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The second long player from ‘He Said’, the solo nom de plume of Graham Lewis, one quarter of Wire, deep into the digital synth territory of the late ’80s. This runs along the same timeframe as Wire’s ‘A Bell Is A Cup (Until It Is Struck)’, an example of the Wire canon that has tended to divide fans with its clean-lined and exaggerated production hallmarks of the time. If that Wire LP has you reaching for your revolver in reaction to the polished, layered, synth-scaffolded sonics, then be warned – this album takes such approaches not only to the edge but well over, with quite the sizable running jump beforehand for good measure.

Continue reading “He Said ‘Take Care’ UK LP (Mute, STUMM57, 1988)”

‘Eardrum Buzz’ was one of Wire’s two single releases of 1989 (along with ‘In Vivo’) that seemingly had their mind focussed on the ‘think pop’ message that Mute label owner, Daniel Miller, had apparently made the message of the previous year’s Berlin recording sessions (for what would be ‘A Bell Is A Cup (Until It Is Struck)’). ‘Eardrum Buzz’ certainly was a catchy ear-worm of a tune, to be sure, and such were the hopes of this making in-roads to the charts of the day that its release (in the UK at least) saw Mute records issue a regular 7″ single, a limited edition clear vinyl 7″ single (withdrawn hastily, apparently), regular 12″ single, 3″ CD single (with a different selection of additional tracks) and limited edition second 12″ single with exclusive live tracks – oh, and one of Wire’s most witty and entertaining promo videos, with a left-field star-studded cast in ear-waggling cameos. Despite the multi-format effort, it didn’t break the upper reaches of the charts – a shame as it was without any doubt one of Wire’s ‘pop’ numbers (well, the kind of ‘perfect pop’ that the NME’s writers used to bang on about) they had periodically been feted for since early days and the video gained plenty of airtime on the likes of MTV (and even an elusive interview with the band on BBC 2’s ‘Snub TV’).

Continue reading “Wire ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz (Live Live Live)’ limited edition 12″ single (Mute, L12 MUTE 87, 1989)”