2019 Rewind: the year in underground music. Wire contributors nominate their top ten records, CDs, downloads and streams of the year. They look back on 2019’s cultural highs and lows. Further contents:

Columnists’ Charts: The specialist critics select music that shook their corner of the subculture, from avant rock to noise

Criticism: Shade tolerance. By Emily Bick

Streaming: Clouding the issue. By Mark Sinker

Hobbyism: Scene unheard. By Rob Hayler

Invisible Jukebox: Hildur Guðnadóttir: Will the cellist and composer bow under the weight of The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Lizzie Davis

Unlimited Editions: Discus Records

Unofficial Channels: 64 Quartets

Empath: Philadelphia four-piece let their feelings flow. By Neil Kulkarni

Pod Blotz: Tech trash and future flash from the Los Angeles polymath. By Louis Pattison

Adam de la Cour: High art and kitsch meet in the UK film maker/composer’s work. By Robert Barry

Global Ear: Mexico City: The capital city is a melting pot for contemporary jazz. By Howard Mandel

The Inner Sleeve: Joe Muggs on ’Ard Corrr by Well ’Ard

Epiphanies: Nature nurtures, according to Ben Ponton of :zoviet*france:

Print Run: More Fun In The New World: The Unmaking And Legacy Of LA Punk by John Doe with Tom DeSavia & Friends; The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions From The Local And The Global by Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair ‘Gords’ Gordon & Paula Guerra; The City Was Yellow: Chicago Jazz And Improvised Music 1980–2010 edited by Mike Reed; Women In The Studio: Creativity, Control And Gender In Popular Music Sound Production by Paula Wolfe; On Time: A Princely Life In Funk by Morris Day with David Ritz; Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History Of Soundsystem Culture by Joe Muggs & Brian David Stevens; Tony Conrad: Writings by Tony Conrad, Constance DeJong & Andrew Lampert; The Arithmetic Of Listening: Tuning Theory And History For The Impractical Musician by Kyle Gann

On Screen: Roy Dipankar Extreme Nation

On Site: Honey-Suckle Company: Omnibus, London, UK; David Tudor & Composers: Inside Electronics, New York, US

The Boomerang: Burial, Gene Clark, Issam Hajali, Roland Kayn, Mighty Baby, Om, Sparks, Masahiro Sugaya, Tribe, Walter Zimmermann, Various Brutal Africa: The Heavy Metal Cowboys Of Botswana, Various Congo Revolution: Revolutionary And Evolutionary Sounds From The Two Congos 1955–1962

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