Wire, Silver/Lead (2017) A Review

Wire, Silver/Lead (2017) A Review

By: Ghost Writer

Rock N Roll Animal

With the artistic triumph of the last record made by the late David Bowie and the surprising return of Brain Eno to ambient and experimental electronica, you can be sure that these are great times for British Avant Garde music, despite things like the awful Brexit, or perhaps as an answer to (like American Hardcore Punk was to Reaganomics), the British artists have been recently delivering some of their best music in decades, so let's add another name to the list, that of robotic post punk rockers Wire, whose brand of intense minimalism arrived decades ago with their emblematic album Pink Flag album, which included lots of minute long songs, and a quick succession of two more albums that took us from punk and into post punk and new wave in quantum leaps, today, Wire's marks are evident on most interesting contemporary music, from Hardcore Punk, Art Punk, Electronica, Britpop and Shoegaze, and claiming influence on bands as diverse as Black Flag, Elastica, Sonic Youth, Godflesh, My Bloody Valentine, Jesu, Gorillaz and Mexico's Los Llamarada.

Silver/Lead is this year Wire's apt attempt at staying relevant but at the same time hiding from the spotlight that followed some of their musical heirs, this is a kind of somber, low key record, one that immediately links itself to acts like Bowie or the hermit genius Scott Walker, acts that obviously took advantage of Wire's 70s experiments with punk, pop and electronica, by using it as a template for their more risky experiments, here, opener Playing Harp with the Fisher, starts with really heavy ultra low sounding guitar tones, it's a mid tempo piece, contemplative and reflexive with menacing vocals, succeded by the more up tempo and punkish Short Elevated Period, featuring Wire's classic straightforward sound, a sort of reminder of Germany's Kraftwerk but with big guitars, gate crashing drums and catchy as hell vocal lines.

Diamonds in Cups features distorted guitars along a melodic vocal line, here again the band retreats into reflexive mood, its another interesting experiment in restraint as the band manages to channeling its power in different ways, creating interesting guitar arrangements and textures in which slow motion helps bringing out detail in each riff before embracing pop fearlessly on Forever & a Day, flanked by thunderous drums and a sympathetic vocal lead, while on the next song, An Alibi, the band simply uses it as an excuse for more textural experiments fleshing out what could have been a small naked pop song and building it as a powerhouse of vibrant sound.

Silver/Lead features a lot of interesting sound experiments carried within an undeniable pop structure, guitars denounce an obvious tendency towards density but the band fights against the obvious in order keep their  experimental nature accessible, sometimes falling on the oppressive with Sonic Lens, or on the unpretentious sound of This Time, closing the record with truly inspiring songs like the resounding Brio or the jazzy Sleep on the Wing, overall Silver/Lead is a great effort from a band that loves to get into complex situations and whose seems obsessed in how to work with minimalistic structures containing massive detail, no easy thing of course.