Rob St John

Is Stockhausen’s Licht The Most Bonkers Operatic Spectacle Ever?

This week, one day of Stockhausen's week-long opera Licht comes to London's Southbank Centre. Bobby Barry explores the history and significance of one of the greatest and most outlandish musical spectacles the world has ever seen. Photos by Meng Phu

30 Years On: The Dreaming By Kate Bush

Matt Lindsay gets to grips with the overlooked masterpiece that is The Dreaming

Pinch & Shackleton

Pinch & Shackleton

When Crunk Met Classical: Micachu & The Shapes Interviewed

Mica Levi tells John Freeman how a collaboration with the London Sinfonietta created Chopped & Screwed – her homage to the Houston hip-hop scene

Sasha Renkas

Safe Place

From Kyiv, an album of 'nighttime music', all dreamy synths and hushed vocals, looks back with nostalgia across a ruined cityscape

Stir My Teenage Soul: Karl ‘Regis’ O’Connor’s Favourite LPs

Karl O'Connor guides Luke Turner through the 13 teenage hits that made him Regis, with tales of smelling like a badger on the mail train to Brum and what happens when you get a member of Einstürzende Neubauten the wrong gravel on the way

Complete Communion: Jazz For January Reviewed By Peter Margasak

Peter Margasak hopes the music covered here doesn’t just suggest a high bar qualitatively for the year ahead, but that it also signals the worst is behind us, as many of these recordings are imbued with the sort of driving, triumphant spirit that we need to help us get back on our feet

Swans

My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

“Music In Which To Get Truly Lost”: Daniel Avery’s Favourite Records

The Phantasy producer and DJ goes from mid-teen discoveries to recent acquisitions as he writes us his own Baker's Dozen of top albums, EPs and mixes ahead of his b2b set with Erol Alkan at fabric later this month

Willesden To Karpathos: Yannis Of Foals On The Geography Of Holy Fire

Foals' new Flood & Moulder-produced album Holy Fire is a work of supreme confidence and bold scope. Yannis Philippakis talks to Luke Turner about the places that shaped it

The Men

Open Your Heart

Britney Spears

Circus

La Big Vic

Actually

Manifest Destiny: Wooden Shjips Interviewed

Julian Marszalek talks to Ripley Johnson about recording Wooden Shjips new LP with Sonic Boom, and the pull of the American West

Squid Sign To Warp And Share New Single, ‘Sludge’

The track sees them team up with producer Dan Carey

Taking Stock: Robb Flynn Of Machine Head Interviewed

The hellaciously dude-esque Robb Flynn talks to Toby Cook about Tony Iommi's favourite curry, his generation's Big Four and Coldplay... Huh? Coldplay? WTF...