Inside

Matthew Herbert photographed by Jake Wailers

Regulars Bitstream/ Death Row 8 Notes from the underground/ Laetitia Sadier's last requests

Global Ear 18 Thorn Bailey on a second Velvet Revolution in Prague's musical underground

Epiphanies 114 Ben Watson gets inspiration information from Sugarcane Harris's funky fiddle

Editor's Idea 4 Letters 6 Charts 50 Out There 98 Directory 104 Plus Label Lore and Savage Pencil

Subscribe 106 Back Issues 108

Reviews Index 51 Soundcheck 52 Avant Rock 74 Critical Beats 75 Dub76 Electronica 77 HipHop 78 Jazz & lmprov 79 Modern Composition 80 Outer Limits 81 Print Run 82 Cross Platform 86 On Location 98

Matthew Herbert 24 Electronica's self-styled mechan ic of destruction has matured from sampling the sounds of domestic bliss to programming critiques of capitalism and social injustice . But where does the brass band fit in? By Rob Young

Nonesuch Explorer 30 Overseen by a classical pianist, th e mid-60s launched Explorer series was one of the first labels to collect the planet's indigenous sounds, documenting Buddhist chants, Indonesian gamelan and more. By Ri chard Henderson

Eddie Prevost 36 "No sound is innocent;' declares the AMM drummer, improviser and Matchless label owner, after 35 years reinventing percussion with an lmprov roll-call including 'the new Jesus Christ ', Keith Rowe. By Julian Cowley

The rise of Mego 42 In Vienna, Ramon Bauer, Tina Frank and Peter Rehberg tell the story of their iconoclastic label, which has followed its debut EP of fridge tracks with everything from Evia laptop inventions to Black Metal noise . By Edwin Pouncey

Invisible Jukebox 20 The Cramps In Los Angeles, everyone's favourite kitschabilly twang couple Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorshach get trashed trying to identify tracks by Alex Chil ton , Guitar Wolf, Les Baxter, Suicide and more . Tested by Ri chard Henderson

Bites Jaga Jazzist 10 Akio Suzuki 12 Sarah Peebles 14 St ffen Ba hoJu ghans 16