Mike Ink

One day after being named to the Russian 2010 Winter Olympic ice hockey squad, Washington Capitals left wing Alexander Semin inked a one-year contract extension with the National Hockey League club. Read More

Romulus --Airlines serving southeast Michigan are in for a much-appreciated holiday surprise: Detroit Metropolitan Airport likely broke even on operating costs for fiscal year 2009. Read More

When Santa sits back in his North Pole office and tallies up the boy and girl balance sheet every year, one wonders what exactly he uses as a means of measurement. Read More

Wolfgang Voigt has rushed back in the spotlight recently, in part thanks to the release of the beautiful Nah Und Fern box set collecting his four ambient/classical Gas albums, as well as a reissue of the minimal techno inventing/perfecting Studio 1 CD on Profan. Read More

So you can imagine the level of butthurtedness at a label which started off releasing a highly narrow and freshly developing style of music - the 'bleep' techno ringing through their Sheffield hometown in the late 80s - and two decades on basically putting out whatever it wants, including indie-rock moneyspinners Grizzly Bear and Maximo Park. There are a number of rejoinders to the grouse that having bands like this on Warp amounts to a dilution of aesthetic, or even (ooh!) a betrayal: firstly, the fact that it's not your label, and in the grand scheme of things, being 'loyal' to a record label is sort of weird and decadent; secondly, that they had an indie division, Gift Records, in the early 90s, notable for releasing Pulp singles; thirdly, bands like Broadcast and Battles have done consistently excellent work in the minefield that is incorporating a love of electronics to a guitar music foundation. Read More