Pink Flag Vinyl & CDs

Review: Originally formed to fulfill Wire's contract with Mute Records after drummer Robert Grey's departure, WIR emerged in 1990 as an experimental offshoot of the post-punk legends. Their only album, The First Letter, featured sparse, sequence-based electronic music with Graham Lewis taking lead vocals and even self-sampling from Wire's catalogue. This newly remastered 2025 vinyl reissue includes their rare 1993 ORF radio session, which has previously only been available digitally, and adds a fresh, live-inspired re-recording of their most accessible track, 'So and Slow.' It's a window into a unique, fleeting moment in the band's history.

Review: One of history's prominent art punk, post punk, experimental and alternative rock groups, at least one Wire record should sit on everyone's shelf, their richly detailed and deeply atmospheric sound helping lay foundations not just for all the outfits that have picked up the mantel and took the aforementioned styles forward, but also genres such as noise and drone. There really is just so much going on in the often chaotic crescendos and pared back moments alike.

As the title suggests, Not About To Die takes early studio demos from the crew and also correctly makes it clear that, when all these were recorded, the troupe still had decades of creative output ahead of them and weren't going anywhere. That said, by the end of the decade they would disband, before regrouping again, disbanding again, and regrouping. Those details aside, dive in and soak up the unbridled and unapologetic raw creativity at play here.