Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads or electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Wire gauges come in various standard sizes, as expressed in terms of a gauge number. The term wire is also used more loosely to refer to a bundle of such strands, as in 'multistranded wire', which is more correctly termed a wire rope in mechanics, or a cable in electricity.

Wire comes in solid core, stranded, or braided forms. Although usually circular in cross-section, wire can be made in square, hexagonal, flattened rectangular, or other cross-sections, either for decorative purposes, or for technical purposes such as high-efficiency voice coils in loudspeakers. Edge-woundcoil springs, such as the Slinky toy, are made of special flattened wire.

History

In antiquity, jewelry often contains, in the form of chains and applied decoration, large amounts of wire that is accurately made and which must have been produced by some efficient, if not technically advanced, means. In some cases, strips cut from metal sheet were made into wire by pulling them through perforations in stone beads. This causes the strips to fold round on themselves to form thin tubes. This strip drawing technique was in use in Egypt by the 2nd Dynasty. From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC most of the gold wires in jewellery are characterised by seam lines that follow a spiral path along the wire. Such twisted strips can be converted into solid round wires by rolling them between flat surfaces or the strip wire drawing method. The strip twist wire manufacturing method was superseded by drawing in the ancient Old World sometime between about the 8th and 10th centuries AD. There is some evidence for the use of drawing further East prior to this period.

Second

The second (symbol: s) (abbreviated s or sec) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). It is qualitatively defined as the second division of the hour by sixty, the first division by sixty being the minute. It is quantitatively defined in terms of a certain number of periods – about 9 billion – of a certain frequency of radiation from the caesium atom: a so-called atomic clock. Seconds may be measured using a mechanical, electric or atomic clock.

Colin Newman

Colin Newman (born 16 September 1954) is an English musician, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as the primary vocalist and songwriter for the post-punk band Wire.

Biography

Colin Newman was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and moved to London when he was 21 after finishing art school. In 1976 Newman formed the band Wire which he served as main songwriter, singer and guitarist. At start the band was considered a part of London's Punk rock scene but later reached critical acclaim for their massive influence on Post-punk, New wave and Alternative rock. When the band temporarily split in 1980, Newman pursued a solo career. His first solo album, A-Z, was released in 1980 on the Beggar's Banquet record label. The album veered from extremely skewed pop to more mainstream numbers, such as "Order for Order", which was compared by some to Gary Numan. A track from the demos for this LP (but not included on the original vinyl release), "Not Me", was covered by This Mortal Coil on their It'll End in Tears LP; This Mortal Coil then covered the A-Z track "Alone" on their second album Filigree & Shadow. Newman's second LP, the entirely instrumental Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish, in which all the tracks were titled for numbered fish, was released on the 4AD Records label in 1981. A third LP, Not To, which along with original compositions reworked a number of tracks originally written for Wire, was released in 1982 on 4AD.

Change Becomes Us

Change Becomes Us is the thirteenth studio album by British post-punk band Wire. It was released on 25 March 2013.

Album information

The album features songs based on ideas from 1979/1980 that were originally quick sketches for live performances. In particular, "Doubles and Trebles", "Keep Exhaling", "Reinvent Your Second Wheel", "Stealth of a Stork", "Time Lock Fog", "Eels Sang", "Love Bends", "& Much Besides" and "Attractive Space" are reworked versions of "Ally in Exile", "Relationship", "ZEGK HOQP", "Witness to the Fact", "5/10", "Eels Sang Lino", "Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)", "Eastern Standard" and "Underwater Experiences" respectively, which originally appeared on the 1981 live album Document and Eyewitness. The album was made available on CD and digitally on 25 March, followed by a special edition on vinyl on 20 April 2013 (Record Store Day).

The album cover is a photograph of the red hallway in Seattle's Central Library.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Wire.