The music that you gave me, the language of my soul...

Gnostic prog-pop a-go-go...!

The Wire #310

...is out, featuring my King Crimson Primer (I won't hear a word against Lizard, kids!) plus reviews of the lovely new Josephine Foster album and this year's Incubate festival in Tilburg. Also featured is Derek Walmsley's cover feature on mutant hip-hop pioneer Sensational (J-Beez With The Remedy, the Jungle Brothers album which features this dude is one of my favourite albums EVAH... his own Loaded With Power is pretty damn fine too) alongside interviews with Oneohtrix Point Never (fantastic artist with a truly fantastic nom-de-plume) and Ben Frost. The Invisible Jukebox this issue is with Carlos Giffoni, who is most notable in my eyes for being one third of excellent no wave power trio Monotract.

It's a curiously proggy issue, this one - not only does it feature the aforementioned Crims Primer, but also a admirably forthright pro-prog Editorial from Chris Bohn and a rather lovely Epiphanies piece by Stephen Thrower, in which the Cylobe chap waxes nostalgic about his introduction to Yes.

Edit: By the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to state that while Yes come in for a bit of stick in my Crimson piece, I actually love a great deal of their music! I make no apologies for referring to Jon Anderson's lyrics as Aquarian guff, because they generally are. That doesn't mean however that the music (including of course Anderson's voice) isn't often mindblowing. Anyone doubting the group's brilliance should investigate the single edit of 'Sound Chaser' from the CD reissue of Relayer. It's unearthly, in the sense that it really does sound like music from another galaxy.

The Outer Church @ The Quietus

Those fellows at The Quietus asked me to put together a Spotify playlist and a couple of paragraphs to herald the opening of The Outer Church this Wednesday night. I dutifully obliged, and you can look and listen here. Why not read the article - very slowly - as you listen to the playlist? Just a suggestion.