Gilbert and Lewis formed Dome during Wire's 1980–1984 hiatus. Over its first three albums, Wire's music had progressed from rapid-fire
punk rock to moody, ambitious
post-punk. Dome continued the experimentation, often abandoning traditional song structures in favor of
found sounds, melodic fragments, and what critics Steven Grand and David Sheridan described as "lurching mechanical noises infrequently keeping a vague beat". Between 1980 and 1981 Dome released three studio albums:
Dome (1980),
Dome 2 (1980) and
Dome 3 (1981), on its own Dome Records label. In press photos, they presented themselves in business attire with tall cylindrical masks surrounding their heads and covering their faces. As well as releasing albums as Dome, Gilbert and Lewis produced and released records by Desmond Simmons (who played on Wire bandmate
Colin Newman's solo albums
A-Z and
Not To) and
A.C. Marias, who had initially appeared on the band's first album, on the Dome label. An album
3R4 was released in 1980 under the name B.C. Gilbert & G. Lewis as well as a single "Ends With the Sea" in 1981, followed by an EP
Like This for Ages released as Cupol, all on the
4AD record label. In 1982 it released
MZUI (Waterloo Gallery), an LP of recordings made at the Waterloo Gallery with
Russell Mills. In 1983 Gilbert and Lewis worked with Dome collaborator Angela Conway (aka A.C. Marias) to release
Whilst Climbing Thieves Vie for Attention, an LP under the name P'O. The same year, they released an LP
Or So It Seems under the name Duet Emmo—an anagram of "Dome" and "Mute"—with
Daniel Miller, head of
Mute Records, and released
Will You Speak This Word a.k.a.
Dome 4 on the Uniton label. Wire reformed in 1984, although Dome continued to perform and record occasionally.
Yclept, a collection of Dome's later work, was released on WMO in 1998. == Discography ==