Vien + (RSD 25)

Following the departure of Wire’s drummer Robert Grey in 1990, WIR had risen phoenix-like from the ashes of the acclaimed UK post-punk band. Created to fulfill the final phase of Wire’s Mute Records contract, WIR embraced a more sequence-based sound, breaking their own rules by crafting sparse electronic music. Graham Lewis took on most of the vocal duties, and the band even cannibalized their own catalog by sampling older material.

WIR was not a long-term project. Besides completing their only album, The First Letter, their only other activities were a handful of gigs and two multi-artist “conceptual happenings” under the name I Saw You. One took place in Clapham in April 1992 on election night, and the other in Vienna in February 1993.

On that Vienna trip, in addition to performing, the band recorded a radio session for the Austrian national broadcaster ORF, organized by Peter Rehberg—later the person behind MEGO, and sadly no longer with us. This session was released in 1996 by Touch on CD, consisting of two long tracks with a combined runtime of almost 25 minutes. Once the short run of CDs sold out, the rights reverted to the band, and pinkflag re-released it digitally in 2007. Now, for the first time, it is available on vinyl.

The remastered 2025 vinyl/CD/digital edition adds a newly recorded, Taylor Swift-style re-recording of what is undoubtedly WIR’s most pop moment—the dark, brooding So and Slow. This version is based on the way the band performed it live. While instantly recognizable, it does not follow the arrangement of any previously released version.