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WIRE
“Trying to categorise Annie Anxiety is a futile task… [she] exudes a magnetic presence on anything she’s contributed to” The Vinyl Factory
New York City musical maverick and performance artist Annie Anxiety, aka Little Annie aka Annie Bandez, began her illustrious career (including work with Adrian Sherwood, Coil, Current 93, and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry) with Crass. They released her first solo single, 1981’s ‘Barbed Wire Halo’ alongside ‘Cyanide Tears’, an extraordinarily prescient piece of jagged electronics, samples, and skeletal rhythms, led by Annie’s nightmarish vocals.
She tells us; “When creating this single with Penny I hadn’t heard the word ‘avant-guard’ nor could I spell it - I only got explained ‘concretism’ via an interview I did in Berlin regarding some of my work three years ago - My father was a printer so I grew up with sound of printing press and subway train beats and always heard melodies and cross rhythms within those beats - I was just making dance music / disco tunes to my mind and Pen heard those same tunes I was hearing - my first recording, in retrospect I guess, was pretty ‘out there’ at its release, but to us it was dance floor for a club yet to be invented- one day”.
Penny Rimbaud expands; “Annie Anxiety is a total enigma, a passionate voice in the wilderness of consensual reason. Dada in instinct, Monroe in affection, Rambo in inflection, Annie rams it home with divine thunder. An instigator and innovator, she’s the bonkers angel of Yonkers, NYC. With no time to spare, Annie takes to the road with complete conviction, overtaking Kerouac halfway down 5th Avenue. Catch her if you can”.
TRACK LISTING
1. Hello Horror
2. Cyanide Tears
The Wire
Issue 482 - April 2024 (+ The Wire Tapper 64)
Steve Roach: Synthesizer worship with the Arizona ambient musician. By Ned Raggett; [Ahmed]: Revolutionary grooves from the radically minded Anglo-Swedish-French quartet. By Stewart Smith
Clarissa Connelly: The Scottish born, Denmark based multi-instrumentalist meditates on myth, memory and modernity via her singular songcraft. By Leah Kardos
Shovel Dance Collective: The London avant folk ensemble balance the trad and the weird. By Lucy Thraves
Invisible Jukebox: Ka Baird: Will the New York based artist lose their Bearings when faced by The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Ryan Meehan
Unlimited Editions: Industrial Coast
Unofficial Channels: The Rest
Arushi Jain: The India born synthesist humanises electronics. By Vanessa Ague
Kulku: Berlin no-age ensemble prepare rare record release. By Oli Warwick
Harmony Holiday: Backstage with the pioneers of Black music. By Kehinde Alonge
Richie Culver: Outsider art and working class electronics. By Spenser Tomson
The Inner Sleeve: Raji Rags on D’Angelo’s Voodoo
Global Ear: Dublin DIY strategies against economic constraints. By Daniel Baker
Epiphanies: Aura Satz heeds the siren’s song
The Wire Tapper 64: A track-by-track guide to this issue’s free CD
The Wire
Issue 479 + 480 - January + February 2024
The Wire
Issue 477 - November 2023 (With Free Wire Tapper 63 CD)
The Primer: Jazz & Poetry: A user’s guide to the ongoing conversation between mighty music and vibrant verse. By David Grundy
Vanishing Twin: The London based art pop trio take a playful approach to retrofuturist psychedelia. By Claire Biddles
Invisible Jukebox: Matana Roberts: The Chicago born musician and multidisciplinary artist faces The Wire’s mystery record selection. Tested by Teju Adeleye.
Unlimited Editions: Gin&Platonic
Unofficial Channels: Chocolate Monk Top Tens
Carol Robinson: Clarinet results from the Paris based musician. By Louise Gray
Tom Mudd: Getting algorithmic with the Edinburgh experimentalist. By Stewart Smith
Hearsay: Chicago improvising trio turn the tables. By Bill Meyer
Marina Herlop: Exploring otherworlds with the Catalan composer. By Miloš Hroch
Global Ear: Oaxaca A mountain town’s brass ensembles celebrate Mexico’s Indigenous Mixe culture. By Juan San Cristóbal Lizama
The Inner Sleeve: Val Wilmer on Henry Grimes’s The Call
The Wire
Issue 475 - September 2023
The Pitch: The Berlin improvising collective connect the sonic with the social. By Peter Margasak
Invisible Jukebox: GAIKA: Will The Wire’s mystery record selection reduce the London polymath to “Eternal Tears”? Tested by Ciaran Thapar;
Feng Jiangzhou: Experimental rock gets down and dirty in the hands of the Beijing noise veteran. By Anla Li.
Unlimited Editions: Pakapi Records
Unofficial Channels: Ethio-Pain
Aho Ssan: Networking with the Paris based producer. By Antonio Poscic
Powerplant: UK-Ukraine synth punks touch grass. By Spenser Tomson
Janneke van der Putten: Strange overtones from the Dutch vocalist. By Abi Bliss
Global Ear: São Paulo: Tape against tradition in the Brazilian metropolis. By Romulo Moraes
The Inner Sleeve: Suzanne Ciani on Glenn Gould/Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Goldberg Variations
Epiphanies: John Butcher goes deeper underground
The Wire
Issue 474 - August 2023
Annea Lockwood: Having explored the outer reaches of sound across a multi-decade career taking in burning pianos, animals and pulsars, the New Zealand composer turns her attention to love and loss. By Louise Gray
Once Upon A Time In Maida Vale: In 1970s London, Spanish exile Miguel JM García García established a space where anarcho punk and industrial music would flourish. By Nick Soulsby
Svitlana Nianio: The Ukrainian vocalist and keyboard player approaches folk song with an experimental ear. By Olena Pohonchenkova
Invisible Jukebox: Gerald Cleaver: Will the US drummer and electronic composer Adjust to The Wire’s mystery record selection – or end up In The Wilderness? Tested by Collin Smith
Kramer: From Bongwater and Butthole Surfers to Palace, Low and now Laraaji – the US producer, musician and Shimmy-Disc proprietor continues to produce prosthetic memories. By Emily Pothast
Unlimited Editions: Guruguru Brain
Unofficial Channels: Radio Amnion
Coffin Prick: Moog and monotone from the Los Angeles synthesist. By Abi Bliss
Ellen Zweig: The New York based composer speaks out. By Robert Barry
Goat: Japanese rock gets polyrhythmic. By James Hadfield
Ziúr: Digital to physical for the Berlin based producer. By Miloš Hroch
Global Ear: Bucharest: DIY electronics vs minimal techno in the Romanian capital. By Steve Rickinson
The Inner Sleeve: Abdullah Miniawy on Fela Kuti’s Fear Not For Man
Epiphanies: Sunik Kim and the human nature of Conlon Nancarrow
The Wire Tapper 62: A track-by-track guide to this issue’s free CD
TRACK LISTING
Feast Of Wire - LP1 (45 RPM):
A01 Sunken Waltz
A02 Quattro (World Drifts In)
A03 Stucco
A04 Black Heart
B05 Pepita
B06 Not Even Stevie Nicks...
B07 Close Behind
B08 Woven Birds
LP2 (45 Rpm):
C09 The Book And The Canal
C10 Attack! El Robot! Attack!
C11 Across The Wire
C12 Dub Latina
C13 Güero Canelo
D14 Alone Again Or (Bonus Track)
D15 Whipping The Horse's Eye
D16 Crumble
D17 No Doze
More Cowboys In Sweden - Live At China Theatre Stockholm, 25.04.2003 - LP3 (33 RPM):
E18 Pepita
E19 Across The Wire
E20 Quattro
E21 Dub Latina
E22 Sunken Waltz
E23 Not Even Stevie Nicks
E24 Woven Birds
E25 Güero Canelo
E26 Black Heart
E27 Alone Again Or
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- CD
- £11.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF27CD
- Release date
- 24 Jun '22
Now, in a classic act of Wire perversity, the group have decided to redress the balance and reclaim one of the shadier moments of its history, by giving Not About To Die its first official release. All the tracks have been properly remastered, with the relevant recording details in place. As for the sleeve artwork, whilst it strongly references the original, it is decidedly more artful in its execution. Not About To Die emerges as a fascinating snapshot of Wire in transition with embryonic versions of classic songs such as ‘French Film (Blurred)’, ‘Used To’ and ‘Being Sucked In Again’, that the group would develop considerably for their epochal 1978 album Chairs Missing. Later demos such as ‘Once Is Enough’, ‘On Returning’ and ‘Two People In A Room’ would surface in radically altered form on 1979’s 154. Some songs, such as ‘The Other Window’, are virtually unrecognisable from their later iterations but the biggest prizes here may well be the tracks that were omitted from Wire's later studio albums... Highlights include ‘Motive’, which has an undeniable power.
Robert Grey’s drumming is crisp and minimal, and Graham Lewis’s bass runs are particularly ear-catching. Despite its distinctly un-Wire title, ‘Love Ain't Polite’ is also something of a gem. Meanwhile, the track which gives the album its title Not About To Die (officially known as ‘Stepping Off Too Quick’) possesses what Newman half jokingly calls “The best intro to any song ever”. The intro is so good in fact, that it takes up a third of the song’s entire time frame. These properly mastered tracks have never been available on vinyl before, and they provide an opportunity to hear Wire at a point in their development when they were bursting with fresh ideas and a will to communicate them. This is post-punk at its very finest.
TRACK LISTING
Oh No Not So (Save The Bullet 4th Demo
Culture Vultures 4th Demo
It's The Motive 4th Demo
Love Ain’t Polite 4th Demo
French Film (Blurred) 4th Demo
Underwater Experiences 4th Demo
Stalemate 4th Demo
Options R 4th Demo
Indirect Enquiries V1 5th Demo
Chairs Missing (Used To) 5th Demo
Being Sucked In Again 5th Demo
Ignorance No Plea (I Should Have Known Better) 6th Demo
Once Is Enough 6th Demo
The Other Window 6th Demo
Stepping Off Too Quick (Not About To Die) 6th Demo
On Returning 6th Demo / Former Airline 6th Demo
Two People In A Room 6th Demo
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- Ltd LP
- £20.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF27LP (#RSD22)
- Release date
- 23 Apr '22
Released as an illegal bootleg back in the early1980's Not About To Die were recordings made for EMI as demo's for 1978/1979 albums Chairs Missing & 154. Now Wire have decided to redress the balance and give the album it's first offical release on their own pinkflag imprint
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- LP
- £19.99
- Cat Number
- WBR35LP
- Release date
- 30 Jul '21
Having released six studio albums to date, Tom Williams has built a passionate fanbase of discerning music lovers since his first album, Tom Williams & The Boats Too Slow ten years ago. His 2017 album All Change was voted by BBC 6 Music Recommends as one of their Top Ten Albums Of The Year, and his last album 2019s What Did You Want To Be? which was produced by Tim Rice-Oxley, was described by The Guardian as surging, vintage pop-rock and championed extensively by Jo Whiley at BBC Radio 2, Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne at BBC 6 Music, Huw Stephens at Radio 1, Q Magazine and Clash.
Follow The Leader signifies a departure from Williams previous output. Self-produced, the album boasts rich orchestral sounds and full band performances, mixed with claustrophobic drum machines, synthesizers and deep sub bass sounds.
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- CD
- £11.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF456REDUXCD
- Release date
- 30 Jul '21
There was a limited run in 2003 and then the title was never re-pressed, living on as a digital product only. The item remains, nonetheless a curio. Born as much of creative curiosity as necessity and as the full tracks have found their ultimate expression as PF456 DELUXE, an expanded version with a book, it is perhaps fitting that PF456REDUX now finds its new home as a limited CD release. title PF456 Redux is both catalogue number and descriptor of the process.
TRACK LISTING
1. In The Art Of Stopping.
2.I Don’t Understand.
3. Comet.
4.Germ Ship.
5. 1st Fast.
6. The Agfers Of Kodack .
7. Half Eaten.
8. Being Watched.
9. You Can’t Leave Now.
10. Mr Marx’s Table.
11. Read And Burn.
12. Spent.
13. Trash Treasure .
14.Nice Streets Above.
15. Raft Ants.
16. 99.9
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- 2x10" LP
- £56.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF456DELUXESE (#RSD21DROP1)
- Release date
- 12 Jun '21
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JUNE 12TH).
Full length versions on vinyl for the first time in a unique package
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- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- OZITDANCD929
- Release date
- 19 Feb '21
TRACK LISTING
Clitheroe 1985 -
2 X 4
Couldn’t Get Ahead
Petty Thief Lout, No Bulbs
Gut Of The Quantifier,
Spoilt Victorian Child
Barmy
Stephen Song
Lay Of The Land
Oh Brother
Sheffield 1981 -
Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
Leave The Capitol
C'n'C's Mithering / Hassle
Schmuck
Slags Slates Etc.
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- Ltd LP
- £16.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF26LP
- Release date
- 19 Jun '20
-
- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF26CD
- Release date
- 19 Jun '20
The album divides in to two halves - the 2010 side & the 2020 side - hence the title.
Tracks 1 to 4 were recorded in the latter part of 2010 and feature contributions from both Margaret Fielder (of Laika) – who had been performing guitar duties with Wire on live dates the previous year – and Simms, who was on the point of becoming an official member of the band.
Track 1 ‘Boiling Boy’ first appeared on 1988’s A Bell is a Cup… Until it is Struck. ‘Boiling Boy’ has gone on to become perhaps the most played Wire song ever. Throughout the ’00s, it became one of the acknowledged highlights of Wire’s live sets.
Track 2 ‘German Shepherds’ is another late ’80s Wire song that has developed a second life on stage. The recording is also notable in that it includes vocal contributions from Newman, Lewis and Fielder.
Track 3 ‘He Knows’ was developed back in 2000 when Bruce Gilbert was still with the band. It emerged in a reinvigorated form in 2008 when it became a staple of Wire’s live show. This is the only studio recording to have surfaced.
Track 4.’Underwater Experiences’ was demoed for the band’s sophomore album Chairs Missing, but in the end was omitted. Having lay dormant for a couple of years, the song later appeared in two fast, abrasive, contrasting versions on Wire’s notoriously confrontational live album Document And Eyewitness, and a fifth iteration surfaced on 2013’s Change Becomes Us. However, the song has never sounded quite as it does here .
Tracks 5 to 8 were recorded more recently with the long-established line up of Newman, Lewis, Grey and Simms.
Track 5 . ‘The Art of Persistence’ arrived fully formed when Wire reconvened in 2000. But it was previously only available as a rehearsal room run-through on long deleted EP The Third Day or as a live version on Legal Bootleg album Recycling Sherwood Forest.
Track 6 ‘Small Black Reptile’ originally appeared on the band’s 1990 album Manscape. Of all the reimagined songs on 10:20, this is the one that has traveled the furthest. Whereas the original was a skeletal and arch computer-driven pop song, this new version sees the composition retooled as a piece of melodic rock.
Track 7 ‘Wolf Collides’, with its warm synth tones and spindly lead lines, sounds as if it deserves to be sitting regally on side two of 1978’s Chairs Missing. In actual fact, it was written in 2015 and became a stalwart of that year’s live set. This version was recorded for inclusion on 2017’s Silver/Lead but was omitted due to lack of space.
Track 8 ‘Over Theirs’ is the climax of the continuing reassessment of Wire’s 1980s output. Although the song appeared on The Ideal Copy and has been an intermittent component of the group’s live shows since 1985, its true power had never been properly harnessed in the studio – until now.
10:20 is that rare thing: an album that not only serves as a must-have for long-term fans and completists, but paradoxically also the perfect introduction for anyone new to the band.
TRACK LISTING
2010 SIDE.
1. Boiling Boy
2. German Shepherds
3. He Knows
4. Underwater Experiences
2020 SIDE
5. The Art Of Persistence
6. Small Black Reptile
7.Wolf Collides
8. Over Theirs
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- LP
- £15.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF25LP
- Release date
- 24 Jan '20
-
- LP 2
- £16.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF25LP2
- Release date
- 24 Jan '20
- Format Info
Indies-only Embossed Orange Sleeve.
Indies-only Embossed... [ + ] -
- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF25CD
- Release date
- 24 Jan '20
Be Like Them is a super-angular composition, utilizing a recently rediscovered Wire lyric from 1977. Colin Newman and Matthew Simms’ guitars constantly mesh and diverge, whilst the rhythm section ensures the song prowls forward with an unstoppable menace.
Cactused is the first of Mind Hive’s pop moments. The vocal is wide eyed and wired, with effects-heavy guitar work creating a bright web of noise, with the song’s stop/start moments providing a series of precise energy bursts.
Primed And Ready rides out on a tightly pulsing synth sequence punctuated by icy slivers of guitar. This is Wire at their most compressed yet propulsive.
Off The Beach is another prime pop song. With its breezy, optimistic melody, and blend of electric and acoustic guitars, the song initially sees the group seemingly celebrating the joys of everyday life but things are destined to turn a shade stranger.
Unrepentant explores the kind of bucolic soundscape early Pink Floyd would have been proud to call their own. Boasting one of the album’s finest texts, the song radiates out into a shimmering sonic heat haze.
Shadows pulls the classic Wire trick of placing a dark and cruel lyric in a musical setting of tender beauty. Never has the recounting of atrocity been so seductively pitched.
Oklahoma is the muscular and dramatic joker in the pack. Lewis’ dark vocal swims through a rich compound of guitar textures and synth tones, building into a masterclass of tension and release.
Hung is the album’s centrepiece. This 8-minute excursion matches a brief but evocative lyric with a dense, mesmeric guitar grind. Simms and Newman’s keyboards add a plaintive note, as the song moves through a series of sections, each with its own distinct atmosphere.
Humming is a beatless autumnal drift fashioned from delicate keyboard textures and rich soaring guitar tones. Newman delivers a state of the world lyric with a touching sense of innocence, whilst the piece ends with Lewis’ husky baritone listing locations and their difficult associations. An elegiac end to a supremely confident album.
Mind Hive arrives at a time when Wire are being cited as an influence by yet another generation of bands. A career spanning feature documentary called People in a Film is due for release late 2020. Quite how a group that has been operating for such a long period is still able to produce such exciting and essential work is difficult to understand. And yet here we are…
TRACK LISTING
Be Like Them
Cactused
Primed And Ready
Off The Beach
Unrepentant
Shadows
Oklahoma
Hung
Humming
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- LP
- £14.99
- Cat Number
- WBR32LP
- Release date
- 29 Mar '19
TRACK LISTING
Run Down
Rock & Roll
Dawned On Me
Graveyard
Stay Afloat
Keeping It In
Early Morning Rain
Some Time
It’s Dark Now
Crying At The TV
Real Slow
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- LP
- £18.99
- Cat Number
- PF11LP
- Release date
- 29 Jun '18
-
- CD
- £11.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- PF11CD
- Release date
- 22 Jun '18
This stunning set of presentations also includes a range of images from the archive of Annette Green. Wire’s official photographer during this period, Green also shot the covers for Pink Flag and Chairs Missing. Promotional and informal imagery – in colour and black and white – is featured throughout the books. Most of the photographs have not been seen for 40 years – and many have never been published anywhere before.
These special editions are something every Wire fan will want to own. It has been a number of years since these albums were readily available. The aim with these new vinyl and CD releases is to approximate the original statements as closely as possible, but with remastered audio. The vinyl releases have the same covers and inners as the originals (minus the Harvest logo). The digipack CDs have identical tracklistings to their vinyl counterparts. These versions should be considered Wire’s classic 1970s albums, pure and undiluted.
Pink Flag was very much Wire's punk rock album, and while they fully embraced it's revolutionary spirit, they came at it from their own obtuse angle. unhindered by talent (any kind of prior musical schooling) they gleefully took a baseball bat to Rock's overblown torso with humour and irreverence, producing classic, unsurpassed razor pop brilliance and a joyful antidote to the pomposity of their forerunners.
STAFF COMMENTS
Martin says: From the naked aggression of "12XU" and the ominous chordless drone of the title track, to the playful artpunk of "Start To Move" and "Brazil", this is, beginning to end, pure, unadulterated genius. Nothing more to add.TRACK LISTING
01/ Reuters
02/ Field Day For The Sundays
03/ Three Girl Rhumba
04/ Ex Lion Tamer
05/ Lowdown
06/ Start To Move
07/ Brazil
08/ It’s So Obvious
09/ Surgeon’s Girl
10/ Pink Flag
11/ The Commercial
12/ Straight Line
13/ 106 Beats That
14/ Mr. Suit
15/ Strange
16/ Fragile
17/ Mannequin
18/ Different To Me
19/ Champs
20/ Feeling Called Love
21/ 12XU
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- LP
- £18.99
- Cat Number
- PF12LP
- Release date
- 29 Jun '18
This stunning set of presentations also includes a range of images from the archive of Annette Green. Wire’s official photographer during this period, Green also shot the covers for Pink Flag and Chairs Missing. Promotional and informal imagery – in colour and black and white – is featured throughout the books. Most of the photographs have not been seen for 40 years – and many have never been published anywhere before.
With "Pink Flag" Wire tapped happily into punk's energy and iconoclastic tendencies, "Chairs Missing" is, perhaps, a little truer to their own instincts. They didnt completely shed the past completely; the joyful "Sand In My Joints" and grinding "Mercy" have more than a hint of "Pink Flag" about them, but their 1978 offering is moodier and much more textured than its predecessor, the addition of swathes of electronic sounds moving them firmly into post punk territory, a genre they helped to spawn. There is pure pop beauty on here too, of which "Outdoor Miner" and "French Film Blurred" being the most gorgeous examples.
STAFF COMMENTS
Martin says: Their most varied L.P. and possibly their finest hour (or so). Straddling the fire of punk and the colder, darker charms of brooding electronic post punk, it also contains within its grooves moments of melodic magic. Worth buying for the outrageously amazing "Outdoor Miner" on its own.TRACK LISTING
SE Tracklist: Disc 1 (Original Album)
01/PracticeMakesPerfect
02/French Film Blurred
03/Another The Letter
04/Men 2nd
05/Marooned
06/Sand In My Joints
07/Being Sucked In Again
08/Heartbeat
09/Mercy
10/Outdoor Miner
11/IAmTheFly
12/I Feel Mysterious Today
13/From The Nursery
14/Used To
15/Too Late
Disc 2 (Singles, B-sides & Studio Recordings)
01/I Am The Fly (single Version)
02/Dot Dash
03/Options R
04/Outdoor Miner (single Version)
05/Practice Makes Perfect (single Version)
06/Underwater Experiences (Advision Version)
Disc 3 (Studio Demos) Fourth Demo Sessions
01/Practice Makes Perfect
02/OhNoNotSo
03/Culture Vultures
04/It’s The Motive
05 Love Ain’t Polite
06/French Film Blurred (version 1)
07/Sand In My Joints
08/Too Late
09/I Am The Fly
10/Heartbeat
11/Underwater Experiences
12/Stalemate
13/I Feel Mysterious Today Fifth Demo Sessions
14/ Dot Dash
15/ French Film Blurred (version 2)
16/ Options R
17/ Finistaire (Mercy)
18/ Marooned
19/ From The Nursery
20/ Indirect Enquiries (version 1)
21/ Outdoor Miner
22/ Chairs Missing (Used To)
23/ Being Sucked In Again
24/ Men 2nd
25/ Another The Letter
26/ No Romans
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- CD
- £9.99
- Cat Number
- HARRY4CD
- Release date
- 17 Feb '17
Formerly of Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Sym Gharial and Andy Huxley split the duties thusly - Sym on bass and crafting those unique lyrics; Andy singing, writing the music and playing guitar. Their 2015 EP, ‘The Genius Of The Crowd’ set out the band’s stall, discharging 8 blistering pop songs in 20 minutes.
‘Dream Underground’ shows a giant leap forward in song-writing and approach, realising their aim to make a huge and satisfying rock album that could rattle the ribcages and fuel the imaginations of as many people as possible. It begins in style with the Gil Norton-produced ‘Get A Life’, a riff-fuelled punch in the gut, which serves as a delicious warning of what is to follow. It’s a down and dirty juxtaposition of dark and light, grit and sweetness, grinding riffs and explosive melody - a theme that continues throughout the record. The idea of hedonism and its consequences is often at the heart of their songs. Sym and Andy’s experiences have provided a lifetime’s worth of inspiration, powering the weirdly wonderful tales of the ‘Dream Underground’ and beautifully realised in Jude Wainwright original oil paintings, commissioned for Loose Collective.
The literary influence is strong in Piano Wire’s approach. Lyricist Sym draws succour from the likes of Oscar Wilde and Chuck Bukowski and the parallels can be seen in a number of places across ‘Dream Underground’ – “I thought I found romance in drinking and hard drugs but realised I had been fooled and was fooling everyone,” he says. “I like Oscar Wilde a lot. The lyrics to the tracks are about fucked up, twisted love and being a loner and going mad. The tragedy of old fashioned Romance. Wanting what you can't have. Feeling detested. And Fear. Strong experiences.” Despite the darkness that undercuts many of their tracks, Piano Wire’s exuberant aesthetic is uncontrollable on the record’s monstrous peaks and choruses.
TRACK LISTING
1 Get A Life
2 Cherry Coma
3 Outline Of A Massacre
4 Hooligan In The USA
5 Glass Elevator Music
6 Weird Heroes
7 All Roads Lead To God
8 Red Electric Flower
9 Liquorice Junkie
10 Fifteen Year Comedown
11 Slip Inside The Shadow
12 Gangs
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- LP
- £13.99
- Cat Number
- WBR27LP
- Release date
- 23 Oct '15
-
- CD
- £9.99
- Cat Number
- WBR26
- Release date
- 23 Oct '15
-
- CD
- £7.99
- Cat Number
- WBR25CD
- Release date
- 23 Mar '15
The first single ‘New Guitar’ is revealed here in the form of a live performance at Replay Acoustics, the place where Tom found the Guitar that “all kinds of new songs fell out” of. The first song that did, is about moving down to the sea and serves as a perfect introduction to the project. The mini-album features more songs written over the past two years and studio versions (available upon release) were put to tape at 2kHz Studios in Crouch End, London with Ian Grimble (The Fall, Manic Street Preachers, Siouxie And The Banshees). Footage from these sessions was captured to create The Making-of “New Guitar” Mini Album Documentary directed by Jake Cunningham, giving a insight into Tom’s transition from band to solo artist, his relocation from Tunbridge Wells to St Leonards and the pivotal instrument that ties all these songs together.
This release see’s Tom accompanied by Ant Vicary from The Boat as well as Sarah Maycock, Fiona Keeler and Catherine Black on piano, vocals and cello respectively. It is released on Tom’s own Wire Boat Recordings label.
TRACK LISTING
1. New Guitar
2. Oh Boy
3. Tuesday Morning
4. Open Mic
5. She's Everything
6. I've Been Thinking
7. 1992
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- CD
- £11.99
- Cat Number
- PRC266CD
- Release date
- 7 Oct '13
TRACK LISTING
1. Harrison Ford
2. Young Presidents
3. Cover All Sides
4. Lucky Young
5. Ms. Dot
6. Loretta
7. Unearth
8. Bright Leaves
9. Nightwater Girlfriend
10. Fly By Wire
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- CD
- £7.99
- Cat Number
- WBR16CD
- Release date
- 23 Apr '12
‘Teenage Blood’ is made up of ten tracks that Tom says reflect a new sense of focus for the band. After becoming obsessed with the idols of pop-rock’s history, such as Tom Petty, Teenage Fanclub, The Band and Loaded-era Velvet Underground, Tom decided to write songs that take the traditional song structures of that genre – repeated choruses, catchy hooks – and fill them with a subversive lyricism, touched upon in the debut release.
The result is a tight, narrative set of tracks that don’t so much form a concept as a series showing the progression of doomed love affairs – moving from youthful naïveté in ‘Too Young’ into ‘There’s A Stranger’s gut-punch realisation of the death of a romance (‘the best song I’ve ever written’, says Tom) and finally the ‘rolling credits’ of ‘Emily’, a depiction of the (re)birth of a new relationship. Teenage Blood’s consistent focus and narrative drive make for a more cohesive album than Too Slow; a mixture of the black and white polarity of their debut that explores new, captivating shades of grey - the spaces in between pop and alternative music, love and hate.
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- Ltd CDS
- £4.99
- Cat Number
- WBR
- Release date
- 2 Feb '11
- Includes MP3 Download Code.
Lead track "See My Evil" has been raising eyebrows amongst fans, who now number the likes of Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson, taking their well known ear for a melody into new and darker musical territory and saw The Fly rapt with ‘an unexpected dark dynamism, and an all-round righteous fury’ whilst Likesounds thrilled to a track so ‘massive and loaded with hooks’ when they caught the band live at the Buffalo Bar. Coupled with "Get Older", a bluesy confessional burning with the anger of a young Nick Cave, the two tracks further demonstrate Tom Williams and the Boat as one of the most inventive songwriting teams around. With the dark mood persisting into the groove of "Strong Wheels", threaded gossamer like with a sinewy guitar line there is still space for the release of "Kick the Cat" and the warped confessional of "In Love".
STAFF COMMENTS
Laura says: This EP is all over 6 music at the moment, and deservedly so - it's ace!TRACK LISTING
1. See My Evil
2. Get Older
3. Strong Wheels
4. In Love
5. Kick The Cat
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- CD
- £12.49
- Cat Number
- PF018CD
- Release date
- 3 Jan '11
Ranging from the hymnal "Adapt" to the barking sledgehammer art-punk of "Two Minutes", the album encompasses the full range of style and nuance that has always endeared Wire to pastel-tinged pop aficionados and bleeding-edge avant-rockers alike. Whatever Wire make is Wire music: this is the band’s enigmatic guiding axiom. While Wire remain agnostic about the nature and identity of their aesthetic essence, it’s always been instantly recognisable, manifesting itself throughout their heterogeneous work. This enigma waits be revealed among the "Red Barked Trees" …
TRACK LISTING
01. Please Take
02. Now Was
03. Adapt
04. Two Minutes
05. Clay
06. Bad Worn Thing
07. Moreover
08. A Flat Tent
09. Smash
10. Down To This
11. Red Barked Trees
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- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- FAI007CD
- Release date
- 8 Sep '08
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- 7"
- £4.99
- Cat Number
- REV011
- Release date
- 15 Dec '03
-
- CD
- £13.99
- Cat Number
- VR370
- Release date
- 24 Jun '02