I'm as shocked by it as you are, Officer

I don't know what is happening to me, but increasingly The Wire seems like the only music magazine to read. They even seem to have started seeing how funny some of the outlandish conceptual stuff they write about is, or at least I am able to find it funny for them. The must recent issue had some great pieces. I was interested by the cover story on Irish composer and sound artist Jennifer Walshe, for all that it gave almost no impression whatsoever of what her music sounds like. I was also interested by the piece on Detroit techno act Drexciya, not least because I know the guy who wrote it. I really must do something about my almost complete lack of anything Detroit techno oriented, a loss I feel increasingly keenly.

The real stars of this issue, though were Kommmissar Hjuler and Mama Baer. He is a chubby middle aged German cop, she his much younger and rather attractive wife. Together they make what sounds like unlistenable avant garde nonsense they try to pass off as music. They also do visual art, specialising in collages made from images of extreme hardcore pornography. It all sounds a bit "I can explain, officer" – only he is the officer!

I do not really want to hear any of their music, and I would very much rather not have to interact with their visual art, but the very existence of Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer is a sign that things are still going well in the world.

more (this is the transcript of the Wire interview with Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer; it is also where the above picture comes from. Sadly the completely genius picture of the two of them is not obviously available on the Wire website and I am afraid to do image searches for them)

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