Hox is Edvard Graham Lewis of Wire and Swedish electronic musician Andreas Karperyd. They aren’t exactly strangers, having made several discs together in the ’90s, but this is their fi rst of the 21st century. If you have missed Lewis’ singing in Wire’s recent work, but can’t hang with the home electronics grime of his last couple solo records, this one’s for you.
Wrapped in sequenced synths and propelled by crisp programmed beats, his arch baritone is the central sonic force on Duke Of York, so much so that when he clams up and starts layering electronics, the album loses steam. Mortality seems to be on Lewis’ mind. “Anthracite” opens the record with a portrayal of a creep in fatal decline that is deliciously pitiless. But “Goodbye,” a tribute to a departed friend, is all the more powerful for being one of the most direct things that Lewis has ever done.
—Bill Meyer
