Wire frontman Colin Newman is reissuing his 1997 solo album, Bastard.
Due out in January via Wire’s longtime label home swim ~, the new edition will see the album pressed on vinyl for the first time. There will also be a digital and CD release, featuring 12 rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks. One of the unreleased cuts, ‘Cut The Slack’, is available to listen to above.
In a statement about the album, Newman said: "With Bastard, it took a while to get to the concept, which was essentially this: What if we subverted the whole ‘bloke from Wire’ thing and had a Colin Newman album without any actual songs on it? These days, this is not such a big thing, but it was hugely transgressive at the time.
"The language of Bastard is house, techno, breakbeat, drum and bass, and doubtless post-rock. The only singing is a one-line Malka [Spigel] sample on ‘Turn’. Not only did the album not play by the rules of what would these days be called music by a ‘heritage’ artist, but it didn’t play by the rules of dance music either. Back then, dance music artists didn’t mix up styles as they do today. This is one of the reasons the album’s called Bastard.
Upon release, Bastard was modestly successful in comparison to the label’s other releases, although widely misunderstood. The title is intentionally multifaceted, referring to several ways in which the album is a misfit – a cuckoo in the nest. But it never meant ‘Colin Newman is a bastard’ – even if Malka’s toy finger gesture on the cover tempted fate on that!"
swim ~ will release Bastard on January 26, 2024.
