IBTABA

''It's Beginning To And Back Again'', also known by its acronym ''IBTABA'', is the sixth studio album by the British post-punk group Wire, released in May 1989 by Mute Records.

The title of the album derives from the lyrics of the third song, "German Shepherds". Half of the album consists of reinterpretations of live performances of material from the band's previous record, '' A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck''. The recordings are "based on performances in Chicago, Portugal and London." Live tracks were deconstructed in the studio and remixed by Wire. The album contains the single "Eardrum Buzz", which was the band's most successful single in their history, charting at #2 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart and #68 in the UK.

Recording

Wire started recording ''It's Beginning To And Back Again'' in November 1988 at Kitsch Studios in Brussels, Belgium. The sessions would last one month and included live recordings from June and October 1988, taped at the Metro in Chicago and Pavilhão do Belenenses in Lisbon. Instead of cleaning up the live recordings for release, Wire started from scratch, overdubbing new instruments and removing crowd noise. The exercise was to explore the 'live album' form. Wire's Colin Newman has explained that the band "took the recordings from the Metro in Chicago and Lisbon and took off everything but the drums and vocals, and played along to it, playing everything else again. The concept was that it was a band doing 'a remix-by-playing'."

The album includes alternate versions of five tracks originally released on Wire's previous two albums; plus "German Shepherds", which had been released in June 1988 as the B-side to the "Silk Skin Paws" single; and the previously unreleased "Eardrum Buzz" and "Illuminated". Since the project was unlikely to produce any chart-bound tracks, Mute Records' Daniel Miller had asked the band to record some potential singles, separately from the recording of the album. "Eardrum Buzz" (12" version), "In Vivo" and "The Offer" were therefore recorded at Terminal 24 Studios in London prior to the Brussels sessions and appeared as bonus tracks on the CD release of the album.

Critical reception

AllMusic retrospectively gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "while the record is respectable on its own terms, it's impossible to discern its relevance – neither a true live album nor a remix collection, its original intentions remain lost in the translation." ''Trouser Press'' felt that "the studio trickery was more inspired than the music."

''Stereogum'' ranked it 8th (out of 15) in their 2015 "Wire Albums from Worst to Best" list, writing, "As the centerpiece of Wire's second act, ''IBTABA'' reaches neither zenith nor nadir, as the band seemingly opts for having fun rather than breaking ground.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bruce Gilbert, Robert Gotobed, Graham Lewis and Colin Newman.

Original edition

CD bonus tracks

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes.

;Wire
*Colin Newman
*Graham Lewis
*Bruce Gilbert
*Robert Gotobed
;Production
* Paul Kendall – production, engineer, mixing –8* John Fryer – production, mixing –8* Wire – production –8* Rico Conning – engineer, mixing –11(at Terminal 24 Studios)
* Designland – sleeve Layout

References

Sources

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1989 albums
Albums produced by John Fryer (producer)
Wire (band) albums
Enigma Records albums
Albums produced by Paul Kendall
Experimental pop albums