The Xavier Newswire
8 December 1999
excerpt from page 17, Year 85, No 14

"In a decade dominated by overproduced, bubble-gum standards (see Mariah Carey) and some convincing arguments for justifiable homicide (see 'Macarena'), one gets the feeling that there has to be something more, something worthwhile, in the music world.

"However, it's good to know some musicians seem to be completely untouched by American pop culture. It would be an understatement to say Bare Wire is one these.

"Bare Wire and its new release Delicatessen are worlds away from anything you might hear on the radio or the Billboard charts.

"Bare Wire is made up of one artist, Simone Grey, who wrote all the music and lyrics (such as they are) and produced the songs.

"This CD is, in a word, "artsy." In many words, it's haunting, disturbing, eerie and powerful. It's a bunch of knuckleballs -- you have no idea what's coming at you until it's right in front of your eyes.

"What does it sound like? Perhaps Enya + Nine Inch Nails would be an accurate comparison, yet it does not do Bare Wire justice.

"It's undefinable music. It really doesn't sound like anything most of us have probably heard before.

"There is almost no instrumentation: a sparse, haunting voice, soft synthetic chords and single bass tones wind around each other to create expressive, skeletal songs.

"Rhythm? Not here. Beat? None. Melody? Hardly. Yet there is a powerful and unforgettable quality to the music, like that bizarre dream you wake from, yet you just can't shake. In fact, this music would make a good soundtrack for a nightmare.

"Even though there's not much to get in the way of Grey's vocals, you really need the liner notes to decipher what she's saying. The CD jacket, like the album itself, is utilitarian and puzzling -- tiny text with loads of empty white space and a few intriguing images.

"Once examined it becomes clear that the vast majority of the songs on this 30-minute album are about disintegrated, corrupted and lost love. It's no new topic in today's pop scene, but I don't think it's been covered quite in this way before.

"Somber and evocative lyrics like 'I know I said I'm fine / but I lied' offset the angry lyrics of other songs ('it must pleasure you something fierce / something deep / something sick / to see me crawl across the floor / you bastard...'); this CD is about a woman with a lot of baggage.

"Though I called the CD 'artsy,' that doesn't make it bad, just harder to understand.

"Grey's got a lot of guts to display her emotions so openly and painfully, and you have to give her credit. If you consider yourself an artist, you'll probably dig it. It may not be the answer to the ills plaguing American pop music, but at least it refuses to fit into the cookie cutter.

"...For being the complete opposite of pop music today, this brave CD earns $$."

-- Jonathan Mosko, Diversions Editor

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the barest of them all?

"I'm all psyched to get a new CD back to my room in order to give it a listen. So on the way, I'm shuffling through the promotional memos and my eyes immediately fall on the fluorescent green warning that states '...may not be suitable for highly suicidal persons.' Stop. I find myself asking, do I really want to review this CD? Do I even want to listen to this CD? I get back to my room and figure that I do. After all, I'm not one of the above mentioned 'highly suicidal persons,' so what have I got to lose?

"The answer is myself. Not long after the initial ethereal moans at the beginning of the first song, I find myself entranced. I'm debating as to whether the breathtaking voice sounds more like Jewel's with the grittiness of P.J. Harvey or P.J. Harvey's with the soft intelligence of Jewel. To be perfectly honest, it is both. And much, much more. Very rarely do I come across a voice that is so raw and pure that anything more than the sporadic notes of a single keyboard would prove deleterious. Simone Grey is this voice, as well as the one woman composing Bare Wire and all that it evokes, emits and accomplishes. The melodies are serpentine, with a total lack of structure, but so hauntingly melismatic and achingly beautiful that you will fail to miss it. The ultimate dynamic of Grey's vocals is honesty, and whether it veils itself in a soft whisper or a wail, the truth of her pain cannot be denied.

"The songs of 'Delicatessen' aim to convey one thing -- pain. Now don't get me wrong...Grey is not a masochist. She simply pens her suffering as most poems do, sharing with us the acridness of love gone awry, the despair of wanting more and the ultimate hollowness of obtaining what is desired. In doing so, she produces a collection that is not unlike a very personal, very candid journal, which she pairs with music and offers to us, asking only that one listen intently -- a request that is easily granted. Her lyrics demand attention, and they receive such due to astounding directness. Grey's only goal is to provide possible embodiment of the human condition. Her emotion is so poignant, so universal, it is impossible for one not to be able to understand her stifled rage.

"So, in short, Bare Wire's "Delicatessen" is mood music. The mood is depression and with this album it can be reached and revisited time after time. Although some of you may not find the prospect of immersing yourself in such intense emotion to be your cup of tea, I highly recommend that you check out this album if you are human. And for those of you who do, kudos. Either way, if you are interested in obtaining a copy of "Delicatessen" for yourself, be sure to contact Bare Wire's label..."

"Bare Wire, is Simone Grey. She is an extraordinary find, amidst a sea of unoriginal convention. Her intensely poignant 'Delicatessen,' arrived in my mailbox with no fanfare. It should have. This album heralds another opportunity, to connect with the self we forget about. Other music lulls, and dulls the senses. This does quite the contrary, it sharpens them. Every time I listen to this album, I am shaken by it's appeal to that part of myself that is most vulnerable.

"The format of this album, is refreshingly original. I haven't really encountered anything like it. Each song is a short vignette that leads into the other. Simon gray's voice, has been compared to that of Jewel, Tore Amos, Sarah McLachlan, etc., among others. These weren't the choices that occurred to me. I thought of Jazz great Nina Simone. There is an intensity, and a rawness present that is seldom achieved by w.a.s.p's. Delicatessen is the story of a woman in love. It is that desperate love, born of CO-dependence. It begs requital, with it's great, weeping eyes. The object of her affection, is unmoved by her love, or entreaty. It ends with her resignation to the beloved's indifference. 'Gridlock,' is one of the songs that moved me most. 'I can't seem to get myself there. I can't seem to get myself, across your threshold and into your room, across your floorboards and into your bed, across your sheets-like this ocean wide, like this canyon deep, I can't get inside, cannot even see.' The stark bass supports the mood of depressed obsession throughout the album, as do the keys, and percussion. There can be no mistake it is the haunting, plaintive refrains of suffering that stand, superimposed across this landscape. This is easily one of the best albums, I've heard in a long time.

"If I impress nothing else upon my readers, let it be this...Please, for your own hearts sake, seek this album out. This is that rare work of art that can, and will move you irrevocably. This is the music, we find ourselves longing for. It is substantial, and fit to feed ones soul."

"Music of the Night

"I find it hard sometimes, especially with unique albums such as this, to fully encompass all my impressions in writing. Some things defy words. Such is Delicatessen. It has style and poise, as well as a ferocious bite. Simone Grey's lyrics of longing and suffering mix with a soulful folk mentality and a solid blues sensibility. There is a melodic texture to much of the synthesizer work that shadows Vangelis's sweeping, trance-ish, darkly psychedelic music heard in the movie Blade Runner. This is the music you put on at night as you light candles and tear apart someone's picture. Its about utter hate and complete obsession and while the topic is never new, it is really ever as fresh. Imagine-if you will- a redo of Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill' but by someone with talent and a 'voice' that transcends Alanis's pathetic whining. It all combines to take you on a sinuous, seductive journey into one woman's nightmarish world of romance torn asunder. In short, this album is a soundtrack for loss, suffering, anguish and most of all, hopeless (yet subtly hopeful) longing."

"Hands down, this must be the coolest press kit I've ever seen. When I saw the postman bringing a large box to the door, I couldn't help but wonder if I had just one the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes and this was the first in a series of boxes. However, much to my surprise, I found that the disc and promo materials were neatly tied down to the bottom of this large box...and the simple, yet ornate design of the whole press kit just floored me. In fact, I now wonder if perhaps this didn't have greater meaning...perhaps we, as humans, are just like a small piece of art tied down to a greater empty whole. This may be just what Bare Wire is all about. Now, about the music: Take the beat away from Kate Bush and what are you left with? Perhaps it's the vocal and instrumental electricity of Bare Wire. Simone Grey is the one woman band Bare Wire and this woman's work is a delicatessen serving rancid meat (the last guy that left her), soggy chips (the sod who stole her heart), and limp pickles (the guy with one thing on his mind). The lyrics are of good love gone bad and while Simone's voice has folksy/jazzy flow to it, the electronics have a modern ethereal feel. If you like music with attitude and rough-and-ready lyrics, then the misery of Bare Wire may be the right company for you. "

"Floating. Falling. Flying. Stumbling. Swimming. These are all sensations the listener may feel upon taking the emotional journey that is Delicatessen.

"Performing under the name of Bare Wire, Simone Grey exerts total creative control on the album -- writing, performing and producing her entire debut -- as it is a singularly personal work.

"It's rare when a voice can be so distinctive and powerful that it can be considered an instrument in and of itself. Yet Grey possesses the vocal capabilities of unusual depth. Spare keyboards are the only instrumentation that accentuates the aching etherea of her voice, a haunting, gorgeous cross between Tori Amos, Madonna and Sarah McLachlan -- breathy, soaring and purely emotional.

"This is an album not about music, but mood. Pure, raw expression which is decidedly direct, but also beautifully subtle. The songs are more like emotional chapters of a hopelessly unrequited relationship, pieces of a whole rather than a whole unto itself. Because the lingering melodies are so gorgeous, one hardly misses structure or instrumentation.

"The complex vocal layers in songs 'Compulsion' and 'Airport' underscore the pain of the codependent relationship that enslaves Grey, and are just as penetrating and immediate as Nine Inch Nails or PJ Harvey.

"Call it melodic poetry. Call it verbal music. Whatever it may be, the naked expression of Bare Wire will get under you skin."

"...indie artist Bare Wire travels into the far reaches of minimalist experimentation...Delicatessen, is a meditative, thirty-minute journey through Ms. Grey's verbal imagery of objects and occurrences.

"In keeping with the minimalist theme, the music punctuates the background here and there without ever keeping a constant flow. It's so minimalist that there isn't even rhythm, more of a free flowing mass of sound. Each song is lyric-based, and even those are quite skimpy in terms of volume. Most songs are only a few lines long, which are dragged out through each track, with moans and croons filling the empty space between."

"I'm not a music connoisseur, but I know when music moves me. Bare Wire is like nothing that has graced my ears before. Simone Grey's voice knows no bound and throughout this collection her melodies and trills entranced me. I tried to study, but the ambience and sensuality kept drawing me deeper into trying to discover the meanings not only behind the words, but behind her choice of tones and variations. After the first few tracks passed, I hopped into bed and listened to the rest straight through... with my lights out, no less, just as the sticker on the cover recommends. If ever I wondered how a diary would sound put to music, I wonder no more. Initially I planned on giving this CD away, but I think I'll be holding onto it for the time being. The best I can do is recommend it to anyone who likes to sit in the dark and contemplate, well, darkness and contemplation. "

"The thing you'll remember most about Bare Wire's latest effort, Delicatessen, are the lyrics. Stark, angry words softly spoken, sometimes sung that chronicle one person's life and relationships.

"Its not for the faint of heart - there's no beating around the bush here, Bare Wire autuer and one woman band Simone Grey tells it like it is. She speaks on her life, her loves, and more.

"Although she's been compared to the likes of Tori and Alanis, she manages to hold her own throughout the CD, something that's pretty remarkable considering the backing music is a few droning notes here and there. It's an ambient trip that makes you focus more on Grey's lyrics and sentiment.

"When Grey says "I am nothing without you," on dirt you know she's not messing around. Lyrics such as this suggest that Grey merely opened her diary and started reading. Its a refreshing take on the bubblegum nonsense lyrics of today and the hiding-behind-metaphor tricks of Amos or Morissette.

"There's no word on a new release from Grey, but keep your fingers crossed for another diamond in the rough. "

--Mike Richwalsky