This arrived just a few weeks ago with the April issue of The Wire. For the first time, this means I actually have the magazine near at hand, and can check the profiles of the contributors.
Sometimes these Wire Tappers feel like the short paper sessions or poster displays at research conferences: short despatches and ideas-in-progress; the kinds of things that mostly get passed off as dead ends, while just a handful get their rough edges refined and get developed to the point where someone really gets behind them. And then someone else detects, years later, that that idea that got rejected as a dead end— well, it was actually incredibly influential and provided the spark that created a new scene.
The magazine backs this up by explaining that Spyweirdos, the Greek behind track 7, is currently doing a PhD in acoustics. Though some of the other pieces — both the tracks and the profiles — are pretty clearly taking the piss.
Still, I like this unevenness. Although I'm sure there's as much thought and selection that goes into the Wire Tapper compilations as into more mainstream covermounts, these feel less calculated, less pre-digested.
My favourites after two and a half listens are:
- the Clogs track where singer Shara Worden sounds a little like Jean Redpath, prompting me to check out their latest album on eMusic;
- Julia Wolfe's piece featuring bagpipes; and
- Windup's study for musical boxes.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
Wikipedia entry for this album
Rate Your Music entry for this album
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