wire: december 2022

On the cover... Richard Pinhas: France's master of cosmic rock has come through his game-changing 1970s group Heldon to become an international trailblazer of guitar noise, forging links with Wolf Eyes, Tatsuya Yoshida, Pascal Comrade and many others. As a brand new album CODA with Merzbow and Oren Ambarchi is released, he talks to Daniel Spicer about his extraordinary orbit; Inside the issue... The Primer: French underground rock: A user's guide to Francophone revolutionary rock music, as Keith Moliné explores the 1960s and '70s psychedelic realm of Heldon, Komintern and Red Noise through to the legacies of groups such as Magma in the '80s and beyond; Weyes Blood: Celestial American songwriter Natalie Mering talks visions of the apocalypse with Emily Pothast, as Sub Pop release new album And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow with contributions from Mary Lattimore and Oneohtrix Point Never; Invisible Jukebox: Chicago-based globetrotting percussionist Hamid Drake feels the universal vibrations of The Wire's mystery record test; Global Ear: James Gun visits the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival in Gangwon Province, whose mission to reunite the divided Korean peninsula has become more urgent in an era of hawkish politics; Unlimited Editions: Boundary-breaking online sound art and feminist thought archive rec-on.or forges new global networks to counter colonialism and structural inequality. By Stephanie Phillips; Unofficial Channels: Emily Bick enjoys a snack and some adventurous sounds following the daily Twitter recommendations of Japanese music cafe Jazzと喫茶はやし; Epiphanies: Anarchic European experimental turntablist DJ Marcelle discovers a life-changing taste for outsider art; Plus, one-page interviews with Noor Baksh, Suzi Analoge, Zubin Kanga, and Ale Hop.