“Lux Prima” serves as the first track off Karen O and Danger Mouse’s forthcoming collaborative album, which be released on a limited edition white 12-inch vinyl at select independent record stores on December 14th.

“Nobody can chew up music and spit it back out quite like Richard D. James. Throughout the 90s, the Cornwall-bred prankster refracted practically every known sub-genre of electronic music through the kaleidoscope of his whimsical personality and extreme technical ambitions.

All the while James was gaining a reputation as dance music’s foremost proto-troll. The early internet buzzed with rumours of him ambushing audiences with noise by playing pieces of sandpaper instead of records in his DJ sets, riding around in a fully armed tank, building vast secret studios of custom home brew synthesisers and stockpiling hundreds, if not thousands, of unreleased tracks. He often came off as aloof or purposely oblique in interviews. “I just like to make music, I don’t like to talk about it much,” he said in a 1995 promo clip that now lives on YouTube. “Electronic music isn’t meant to be talked about.”

It wasn’t until 2014 that he re-emerged with Syro, his sixth album under the Aphex Twin moniker, and did the last thing anyone would expect – he opened up. There were no tanks and no sandpaper in the press run that followed. Instead he just talked enthusiastically about his family life, his recording process and even his once-guarded list of studio equipment. After years of hiding behind the frozen, grinning visage of his own face that was once his visual trademark, he had finally removed the mask.”

Gaye Su Akyol is a compelling and distinctive young Turkish singer. For her performance at this summer’s Womad festival she styled herself like a pop star – with high silver boots, shorts and cape, but then produced a bravely experimental set that fused traditional Turkish and rock influences, and included a powerful plea for press freedom. Yaz Gazeteci Yaz (Write, Journalists, Write) was made famous by veteran folk singer Selda Bağcan, and has become all the more poignant and relevant after recent events in Istanbul, Akyol’s home city.

Her second international release, Istikrarli Hayal Hakikattir (Consistent Fantasy Is Reality) provides a further reminder of her powerfully original approach. Her other influences include Nirvana and Nick Cave, and with help from an impressive guitar band she has created a distinctive folk-rock style in which sturdy bass riffs and percussion underpin distinctively Turkish melodies. To this is added a dash of electronica, and local stringed instruments including the oud, bağlama and cümbüş.

Go big is what the Beastie Boys did. Against all expectations, three white middle-class New Yorkers with mixed, mostly Jewish, heritage and a punk-rock sensibility became, for a 1980s moment, the biggest rap band in the world. And after that – this is the really strange bit – they managed to continue making music and create a 30-year-plus career. “Lucky?” says Horovitz. “Yes. Our music is weird. It’s not pop. I don’t know why so many people buy our records.”

The Beastie Boys Book took them four years to complete and tells the Beasties’ story from pre-1981, when Diamond formed a hardcore band with friends, including Yauch. Packed with photographs, diagrams, maps, cartoons, recipes, lists (some great music ones), as well as some brilliant writing from them both, Beastie Boys Book is a delight. But, God, getting either Diamond or Horovitz to talk about it is nigh-on impossible.