Drums & Wires 2025

One of XTC's great early albums is getting another facelift courtesy of remixer Steven Wilson. The Porcupine Tree musician and engineer counts the Swindon cult heroes among his earliest remix work, fashioning new stereo and surround mixes of "Drums & Wires", "Black Sea", "The Big Express", "Skylarking", "Oranges & Lemons" and "Nonsuch" between 2013 and 2023, along with a compilation of the group's psychedelic work under the alter ego The Dukes of Stratosphear. With multitrack tapes for additional Virgin era XTC albums proving tough to come by, Wilson revisited "Skylarking" in Dolby Atmos last year, and has now done the same for "Drums & Wires". The new CD and BluRay edition is available September 26th, 2025.

What sets this reissue apart from the "Skylarking" revisit is the "Drums & Wires" remix adds a little more to the proceedings. The original CD and BluRay set was loaded with b-sides, demos and other rarities, most of it previously unreleased, that's all replicated here, complete with a few concessions, non album single "Life Begins At The Hop" and 3 b-sides still had elusive multi-tracks, making the 5.1 versions "upmix" and making similar instrumental versions impossible. More interestingly, perhaps, is the revelation by Wilson that 2 tracks, album cut "That Is The Way" and b-side "Officer Blue", were unusually slowed down from what was intentionally recorded. With the blessing of Colin Moulding, the band's bassist and one half of the XTC creative trust, who penned both tunes, "Officer Blue" has been corrected to its natural pitch, while the CD and BluRay offer "That Is The Way" both at its original and more familiar pitches. The provenance of the CD's additional tracks, alternates of "Complicated Game" and "Chain of Command" is as yet unclear.

In any case, "Drums & Wires" is probably the ideal XTC album to dive into first, respectively produced and engineered by the dream team of Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham, the group, singer, songwriter, guitarist Andy Partridge, singer, songwiter, bassist Colin Moulding, drummer Terry Chambers and new guitarist, keyboardist Dave Gregory, accessed some of their most engaging songcraft and style, with non album single "Life Begins At The Hop" and terrific opener "Making Plans For Nigel" remaining among fans' favorite tracks by the group. The numbers bore this out too, "Nigel" became the group's first Top 40 single. With XTC long in the past, Partridge and Moulding are, by all accounts, personally cordial but musically estranged, reissues like these have only helped current and future fans dig into their quintessentially British, always alternative approach to pop music.

The revised remixes will be available on CD and BluRay, with the extra material, as well as a 200 gram vinyl reissue of the standard 12 track album, both are available September 26th, 2025.