1 + 2

1980... WIRE play their final gig for five years. Ten days later BRUCE GILBERT and GRAHAM LEWIS enter Blackwing Studio and begin a two and a half year obsession... a new mode... a new start... Dome... a name to conjure with... an umbrella to play out their occasional eccentric excesses... only a CUPOL of times do they dare venture out into live performance. Here we go... Dome 1... an album of pre-recorded fragments and ideas compiled over three days... Dome "changed the menu", moving a complete one hundred and eighty degrees away from the WIRE experience... Dome 1 set the agenda. It was clear that we were not going to be subjected to the run of the mill. We either went the distance or were left as innocent bystanders feeling the strain. And then... August 1980... a different kettle of fish... Dome 2... Dome take Blackwing Studio apart and re-invent a new recording process... anything is game for an instrument... a tale to tell... stories abound of (red) tents being erected, recording in the dark... Dome 2... a soundtrack for a "long lost life". Dome moved onwards and upwards creating a frozen, crystal landscape, the fire kept out... The desolate "Keep It", the ritualistic "Twist Up"... Dome gave up the realm of verse/chorus songwriting to concentrate on and develop their own craft within the studio environment, pushing themselves (and the listener) to newer territories of textures, rhythms, noises, etc... no-one could say that they were easy listening but their sound is seductive, penetrating, and above all lasting.