The Wire

Every now and then, I treat myself to a copy of The Wire, a magazine that covers a more interesting type of music to the usual. I used to get Q magazine but it started to go downhill about 10 years ago. (I even wrote a diatribe around then about how bad it was getting on their online message board, only to find the whole board had been cleared due to "technical problems" a few hours later.) I gave up completely a few years ago as every issue seemed to have a list along the lines of the "top 50 albums by artists that our noses are stuck up the backsides of".

Now where was I. Oh yes, The Wire. I popped into the new Fopp again and found a copy of Sun Ra's "Space Is The Place" (yey! weirdo jazz-jam jollyness!) and then spotted a familiar gurning face by the counter. What's this? Mark E. Smith collaborating with Mouse On Mars? And a freebie CD stuck on the cover? Yes please! So with a copy of Mojo's second best weirdest record ("The Top 50 Records That Will Fry Your Brain") and The Wire under my arm, I went home a happy Boolbar.

The freebie CD is great, and unlike many a giveaway magazine CD I've had before, it is very consistent. The lesser tracks are at least interesting: the odd sound collage does give the effect of biting on sunshine melted Kit-Kats with bits of foil left stuck in the chocolate that find your fillings. (Now there is one good thing about modern packaged Kit-Kats.) Overall the tracks are kept short and snappy, there is plenty of variety, and a nice bit of Throbbing Gristle thrown in. Lovely. As for the Mark. E. Smith / Mouse on Mars "Von Südenfed" track, well it sounds a bit "I've heard stuff like this before" at first. Almost a damp squib, but one that is then heated up in the oven to dry it off, before being put in your pocket along with several matches and some sandpaper. Nice.

As for the Sun Ra, I've been meaning to get this for a while as apart from the aforementioned Mojo list (I have half of the top 20 albums on that list, and they are all great albums), two of my favourite albums of recent times namecheck Sun Ra and this album: Blur's 13 (I seem to be in a minority of one for thinking that 13 is Blur's best album by far) and Primal Scream's XTRMNTR. The title track is a groovy workout with several things happening at once for the majority of the piece, and sounds similar at times to Captain Beefheart's wonderful Mirror Man sessions. At times the album sounds like it is getting into swing territory, at other times an unholy racket, but it is at least fascinating and at best it is an invigorating mind blast.

Hopefully Fopp will continue to supply a decent range of albums, and not end up just providing the mainstream like so many record shops do.