Black Sounds, London, UK; Meredith Monk: Calling, Munich, Germany; Barbara Ess Archives, New York, US

Soundcheck: Aesop Rock, Agitation Free, All Men Unto Me, Alternative TV, Chino Amobi, Andre 3000, Erlend Apneseth Trio & Maja SK Ratkje, Anenon, Daniel Bachman, BEAM SPLITTER + Eivind Lonning & Espen Reinertsen, Beans, Lea Bertucci, Better Corners, Galya Bisengalieva, Black To Comm, Andy Blade & Buddies, Danny Brown, Conflux Coldwell, Amelia Cuni/Werner Durand/Uli Hohmann, CZN, Angharad Davies & Phil Julian, Eartheater, Max Eastley/Terry Day/John Butcher, Carlos Ferreira, Peter Gabriel, Gruzja, Holy Tongue, Robert Hood & Femi Kuti, Idea Fire Company, Ed Jones/Dominic Lash/Mark Wastell, KAVARI, Kid Acne, Klein, Anysia Kym & Jadasea, Dominic Lash/Rachel Musson/Phil Durrant/Steve Noble, Joelle Leandre & Rodolphe Loubatiere, George Lewis/ICE, DJ Manny, Trevor Mathison, Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet, MHYSA, Moin, Maggie Nicols/Matilda Rolfsson/Mark Wastell, Steve Noble, Aki Onda, Ordeal, Aruan Ortiz, Tony Oxley, Eddie Prevost/NO Moore/James O'Sullivan/Ross Lambert, Janneke van der Putten, Lucy Railton, Maja SK Ratkje & Nordic Affect, Mike Reed, Marc Richter, Raphael Rogi?ski, Patrick Shiroishi, Timelash, David Toop & Tania Caroline Chen, Universal Harmonies & Frequencies, V/Z, Alex Ward Items 6 & 7, Teresa Winter, Various C-01 Compilation, Various Flux Gourmet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Boomerang:

Barry Bermange/Delia Derbyshire/The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Earth, Khanate, Meat Puppets, Meshuggah, Het Pandorra Ensemble, Penny Rimbaud/Mikado Koko, Rudimentary Peni, Archie Shepp, Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit, War, Frank Zappa, Various The Complete Obscure Records Collection, Various One Mile From Heaven, Various Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology Of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol 2

Notes: On the cover: Darius Jones: The New York based composer and saxophonist draws connections between Fluxus and US avant jazz. By John Morrison. Plus: Steve Roach: Synthesizer worship with the Arizona ambient musician. By Ned Raggett; [Ahmed]: Revolutionary grooves from the radically minded Anglo-Swedish-French quartet. By Stewart Smith; Clarissa Connelly: The Scottish born, Denmark based multi-instrumentalist meditates on myth, memory and modernity via her singular songcraft. By Leah Kardos; Shovel Dance Collective: The London avant folk ensemble balance the trad and the weird. By Lucy Thraves; Invisible Jukebox: Ka Baird: Will the New York based artist lose their Bearings when faced by The Wire's mystery record selection? Tested by Ryan Meehan. Also inside this issue: The Wire Tapper 64; Arushi Jain; Kulku; Harmony Holiday; Richie Culver; Unlimited Editions Industrial Coast; Unofficial Channels The Rest; Global Ear: Dublin; The Inner Sleeve by Raji Rags; Epiphanies by Aura Satz; many pages of reviews and much more.