THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2011
a selection of the best records of the Year made by the Wire magazine
Kompositionen 1950 - 1972
A portrait of Christian Wolff, documenting the composer's early activity through recordings made close to the time of their composition from artists including Cornelius Cardew, Frederic Rzewski, David Tudor
Far Side Virtual
RESTOCKED, last copies around - The Wire's Releases of the Year!!!!!!James Ferraro paints a 21st century still life on his debut album for Hippos In Tanks. The record is called Far Side Virtual. Each song, a melodious reflection of the moment now, comes shrink-wrapped in HD fidelity as glossy as a 2012 Toyota Prius. Ferraro's muse is some enigmatic modern metropolis, where the streets are as slick as i-Pads, and where the symphonies ring with Macbook message alerts. Through the steam risi…
936
Sometimes it feels so simple: two of our favorite people in one of our favorite bands release one of our favorite records of all time. 2009’s Imaginary Falcons was its own genius slushpile of tape-hissy drift-dub haze anthems, no question, but 936 takes every facet of the Peaking Lights mighty diamond and shines it to fluorescent perfection. The songwriting is insane; “All The Sun That Shines,” “Amazing & Wonderful,” “Tiger Eyes (Laid Back),” etc, all seep into yr mindstream and float there like…
The rings of Saturn
Originally only available as an artist-released CD, "The Rings of Saturn" spans a lengthy narrative of music prepared over the years 1997-2008. Infusing early field recordings along with recently completed studio compositions, this new album of "cinema pour l'oreille" (cinema for the ear) transports the listener to discrete locations that evoke rich memories and sympathetic recollections. This remastered vinyl edition is pressed on clear wax in a beautiful, full-color jacket. Available initially…
Work 2006-2011
Wall and Rodgers have worked together informally and irregularly for the best part of two decades, but it has been since Wall took the leap into improvisation, roughly five years ago, that the potential for their collaborations to become something more solid has evolved. So the pair have worked together, either just informally in Wall's studio or out playing live gigs since 2006, and they have produced a body of material that Wall has then sculpted into the composition that appears on the CD. Th…
Replica
Copies from copies of copies upon copies to copies through copies on copies of more copies. Daniel Lopatin was but a babe in the early '80s - the global time frame which stands central to his Oneohtrix Point Never project, where Russian TV advertisements, faded slow-jam hits, and forgotten futures all get misinterpreted, rewired, and misremembered through an android dream. Much of his past work revolved around the step sequencing and ambient swoosh that filtered through the kosmische aes…