Newsdesk as was - news as is

Clint Boon and the Farfisa beat

Scottish band Danny Wilson were led by Gary Clark, who regards his debut solo album Ten Short Songs About Love as his finest work to date. From conception to birth, it was made entirely at home. Phil Ward drops in on the basement studio, and finds both album and proud father doing very well

Pat Metheny and the well-tempered Synclavier

Philip Glass: Glazed expression

Phil and Paul Hartnoll are Orbital, and their pioneering brand of user-friendly electronic dance music is a lot more fluid than the traffic on the motorway that prompted the name. So Phil Ward avoids the M25 and heads straight for the heart of the P&P music factory

Henry Priestman: the word

Volume 1 (The Music Industry)

808 State - Absolutely Gorgeous

An Appreciation

John Cage - The life & the legacy

Fritz McIntyre - the key is simplicity

Forsaking guitars and drums for a wall of keyboards and racked modules, Sub Sub turned a home studio into a hit factory. ‘Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)’ peaked at Number 3 and took everyone by surprise - except Phil Ward, who heard the single pre-release and contacted the band immediately.

Die Krupps: hi-tech and heavy

Harold Budd - The incredible lightness of being

Never mind avoiding presets and programming your own patches... how about rebuilding the whole damn synth? Richard James - aka Polygon Window, Caustic Window, Diceman, Soit PP, Blue Calx, AFX and The Aphex Twin - isn’t happy with his hardware till he’s had the toolbox to it. Phil Ward enters the twilight zone of the lad from Cornwall who’s spearheading the ambient onslaught.

Face to face with Hue - or is it Cry?

Ultravox: New improved formula

Pascal Bussy (SAF Publishing)

Unbitten by the digital bug, Vince Clarke only drives analogue.

The life of (Terry) Riley

Floyd, Eno, Gabriel... Grid?

New Grid on the block

The Stereo MC's' Connected was for many the album of 1992; their live shows are currently one of the highlights of 1993. Phil Ward makes his own stereo connection and discovers just what it takes to get the balance right.