Warp, 30 Years of Groundbreaking Music

Electronic music, particularly in the 80s and 90s, was renowned for instigating addled underground raves, difficult to distinguish as having its own form separate to the enveloping psychoactive chaos of these environments. Warp Records, armed with a certain visionary insight, was one of the first to properly recognise the opportunity to distil out avant-garde music of serious artistic merit and franchising potential from what, at the time, would just be considered « dance music » . Warp thus established itself as a champion of « electronica », and while it profited as a result from its rising popularity, was also a trendsetting force itself, introducing new concepts across the board, from minimalist techno to jungle sub-basses, always in the pursuit of originality. Its history is one that, since the end of the 80s, never once turned away from the future. Sheffield had already built a solid reputation as having an avant-garde scene around the time of Warp’s beginnings, thanks to contributions from a variety of artists: namely The Human League, who had made their mark with their intergenerational hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’, Cabaret Voltaire and their electro-funk/house combo Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, carried by Richard H. Kirk, and even Clock DVA who had been looping magnetic strips on synthesisers since the late 70s. The « sound of Sheffield » would however fall in tow to a new wave, engendered by a group of people fascinated by A Guy Called Gerald’s success with ‘Voodoo Ray’ (a future house classic released in 1988 and an iconic tune of the Manchester scene). At the time, a handful of amateurs experimenting with this new sound were meeting at FON, a record store managed by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell, favoured by Richard H. Kirk from Cabaret Voltaire. Among them were Robert Gordon, Winston Hazel, Sean Maher, George Evelyn and Kevin Harper. The first three would go on to become Forgemasters while the last two already had a catchy name in Nightmares On Wax. The latter also composed a track, ‘Dextrous’, in their bedrooms with a small sampler, but no one was interested in it.

This group, along with Michael Wells and Lee Newman (aka Tricky Disco), were the foundation of Warp, kick-starting its catalogue in the autumn of 1989 with 500 copies of ‘Track with No Name’ by Forgemasters. Legend has it the track was financed with government subsidy money and distributed in a friend’s borrowed car. The disc sounded like the soundtrack to an industrial city consumed with raves, and was followed a few weeks later by ‘Dextrous’ by Nightmares on Wax and ‘Testone’ by Sweet Exorcist (Richard H. Kirk with DJ Parrot), which sampled Yellow Magic Orchestra and sounds from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This first volley, with the sampling in particular, established the « bleep » sound which would come to define Warp’s early years.

When John Peel heard the track and immediately called the FON shop (quickly renamed Warp to avoid any confusion) to inform them he would be playing it on his show on BBC Radio 1. The Warp store was then beginning to specialise in importing content from America, especially from Chicago and Detroit through pioneering labels like Transmat, Metroplex, Trax and Underground Resistance. They ushered in a techno/house wave that crashed through the city, and the fans multiplied. « I’d stopped going out », tells Richard H. Kirk. « But suddenly you were getting white kids, black kids and Asian kids in the same clubs; it rejuvenated Sheffield. »

With its signature purple record sleeves, created by The Designer’s Republics, Warp became the label the city needed. Its music belonged to Sheffield. « You’d drive through and see Forgemasters Steelworks. You’d almost see sparks and hear anvils clanging », says Beckett, who had started being accosted in clubs by burgeoning artists wanting him to listen to their demos of their « bleepy tunes ».

But the best was yet to come: in the summer of 1990, the label released LFO’s first single (simply titled ‘LFO’) which reached number 12 on the UK charts and sold 130,000 copies. This success would follow on into the following year with the release of the label’s first album, Frequencies, also from the Mark Bell/Gez Varley duo, just as Warp had extricated themselves from a disastrous deal with Rhythm King. « That album is really how we survived, explained Beckett. We were completely broke and weren’t receiving any royalties. We then understood that we had to look at the long term and develop our artists. It’s at that moment that we became a real record label. » Blending techno, acid house, hip-hop and breakbeat with an English twang, Frequencies became a pillar of the cross-channel « rave age » and firmly cemented Warp’s place in the collective psyche of the country.

Professionalism was a word yet to gain much traction between them and their artists, however; as Beckett recounts from signing LFO, « We went into the DJ booth to persuade them to put a record out on our label, says Beckett. When we closed the deal, we didn’t know what you’re supposed to do, but they said, ‘Oh, you’re supposed to sign them.’ So we said, ‘What will we do? Let’s just sign it then, sign the tape.’ So that was our first deal. »

Still in 1992, Warp launched its Artificial Intelligence compilation series, whose first volume included work by Autechre, Speedy J, Richie Hawtin under his stage name UP!, The Black Dog and more… Considered by some as the birth of electronica, it ended up with the name IDM (intelligent dance music), referring to music released by Warp and Rephlex, Aphex Twin’s label at the time. However, according to Autechre’s Sean Booth, the name was meant to be ironic: « I think it was a joke really. The thing is, almost all the artists on that first AI compilation are just like us, they were regular kids, they’re not intelligent people particularly. Richard [Aphex Twin], Richie Hawtin, Alex Paterson, they’re not known for being intellectually powerful, they’re just fucking good musicians. »

Autechre released their first album Incunabula in 1993, the first milestone of a genre which was less concerned with the dance floor but rather with a fantasy of electronic, hip-hop and industrial music and with Stockhausen. The Rob Brown/Sean Booth duo continued with their release of the more metallic sounding Tri Repeatae in 1995, then Chiastic Slide in 1997 and LP5 in 1998. Their music became increasingly complex, to the point where they created their own production software to generate sounds procedurally.

The label celebrated the arrival of the Irish born artist Aphex Twin the following year, who soon released his lucid dreaming-inspired Selected Ambient Works II in March 1994, two years after releasing the original volume with R&S Records. The prolific genius followed this up with his eponymous Richard D. James Album in 1996, and Come to Daddy in 1997, shepherding his eager fanbase over to Warp’s ample catalogue (which they lapped up). « Everything he does has such an immediate evocative power with the listener, says Beckett. He doesn’t care what people think about his music. In fact, the only reason Richard publishes his music is to make money. It means he doesn’t have to get a real job. He played the game a bit at the start, but he quickly closed that door. I’m sure he would sell more if he promoted his music, but for him it’s important to be isolated and concentrated on his creations. »

Warp kept the big hits coming through the latter half of the 90s, with the Scottish brothers Michael and Marcus Eoin Sandison, aka Boards of Canada, releasing two albums: Music Has the Right to Children (1998) and Geogadd two years later. Arguably two of the most beautiful discs in the label’s history, these masterpieces contain a captivating and addictive blend of IDM and ambient music at their respective best. The millennium finished with another firecracker: Windowlicker by Aphex Twin in 1999, which, propelled by Chris Cunningham’s video and a cover with James’s face photoshopped onto the body of a swimwear model, sold over 1 million copies.

The new millennium saw the label relocate to London and have to cope with the death of its co-founder Rob Mitchell, who was diagnosed with cancer in early 2001, succumbing just a few months later. That same year, Warp would release Aphex Twin’s last album before his 13 year hiatus, Drukqs: a 30-track-strong experimental release that even featured touchingly instrumental piano solos, to be found on ‘Avril 14th’. Squarepusher, over in his lane, released Go Plastic, on which he paired drum’n’bass with some extremely complex drum patterns (earning it the title of drill’n’bass).

After a decade spent exploring the depths of electronic music, Warp turned their attention towards hip-hop in its most experimental form. They signed the New York trio Anti-Pop Consortium, creators of the 2002 album Arrhythmia that was popularised by its hit Ping Pong, which paired the sampled sound of a ping pong ball and a breathless piano hook at the core of its rhythm. Warp continued to strike gold, overseeing the release of the brilliant One Word Extinguisher by Prefuse 73 just a few months later, propelled by the moving single ‘Storm Returns’, which featured Tommy Guerrero on guitar. An abstract figure on the hip-hop scene, Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73′s real name) spent eleven years with Warp, producing eight albums before they coldly turned their backs on him in 2011, effectively telling him that his contract was not going to be renewed.

Warp’s following years were not the most coherent, seeing it wander between genres somewhat aimlessly: the surprising Multiply, released in 2005 by English singer Jamie Lidell, came out with a pop and soul sound that betrayed expectations that had developed for the label and its image (despite the fact that Lidell had been chosen for his background in electronic music). The signing of Newcastle rock band Maxïmo Park gave fans another reason to feel perplexed. Jimmy Edgar, whose funky tracks wavered between disco, electronic, techno and R&B on his 2006 release Color Strip further muddied the waters surrounding the label’s identity, as did the disco punk vibes of !!! (Chk Chk Chk) with the label releasing their Myth Takes. Warp completely embraced guitars with Mirrored by Battles in 2007. A clearer picture began to emerge; the label had broken from the shackles of being an exclusively electronic label, much to Beckett’s satisfaction, as he had begun to get bored. « I didn’t want to end up doing Now That’s What I Call Artificial Intelligence. »

The revolution continued in 2008 with the signing of Flying Lotus, the American producer much in-demand after the release of his sparkling but complex Los Angeles. It was a big step in restoring the hype to the English label; as he explained at the time, « I needed Warp but they needed me too. A lot of people who listened to Warp had stopped tripping out. There was a lot of rock stuff, some of their old signings had left. I think they wanted to show the world that they still knew what was going on in the streets, that they could still reflect the underground scene. Signing me was a way to prove that. »

In 2009, Warp celebrated their 20th anniversary with a huge tour that finished at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, featuring Chris Cunningham, Aphex Twin (who played an experimental set with Florian Hecker) and also Andrew Weatherall, Mira Calix, Nightmares on Wax, Jarvis Cocker and Jackson, the label’s first French signing.

In the wake of this resurgence, Warp saw Brian Eno join its ranks to release Lux in 2012 and The Ship in 2016 (along with several collaborations), and continued to search for talent along America’s west coast. Beckett was impressed by Gonjasufi who had first made waves with ‘Testament’, a track from Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles; in 2010 he released the album A Sufi and a Killer, recorded with help from The Gaslamp Killer (affiliated with Flylo’s label Brainfeeder) and filled with genius moments like the superb ballad ‘She Gone’.

Meanwhile, after witnessing the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of dubstep, Warp jumped on the post-dubstep bandwagon with Darkstar (News From Nowhere) and Mount Kimbie (Cold Spring Fault Less Youth). The label also started to turn its attention towards PC music with Rustie’s 2011 hyper pop release Glass Swords, before orchestrating the hit of the year in 2012 with the dancefloor explosion Higher Ground by TNGHT, headed by Scottish geek Hudson Mohawke and Canadian producer Lunice.

The label continued its revival by recruiting in 2013 an artist whose DNA was 100% Warpian: Brooklyn genius Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, with his first album R Plus Seven in his back pocket. Probably Warp’s most important signing of the decade, he ticked all the boxes: avant-garde, respected in different circles, works in music, contemporary art and cinema (he also composes film soundtracks) and only works with vintage instruments! All in all, he’s an artist who blends a hyperstylised aesthetic with an ease of accessibility to his music, much like LFO, Aphex Twin and Flying Lotus – in the model Warp has built from its early beginnings…