After a five-year break from recording, post-punk group Githead, Wire's Colin Newman, Malka Spigel, Robin Rimbaud and Max Franken, have reconvened for the release of a new album entitled Waiting For A Sign, due out on December 8. Ahead of its release, we've got a first play of album track 'Bringing The Sea To The City' above.

Having taken some time out to pursue solo ventures, the four return with an album conceived of improvised studio sessions, with Spigel saying: "There were no songs. Nothing. We didn't talk about it at all, we just stood in a room and played". Newman adds: "How the material turned out is at least in part because there was no plan as regards the actual music. The time in the studio was simply the frame; there was no discussion at all as to what kind of thing we'd be playing". Initially recorded at Monmouth's Rockfield Studios, the results of these sessions were later worked over by Newman in his own Swim Studio in London. Says Newman of this second stage in the record's production: "We tried to keep in as many of the idiosyncrasies of the original performances as possible: false starts, played fades, dynamic drops and builds".

Wire's DRILL: BRIGHTON festival - December 4-7 - will host a launch event for Waiting For A Sign just ahead of the album's release. Ticket and line-up details for DRILL can be found here.