Disco de Wire: “Read & Burn 01”

I've always thought that Wire has a timeless sound, and this record shows they are still at it in force. It seems to mix elements from a lot of their earlier work, overall it's a stripped down fast paced affair. I don't agree with the assertions that it's "Pink Flag II". However, it does have that classic Wire sound. What can I say, a new Wire album. What else can you say about a band that began as original punks, and quickly mutated into art rock. Around 1979, when the rest of the world was just beginning to figure out what punk was, they were already moving far beyond those narrow constructs. And they continue to evolve with Read & Burn 1. I can't put my finger on it, but the tone of this record is very appropriate as a soundtrack for this point in history. Best of all, it's delivered with that sneer all Wire fans will immediately recognize. Now go out and buy this record, and pick up a copy of Pink Flag while you're at it. Or just buy them all, they're all great.

You're familiar with Wire if you're reading this... Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, A Bell is a Cup. I stumbled upon their 154 album in 1980 and worked backwards, amazed. Their later releases didn't always connect with me, but I always admired the fact that each album sounded like a completely different entity, a completely different group... They were always trying new things, new sounds (unlike REM, who professed to be fans of Wire but somehow always sounded like REM on album after album). Now I've stumbled again on an amazing thing: Read & Burn is Wire 20 years later, playing music that screams comfortably next to the best of their prime output. It's got it all: loud, fast, repetitive, catchy, dosed in 3-minute chunks... The second 20+ Year Reunion release this year that's knocked me out (see also Crispy Ambulance "Scissorgun"). Buy it!!

It's been 25 years since Wire released their seminal debut Pink Flag - 35 minutes of pure mind-numbing adrenaline. Since then, they've gone through interesting permutations of their original sound - catchy abrasive punk gave way to a streamlined, nearly devotional type of new wave dance music, at which point they began deconstructing back towards the basics. On Read + Burn 01 they've arrived. This six track EP is Pink Flag whittled down to its heady essence. Yet this is not a retread, more a re-acquaintance with the thrill of music that inspired them in their 20s. For middle aged men (they're in their 40s) to connect so fully, so passionately with the music of their youth is, right, nostalgia, but at this level of intensity, it's also triumphant. There are plenty of original punks out there (Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols). None of them have equaled their early work. Wire, on the basis of Read + Burn 01, may just surpass it.

There is no more perfect band than Wire. They have done more new records collectively than any other band. They started at the dawn of English Punk. They recorded three great records, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154. Pink Flag was picked as the second greatest punk record behind The Ramones in some recent survey. Wire went on hiatus in 1980. Solo projects ensued. Some of the weirdest records ever imagined were foisted on a public. Wire (the second leg) returned in 1986 with Snakedrill. They released four more albums as Wire before the drummer left. They continued as WIR at the dawn of punk (the second leg, i.e. Nirvana). Soon a need to do more solo projects evolved. Colin Newman continued on as a techno producer. Bruce Gilbert did more sonic landscapes. Lewis did weird Swedish pop with aggressive lyrics. Robert Gotobed changed his name back to Grey and did some farming. almost ten years past without any collective Wire collaboration.

In 2000, Wire reformed for a third time, and played live shows in Europe and the USA. They played songs from all their albums, including songs from their first three which they had never played in over twenty years. Many people who weren't born when Wire was first formed in 1975 so grew interested. In the past year Wire was invited to play some festivals including All Tomorrow's Parties. Out of this grew the first new material in over a decade. For people wondering about Wire picking up where they left off with Manscape and WIR, the new Read and Burn sounds like the most energetic music that Wire has ever produced. Where a lot of their punk associates have been doing the same thing for years, Wire shocks us again with fresh new songs. These songs sound like the "Chairs Missing" era. "In The Art of Stopping" kicks off the record like a bullet. There's a new sense of production but there's a sense of rock. I am reminded of some obscure Wire songs like "Dot Dash" and "A Question of Degree" but as well the Snakedrill EP. The drum sound on "I Don't Understand" is great and pounding. "Comet" may be one of the fastest Wire songs. It has lyrics "And the chorus goes ba ba ba ba ba bang" which is very funny. "Germ Ship" is probably the most new sounding Wire song. The EP goes from familiar to unfamiliar. "1st Fast" is maybe a sign of good songs to come. Lewis and Newman both sing the last song "The Agfers of Kodack" which is the hardest rocking Wire song here with true Wire Fuzz guitar. This reminds me why I liked Wire in the first place. They are a sonic assault in the land of Ur and Um. This seventeen minute is what we have been waiting for.

(www.freewilliamsburg.com)

When Wire resurfaced in the late eighties many of their die hard fans I imagine where hoping for a pink flag/chairs missing type lp. Snakedrill the ep sort of fell along those lines but the lp, Ideal Copy was anything but punk(still a good release just the same).

Now much more than a decade later i have just heard read and burn and though its not the sparse raw sound of pink flag its much closer to their early punk sound than the eighties syrupy gloop that followed ideal copy. R&B is solid if simple. I am reminded of early pixies, Chrome and other eighties post punk punks.

Any fans should not be disappointed (as manscape and bell is a cup did for me) but not blown away either.

However in a way this could be considered a concept album as here these guys are considerably over the hill thrashing away. Once again Wire is doing what they are not supposed to be doing.