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.
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…