Biography
Even if Bruce Gilbert's status as Wire's most experimentally minded participant and his trailblazing art-punk contributions constituted his sole legacy, he would still rank as a pivotal avant-pop figure. His endeavors apart from the band, however, prove no less compelling.
Born in 1946, Gilbert had already reached 30 by the time Wire coalesced; an ex-art-school pupil steeped in Britain's late-'60s avant-garde music scene, his unorthodox background helped distinguish the group from the initial wave of U.K. punk. The esoteric tendencies shared by guitarist Gilbert and bassist Graham Lewis complemented the comparatively direct approaches of singer Colin Newman and drummer Robert Gotobed, enabling Wire, across its first three landmark albums, to push beyond punk's limits and redefine rock's sonic parameters.
Wire's last recording in its original lineup, the 15-minute drone "Crazy About Love," foreshadowed Gilbert's subsequent path. Teaming with Lewis in the duo Dome, he issued several increasingly radical albums from 1981 until Wire's 1986 reformation; the project's apex arrived with 1982's MZUI/Waterloo Gallery, an absorbing fusion of ambient textures and found sound that stands among Gilbert's most singular statements.
Throughout Wire's second phase (1986–1991), Gilbert pursued solo work in earnest. While the band gravitated toward a skewed yet subversively commercial pop sound—evidenced by college and alternative radio successes such as "Kidney Bingos"—his own releases shed every pop vestige. The 1984 album This Way introduced his first score for the avant-garde Michael Clark Dance Company alongside two extended minimalist electronic compositions recalling Steve Reich's early-'70s explorations. The 1986 set The Shivering Man gathered assorted commissions from the period; a CD compilation drawn from both U.K.-only titles, This Way to the Shivering Man, appeared on Wire's American label Restless-Enigma shortly before the company's 1990 dissolution. Insiding, released in 1991, ranks as the era's strongest work: its pair of lengthy ballet scores, commissioned by dancer Ashley Page, unfold compellingly across twenty minutes apiece. The EP-length Music for Fruit followed later that year. Gilbert also assisted Lewis on the post-Dome solo project He Said.
After The First Letter—issued in 1991 by Newman, Lewis, and Gilbert following Gotobed's exit—Gilbert channeled his predominantly electronic explorations onto the dance floor. By the mid-'90s he had become a regular presence in London's techno clubs, performing and remixing as DJ Beekeeper, frequently from within a garden shed suspended above the floor, adding a characteristically Wire-esque visual twist. The same period yielded the 1996 album Ab Ovo; that year Wire reconvened for a special 50th-birthday rendering of "Drill" honoring Gilbert. He sustained his partnership with Lewis, releasing the 1999 collection Yclept and mounting Alarm to the Audible Light, a sound installation at Oxford's Museum of Modern Art in January 2000. An early-2001 performance paired him with Panasonic under the IBM moniker. While Wire readied its next chapter, culminating in the ferocious 2002 release Read & Burn 01, Gilbert remained active elsewhere, supplying the soundtrack for the film London Orbital and appearing with Wire at its October 2002 premiere. He stayed with the band until departing after 2004's Send; that same year he issued Ordier, assembled from a 1996 live recording. Following contributions to multimedia endeavors such as 2006's Soundtrack for an Exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Gilbert returned with Oblivio Agitatum in 2009. The 2010s found him equally productive: in 2011 alone he rejoined Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio for a commissioned Netaudio London festival performance in May, released the single Monad on Touch in August, and saw the short story "Sliding off the World"—originally a 2006 spoken-word piece—published in the October anthology Murmurations. His album Diluvial, described as a "seven-piece reflection on climate change and creation stories" and featuring multimedia artists Naomi Siderfin and David Crawforth, originated as an installation before Touch issued it in 2013.
Born in 1946, Gilbert had already reached 30 by the time Wire coalesced; an ex-art-school pupil steeped in Britain's late-'60s avant-garde music scene, his unorthodox background helped distinguish the group from the initial wave of U.K. punk. The esoteric tendencies shared by guitarist Gilbert and bassist Graham Lewis complemented the comparatively direct approaches of singer Colin Newman and drummer Robert Gotobed, enabling Wire, across its first three landmark albums, to push beyond punk's limits and redefine rock's sonic parameters.
Wire's last recording in its original lineup, the 15-minute drone "Crazy About Love," foreshadowed Gilbert's subsequent path. Teaming with Lewis in the duo Dome, he issued several increasingly radical albums from 1981 until Wire's 1986 reformation; the project's apex arrived with 1982's MZUI/Waterloo Gallery, an absorbing fusion of ambient textures and found sound that stands among Gilbert's most singular statements.
Throughout Wire's second phase (1986–1991), Gilbert pursued solo work in earnest. While the band gravitated toward a skewed yet subversively commercial pop sound—evidenced by college and alternative radio successes such as "Kidney Bingos"—his own releases shed every pop vestige. The 1984 album This Way introduced his first score for the avant-garde Michael Clark Dance Company alongside two extended minimalist electronic compositions recalling Steve Reich's early-'70s explorations. The 1986 set The Shivering Man gathered assorted commissions from the period; a CD compilation drawn from both U.K.-only titles, This Way to the Shivering Man, appeared on Wire's American label Restless-Enigma shortly before the company's 1990 dissolution. Insiding, released in 1991, ranks as the era's strongest work: its pair of lengthy ballet scores, commissioned by dancer Ashley Page, unfold compellingly across twenty minutes apiece. The EP-length Music for Fruit followed later that year. Gilbert also assisted Lewis on the post-Dome solo project He Said.
After The First Letter—issued in 1991 by Newman, Lewis, and Gilbert following Gotobed's exit—Gilbert channeled his predominantly electronic explorations onto the dance floor. By the mid-'90s he had become a regular presence in London's techno clubs, performing and remixing as DJ Beekeeper, frequently from within a garden shed suspended above the floor, adding a characteristically Wire-esque visual twist. The same period yielded the 1996 album Ab Ovo; that year Wire reconvened for a special 50th-birthday rendering of "Drill" honoring Gilbert. He sustained his partnership with Lewis, releasing the 1999 collection Yclept and mounting Alarm to the Audible Light, a sound installation at Oxford's Museum of Modern Art in January 2000. An early-2001 performance paired him with Panasonic under the IBM moniker. While Wire readied its next chapter, culminating in the ferocious 2002 release Read & Burn 01, Gilbert remained active elsewhere, supplying the soundtrack for the film London Orbital and appearing with Wire at its October 2002 premiere. He stayed with the band until departing after 2004's Send; that same year he issued Ordier, assembled from a 1996 live recording. Following contributions to multimedia endeavors such as 2006's Soundtrack for an Exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Gilbert returned with Oblivio Agitatum in 2009. The 2010s found him equally productive: in 2011 alone he rejoined Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio for a commissioned Netaudio London festival performance in May, released the single Monad on Touch in August, and saw the short story "Sliding off the World"—originally a 2006 spoken-word piece—published in the October anthology Murmurations. His album Diluvial, described as a "seven-piece reflection on climate change and creation stories" and featuring multimedia artists Naomi Siderfin and David Crawforth, originated as an installation before Touch issued it in 2013.
Albums
