(Mute)
I found this quite a disappointment. Nothing but enthusiasm from me for musique concrete in general and dadaist dance music specifically, but these deadpan beats, metallic slaps, and smugly mumbled and/or robotic vocals strike me mostly as dull. Undoubtedly Cabaret Voltaire, an extremely influential cult post-punk band, invite comparisons to Wire's later work, yet I feel that Wire always (with scattered exceptions) had the advantage of a very short attention span, and at least a slightly greater sense of pop-driven fun. The trio wasn't dumb -- they picked one of the best band names ever, for sure -- and they had a healthy sense of humor; you can hear a lot of wry sarcasm on this compilation. But this is too much like an hour of mechanized dread with a touch of that near-intolerable alt-rock detachment epidemic. You get the feeling the material was a lot more entertaining to record than it is to listen to.
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