Album: Wire, The Black Session (Pink Flag)

A live album culled from a Parisian show last May, The Black Session finds Wire switching between tracks from their recent Red Barked Tree album and old favourites.

With typical contrariness, They open with the sluggish "Adapt" before hurtling to the opposite extreme with the energetic punk thrash "Comet".

The loss of its uplifting chorus harmonies deprives "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" of some of its sunny appeal, but "Two People in a Room" bowls along briskly with dissonant monochord tension. Of the more recent material, "Moreover" builds up a robot-rock momentum in the Queens of the Stone Age style, and the guitars in "Down to This" negotiate the emotional topography in satisfying manner, before an encore of "Pink Flag" takes the better part of 11 minutes to dissolve noisily.

DOWNLOAD THIS Two People in a Room; Moreover; Down to This