By Jake Murray
Wired to Follow and I go way back. I clearly remember the days of going to and gigging with MINIONTV, and being consistently blown away by their output and development. Their NewPath nights were a riot and I always admired their continuing effort to expose and celebrate the left-field music scenes all over the world with great turnout… so where could a band go after that? Well, they've taken a break and Wired to Follow is founded by a couple of MINIONTV members and takes a side-step from their earlier more traditional post-rock sound and off into something more evolved and refined.
Beginning with 'Lucy'(dare I say a reference to The Beatles song, when considering context?) the track blooms and swells out into a glorious rise before crashing down into stunning vocal samples lifted from the Sidney Cohen LSD experiments in the 1950's. The dialogue of a housewife, fascinated and confused by the most overwhelming experience she's lived to date rises the music above into a backing for the experience and soundtracks the swirl of power rushing through her brain.
Following on from the interview WTF move into a beautiful piano piece, 'Unix Epoch', again similar to some of MINIONTV's previous work; heavenly, thoughtful and grand. As both their former and current band, there's always been a finely trodden line between modest sombreness and grand explosive rises and this track is no different, as choir-like synths and drones rise and fall only to crash back into full stunning order.
Sticking with the science-fact/science-fiction leanings the group drop straight over into 'Abort, Retry, Fail?'; arguably their biggest step forward as a unit. The track moves clearly away from their former sound and is a huge pulse of energy akin to the likes of Moby or The Crystal Method. Many of the melody lines in Everything in Colour hold a tonal similarity to psych-trance skeletons Fuck Buttons and this piece is a fine example of that same technique; driving a force along with a crystalline sonic lead that is more found in vocal-fronted bands and often forgotten about in instrumental music (luckily not here).
Finally, we have 'I Wish I Could Talk in Technicolor', the grand outro. IWICTIT appears to be far better as a piece of music lying in context, than previously as a single and it seems perhaps the former track might have been a more immediate grab for people. The EP's closer, now amongst counterpart music and in the context of the sonic theme, is an evolving rise akin to the opener (with a title once again referencing the LSD experiments, just like the EP album cover). Again, this track is a step aside from the work under their previous moniker and must be incredible live.
Speaking of which, should you choose to purchase the EP for the extremely modest asking price of £3, you'll be treated with a beautiful live performance of a track from their forthcoming followup release since they're not able to sit still for long without writing more music.
I have one and only one complaint about Everything in Colour and that is that it's just too short. Now, maybe I'm just eager to hear more, and the desire to 'snowball' and gain momentum over a number of releases is understandable, but perhaps Wired To Follow were never meant for that? The music on Everything in Colour holds a statement of other-worldy beauty and screams to be part of a bigger picture… and this would explain why there is a new EP set for the very near future, and let’s hope that at the end of it the tracks will be compiled into a feature-length composition. Maybe WTF are happy giving people the drip of music so they have more time to evolve, or maybe they're not giving away the whole idea until the end of the show, like a magician with a few more tricks up his sleeve. Maybe, though, this is one of those instances where it would've been better to just plunge straight into the deep end and let the world bite a bigger piece off, like our lovely housewife friend guinea-pigging for Dr. Cohen, sixty years ago…. because I want more.
