1 & 2

by Wilson NeateOriginally released separately in July 1980 and October 1981, Dome 1 and Dome 2 were the first album-length side projects by Wire's Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert. Motivated more by an interest in sounds than in music, Dome upped Wire's experimental ante, further subverting conventional song structures and reconfiguring traditional approaches to recording. With a measure of spontaneity reminiscent of performance art, the duo crafted lo-fi, minimalist pieces comprising tape loops of found sounds, mechanical rhythms, and sparse instrumentation. Arrangements were often characterized by a droning quality in which melody played a fleeting role and by textures emphasizing interruption and fragmentation over continuity and seamlessness. Completed in three non-consecutive days, Dome 1 incorporates guitar, bass, and percussion tracks that predated the sessions, either as Wire leftovers or as home recordings. "Cruel When Complete," for instance, employs a surplus Wire riff as an ambient backing for Angela Conway's echoing vocals. While "Cancel Your Order" had been written a year earlier, "Ampnoise" was improvised, its layers fashioned from varieties of incidental audio detritus. The highpoint is the oddly affecting "Rolling Upon My Day." The modus operandi for Dome 2 was more improvisational, and the recording environment was treated more explicitly as a performance space. "Keep It" is largely the sound of Lewis and Gilbert exploring a darkened studio, while "The Red Tent 1 & 2" features vocals recorded by a supine Lewis inside a makeshift tent. Most compelling are Dome 2's least fragmented numbers, like "Red Tent" and the pulsing makeover of Wire's "Ritual View." The sound of Dome captured on these albums can be heavy-going at times, but to the extent that listeners are able to lay aside preconceived notions of rock and pop, it does become strangely engrossing.