Phases and Stages

Wire

Send (Pink Flag) This is no fat, bloated reunion. This is Wire, the first band labeled "post-punk" and probably still the best. Their herky-jerky sound has always kept listeners on edge, and time has not blunted that edge one iota. Last year, the London quartet self-released a pair of sizzling EPs, Read & Burn 01 and 02 . They've recycled seven of these tracks and penned four new ones for Send, the band's first full-length since 1990's Manscape. This version of Wire is even more immediate than the first, a dense bundle of raw nerves. "In the Art of Stopping" drives with a mad urgency exacerbated by constant grinding halts. "Comet" is a demonic amphetamine scorcher built on a locomotive rhythm that halts long enough to double the horsepower, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. These two and the caustic, Graham Lewis-sung "The Agfers of Kodack" are the most hair-raising shots of pure adrenaline, all three lifted from Read & Burn 01. The Read & Burn 02 cuts are just as tightly wound but emphasize a motorik rhythmic approach, with drummer Robert Gotobed remaining constant and furious, emphasizing Lewis and Colin Newman's barking chants and clanging, eardrum-buzz textures. The brand-new "Mr. Marx's Table" achieves a synthesis of the rhythmic force from 01 and the creeping melodicism of early albums like 154. Forget the new school of post-punk bands. None of them approach the intensity and rhythmic engagement of Wire, still flying the pink flag of twisted rock after all these years.