issue 74

Beautiful faces, fabulous hair, immaculate clothes. Laconic vocals, luxurious synths, sinuous rhythms. We are talking about Japan. Of course. To mark the release of a superb new biography, ‘Japan: A Foreign Place’, we chronicle the steady rise and sudden fall of one of the most perfect pop groups of all time

With the imminent release of a bumper box set of his solo work, one-time Can man Irmin Schmidt looks back over his illustrious career and talks about fleeing war-torn Berlin as a child, learning his trade under Stockhausen, and his sonic adventures in the worlds of classical music, experimental electronics, film soundtracks and fantasy operatics

When Carter Tutti Void invited us to spend an afternoon at their remote rural HQ, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Two parts Throbbing Gristle to one part Factory Floor, the threesome made their recording debut with a live album recorded at their very first gig. Now there’s a second album, ‘f (X)’, a rare non-TG release on the seminal Industrial Records. And it’s an absolute corker

If you still think of Lloyd Cole as a jangly popster, you’re in need of some re-education. His latest album, ‘1D’, follows on from his 2013 collaboration with krautrock pioneer Roedelius and finds him walking a fine line all the way to the future

Former Kraftwerk man Wolfgang Flür recalls a little of his life as a robot and looks forward to an altogether more human future with his ‘Eloquence – Complete Works’ album and his dramatic ‘Musik Soldat’ live show

Propaganda founder Ralf Dörper tells the inside story of one of the finest electropop outfits of the 1980s – from ‘Dr Mabuse’, ‘Duel’ and their almost faultless ‘A Secret Wish’ album, to the band’s lengthy legal tussle with Trevor Horn’s infamous ZTT imprint