Octave one

With their 2022 debut album, Cardinal Black showed the world how the budding guitar hero in their ranks could thrive in a band environment. Here, Chris Buck explains how its follow-up has taken his playing and songwriting to the next level

Amid the mayhem of his European tour, Joe takes time out to give us a guided tour around his 2025 live gear, delivers the lowdown on some of his more storied guitars, and tells us why his mighty multi-amp rig has to run at breaking point in order to make the earth move and those riffs resonate…

For 60 years, HERBIE HANCOCK has taken the bonnet off music, hacking its valves and gears, forging a future as yet unseen. He shaped jazz and funk and synth-rock; Miles and Joni felt the benefit. Now he's a Polar Music Prize laureate. "I've always been this geek, this nerdy guy,"

THEY REVOLUTIONISED THE FILM-SCORE LANDSCAPE. NOW, AS NINE INCH NAILS TAKE ON TRON: ARES , TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS TELL US HOW THEY’RE SHAPING THE FUTURE

With his cape and on-stage curry, he defined prog rock excess. Breakdowns, penury and near-death were the prices paid, but somehow the baroque synth lines and droll quips kept flowing… and still do. “I’m my own worst enemy,” laughs Rick Wakeman.

WHEN TY SEGALL and collaborator Matt Yoka started writing the lyrics to the former’s new and 17th solo album, Possession, the pair set off to present a series of “quintessentially American stories.” T