THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2014
Eyes down for The Wire's annual selection of the year's best releases
Roadless Travel
LAFMS musician Joseph Hammer creates unparalleled works of tape manipulation. However, as yet there are comparatively few solo albums by this phenomenal artist. To rectify this situation, Art Into Life has decided to release Roadless Travel, his latest album. The album comes with a dense 24 page booklet of liner notes (essentially a full history of Hammer) by T. Sakaguchi, who has enjoyed a long friendship with him and is the foremost Japanese historian of the LAFMS scene.
The Abyss
The Abyss is an epic, dynamic statement that shows the wide range of sound these two esteemed artists are capable of creating. The lengthy list of instruments used, plus the year it took to assemble, gives an indication that there is a grander modus operandi at play here than the linear works that Kevin Drumm and Jason Lescalleet are known for. CD-1 is made up of seven pieces that run the gamut, with electronic crackle, digital shards of noise, piano mangle, and even dissonant brass clust…
Chamber Works 1992 - 2009
Double CD of composer-supervised recordings of 14 chamber pieces by a truly unique and individual voice in contemporary composition. Performed by the UK's leading experimental music ensemble Apartment House, who have championed Crane's music since the mid-90's. 'This is not minimalism. It does not take justification in 'less is more' or 'only what is necessary'. It takes us beyond those points: it is less than necessary. It says, basically, nothing is necessary. And perhaps, also, 'let's be hap…
Place Sub. V.
Active since the mid-1960s, England's AMM have become an icon of the free improvisational movement. In the spring of 2004, due to personal and philosophical disagreements, Keith Rowe suspended his involvement with AMM, an association that went back to his role as founding member in 1965 (albeit with an almost decade-long disenfranchisement through the '70s). The remaining members, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, elected to continue on as AMM, and this their latest effort. T…
Syro
Massively anticipated new Aphex Twin album (his first studio content in 13 years) triple LP (pre-order) available at the end of the next week In the official press release from the Warp music label, Aphex Twin was described with the following words: “celebrated and influential electronic fartist.” Fans have been waiting for quite a long time to hear something new from Aphex Twin. The last release from the influential record producer and composer was in 2001 with the full-length album “Drukq…
Continuum Unbound
Michael Pisaro's Continuum Unbound is a three CD box set, featuring three individual as well as linked CD-length pieces, each 72 minutes long. 'Kingsnake Grey' is a field recording of sundown in the Congaree National Park in South Carolina. The beautiful and erratic sonic transformation that occurred over the 72 minutes was the model for the other two pieces.'Congaree Nomads' takes as its basis 24 three-minute recordings Greg Stuart and I made in the park, along Cedar Creek and the Kingsnake, th…
Miseri Lares
*2015 small reprint* On his second solo album and debut full-length for PAN, Valerio Tricoli conjures an atmospheric tension that’s deeply unsettling. The horror and the precision he presents hang in the air, like a piercing scream behind soundproof doors that you can feel for hours after you’ve entered a now abandoned room. Miseri Lares' is Tricoli's 5th album, his first first solo LP in seven years. It's the culmination of tireless experimentation in studio and live arenas, presenting a de…
ma ta ta bi
Akio Suzuki, analapos, stones, wood pieces, nails, hammer, room echo, bottles, etc. Aki Onda, radios, walkmans, amps, tape echo, cymbals, bottles, etc. Initially a 3 hours long performance recorded on June 2013 in an abandoned space, in Brussels. 'Sound artist Akio Suzuki is well known as a pioneer of sound art, but the breadth of his activities and the form of his works far exceeds the normal boundaries of sound art. With partner Aki Onda, he performs on a wide range of unique instruments inclu…
Ruins
"Ruins was made in Aljezur, Portugal in 2011 on a residency set up by Galeria Zé dos Bois. I recorded everything there except the last song, which I did at mother's house in 2004. Iʼm still surprised by what I wound up with. It was the first time I'd sat still for a few years; processed a lot of political anger and emotional garbage. Recorded pretty simply, with a portable 4-track, Sony stereo mic and an upright piano. When I wasnʼt recording songs I was hiking several miles to the beac…
Quixotism
LP edition.Recorded with a multitude of collaborators in Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA, Quixotism presents the fruit of two years of work in the form of a single, LP-length piece in five parts. Oren Ambarchi's work in recent years has evinced an increasing fascination with the possibilities of combining abstract sonic textures with rhythm and pulse, whether in his drumming with Keiji Haino, the subtly driving ride cymbals provided by drummer Joe Talia in their work together, or the mot…
The Hollow Organ
Luke Younger's Helm returns to PAN with four vital incursions marking his first new material since the sessions that birthed his acclaimed 'Impossible Symmetry' and 'Silencer' releases these last couple of years. Since those releases Younger has been hard at work building his Alter label into one of the most interesting imprints around whilst also honing a petrifying, improvised live set that's turned our bones to stone every time we've heard it. 'The Hollow Organ' delivers four tracks of…
Primitive And Deadly
Since guitarist Dylan Carlson re-formed Earth in 2003, the one constant has been endless exploration. From the exploded desert-like Americana atmospheres of Hex: Or Printing the Infernal Method right through the Angels of Darkness: Demons of Light series with their string players, Carlson and his collaborators have regarded tone, texture, dynamic, and space as elastic elements rife for inquiry. Through it all, Earth have retained a signature: their sound remains instantly identifiable. Primitive…
An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance
Stunning!! Davies settles obsessively on tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms, turning them over and over, letting them develop only within strict limits, as though this fine, prolific and adventurous musician is freshly discovering a harp that has been there all along.' Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine, October 2014. Limited edition of 500 of which 250 are only available in the Rhodri Davies 'Pedwar' 4 LP box. Pressed on 180gm vinyl and housed in a hand screenprinted sleeve with …
Melodies For A Savage Fix
Steve Gunn and Mike Gangloff (Pelt) combine six-and 12-string guitars with gongs, tanpura, singing bowls, shruti box, and banjo fora gorgeous collection of improvised compositions. The two artists took it pretty far off the beaten path for Melodies for a Savage Fix, sequestering themselves for an overnight session in the remote farmhouse/recording studio of noted roots-music engineer Joseph Dejarnette (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bruce Greene, Curtis Eller) in the countryside of Floyd Count…
Soused
Restocked. When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album 'Monoliths and Dimensions', little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on 'Soused', a body of work he was writing with them in mind. With a career spanning more than five decades, Scott Walker's cult status remains as significant as ever before. Experiencing mega-stardom as part of The Walker Brothers before ca…
Despairs had governed me too long
(Magnus Granberg, Angharad Davies, Toshi Nakamura, Henrik Olsson, Ko Ishikawa, Anna Lindal, John Eriksson, Erik Carlsson, Leo Svensson Sander and Petter Wstberg). Another beautiful extended composition by Magnus Granberg, exquisitely played by an ensemble of fine musicians whose last two discs on Another Timbre both featured in The Wire's best of year CD lists for 2012 and 2013 respectively. 'Despairs Had Governed Me Too Long' is the third disc on Another Timbre by the Swedish-based ensemble Sko…
Hidden Tapes
Hidden Tapes is composed from old cassette tapes, with addition of some other sources from movies soundtracks and classical or liturgical music extracts which were retrieved in closets. These sound documents were accelerated or slowed down, layered and transformed with analog devices. No digital effect, no plugin. Computer was only used for editing and mixing. Composed on 2013. About Marc Baron : Between 2000 and 2010, Marc Baron was an improviser on saxophone. He made concerts and performances …