The Wire Orchestra are a very flexible collective of musicians from the Maryland area and this album is a collection of archive material gathered together to perplex and confound us.
As is the way of compilations, the tracks really do not fuse together and it does not help that there is not as much as a track listing on the sleeve to give us a clue as to what we are listening to. Sounding truly industrial for the first couple of tracks and then going somewhat mellow before veering off into something resembling offcuts from a Prodigy album, this album takes a lot of your attention. It is a bit like driving in the fog - you can't see very far into the distance and you watch out for something recognisable being picked out by your headlights. Only with this album, you don't even know what side of the white lines you are meant to be on. Samples, electro beats, ranting lyrics, distorted vocals, screeching guitars and droning synths are all in there somewhere. Whilst this album is certainly rambling in terms of its content, it does manage to sound focused even if you can't really figure out where it is taking you.
This is a somewhat disjointed (which is not actually that unusual for a compilation of this type) and eclectic collection of songs. It does have its moments however and is worth investigation. Unlike your three minute pop songs, you have to concentrate on this one if you are to make any sense of it as it is not exactly accessible. Then again, they probably said that about Mahler or Miles Davis.