Every December since 2002, No Ripcord has taken pride in publishing a Top Fifty Albums list, which draws on the collected thoughts of our writing team.This year we have decided to offer you, our devoted readers, the chance to take part in the end of year shenanigans.

One half of hip hop duo Gang Starr, Guru has established himself as a pioneer in the jazz/hip-hop crossover movement. 

Someone had to write about this glorious election.

Post-Punk heroes, Wire, sold out Philadelphia's Johnny Brenda's October 10th. 

2008's best band pitched up in South Yorkshire to perform, arguably, 2008's best show.

Another blast from the past: No Ripcord's top 50 albums of 2004.

Even though the cassette mix tape has been nearly extinct for years, its conceptual appeal remains strong. So when a new Web site, Muxtape.com, launched in March of this year to duplicate the mixed-tape idea in an online setting, an influx of users quickly began uploading to the site.

Christmas comes early this year...Or maybe late, considering the Flaming Lips began working on this film seven years ago. 

Deep in Epping Forest, Simon Briercliffe unearths a gem on vinyl that he already has on CD. Is there a conflict? Is there any question as to whether to buy? Not at £1 there isn't.

For complicated simplistic reasons I like Garry Shandling.

When I heard about a band that had landed a festival appearance near Düsseldorf courtesy of a chance MySpace encounter, I started thinking the unthinkable: maybe social networking isn't a complete waste of time.

No Ripcord is looking to recruit new music writers with a particular expertise in the fields of hip hop and electronic music, in order to help us widen our coverage of these genres.

Simon Briercliffe is, apparently, still alive.

It's the 25th anniversary of the Big Chill.  What has it done to us?

A sleepy, isolated town on the West Cumbrian coast, Whitehaven is probably one of the last places – in England, and possibly the world – where you’d expect to find a thriving indie-pop record label like Letterbox Records. This is the story behind the label’s success.