Wire – Wire

The Ten Commandments according to Wire:

1. Thou shalt not play the blues or any derivative of the blues; also any blues influenced chord progressions shall be excluded.
2. A piece by Wire shall be as rigid and yet as flexible as a piece of wire.
3. In a universe where time is considered the fourth dimension, the three-minute pop single is obsolete; anything above 45 seconds is acceptable.
4. Perfection coming from a minimalistic approach means the song is finished not when more can be added but when nothing else can be removed.
5. “Art for art’s sake, money for god’s sake” and “fuck art, let’s dance” are both lyrics that diminish and detract from the singular need for a situationist style approach.
6. Plagiarism and cover versions, especially by artists such as Rollins, Albini, et al. are a more valid judgement of success than the number of units sold.
7. Love and the male’s attempt at copulation are not valid lyrical reference points, whereas abstract streams of consciousness are, and therefore are absolutely necessary.
8. All instruments and musicians must obey the Marxian edict that proclaims equality; therefore the guitar solo is a non sequitur.
9. Avant-garde is in itself a term limiting the boundaries of innovation.
10. There is no 10, the inclusion of which would constitute a compromise.

In the year 2015 the four original members of the group known as wire (Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey) along with the relatively new guitarist Matthew Simms congregated in a room that contained equipment capable of recording sound. The room also contained various musical instruments that when, struck, plucked, strummed and electronically programmed in their unique way by the group produced the basis for a set of new songs. The addition of the correct syntax along with a strict adherence to the above rules resulted in eleven tracks, that when combined would constitute the self-titled thirteenth album by the group. I personally would highly recommend listening to this collection of songs as soon as they become available, and on an arbitrary scale ranging from zero to ten as a means of judging listening pleasure I would judge that the album to be worth a score of 8.9.

Wire – Split Your Ends

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