wire: the solo projects

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Not too far off topic, I was once sent a mix CD with a track which sampled a number of different Wire tracks as well as a snippet of Colin Newman talking. It was the one track on the disc that the mixmaker had failed to identify. If anyone has any clue, I'd be grateful, as it's been irking me quietly for a number of years now.

― Deluxe (Damian), Monday, 5 September 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

I have a 12" single which was an "interview"/"Dub" promo for "Commercial Suicide" I think. Are you sure they were Wire tracks?

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 September 2005 10:44 (twenty years ago)

Very sure. I'll go upstairs and listen to it as soon as this Todd Rundgren album's done.

― Deluxe (Damian), Monday, 5 September 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

Tracks sampled herein: something that sounds like an alternate version of "Strange", "Ambitious", "Men 2nd", "Practice Makes Perfect", some track on Behind The Curtain that I can't remember the name of, "106 Beats That", to name a few.

― Deluxe (Damian), Monday, 5 September 2005 11:27 (twenty years ago)

That "Interview"/"Dub" promo is currently appended to the reisseu of 'Commercial Suicide' on CD.

― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 5 September 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

Not mind we jolly jack tars, I'm in disgrace. The cat sat on the carpet, I just lay here like a lump. Bing bong.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Monday, 5 September 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

I have me the Githead album and ep. They are pretty good, although you can't hear much of Robin's influence. It's similiar to the sound of newer Wire, mixed with more of the laid back sound of "A Bell is A Cup."

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 5 September 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

Back on to Gilbert and Lewis - you simply must hear the track "Blind Tim" from the "Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie for Attention" album: "It's too big, IT'S TOO BIG!!"

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

I have "In Esse" Bruce Gilbert.

mmm.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Oh that album is complete bollocks, it must be said

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

'Twould appear that the track I wished to know about was said bonus track from Commercial Suicide so ta to I.M. and Mr. Grout for that :).

― Deluxe (Damian), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

I watched On The Box this morning. The performance is pretty great, surprisingly good sound too. There's a longish interview where they talk about planning to release two albums that year. They talked as if they felt they had no limits creatively. Yet after the release of 154 when they broke up, they gave the reason of hitting a creative dead end. Material from the planned second album turned up on Newman's A-Z. Why didn't they just put it out as Wire and stay together? The only way I can make sense of it is that they were drained after the six weeks of recording 154 (not a particularly long time by most bands' standards, but long enough to get sick of each other), and with all of Mike Thorne's Eno-esque soundscapes, they knew it would be problematic recreating it live. So they figured what's the point of keeping the band together, when they can just record whatever they want as Dome and solo, etc.

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Sunday, 11 September 2005 05:04 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Brief revive to say that "Troisieme" off of A-Z is the most malevolent-sounding thing ever.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

also check the A C MARIAS album on mute

I had this looong time ago on vinyl. Truly excellent. I need to find this again.

― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 03:50 (nineteen years ago)

Safe... not enough.

― 808 the Bassking (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 03:54 (nineteen years ago)

picked up Commercial Suicide for 5 dollars at Other Music the other day.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 04:25 (nineteen years ago)

strangely i have not contributed to this thread. will listen to stuff and report back.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 04:31 (nineteen years ago)

What about He Said -- Lewis's 80s project? Brian Eno plays DMX on one song on the first album, Hail (1986). Three years later, the Take Care album (terrible cover, btw) moved into a real synth-pop direction. Nice cover of "Suzanne," though.

― Duke Dubuque (Duke Dubuque), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

Where is the love for Duet Emmo? "Or So It Seems" and "The First Person" are genius - admittedly the rest of the album isn't as good.

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

... and of course the "Or So It Seems" 12"! I listened to a lot of He Said stuff recently, for the first time in ages, and didn't like it much.

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

I'm really glad you reminded me of Duet Emmo. I really don't understand at all why I don't have that one yet. I love Dome. I love He Said. Almost anything with Graham Lewis makes me happy. I thought his H.A.L.O. stuff was boring though, as well as the "pre>HE" CD. I guess he put out other stuff after the H.A.L.O. but I didn't trust it so didn't investigate.

Colin Newman's solo stuff I'm kindof lukewarm about. I've bought and sold things and bought them again and failed to play them! I've still got the vinyl of "It Seems" but haven't played it since it came out. I never actually bought Commercial Suicide though, strangely enough.

I've also got some kind of Wire solo thing called P'o, but it's boring, as I imagine that MZUI thing probably is (talk about a staple of used record bins!).

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

"It Seems" is pretty much what you'd expect the "Singer From Wire" to do ten years after the breakup...

Which is not to say he hasn't done 'unexpected' music, if you see what I mean.

A to Z and Commercial Suicide are both worth the effort.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 11 January 2007 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

i fourth or fifth the ac marias recommendation; there's a really beautiful song on that lp, driven by a bass line, her voice and little else, that just kills me.

― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Thursday, 11 January 2007 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

If it's "Just Talk", there's a video for that.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 11 January 2007 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't listened to all of Commercial Suicide yet, it's certainly less Wire like then A-Z, but it has at least one track that's up there with the best stuff any of them did, called Feigned Hearing, which is truly beautiful.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 11 January 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

I like It Seems! It's like some kind of chamber counterpoint thing, but made totally with sequencers. With vague lyrics.

Thank you thread for reminding me to play A.C. Marias again.

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Thursday, 11 January 2007 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYJdN-g1FDs

― flavio pessoa (flavio pessoa), Thursday, 11 January 2007 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

colin provides the vocals for a track on the forthcoming Tauchsieder album. (album also features vocals by Richard X, percussion by JD Twitch and a remix by Tom Ellard.)

hopefully out sometime in feb / march

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:37 (nineteen years ago)

thanks for the youtube link! that's awesome.

― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:48 (nineteen years ago)

Colin Newman's first solo record, A to Z, is essentially a Wire record minus Bruce Gilbert. That's fine with me. It always seemed like the parts of Wire that were a bit too "experimental," basically just shitty, were the tracks with cheesy bass lines and bad baritone vocals ... Bruce Gilbert. And Mike Thorne, producer of all albums where Wire rocked and quasi-band member, fills in Gilbert's shoes and produces the record.

Personally, I fucking love A to Z. It's a great record, and the second and the last song on side 1 are CLASSIC. Unfortunately, my vinyl copy has been scratched on that last song side 1. BUMMER.

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, the A.C. Marias video!!! AMAZING! I didn't even know there was an A.C. Marias album. I had a few 12"es and that was it.

xpost

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

uh except bruce gilbert wasn't their bassist and doesn't sing.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

"uh except bruce gilbert wasn't their bassist and doesn't sing."

---> oops. i guess meant Graham Lewis. thanks for the correction, i appreciate it. haha. like i said, OOPS!

holy shit. i never thought AC Marias would come up anywhere in a million years. this was one of those purchases i made like 3 years ago just based on the fact that it was a Mute release.

and ...

i didn't notice the Bruce Gilbert involvement, but i suppose that i shouldn't be so hard on him post 154.

http://www.discogs.com/release/240365

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Thursday, 11 January 2007 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

Damn, I've got to check out A to Z. If there's even one song as good as anything on 154/Chair's Missing, it's worth it to me.

I only have the Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish / Not To CD, and man oh man it's disappointing.

― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Friday, 12 January 2007 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

154 is quite overrated. A-Z is a step in the right direction -- no Graham Lewis vocals!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 12 January 2007 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

wtf are you people on about, the addition of lewis' vocals was just what wire needed at the time -- a little drama to balance out the icyness. 154 is NOT overrated; pink flag is in comparison to it. the baritone-supervillian steez on "i should have known better" and "a touching display" are some of the most classic moments in wire's career, not to mention all of punk/post-punk!!!!1

this is not at all to say that A-Z isn't incredibly great

― millenarian (millenarian), Friday, 12 January 2007 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

Lewis is fine as a harmony vocalist. I've said enough here.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 12 January 2007 03:09 (nineteen years ago)

I'm going to strongly disagree here:

"Newman, with admirable pluck, reminded us that there was more Bertolt Brecht in Paul McCartney than even the most addled 1977-era Wire theorem could envision."

I dunno. This just rubs me the wrong way. Eh.

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Friday, 12 January 2007 03:44 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

I love Colin's 80s solo albums, the two He Said and AC Marius albums but have always been lukewarm to some of the other stuff. On my list of projects is to compile a best of from Dome, Lewis/Gilbert, solo Gilbert, P'o, Duet Emmo, Demond Simmons, Cupol and a few other names I can't remember.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 17:22 (sixteen years ago)

Rolling Upon My Day by Dome is excellent.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 18:01 (sixteen years ago)

On my list of projects is to compile a best of from Dome, Lewis/Gilbert, solo Gilbert, P'o, Duet Emmo, Demond Simmons, Cupol and a few other names I can't remember.

Man, I just did one! Great minds and all that...

― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 September 2009 10:07 (sixteen years ago)

Please post your tracklisting!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 24 September 2009 11:07 (sixteen years ago)

Only Lewis+Gilbert and kept down to CD-R length:

1. Rolling Upon My Day
2. Cruel When Complete
3. Like This For Ages
4. The Red Tent I
5. Ritual View
6. Anchors
7. AR-GU
8. BA-DR
9. To Speak
10. Vanite
11. Blind Tim
12. Or So It Seems
13. The First Person
14. Reading Prof. B.

― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 September 2009 11:20 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

Also search Desmond Simmons' Alone On Penguin Island (1981).
― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, June 3, 2003 9:07 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark

http://digital.thinkindie.com/search/release.php?release_id=151039&ref=26

― Andy K, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 13:01 (fifteen years ago)

six months pass...

I finally got around to compiling my own set of Gilbert & Lewis material. I went through everything until the mid-90s then lost interest. Here's my playlist:

Anchors (Lewis Gilbert & Mills - Pacific Specific)
Cruel When Complete (Dome - 12)
Long Lost Life (Dome - 12)
Ritual View (Dome - 12)
Jasz (Dome - 34)
Dasz (Dome - 34)
Ends With The Sea (Gilbert And Lewis - 8 Time)
Or So It Seems (Duet Emmo - Or So It Seems)
The First Person (Duet Emmo - Or So It Seems)
Time And Time (P'o - Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie For Attention)
Vanite (P'o - Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie For Attention)
Only One I (P'o - Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie For Attention)
Blind Tim (P'o - Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie For Attention)
Crystal Streams (P'o - Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie For Attention)
Angel Food (Bruce Gilbert - The Shivering Man)
Eline Cout II (Bruce Gilbert - The Shivering Man)
Epitaph For Henran Brenlar (Bruce Gilbert - The Shivering Man)
Because We Must (Version 1) (Dome - Yclept)

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 13 May 2011 14:07 (fifteen years ago)

three years pass...

Graham Lewis's new albums are out: "All Over" (song-based vocal work from the past 10 years) and "All Under" (4 long soundtrack pieces, one with spoken word and the last more song based) and are excellent!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 7 July 2014 18:04 (eleven years ago)

three years pass...

Never heard He Said Omala until recently. "Catch Supposes" is this ambient kraut-techno beast with Graham's soft voice on top. I swear, Wire side projects are the gift that keeps on giving.

http://youtu.be/Vlv-cN1lU08

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 5 October 2017 14:04 (eight years ago)

five months pass...

Angela Conway & Bruce Gilbert, probably better than Wire were at the time, great video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAcxQzl15LI

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Monday, 12 March 2018 23:20 (eight years ago)

the AC Marias album is such an underappreciated gem, although i would gladly lop the canned heat cover off my CD version

(imagine if CD bonus tracks were watermarked so you could tell your CD player to ignore the fuck out of them)

the drop / so single is even better if less breezy

― umsworth (emsworth), Monday, 12 March 2018 23:40 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

I just found Dome 3&4 at Tower on sale for $11.99. I haven't been able to find 1&2 anywhere yet. 3 is pretty amazing. It's certainly a precedent to a lot of the experimental electronica and post-rock of the mid-90s like Main, Oval, Disco Inferno, etc. Recorded 1980-81, the only influences I can hear is Eno's ambient stuff, the instrumental cuts from Bowie's Low, and Eno/Byrne's My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, with its sampled rhythms and ghostly, floating processed voices (who was A.M.C.?). Maybe a little contemporary Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle too.

I'm listening to Dome 3 today for the first time in a while and I'm ready to proclaim it the greatest of all Wire-related projects (outside of Wire). The other Dome albums are fine but this one is just perfect. Weird we've never polled them here. If we did, this one in a landslide.

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 18 October 2019 16:47 (six years ago)

two months pass...

Listened to The Shivering Man as such from start to finish now – goddamm that is a complete and wonderful thing.

― anatol_merklich, Friday, 10 January 2020 02:31 (six years ago)

one year passes...

Hi - I am helping a friend write and prepare materials for a Wire (band and solo) family/related compendium being created through a Detroit-based publishing house.
Hoping to find a die-hard fan/collector with all the answers, we are reaching out, looking for info on the origins of a 2010 Bruce Gilbert song "Epitaph for
Henran Brenlar" on "The Shivering Man" album. Is Henran Brenlar a real person, possibly an art school colleague?

― Jon Allen, Saturday, 6 November 2021 19:08 (four years ago)

My guess: it's an anagram of LN HE RAN BARREN. LN is Lewis/Newman. He's saying the later Wire songs are not as well-written as the earlier ones.

― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 6 November 2021 23:26 (four years ago)

it’s a composite/mashup of the names of two people Gilbert admires - Brendan Behan and err someone else I’ve forgotten (a quick search was no help)

― Paul, Sunday, 7 November 2021 22:48 (four years ago)

Henry Miller

― Paul, Sunday, 7 November 2021 22:49 (four years ago)

guessing

― Paul, Sunday, 7 November 2021 22:50 (four years ago)

Asking Bruce Gilbert might be the way to go with this one.

― Des Weerelds Dool-om-berg ont-doold op Dool-in-bergh (Tom D.), Sunday, 7 November 2021 23:00 (four years ago)

three years pass...

New Edward Lewis album! I love his last pair from a decade ago.

https://edvardgrahamlewis.bandcamp.com/album/alreet

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 26 November 2024 13:43 (one year ago)

Oh nice! Gee I hope there's a sequel to The Eel Wheeled

― imago, Tuesday, 26 November 2024 14:21 (one year ago)

Preview track has very enjoyable lyrics as usual

― imago, Tuesday, 26 November 2024 14:26 (one year ago)

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