Long before entertainment content and video games were promoted as being “addicting,” I got hooked on a band called Wire. My reaction to its groundbreaking albums, Chairs Missing and Pink Flag (and incendiary singles such as “I am the Fly”) was as intense and immediate as the beats. The British band didn’t sound like anything I’d heard before: Not quite (or “just”) rock; not quite electronica. And, although Wire appeared during the New Wave’s halcyon days, its best output is timeless. The sound’s so unique and powerful that, when I’m extremely moved by something sounding anything like it, Wire’s the secret weapon-like reference point I pull from my arsenal. WHY so unique and powerful? If forced to dissect, I’d have to mention the subversivel, minimalist-poetry-level lyrics, and/or Colin Newman’s deadpan Brit delivery and piercing guitar work, and/or Graham Lewis’s talkative, dynamic bass playing, and/or Robert Gotobed/Grey’s slamming percussion… all knitted together by brilliant, never-heard-before arrangements, with ear-tingling effects.

Of course, to people who haven’t heard Wire, or who (I suppose this is possible) haven’t shared my passionate response, that ref. point is, er, pointless. In any case, the band’s alive and well, with its own website and label, enabling Newman, Lewis, and Gotobed/Grey to control their work’s development and distribution. The Black Session was recorded in Paris in May, 2011 when the band was touring behind Red Barked Tree. Before listening, I wondered: Should I expect Wire’s seminal, stun-gun effect? Or be ready to be disappointed by the more Depeche-Modeish stuff the band put out some times in the ‘80s (not that I hate Depeche Mode - it’s just not Wire)?

Ah… relief. “Adapt” starts The Black Session a bit slowly for this foot-tapping rocker. But “Comet” (from the kickass 2002 release, Read and Burn) follows with a bang. Other fire-starters include “Two People in a Room,” “Drill,” and a 10-minute romp through Pink Flag’s title track. You can hear the punks (aging, twee, and in-between) bouncing off the walls during that one, although the crowd’s excitement (at Wire’s triumphant return) sparks through this live recording. Get the skinny, and pick up whatever’s missing from your desert-island Punk/New Wave/Rock library, from the source: www.pinkflag.com