WIRE / NINE SEVENS 2LP

Combining the run of early singles with more obscure later period tracks underlines the strength in depth that Wire had. This is pop art as art/pop and an exploration of the blank canvas of pop culture and how far that canvas can be stretched going from three minute constructs to ambient washes. The 7” single was always the ultimate artefact and statement with the A side being the band momentarily paused in time and distilled and freeze-framed into the forever with less than three minutes of electric sound. Perhaps the greatest pop band that you may never have heard of, Wire understood this implicitly. They somehow found the sweetest of spots between the post-punk’s short sharp shock shapeshifting, art prog’s defiant experimental and a disciplined pop touch that pushed the parameters of what a song could be. These “sevens” released from 1977 to the end of that decade signpost the band's remarkable development from their brilliantly monochromatic early phase to the textured complexity o