Steve Lacey on the front cover of the first issue of The Wire from Summer, 1982
Today, The Wire announced that every back issue of the UK-based magazine is now available to subscribers online and via the iPad, iPhone and Android apps.
You can peruse more than 350 issues which includes some issues that have been unavailable for up to three decades.
It’s hard to know where to start and I imagine that ,initially, I’ll be dipping into the archive on a fairly random basis.
I was interested to read the editorial in the first issue from Summer 1982, which gives an insight into how the remit of the mag has broadened; this states: “The Wire’s brief will be to cover the field of contemporary jazz and improvised music – the happenings of now with a clear nod to its past greatness and wink at its possible future”.
The digital world that makes it possible to scan these back issues has also had a huge impact on the world of experimental music. Jazz still has a place in the current magazine but this has to compete with genres that include electronica, ambient, noise, weird folk and avant rock.
To talk of music solely in terms of melody, harmony and rhythm or with reference to narrow concepts of beauty is to be weighed down with the baggage of value judgements.
Stephen O’Malley
