The Wire, March 2026

A must for any underground music fan, The Wire reports on alternative, underground and non-mainstream musics, ‘waging war on the mundane and the mediocre.’

In this issue:

On the cover: dälek: The New Jersey hiphop duo’s new album continues an extraordinary orbit taking in improv, hardcore and metal along the way. By Joseph Stannard; The Primer: Bring The Noise: From scratched vinyl to the cyborg kick of a Roland 808, hiphop beats have always been built from noise. By Rob Turner; O Ghettão: The Portuguese producer supergroup turbocharging batida’s dance music evolution. By Joseph Francis; Vic Bang: The Buenos Aires musician shapes homespun computer music using global folk sources. By Daryl Worthington; Pascal Comelade: Toy instruments and song shards are moving parts in the Catalan musician’s sly minimalism. By Julian Cowley; Invisible Jukebox: Daniel Blumberg: How will the soundtrack composer score against The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Claire Biddles; Zu: Doom mongering monsters of industrial skronk. By Miloš Hroch; London Clay: Post-punk palimpsests. By Leah Kardos; Global Ear: Creative solutions to gentrification in Marseille. By Mathias Kulpinski; Unlimited Editions: High tech meets noise rock in Julien Fernandez’s Computer Students label. By Louis Pattison; The Inner Sleeve: Evicshen on Lightning Bolt’s Hypermagic Mountain; Against The Grain: Capitalist and patriarchal modes of listening neglect spiritual dimensions of music, argues Julia Úlehla; Epiphanies: A late night Egyptian Lover set changes the game for RP Boo; Plus 37 pages of reviews including: Shane Parish: Autechre unplugged. By Derek Walmsley; Nkisi: Wax poetics. By Andrea Zarza; Stan Hubbs: Crystal methods. By Edwin Pouncey; A Brief History Of Sound Recording: A subjective survey of audio ephemera and archives. By Derek Walmsley; Deep Time: I See Red: Raven Chacon programmes resistance and turmoil in Edinburgh. By Dorian Fraser-Moore; GIOfest XVII: An Indonesian collective and gamelan break down hierarchies in Glasgow. By Derek Walmsley; Le Guess Who? The Utrecht event’s globalist ethos defies anti-immigration crackdowns. By Marinus De Ruiter; Afrosonica: Soundscapes: Surveying the sonic practices of Africa and its diaspora. By Esi Eshun, and much more.