The Wire 225. November 2002

20th Anniversary Issue
We made it. In this ten page special anniversary feature, we leaf though two decades of this magazine's back pages to hear how we kept on an even keel in choppy musical and financial seas

Anticon
The deep dysfunctional doodles of this Oakland based pan-American 'shrink rap' collective are at the leading edge of 'undie' HipHop. Peter Shapiro enters the strange world of Sole, Dose One, Jel, Why?, Odd Nosdam and friends

Primer: No Wave
Born in the void between New York punk, free jazz and commercial new wave, the art rock of DNA, Teenage Jesus, Mars, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Ut, et al continues to exert a magnetic allure. User's guide by Alan Licht

Invisible Jukebox: Steve Lacy
The soprano saxophonist and composer, and the man who named The Wire, gets into a flim-flam trying to identify tracks by Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Jack Kerouac, MEV and more. Tested by Christoph Cox

Kimmo Pohjonen
In the hands of this Finnish maverick, the accordion abandons its folk roots to become a gutbusting furnace of shamanic sound, animated by primal energies and orchestral dynamics. By Louise Gray

Annette Krebs
Clive Bell talks to the German guitar improvisor who followed her own path into abstract music

Steve Mackey
The American composer gives some classical traditionalists a headache... by using an electric guitar. By Dave Mandl

Asa-Chang & Junray
The Japanese group making geographically indeterminate music have made it one of their most distinctive qualities. By Martin Longley

Bob Cobbing RIP
David Toop mourns the loss of a great English sound poet

Global Ear
In Bloomington, Indiana, John Fenn finds a flourishing climate for pan-global music